Check this out

[DaOld Man]

[lilshawn]

you should play "need for speed shift 2" or "dirt 3" with the oculus rift. BAM! right in your face!

[DaOld Man]

The setup in the video is not mine, but I sure wish I had one like that.

[Well Fed Games]

Crazy to think that at his age I was still playing Pole Position on the Atari 5200.

[kahlid74]

When I finish the battletech pod (whenever that is) I was drumming around building a Race Car sim.  I've got three 23" monitors sitting around waiting to be used.  There is a whole site devoted to simpits with dudes building real Jet fighter sims with Metal lithography.  SUPER RAD stuff.  http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/81/1/Flight_Sim_Pit_Builders

[lilshawn]

That hydraulic powered F1 race simulator you see pop up every so often on crackbook and other forums by "4star" is crazy as all hell. I'd love to build something like that. I mean, I could do it... if the software interface to the games was done and readily available. I know nothing of programming, but I can hack together a pump and hydraulic system to drive the works.



flight sim guys are crazy with their builds too. you think arcades are expensive? try pricing out some of those displays and controls at 200/400/800...1800+ a pop. 

[DaOld Man]

Do it Lilshwawn!!!
This would be real fun at parties, but youd need to put a cage around it to keep someone from falling into it.
I could see where something like this would cost a fortune. The mechanical parts alone would be very high.

[Howard_Casto]

There is a new technique floating around that I would like to try one day... wiper motor sims



I'm not sure if they could lift my fat butt, but not having to fool around with messy and costly hydraulics is worth the price of admission alone. 

[lilshawn]

we have princess auto here...

i can get 1 1/2 inch bore cylinders with an 24 inch stroke for about 160 each.

some kind of drive motor....not sure what kind of spec you'd need for the quick reactions for the turning...but i'd imagine something not too crazy would be needed...you aren't turning 5000lbs with it. trial and error right??  so figure another 200  then a pump. for 200 or 300.

you'd need some solenoid or motor controled valves to control the fluid which is probably the most expensive at about 300 a piece.

couple grand and some time could have yourself a decent start anyways.


the other option ive considered is an F-zero AX deluxe cabinet, but not many of those made it out of japan because they were expensive all hell.

[DaOld Man]

Thanks for the video link Howard. Looks like windshield wiper motors are not just for turning monitors anymore. LOL

lilshawn, it would take a lot of time and money to do a project right, but the windshield wiper motors would be cheaper, however you wouldn't have the span (reach) that a hydraulic cylinder could have, so movement would be limited with the wiper motors.

[lilshawn]

i suppose a motor with a spindle on it  and some aircraft cable to attach to the "rig" (similar to an elevator) would probably get tangled up or maxed out and broken. 



you would still get your length of travel but using inexpensive servo motors.





*watches as this simple post by daold man turns into a build thread* 

I'm not sure if they could lift my fat butt

looks like it pivots in the middle, the motors themselves are supplemented by gravity on the other side with the weight of the monitor/players legs offsetting the weight of the body and chair.

the motors would have to push very little if you get the balance right. (course it would be different for everyone who played.) perhaps  some balance weights to hang off the front (behind the monitor) to compensate for different people weights.

IE: made for 100lbs and you add 1/2 lb to the front for every pound you are over that.

[Howard_Casto]

i suppose a motor with a spindle on it  and some aircraft cable to attach to the "rig" (similar to an elevator) would probably get tangled up or maxed out and broken. 



you would still get your length of travel but using inexpensive servo motors.





*watches as this simple post by daold man turns into a build thread* 

I'm not sure if they could lift my fat butt

looks like it pivots in the middle, the motors themselves are supplemented by gravity on the other side with the weight of the monitor/players legs offsetting the weight of the body and chair.

the motors would have to push very little if you get the balance right. (course it would be different for everyone who played.) perhaps  some balance weights to hang off the front (behind the monitor) to compensate for different people weights.

IE: made for 100lbs and you add 1/2 lb to the front for every pound you are over that.

Well if you are using a motor, the key is to have proper gearing.  The old Sega sims used motors with a screw drive and worked pretty well.  Likewise the wiper motors I linked to a geared surprisingly low.... people use them for Halloween animatronics all the time.  So yeah a motor would do, but not with a cable system. 

As for basing one at 100 lbs..... that'd be an awful lot of 1/2 pound weights to hang.  I hover at around 220 these days. 

[lilshawn]

I hover at around 220 these days.

i'm somewhere around 300....i'm looking at hydraulics 

[Howard_Casto]

Hmm... maybe we all need to build ark's exercise bike then and start a byoac fit club. 

[DaOld Man]

Maybe a mame cabinet powered off a bicycle pedal set up?
You stop pedaling, your game shuts off.

[kahlid74]

The hydraulic ones are awesome.  I was thinking of building one and then got side tracked with other things.  I kind of always wanted to work hydraulics into the Battletech pod so everytime the mech walks the pod shifts right/left and it shakes when being hit and it tilts you way back or forward if your mech gets knocked down/falls down.

Pipe dreams I suppose.

[Howard_Casto]

It's the software that's more of a pain in the butt than anything else. 

Basically you need full access to the cockpit/whatever's x y and z values in the game.  Then you need to write software on an avr that reads a series of pots on your rig to determine the current x/y/z and adjust accordingly.  That's not even taking into account speed of movement. 

Even then you'll have issues.... like when the gameplay is over and the camera zooms out for a dramatic shot..... and your rig tries to mimic that.  Or other issues. 

[lilshawn]

It's the software that's more of a pain in the butt than anything else. 

Basically you need full access to the cockpit/whatever's x y and z values in the game.  Then you need to write software on an avr that reads a series of pots on your rig to determine the current x/y/z and adjust accordingly.  That's not even taking into account speed of movement. 

Even then you'll have issues.... like when the gameplay is over and the camera zooms out for a dramatic shot..... and your rig tries to mimic that.  Or other issues.

yes, i know nothing of this part...i wish i did though.

i do know lots of programs (source engine and unreal engine games do for sure anyways) have provisions in a "debug" sort of way where values are spit out during a game... tire friction values....steering wheel position,  aceleration/brake value...on and on. i guess it would be a matter of writing a TSR program of some sorts for the computer that dumps this info out a serial port or the like and have, like you said, an AVR microcontroller sort the data to control and feedback various whatevers.

it's kind of the same way the Oculus Rift works with the Vireio Perception drivers and standard 3D games (usually)... by having the data come out of the game engine, be intercepted by the Viereio software and have relevent data passed to the rift software (and relevant data pulled out/changed/etc.) and then passed along back to the game for final processing and display.

I basically know how it works, yet i know nothing of how it works enough to do something with it. 

[BadMouth]

Maybe a mame cabinet powered off a bicycle pedal set up?
You stop pedaling, your game shuts off.

Recent discussion in the driving cab sub-forum:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,139818.0.html

[lilshawn]

Maybe a mame cabinet powered off a bicycle pedal set up?
You stop pedaling, your game shuts off.

Recent discussion in the driving cab sub-forum:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,139818.0.html

man, i thought the sega "activator" was stupid, but jeez.

[danny_galaga]

The setup in the video is not mine, but I sure wish I had one like that.

While it seems nice and all, that doesn't seem THAT special to me. Isn't that rig just a 'bought one'? Plus 3  monitors?

[BadMouth]

The setup in the video is not mine, but I sure wish I had one like that.

While it seems nice and all, that doesn't seem THAT special to me. Isn't that rig just a 'bought one'? Plus 3  monitors?

Yeah, the kid is just sitting in an office chair at a desk.  Triple monitors are pretty common among sim racers, although I don't think I've seen the two end monitors mounted vertically before.

[DaOld Man]

I agree, it is probably all store bought, but still, it is inspiring, perhaps.

[Generic Eric]

What I don't get is all of the time/money spent for a higher degree of immersion, and the "driver" sits on a spinning chair?

I'm not saying he has to wear a fireproof suit and slide through a window to get in, but I know the seat in my car doesn't spin.

[BadMouth]

What I don't get is all of the time/money spent for a higher degree of immersion, and the "driver" sits on a spinning chair?

I'm not saying he has to wear a fireproof suit and slide through a window to get in, but I know the seat in my car doesn't spin.

I don't see a bunch of time/money spent on a higher degree of immersion.
I see a clamp on PC wheel and triple monitors.  The monitors could serve other purposes.
My boss has triple monitors in his office and wouldn't know how to install a racing game.

[Generic Eric]

What I don't get is all of the time/money spent for a higher degree of immersion, and the "driver" sits on a spinning chair?

I'm not saying he has to wear a fireproof suit and slide through a window to get in, but I know the seat in my car doesn't spin.

I don't see a bunch of time/money spent on a higher degree of immersion.
I see a clamp on PC wheel and triple monitors.  The monitors could serve other purposes.
My boss has triple monitors in his office and wouldn't know how to install a racing game.

Spent the last 20 minutes or so looking for the link for a driving stand that looked like that (saw it yesterday) but couldn't find it again. 

[Howard_Casto]

If you want triple monitors they have been having sales all spring/summer where you can get 3 24" monitors for around 300 bucks. 

Of course the real challenge is getting a beastly enough pc and video card to actually be able to render a game on three monitors at full quality. 

[ark_ader]

If you want triple monitors they have been having sales all spring/summer where you can get 3 24" monitors for around 300 bucks. 

Of course the real challenge is getting a beastly enough pc and video card to actually be able to render a game on three monitors at full quality.

I have this setup with Eye Infinity.  And it works out pretty well.  I have another display via VGA2USB but it is too slow for gaming and I just use it for PDFs in portrait mode.  I'm hoping to mount these via a VESA bracket with a 40" on top.  I also have two projectors (hopefully another soon) for another eye infinity setup for flight sims and my Bike Interface.

I would prefer something like this: