How a Final Fantasy 14 player uses a Ring Fit to explore Eorzea

Controller modder SuperLouis64 has used his talents to combine the Nintendo Switch Ring Fit attachment with Final Fantasy 14 to host a charity run across the MMO's world of Eorzea. 

SuperLouis shared an update on his Final Fantasy 14 project in a recent tweet. "Currently you can't move forward or back without jogging/running IRL," he explained. "Of course it wouldn't be a leg day without squat controls. Combat needs more testing but overall we made good progress." 

We reached out for more details, and SuperLouis confirmed that the game itself hasn't been modded at all, it's just registering inputs sent by Joy-Cons of all things. 

"I was able to create a system in which my leg-strap joycon can detect when the user is running and squatting," he tells us. "When it knows the user is running, it unlocks the joystick so the user can move in-game. For the charity event it pushes the joystick forward whenever I run IRL. The charity event itself has me literally running across Eorzea with this set-up. Sort of like a marathon but in the game instead. I've done this before for other charity events by running across [The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild]! I'll be running in-game at the default speed and viewers can either speed me up or slow me down with donations. The event is this Saturday, October 16, and I've been able to do the run myself a couple of times on my own so I'm excited to see how this turns out!"

SuperLous generally tries to find the cheapest and simplest arrangement possible when creating setups like this. Over on his YouTube channel, he's successfully turned everything from Yugioh duel disks and bongo drums to plastic swords and bananas into controllers. 

"The first steps are to find a USB converter for whatever custom controller I decide to use," he says. "Then I pair it up with JoyToKey or any free software that converts gamepads to keyboard inputs. When the game isn't on PC or I want to make something myself I have additional hardware I put together and script myself!" 

"My Kinect mod for Dark Souls was the best/worst decision I've ever made," he adds. "I turned dodge rolling IRL into dodge rolling in-game and in the small apartment I lived in it was not ideal for me to play the game like that." 

You'll be able to see SuperLouis' latest creation in action this Saturday, so keep an eye out for his charity Final Fantasy 14 stream. He's teased that his next project "is going to Bust-er some doors down," so you may want to watch for clouds as well. 

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