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Rats in Viktor Tóth’s updated DOOM project can navigate a virtual environment and pull a physical lever mapped to the game’s fire command. The second-generation rig adds shooting, broader movement, and a panoramic display—but the project reports trained behaviors, not rats beating DOOM or understanding it as human players do.
How do rats play DOOM?
The setup translates a rat’s physical actions into game inputs. The rat runs on a freely rotating ball, while sensors track the ball’s movement and software maps it to movement in DOOM. To shoot, the rat pulls a custom physical lever with its paw. Sugar water reinforces designated behaviors.
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A PC runs the game and project software. A Raspberry Pi handles real-time sensor readings, ball actuation, and reward control. The project describes the hardware designs, circuit diagrams, firmware, and control software as open source. Its hardware guide and project details are available at Rats Play Doom.
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The lever sits in a 3D-printed housing and uses a rotary encoder and stepper motor. Project lead Viktor Tóth described it as a “custom-built hand-operated lever”; rats pull it with their paws to fire, according to PC Gamer’s December 18, 2025 report.
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What changed in the second version?
The first rig was a simpler demonstration: a rat moved on a ball, and its movement was mapped to forward travel through a narrow, customized DOOM II corridor. Version two is modular and adds more flexible navigation, a shooting input, and feedback for virtual wall collisions. The project says its curved, foldable AMOLED display provides a 180-degree horizontal and 80-degree vertical field of view at Full HD resolution. These are hardware specifications, not measures of how well the rats played. Digitec’s December 16, 2025 coverage also describes the updated display and fire control.
| Feature | First rig | Version two |
|---|---|---|
| Movement | Forward travel through a narrow, customized DOOM II corridor | More flexible navigation, tracked by sensors around a free-spinning ball |
| Game input | Movement input | Movement plus a paw-operated lever mapped to shooting |
| Visual setup | Simpler visual setup | Curved, foldable AMOLED display; project-stated 180° horizontal and 80° vertical field of view, Full HD resolution |
| Feedback and reward | Not stated in the project’s comparison | Air puffs can signal virtual wall collisions; sugar-water rewards reinforce designated behaviors |
| Evidence status | Earlier demonstration | Project reports navigation and shooting behavior; full behavioral validation remains pending |
What have the rats learned—and what has not been shown?
The project says its rats “successfully learned to navigate the virtual environment and trigger the shooting mechanism.” That is the project’s account of the trained behaviors, not an independently validated scientific conclusion. PC Gamer reported Tóth saying habituation took approximately two weeks per rat, but advanced training was not completed because of time constraints.
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The project says its version-two rats reached habituation but aged out before full training. It also says cross-subject variability was not studied extensively and that the effects of prolonged VR exposure on rat well-being need further research. The available reporting does not establish that the rats completed DOOM, understood its objectives, or played with human-like skill. The project documentation is at ratsplaydoom.com.
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No. The described version uses external movement sensors and a physical lever; it does not use an invasive brain-computer interface. Tóth’s 2020 concept essay discussed cerebral control as an ambition, but that proposal is distinct from the sensors, mechanical inputs, and reward-based training in the current setup.
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Why this is an animal-learning and engineering demonstration
The project brings together a custom VR environment, motion tracking, mechanical controls, and rewards to shape selected actions. Its reported navigation and lever-pulling behaviors make it an engaging demonstration of training and engineering. They do not, on their own, establish how rats perceive the virtual world or whether prolonged exposure is beneficial or harmless. No peer-reviewed publication or independently reported sample size is identified in the cited project and coverage, so the results should be read as a project-reported demonstration rather than a published scientific trial.
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