I have now tried Virtual Reality and it is amazing

[RandyT]

It would also be my dream if a project like this could implement my 80’s TV site and display it on the CRT TV and give you the option to change the channel. https://www.my80stv.com/#yhZNyekqrac

That's a pretty amazing site.  Definitely something to scratch the nostalgia itch.

It looks like the author of the site is already playing with this to some extent:

 

Maybe contact him and request that the VR functionality be added to his site.

[fallacy]

Nice! What I like so much about https://www.my80stv.com/ is that it is a perfect encapsulation of what was playing on TV that year; they even added the 1950's to the site. Basically any time period piece, any kind of VR room with a TV you could just link it up to the year of that site and BAM! Instant working time period piece in VR. 

[fallacy]

So i finally found a Vo.139 rom pack torrent that was like 80GB big and copied them into the rom folder and can confirm all games now work. This is seriously actually epic. You would think it would run like sh*t  or something with everything going on but it doesn't, I have not had a single missed frame or hiccup inside the app on my 3080 with an intel 13 gen CPU. This is almost like the best VR front end for mame.

The fact that he used the 2010 dos version of mame and it looks like he compiled it himself to get rid of the mame warning screens. I want to say he is around the same age as me and he built his first mame arcade cab in 2010 where as I built mine in 2009. Then he goes and takes it to the next step by creating this.

I wonder how he did it, I wonder how he created all these cabs with a perfect level of detail. I can't even find Arcade cab pictures for my front End that aren't low res crap.

[fallacy]

I am so impressed with this VR arcade I think I might just build a stand alone arcade joystick and buttons for my room. I have enough spare parts. I just need another ipac. Is there anything now like a 1 player ipac that's cheap?

I wonder If I could build it in some kind of slide out drawer. I still own a drill press. I want to be sitting in my comfortable office chair and pull it up to me about 4 feet off the ground. I need a big enough table to rest my arms on. I also want to be able to slide it out of sight when I am not using it.

[RandyT]

...
You would think it would run like sh*t  or something with everything going on but it doesn't, I have not had a single missed frame or hiccup inside the app on my 3080 with an intel 13 gen CPU. This is almost like the best VR front end for mame.

The fact that he used the 2010 dos version of mame and it looks like he compiled it himself to get rid of the mame warning screens. I want to say he is around the same age as me and he built his first mame arcade cab in 2010 where as I built mine in 2009. Then he goes and takes it to the next step by creating this.

I wonder how he did it, I wonder how he created all these cabs with a perfect level of detail. I can't even find Arcade cab pictures for my front End that aren't low res crap.

I was wondering this myself.  The conclusion I came to (perhaps incorrectly) is that a snippet of the attract screen is rendered to a video file for each game, then cached and applied as a texture to the appropriate screens.  In order for this to appear seamless, it would need to be pre-rendered and of sufficient length to be convincing without obvious loop points.  It could then, of course, transition to the actual game when the user is in proper position to interact with a specific game.  As the titles in use are pre-configured, it would be possible to have done all of this in advance.  Just like video attract screens for a front-end application.  That's not precluding the possibility that several instances of MAME could be running when the user is close to a few machines, to increase fidelity when necessary.  Modern "cell-phone" processors should be able to pull that off, as none of the input handling/game code needs to be active until the user is ready to interact with it.  But it would be no problem for a decent VR-capable PC.

As for the artwork, quite some time ago, there was a 500gb collection of high-quality scans floating around with sideart, marquees and IIRC, control panels taken from actual machines.  It used to take an expensive HD to store it all.  It's hard to believe that it can now fit on a $35 micro-SD card!  It's possible this was used as an initial source for the textures.  The cabinet geometries are also pretty well documented.  Regardless, there is quite a bit of work to bring everything together, and to fill in the gaps, on display in that program, regardless of how it was done.   

[mimic]

Hey guys, if any of you plays Onward and has time on the Weekends at 3PM EST (has to be at 3PM, due to Europeans), let me know and I'll PM you pass/host.
 
We used to have a nice group going on a private server, but it fell apart because some people had only Quest 1, and Quest 3 wasn't yet available when Onward decided not to support Quest 1 anymore and guys didn't want to invest in Q2, when Q3 was just around the corner. So we are looking for more people that are at least 30+ y.o. (most of us are in mid 40's to early 50's). Looking for mature enough that we can expect you won't burp, fart, whistle, sing into the microphone.

If you're interested, then if I don't reply right away, then please check your PM, 10 min before 3pm tomorrow's game.

[fallacy]

One more big step closer for my dream of taking these headsets outside and playing a massive multiplayer game in the real world.

[fallacy]

I saw this video come up in my feed, a look back in the past from 2013 where it all began.

[RandyT]

One more big step closer for my dream of taking these headsets outside and playing a massive multiplayer game in the real world.

Somehow, I don't see how $3500 equates to "massive multiplayer", but I guess stranger things have happened

[fallacy]

Somehow, I don't see how $3500 equates to "massive multiplayer", but I guess stranger things have happened

Saying the tec is one step closer; the apple vision pro itself is still worthless for the consumer market . Waiting for the future version to be 40% cheaper, 40% lighter and 40% more powerful. Thats how it always works out.

[pbj]

Less than ten years ago, the eye tracking tech in those things was $35,000+.

 

[fallacy]

Wouldn't be cool to repurpose something like this with the current headsets like the Quest 3, along with some current mec game.

[RandyT]

That does look pretty nifty.  Do they look like motion platforms to you?  If they are, they probably should have mentioned that in the listing to improve their chances of a sale.  If not, that's a crazy price

But to be honest, my self-built 4-actuator racing rig, steering wheel, PC, monitor and VR headset cost less than that in total, and probably does the same thing + more.

[fallacy]

That does look pretty nifty.  Do they look like motion platforms to you?  If they are, they probably should have mentioned that in the listing to improve their chances of a sale.  If not, that's a crazy price

But to be honest, my self-built 4-actuator racing rig, steering wheel, PC, monitor and VR headset cost less than that in total, and probably does the same thing + more.

I mean

[RandyT]

IMHO, that would make a pretty poor "mech simulator".  It's basically a tandem 2DOF "seat tilter", with the pivot point between the two seats.  It was obviously designed to be a "mall attraction" roller coaster sim.  The poor person who bought the thing probably believed the "easy money" hype from the promo videos and found out otherwise.  Supposedly, they are 7k new.

A mech simulator really needs some heave to be decent, which this can't do.  Even for simple 2DOF motion, the center of movement would need to be directly under a single rider (?) or it would feel really odd.



This is basically identical to what is moving the egg unit.  Lots of folks make their own, as it's the simplest way to get the seat moving and it's relatively inexpensive compared to other systems.

[fallacy]

There are like a million different motion chairs out there. I don't understand how you are supposed to program any of them into a game. I am always hoping one day a cheap popular chair will come out and you will just be able to upload a config file that will allow it to work with most games.

I remember this yaw chair was all over youtube a few years ago for VR but that never went anywhere.

[RandyT]

There are like a million different motion chairs out there. I don't understand how you are supposed to program any of them into a game. I am always hoping one day a cheap popular chair will come out and you will just be able to upload a config file that will allow it to work with most games.

I remember this yaw chair was all over youtube a few years ago for VR but that never went anywhere.

I guess "cheap" in that world is relative.  Tossing up-to 300lbs around in near real-time has a cost and weight that puts it out of the consumer mass-market pretty readily.  The YAW outfit is still trying to do it, but it appears that they learned that cheap and reliable don't go hand-in-hand for something like this.  I understand that there are a lot of backers who still have received nothing for their 3k after years of waiting, and a 2.5 version is out now. But that style of unit (basically a geared track riding on skate wheels in a stacked configuration) seems a bit slow to me, making it the most suitable for flightsims and maybe rollercoasters.  For reference, my setup can physically hurt you with the forces it's capable of, whereas this design would probably eat it's own components before that would happen (unless it fell over first).  It's also not appreciably cheaper now than some other approaches.

But these things entail several disciplines, all working together, to get them to work.  The first is obviously the mechanical components.  Second, there needs to be something which can drive them quickly and accurately, and third is the application (driver) layer responsible for delivering game data to the second thing in a way it understands, as well as providing some user adjustable pre-processing for the rig itself.  In all honesty, from a parts perspective, it's like riding a CNC machine with game software telling it what to do.

For this reason, it's important to make sure all parts can talk to each other before purchasing.  So most will start at the end of  the chain and work their way backward, based on the type of system they want to put together.  For many, it's SimRacingStudio => Thanos AASD15A controller => however many directly driven servo actuators the system requires.  But the "seat-tilter" types usually use an open-source solution and arduino, coupled with two industrial gear motors with arm linkages and encoders to track position.  With these, the longer the motion, the beefier the motors need to be, as more power is required when the diameter of the "circle" these linkages are connected to increases.

Finally, one step above DIY is a company called DOFReality.  They have been around for a while and probably offer the cheapest out-of-the-box solution and one that's compatible with SimRacingStudio.  Maybe not the beefiest or most capable of rigs, but certainly the cheapest and easiest.  And if you want to spend some money for the best they offer, they have a 6DOF unit for under 6k (without seat).  They also have a number of much cheaper options.  But you do have to do some assembly on any of them when it arrives.

If you haven't already seen it, here is my post showing the actuators I designed and built, along with the "finished" rig. 

[fallacy]

If you haven't already seen it, here is my post showing the actuators I designed and built, along with the "finished" rig.

Cool Build! I have no idea how any of this stuff works, working with motor type sh*it is above my pay grade.  I like how in one of your posts you mention the YAW2 about 2.5 years ago when it was all over the internet.

*edit*  I now see that there were at least 3 different styles of SEGA motion rigs (not counting the 360).  The Afterburner cockpit was large and had only 2DOF, but the GalaxyForce II design seems to be pretty much exactly the same type of unit as the 3DOF YAW2, but with limited Z-Rotation.  The one I remember was Space Harrier, which is without Z-rotation.  That one also seems to use a different motion platform, more akin to the center mounted pivot design.  But I could be wrong.

[fallacy]

Good video going over all the new emerging tec on getting AR headsets into glasses form and the different kinds of inputs they are trying to create with them. At 1330 he starts talking about Neural interface bands, I was not even aware of this one but the tec sounds nuts.

About 10 more years VR/AR will become mainstream! Mark my word we'll be wearing these things in the park. You will also be able to access your content as easily as you can access your content on your phone today.

[RandyT]

Good video going over all the new emerging tec on getting AR headsets into glasses form and the different kinds of inputs they are trying to create with them. At 1330 he starts talking about Neural interface bands, I was not even aware of this one but the tec sounds nuts.

My view is that barring any new technology within the short term, AR/VR spectacles will be short lived.  People literally get surgery to avoid having to wear glasses. 

Once the technology is so small that in can be put into glasses, it will also be able to be put into some very light and comfortable headgear.  I suspect at some point, there will either be an implant which is wirelessly tethered to this headgear, or the implant will be unnecessary, using something like external frequency resonance to alter/transmit brainwaves in a way which is tailored to an individual, using AI.

Given the failure of "Google Glasses", I also have to wonder about social implications.  Many people will avoid having in-person interactions with others, simply because they know that they could be surreptitiously recorded by the individuals wearing the glasses.  Of course, this concern won't be that different for implant technologies, considering that those individuals will literally be agents, perhaps unknowingly, for whoever manufactured their technology.  If you think data harvesting is bad now, "you ain't seen nothing yet"