rec.autos.simulators

In my never-ending quest to find cool driving simulator related stuff
on the net, I ran across a site today that is the homepage of
Immersion Corporation-the originators, it seems, of the force-feedback
protocol that we will soon be seeing in driving simulators, wheels,
(and the new CH joystick already). I downloaded the developer kit
(just to check out the documentation) and was AMAZED at what we'll
soon be able to do with this stuff! It would most definitely be worth
your while to go there and at least check out the list of titles that
support this now (Need for Speed SE being one), and to start bugging
the big boys (read Papyrus & MP) to incorporate force-feedback ASAP!
Immersion Corp.'s address is:
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
If anyone has any info on how to design a controller that will allow
force-feedback, please e-mail me, as I am extremely interested in
building my own interpretation of a driving wheel to include it-I just
need to know how it's done...

Wally
Wally's World of Driving Simulators
http://www.racesimcentral.net/~wottenad/wheel.htm

ps: check out my motion base chair for use with driving sims at:
http://www.racesimcentral.net/~wottenad/chair.htm and you'll see why I want to
take advantage of the new technology!

What is "force feedback" anyway???????

I saw the price of the controllers.... from $5,000 (joystick) to $15,000..

Have fun.... I'm not ready to start bugging anyone to write force-feedback games if the
controllers cost as much as an automobile.    At some point, the pricy insanity that we
call *** will have to give way to common sense.   :-)

Mike   -and I thought I paid a lot for that steering wheel

CH has a prototype force-feedback flightstick which should retail for under
$150, and I believe Thrustmaster was targeting that same price range for
it's upcoming wheel.

--

Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://www.racesimcentral.net/~ebusch/

force-feedback games if the

Basically it's the use of a servo equipped controller that responds to the
game you are playing.  For example when playing Quake, (ignoring the fact
that few people play Quake with a joystick) your stick would twitch to
simulate the recoil of your weapons firing.  In a flight sim, the stick
would provide realistic resistance when trying to pull out of a dive.  The
technology has huge potential for driving sims as well.  Force feedback can
be used to "push back" on the steering wheel, in response to the stresses
affecting the car in the game--from pulling g's in tight turns to bumping
against other cars.  Read about Thrustmaster's plans at:
http://www.thrustmaster.com/press_releases/forcefd.htm

--

Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

I think you need to recheck your prices, Popular Mechanics November issue shows
the Thrustmaster force-feedback at about $200.

Oh heck... these things, even at $15K, don't cost what it takes to get into
a real *racing* automobile :-)  :-)  :-)

More seriously, they'll come down, and sharply, once the technology
matures some.    the controllers themselves are not excessively complex
(the sim software might be another story, though).

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Brian Wong                              Enterprise Engineering