Standing in the middle of nowhere, a fair with dim lights and every one of its attractions at your disposal. The trick is that you need a virtual reality headset and Nvidia hardware to get in. That's right: Nvidia is pushing further into virtual reality with VR Funhouse, a title designed to put its most powerful hardware to the test and share the results with its users.
Just like the arcade halls in virtual reality, classic fairs seem destined to live on in virtual environments. Shooting with a bow and rifles, popping balloons with swords, playing a bit of Whack-a-Mole—you get the idea. It was only a matter of time before someone turned that carnival entertainment into a virtual game, but we never thought that someone would be Nvidia. Although the graphics card maker has supported game development one way or another, VR Funhouse is shaping up to be an internal tech demo aimed at showcasing the power of its high-end hardware when paired with an HTC Vive.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0Ao_uAb6JkwUnder the Hood
Nvidia didn't hold back with VR Funhouse. The game combines several technologies, including VRWorks, PhysX, Nvidia FleX for fluid simulation, Nvidia Flow for fire, and Nvidia HairWorks for hair rendering. According to the official announcement, Nvidia recommends using two or more graphics cards, going as far as suggesting SLI with two cards: one for video and the other dedicated to PhysX. That might seem crazy, but such technical demands are in line with the general requirements of first-generation virtual reality.
System Requirements and Availability
What's the absolute minimum to run VR Funhouse? A GeForce GTX 980 Ti, an HTC Vive, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a Core i7 4790 or equivalent. For high-definition modes, Nvidia is already talking about a GTX 1080 paired with a 980 Ti as the PhysX card, or two 980 Ti cards in SLI. Needless to say, there's no Oculus Rift support, and it would take a very cold day in hell before Nvidia lets its tech demos run on AMD hardware. VR Funhouse is available free via Steam.
