Forum Discussion
Full-Body Force-Feedback Simulator
Hi everyone, I would like to introduce our project as we are getting ready to publish more information about it and thought the best place to share it before we go live would be here and hopeful...
Another thought after looking, a Hydra probably isn't the best approach when considering where arms will go. Adding guards to prevent crushed limbs will probably result in banging your hands against them and breaking any sort of immersion. Static inputs such as yoke, wheel, joysticks etc may do better as inputs in this case.
Accuracy with a Hydra is also another concern when players are being moved around without a frame of reference. Momentum is going to throw your arms around as well, interfering with any sort of input accuracy if your arms are away from your body using the Hydra to its full advantage.
One thing you might want to consider is a plug and play input system for one of these. Rather than building a single input scheme into the frame, build in an input socket. Games will be limited by what inputs are available if you just have one scheme. Trying to build a chair with all possibilities becomes a mess, believe me. On the flip side, if the player can grab the input scheme off a rack as they wait for their turn, then plug it in as they climb in for their chosen game, that could work well to leaving the options completely open for game development for this.
Want to play a flight sim? Grab a yoke and throttle, or do you prefer a joystick? Racing, slap in a logitech wheel. How about a helicopter game? You can expand that further into really specialized novelty controls for say a kayak simulator.
Looking at your concept, a cross bar that snaps in rather than hinges and brings along whatever input your game of choice needs certainly looks like it would be possible.
Accuracy with a Hydra is also another concern when players are being moved around without a frame of reference. Momentum is going to throw your arms around as well, interfering with any sort of input accuracy if your arms are away from your body using the Hydra to its full advantage.
One thing you might want to consider is a plug and play input system for one of these. Rather than building a single input scheme into the frame, build in an input socket. Games will be limited by what inputs are available if you just have one scheme. Trying to build a chair with all possibilities becomes a mess, believe me. On the flip side, if the player can grab the input scheme off a rack as they wait for their turn, then plug it in as they climb in for their chosen game, that could work well to leaving the options completely open for game development for this.
Want to play a flight sim? Grab a yoke and throttle, or do you prefer a joystick? Racing, slap in a logitech wheel. How about a helicopter game? You can expand that further into really specialized novelty controls for say a kayak simulator.
Looking at your concept, a cross bar that snaps in rather than hinges and brings along whatever input your game of choice needs certainly looks like it would be possible.