We’ve seen how well Microsoft’s Flight Simulator handles interpreting real-world objects and landmarks, but what about something a little more…racy? Modder Illogicoma thought it would be neat to try importing Mario Kart tracks into the sim, and they’re right. It’s very neat.
With the latest version of Flight Simulator, Microsoft has given players a reasonable facsimile of the planet Earth, and I feel as if it is our sovereign duty to screw with that planet as much as possible. Not in a global warming sense—we’ve already got that covered, it seems—but by turning it into the fanciful playground it could be if we could only get over the idea of physics and coherent design. In short, we need more people like Illogicoma to have thoughts like these:
So anyway I thought Mario Kart 8 tracks would also be fun when you play them in Flight Simulator so I put Mario Kart 8 tracks in Flight Simulator and played them and it was true.
Not just to have the thoughts, but to actually follow through as well. As Illogicoma explains in another tweet, they got the Mario Kart 8 track models from The Models Resource and created a custom mod with the aid of a Blender2MSFS addon. Basically, they input the models into the Blender 3D Creation Suite and output magical flying race courses for all to enjoy. Witness the glory yourself in the video below, queued up to the 3:26 mark.
As glorious as it all looks, it’s a pretty rudimentary mod. The Mario Kart 8 objects are floating in the air, minding their own business. They do not have collision, so you can fly right through them if you so choose. Flying through rings does not activate checkpoints. There are no coins to collect. It’s just pure and colorful chaos invading a world built from Google Maps and satellite data.
G/O Media may get a commission
I’d like to imagine there is a place in the world, high in the sky, where such dream worlds exist, but I’ll accept modders like Illogicoma tossing virtual versions together for us in a pinch. Lovely work.
