Summary
Wipeout-style 3D racer runs on ESP32-S3 at smooth 60FPS, interlaced 480×320.
Procedural track, 3 AI racers with collision avoidance; physics let ships nudge each other.
Custom dual-core 3D engine uses ST7796 SPI with interlaced buffers; source code not yet released.
Do you know about the Wipeout games? If not, they’re a futuristic racing game, not too unlike F-Zero, that was first released on the PS1. I still remember having a blast with the demo on my console all those years ago. Good times.
Unfortunately, the last Wipeout title was released almost a decade ago, so people are taking it upon themselves to make their own. However, not all of them can run off an ESP32, let alone achieve a smooth 60FPS on the microcontroller. Yet, that’s exactly what one tinkerer managed.
Related
Someone developed a 3D racing game that runs entirely off the ESP32, and you can download it now
Making car noises with your mouth is optional, but encouraged.
This cool Wipeout-like game runs buttery-smooth off an ESP32
It looks great, too
This cool feat was performed by PhonicUK, who posted their project over on the ESP32 subreddit. You can check out a video of the game in action via the video above, but it doesn’t quite show off everything this cool little project can do. For instance, as PhonicUK says in the description:
The track is procedurally generated at startup time, I’ve got 3x Ai players with collision avoidance. Physics and collisions work great and let ships nudge each other around.
This is using an ST7796 SPI display. As I said in the title this is doing interlaced updates using two half height buffers leveraging both CPU cores so one draws the next frame while the other takes care of IO.
The end result is a fully custom 3D engine designed to leverage the ESP32’s power and render this awesome-looking game at a stable 60FPS, which is very impressive, given the microcontroller’s specs. Unfortunately, it seems PhonicUK is keeping the source code close to their chest right now, but I do hope they release it later down the line. It’d be great to see a range of ESP32 games released for the chip.
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This ESP32-based NES emulator is a great way to play the classics on a tiny screen
It’s also a good starting base for a larger project.