Having exactly zero VR knowledge or experience, that sounds ... interesting. Not as a game, exactly, but hypothetically could you walk through an engine rebuild first in VR, before you tackled it in real life?
Want all the fun of wrenching on your car without the busted knuckles? Early access for “Wrench” launches today for gamers and garage nerds looking for some extra virtual time under the hood. “Wrench” is a highly realistic game playable on a PC and with full VR support where you get to work on a Bauer Catfish—basically a custom-framed sports car using Miata drivetrain and suspension bits.
Parts have been mapped and 3D modeled down to individual fasteners, which must be torqued to specific tensions if you want to move on to greater challenges in the simulation (and not break fasteners). We can only assume future expansions of the game will ramp up the realism by randomly misplacing the 10mm sockets, and adding a mini game where you have to hide credit card bills for parts from nosy spouses. “Wrench” is available now on the Steam store.
Having exactly zero VR knowledge or experience, that sounds ... interesting. Not as a game, exactly, but hypothetically could you walk through an engine rebuild first in VR, before you tackled it in real life?
NorseDave said:Having exactly zero VR knowledge or experience, that sounds ... interesting. Not as a game, exactly, but hypothetically could you walk through an engine rebuild first in VR, before you tackled it in real life?
Yeah, I feel the same way. I'm excited about this as a game, but I'm also really curious to see what it could be like as an interactive shop manual. Either way, I can't wait to play. If I didn't have to use the same computer to get ready for the live show tonight I'd be playing right now.
Does it have an "Every 30-minute-job is one broken bolt away from a three-day ordeal" setting?
Virtual BP wrenching, I'm there.
This would be neat to get familiar with the process of rebuilding an engine. But I can’t see you doing it for fun. If I’m spending any time like that wrenching, it will be in real life on a real car that gets real results.
I'm not immediately taken with the idea of wanting to spend time on it (I've been trying to find time to set up the wheel I just bought from Failboat for a week!), but there's that underlying notion that if all the bits were good enough, I could do all my motorsports in VR... If I had a VR machine shop and could perform arbitrary operations, then assemble those parts, and race that car... If it were all good enough, I could do pretty much everything I want to do with cars in VR.
Guessing I should keep trying to put the time into the real stuff for now.
I don't know. Without bloody knuckles how would you really learn wrenching?
Further proof this is the weirdest time line.
Other games have weather settings. Does this game have a "20 year daily driver in Buffalo" setting?
Didn't VW introduce something similar for their repair techs to use at the shop? Makes a lot of sense in that setting.
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