Obsessive hobbies....
- Thread starter RCHeliGuy
- Start date
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Eventually.
I started working on flight controls shown below, but I'm going to have to start over now that I have the new chair and I'm still waiting for the pedals.
Well, I understand that the title of this thread is: “Obsessive hobbies”. But Mark, I’m beginning to think you take the meaning of “obsessive” to a whole new level. Well done.
I know... I keep saying I'm going to put it away for a while, yet this morning I was working on the flight controls.
Wow Mark, Rich is right, you do take the term 'obsessive' to a new level, bravo!
The adjustability built-in to your DIY mounts is admirable. :clap:
The adjustability built-in to your DIY mounts is admirable. :clap:
Thanks! I think :think:
Hopefully next week my flight pedals will arrive and I'll get the flight rig section completed.
Meanwhile I've just figured out how I want to mount a left and right vibration transducer to the bottom of the seat
However I have a new laptop arriving and I need to get it completely configured for a bit of work travel coming up.
Car racing games in VR are very interesting and a completely different animal than racing with monitors.
You can judge corners because you have 3D perspective and can see ruts in the road. It feels natural to look into corners everything is truly immersive. You are there!
Unfortunately your brain has had years of conditioning and expects to feel acceleration which isn't there. Monitors don't give you this effect. Your brain knows that you are only looking at a monitor without VR, but when all you can see is a virtual world, you mind is tricked.
Right now I can only car race in VR for about 20-30min at a time before I need a break. However I can play all kinds of other VR games for much longer and have zero effects.
I'm actually hoping that if I get additional transducer feedback that this will be less of an issue. I've also been told that I'll need to get my VR legs for this.
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OK, this is VERY cool!
I jumped into an A-10C Warthog in the air and just flew around for a test run. All I fired were the cannons. I haven't even learned how to arm the bombs and missiles yet.
The pedals work nicely. DCS World 2.0 immediately recognized all my controls and mapped them well. VR worked well. The stick and throttle moved as I moved them. The only thing I wish is that in the car racing games there was always a driver in the seat pressing pedals, shifting gears, turning the wheel is it was very well synchronized to my control inputs. This flying simulator shows all the controls moving by an invisible person.
I also found out that if I take a ginger root pill before going into VR, I can handle the roughest rides in Dirt Rally. It may help for flight too.
I jumped into an A-10C Warthog in the air and just flew around for a test run. All I fired were the cannons. I haven't even learned how to arm the bombs and missiles yet.
The pedals work nicely. DCS World 2.0 immediately recognized all my controls and mapped them well. VR worked well. The stick and throttle moved as I moved them. The only thing I wish is that in the car racing games there was always a driver in the seat pressing pedals, shifting gears, turning the wheel is it was very well synchronized to my control inputs. This flying simulator shows all the controls moving by an invisible person.
I also found out that if I take a ginger root pill before going into VR, I can handle the roughest rides in Dirt Rally. It may help for flight too.
Yesterday I just bolted it down to try out.
Today I built the horizontal adjustments, so the stick can slide 4" and the throttle can slide 4". I haven't make the throttle adjustable vertically yet.
The joint between the main board and the throttle is a waxed reverse glueup joint. So when it is pushed against the board and tightened down it has some solid contact points. For that reason I had to add escape notches for the bolts so it could be decoupled from the main board and torn down.
Today I built the horizontal adjustments, so the stick can slide 4" and the throttle can slide 4". I haven't make the throttle adjustable vertically yet.
The joint between the main board and the throttle is a waxed reverse glueup joint. So when it is pushed against the board and tightened down it has some solid contact points. For that reason I had to add escape notches for the bolts so it could be decoupled from the main board and torn down.
You need to find a VR game where you fly an X wing or a Tie Fighter.
. That would be the sh*t.
You need to find a VR game where you fly an X wing or a Tie Fighter.
I think the closest thing out there for serious space combat is Elite Dangerous, but I'm not going down that path yet.
I just mounted my first transducer to the pedals for front end bumps and engine vibrations.
The next one is going under the seat for rear bumps, road texture, shift bumps.
Then the shifter puck which is a bit smaller will have only engine rpm on it.
Today I had a friend over who I met in the local STEM school robotics league.
He is a retired engineer who worked his whole adult life at Boeing. He's been in some pretty elaborate flight simulators over the years ( 6-7 figures ).
He flew the Huey and then the A-10 which he successfully landed on a dessert highway I'd say beginners luck, but probably not.
He is a retired engineer who worked his whole adult life at Boeing. He's been in some pretty elaborate flight simulators over the years ( 6-7 figures ).
He flew the Huey and then the A-10 which he successfully landed on a dessert highway
I'd say beginners luck, but probably not.
Is that a beer I see? Is it legal to drink while doing this?
Yes it is a beer, old skunky beer I would never touch. I use it as a heat sink on my cable box down there that runs HOT!!!!
I got the seat of the pants transducer installed and the gear shift puck and finally tried this out.
It is pretty impressive. When I rev the engine I feel the engine vibrate in the pedals and the seat of my pants. When I shift gears I feel a thunk.
As soon as I'm moving the road texture and bumps come through the pedals and seat.
It really works well together. When I go airborne the steering wheel goes light, the road vibrations disappear and all I have is some engine vibration. When I touch down the wheel grabs, there is an impact and then the road bumps start back up.
Very effective and it definitely adds to the immersion.
The puck wasn't quit enough. I kept adding power until I blew it up, so... I've got another full sized transducer coming. I can dial it back and get exactly what I want to feel in the gear shift.
Wow, Mark, good work there, and great to see you having fun with it.
Now you've got me looking into adding a transducer to my seat.
Now you've got me looking into adding a transducer to my seat.
Thanks!
I'm using AuraSound AST-2B-4 Pro transducers because they run the full wattage range and I'm running them off of a 75W/channel receiver. They are rated for 50W.
Buttkicker is the big name and they will go lower, but they require 50W - 250W and don't kick in until there is a lot of shaking going on so my old collecting dust receiver would not have been powerful enough to run buttkickers.
I'm still tweaking my settings. I found out that there are lots of filters, so I have my road bumps setup to start out at 15% and work up to 100% impact at speeds over 60 for Dirt Rally. You could spend hours and hours just tweaking things to get the right relationship of car vibrations to feel realistic.
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I can understand why your wife wants you back at work. Nice job Mark.
She's getting her wish. The entirety of 2018 is spoken for. I'm going to be very busy.
Edit: FWIW I seem to be getting my VR legs. This morning I had a ginger pill with breakfast and after waking up I spent a solid hour plus playing Dirt Rally and had ZERO ill effects. Dirt Rally is definitely the worst on my stomach.
So for those of your concerned about nausea and VR, there are 3 nausea ratings ( Comfortable, Moderate, Intense ) Car and Flight simulators are both intense. When I first got my Oculus Rift I played a bunch of room scale "comfortable" games where there is no motion. In these games you are stationary and either teleport, or advance in levels to change location. I never experienced any discomfort with those.
Dirt Rally initially hit me hard. At first after 20 minutes I was sweating and needed to take the headset off badly, and it took a bit before I felt better. Then I tried ginger pills and that helped, but now I'm feeling nothing. Hopefully I won't need ginger pills in the near future.
FYI, my son was not effected and the retired engineer who was flying spent a solid 45 minutes or so flying in VR and had no issues, so it doesn't effect everyone. Some people appear to be immune.
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I got my larger gear shift transducer mounted, but....
This is going to seem funny, but I purchased all this gear with an escape plan because I knew I would get my fill and be done with it.
I just didn't expect to reach that point this early. It was like a light switch. I still have some friends who want to come over and try this stuff out and my son is visiting a lot more lately, but I suspect I'll sell it all of in the next few months. Everything I got was at the top end of the mid-tier and fortunately there is a lot of demand for this type of equipment.
It's been very interesting and a lot of fun, but all of a sudden(basically after I finished building everything and getting it all configured, it started looking like a big time suck and I lost interest.
This is going to seem funny, but I purchased all this gear with an escape plan because I knew I would get my fill and be done with it.
I just didn't expect to reach that point this early. It was like a light switch. I still have some friends who want to come over and try this stuff out and my son is visiting a lot more lately, but I suspect I'll sell it all of in the next few months. Everything I got was at the top end of the mid-tier and fortunately there is a lot of demand for this type of equipment.
It's been very interesting and a lot of fun, but all of a sudden(basically after I finished building everything and getting it all configured, it started looking like a big time suck and I lost interest.
Lol mark. Well thanks for the ride. .
Anything that makes you feel a bit queasy would be a turnoff in the long haul I would think. But like any game - for me at least - I get into it but after awhile lose interest. I never lose interest in music as I can play things again and again and still feel good about the experience. I can't do that with anything video for the most part for some reason. I mean I will watch a movie I've seen before again - but in maybe a 1 or 2 year span.
. Anything that makes you feel a bit queasy would be a turnoff in the long haul I would think. But like any game - for me at least - I get into it but after awhile lose interest. I never lose interest in music as I can play things again and again and still feel good about the experience. I can't do that with anything video for the most part for some reason. I mean I will watch a movie I've seen before again - but in maybe a 1 or 2 year span.
Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination, especially where hobbies are concerned.
