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About this mod
This mods adds a brain-computer interface (BCI) to Skyrim VR which makes your ingame magic power dependent on your real mental powers.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
You now actually need to learn magic. You, the player, need to learn to focus and be able to channel your mental power into the
game!
If you have a Muse 2 or a Muse S meditation device you can connect it using a bluetooth dongle. Earlier versions only supported BLED112, but now any regular bluetooth will work! The Muse S should fit a little better and more comfortably under the VR headset, I have been told, but I use a Muse 2 device which works well with the Valve Index for me.
Join my VR-neuroscience discord server to ask questions, hear the opinions of other users, chat, and keep up-to-date with any new developments!
I am a neuroscientist working at Technische Universität Berlin in the department of Biological Psychology and Neuroergonomics, and my research is based on electroencephalography (EEG) in VR. The goal is to measure the human brain in its natural habitat - doing things inside the world, not sitting still staring at a screen. As I am also an enthusiastic VR player and part of the Skyrim VR community, the idea of a BCI-based mod came up, and Real Virtual Magic was born.
The mod in its current state changes the magic system in a few ways:
1) Magicka regeneration is dependent on brainpower. Vanilla regen is 3% out of fights and 1% in fights. This mod changes it such that it is only dependent on the brainpower and ranges from -3% to +7%, so if you are completely unfocused you actually lose magicka, but if you are fully focused your magicka will replenish quickly.
2) All magic schools' power values scale with the brainpower. This means if you are completely unfocused you won't be able to do damage, heal or do any meaningful magic, but if you are fully focused, you get double the power.
3) If you attempt to cast spells while on low brain power (<30%) you have unstable magic and get some damage (10%).
The mod also features a 5 minute rolling auto-calibration so it should adjust to what is your personal "normal" mental state in the last minutes.
All thresholds and values are adjustable in the ini configuration file!
Shizof has made Spell Wheel VR compatible with this mod and added a brain bar to the wrist bars of Spell Wheel, too :) You'll have to adjust the settings of the bar position a little to see them while casting but this addition gives nice visual feedback of the brainpower. Requires v1.2.5 or higher!
In order to learn more about the BCI, which algorithms are effective and which are not, etc. I need testers! If you have a Muse 2 or a Muse S, you can install the mod and record your own data while you play. And if you want, you can share that data with me so I can learn more about how to make this mod work better. Of course, you have full control over your data, nothing is uploaded automatically, just files are created on your disk. The source code of the mod is provided here so you can see I don't do anything fishy with your brain data!
Your data is safe! Everything happens locally on your PC, no data is streamed or uploaded! You can share the recorded data files if you choose so, but if you do not upload it, nobody will ever be able to get it!
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Join my VR-neuroscience discord server to ask questions, hear the opinions of other users, chat, and keep up-to-date with any new developments!
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How it works:
I do not use the Muse SDK directly but do my processing myself. The data is being read using Brainflow, a library intended to obtain, parse and analyze EEG, EMG, ECG and other kinds of data from biosensors. Here it is difficult to continue with exact information because I am experimenting all the time and trying out new processing options. Currently (v0.2.0) I use the posterior alpha / anterior theta ratio as the focus measure and use a z-scoring of the data with the past 5 minutes as a baseline. Added is a bit of processing using the motion sensors of the Muse because the readings get inaccurate if you move your head and there's a little bonus if you keep your head still. This is then taken in a history of brain power values of the past and a weighted average is computed, with older values weighted less. That's the final "brain power" that comes out of the mod as a value between 0 and 1.
Installation:
Install the RealVirtualMagic.7z like any regular mod, I recommend using MO2 or Vortex. Unzip the RealVirtualMagic_Libraries.7z manually into your base game folder (these are necessary to connect with the BCI). The libraries need to be installed manually.
Uninstall:
Remove all files. Removing the mod leaves the current level of magicka regen and spell power in your character so this should be changed via console again. If you had sent data to me, you can always tell me to delete it and I will. Your data is yours.