Posted By: SteelBoss
Mechwarrior Simulator Cockpit Build - 02/01/21 06:54 PM
I can't sleep at night.
Visions of CH Control Manager scripts, colour aimbots hacked to pull information from games without simulator peripheral interfaces, and scratch building force feedback joysticks have me in fever fantasies in the middle of the night.
I haven't got much in the way of experience, but I have a huge imagination.
And my gut is telling me, it's time to fulfill a long ago sidelined dream of piloting a Battlemech.
And so I've begun a journey, which maybe in a month's time when work is busy, will fizzle out and I'll look back fondly on the fantasies I had. But if I acheive a fraction of what I'm building in my mind, something very cool is going to inhabit a tiny, nigh-useless cramped little alcove under my stairs.
[img]https://imgur.com/a/g04wS3Q[/img]
Goal: Build an immersive, fun Battlemech cockpit, skewing towards BattleTech lore and fiction for design sourcing.
Blue Sky Goals:
Obstacles
Project Philosophy
Inspirations
The reason I'm going on about this project in this forum, is largely because Choowy's mechpit led me here, and I've since ogled over Hotwire's and have been sleuthing out everything Loc Nar has to say about zero order joystick controls. So this forum and those folk in particular are big influences.
This is an in-cockpit shot from the 1986 Mechwarrior RPG I love.
Here's the cover of second-edition, a bit more advanced looking cockpit, note the dual joysticks instead of a throttle.
Future according to the 80s The bulk of Battletech lore is written about years between 3015 and 3250. But it was begun in the 80s and retains a delightful nostalgiac sense of the future: like there are giant walking war robots, but there isn't really an internet. Very important members of planetary governments have pagers. I'd love to include 80's retro-futurism cues in the design. There's an article on some wilde 80s dashboards here: Retrofuture dashboards
Early Goals
I plan to use this thread as a journal of progress, to note my failures and successes, to beg for help and to share the journey.
Cheers!
Visions of CH Control Manager scripts, colour aimbots hacked to pull information from games without simulator peripheral interfaces, and scratch building force feedback joysticks have me in fever fantasies in the middle of the night.
I haven't got much in the way of experience, but I have a huge imagination.
And my gut is telling me, it's time to fulfill a long ago sidelined dream of piloting a Battlemech.
And so I've begun a journey, which maybe in a month's time when work is busy, will fizzle out and I'll look back fondly on the fantasies I had. But if I acheive a fraction of what I'm building in my mind, something very cool is going to inhabit a tiny, nigh-useless cramped little alcove under my stairs.
[img]https://imgur.com/a/g04wS3Q[/img]
Goal: Build an immersive, fun Battlemech cockpit, skewing towards BattleTech lore and fiction for design sourcing.
Blue Sky Goals:
- Incorporate a "Neurohelmet" with a jaw-actuated push-to-talk button, head tracker, stereoscopic 3d active or passive glasses, and a water tube.
- Have a "Command Couch", that slides out for entry into a cramped cockpit with a 5-point harness.
- Have a clock/calendar display, that by setting to certain dates configures the controls and activates one of the Mechwarrior games. Each game takes place within a certain year in the Battletech lore, so if you set the calendar to 3015 the profiles for Mechwarrior 5 would be loaded and launched. If you set it to 3048 the profiles for Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries would be loaded and launched.
- Have voice-recognition start-up sequence that requires a spoken passphrase.
- Incorporate rudimentary 2DoF motion platform and force feedback.
- Move HUD gauges and displays from main display screen to secondary screens or physical gauges
- Don't take up all my wife's storage.
Obstacles
- I... I haven't really done anything with computers and electronics beyond the pedestrian since high school, 16 years ago.
- AFAIK, no Mechwarrior game has any kind of simulator friendly API by which you can read information from the game to be used for force feedback, display gauges, etc.
- A mouse has long been the most effective way to play Mechwarrior games competitively. While I don't need to be the cream of competitive players to enjoy this, I want to feel competent while using the simulator, and I cannot stomach the idea of using a mouse in a simulated mech pit.
- I run my own business and am optimistic that I'll have a little money to budget into this delightful frivolity, but I'm time poor.
Project Philosophy
- So far, I'm having at least as much fun dreaming and building as I do playing. If this project takes a long time, that's fine. My wife asked me on the road yesterday what I'd do if I ever actually finished this project. I looked at her and told her I'd probably start building another one.
- The project is the point. There might be parts of this that are ridiculous difficult to implement for very small gains, but this isn't something that ever needs to be worked on at a profitable efficiency. Things might get silly. Workarounds might be ridiculous. This project is pure play.
Inspirations
The reason I'm going on about this project in this forum, is largely because Choowy's mechpit led me here, and I've since ogled over Hotwire's and have been sleuthing out everything Loc Nar has to say about zero order joystick controls. So this forum and those folk in particular are big influences.
This is an in-cockpit shot from the 1986 Mechwarrior RPG I love.
Here's the cover of second-edition, a bit more advanced looking cockpit, note the dual joysticks instead of a throttle.
Future according to the 80s The bulk of Battletech lore is written about years between 3015 and 3250. But it was begun in the 80s and retains a delightful nostalgiac sense of the future: like there are giant walking war robots, but there isn't really an internet. Very important members of planetary governments have pagers. I'd love to include 80's retro-futurism cues in the design. There's an article on some wilde 80s dashboards here: Retrofuture dashboards
Early Goals
- Get the monitor into the pit. I've been carting back and forth a 27" flat panel monitor to a bracket I built on the stairs but moving it back and forth between work time and play time is already a real drag. I've got a 34" ultra wide curved monitor on the way. Just gotta be patient... argh.
- Get playable controls configured. I'm still playing the game with a mouse when I actually want to do well. Sometimes with a graphics tablet. Neither feels right. I'm exploring converting my CH Fighterstick to a zero-order controller with a 10-bit board (Arduino Leonardo) for better aiming, as well as exploring aiming with a diy headtracker I just began soldering up this morning.
- Add bass shakers. I've got a couple of 5" speakers taken out of a center channel I haven't used in years that I'm going to try turning into tactile transducers. Got lots of questions about how to route sound to them with proper amplification and filtering though. Would like them installed under pedals, throttle, stick, and a couple in my chair.
I plan to use this thread as a journal of progress, to note my failures and successes, to beg for help and to share the journey.
Cheers!
Description: Under Stair Cockpit