I was looking at a lot of the sim pits here - very impressive. I always wanted to build one for Mechwarrior but don't know if I am going to go down that road until I see how the new game is. If they add support for my motion simulator, I suspect the odds of me building a motion simulator mechwarrior cockpit are pretty close to 100%.

What I am curious though, is if there are many people who are using motion simulators in their cockpits and if so, do they have issues with the strain of the motion system on their structure? Reason I ask is that I just acquired a D-BOX game sim chair, a GP-PRO 200 RS, which is set up for racing but can be converted to flight simulator use if I want. I was thinking of building either a race car cockpit or just a generic flight cockpit for right now - maybe even trying to make a system where I could convert from one to the other without too much difficulty.

I will see if I can get some photos of my simulator frame and motion system and post them.

May want to check this thread for some ideas...

Welcome aboard!

Then there's the Dream Flyer for that full motion feeling.

The Dream Flyer is actually a large step down from the D-BOX unit. The Dream Flyer is a two degrees of freedom unit, where the Game Pro sim chair is 3 degrees of freedom and incorporates a lot of tactile effects that you cannot get even on the large Landmark 6 degrees of freedom units like they have on the large sim rides at amusement parks. I just was at the new Star Tours ride at Disneyland and felt that their system they had was still inferior to the D-BOX home theater systems when the overall immersion was taken into account (and I was able to compare it well since I got to do the pod race sequence twice at Disney and have that on my home simulator in my theater). The commercial unit had more degrees of freedom and much larger displacement but lacked the fine details and as we all know, details add so much to the experience.

The dream flyer does look like it has a nice amount of angular rotation (15 degrees) on those two axis, however and is a lot less money than the D-BOX unit.

If you have not seen it yet, this site is all about DIY motion platforms. Tons of info there:

http://www.x-simulator.de/forum/index.php?sid=bddd8f9143af9218b34aace41e633f71

I plan to. I have been using a similar system to yours in the past but - believe it or not - I found it too restrictive. You say it has 3 dimensions of freedom but that's only a very limited freedom we're talking about. In degrees maybe 30°

Sadly there is no ideal solution. E.g. a full control over the X and Y axis as a roll axis would make it almost impossible to control them directly for tactile feedback. Those actuators usually can't contract and thus not hold the platforum when it'd be "hanging" down.

So it's basically a choice of preference.


Stability wise I wouldn't say you need to be extra careful. Your platform should be stable as the ground no matter what you put on top. In your case it'd be a motion platform.
With attached switch panels one thing is for certain though: for reduced strain and added safety you can only add a minimalistic amount of switch panels etc. Eventually you could position more outside of the motion platform but it'd bear the risk of getting hurt while reaching outside while the platform is moving. With a carefully picked layout it might still be possible.
[EDIT] I might want to add that I only see this possible for limited motion platforms such as the one the OP is talking about - in a full roll axis motion platform you'd eventually end up braking an arm while reaching outside in a loop or barrel roll ;D [/EDIT]

Motion bases are all about motion onset cues and now how far the platform can move.

Unless you build a cab around the cockpit that permits you no outside reference beyond what you get from the scene generator, there's no point in a motion base.

g.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding you here but I wouldn't want to agree on you with this to be honest.

Motion is a sense like hearing and often can be felt and interpreted differently. Some people use shaker systems or force feedback joysticks to get a similar connection. It doesn't have to be 100% to have an effect. Same goes for visual stuff - many use head tracking systems but all of them are flawed as in you only move your head a small degree. But humans can get used to issues and still have improved imersion.

As for the D-Box I find it very unlikely to use it as a basis for a full motion platform cockpit unless you build it very, very light and balance it perfectly. It'd literally have to be balsa wood though.

The way I'd do it is probably just a dark room and a big screen. Unless you need a huge load of accessible buttons and switches it should be alright - and even if you could also use background lighting.

Jeeze guys, you could have told me it was International Teach Your Grandmother How to Steal Sheep day. :|

I guess I've got my cranky pants on today because I just can't come up with a reply that doesn't sound either snobbish, rude or arrogant. Sorry.

You're describing an arcade device. If that's all you want, knock yourself out.

g.