| Author |
Message |
    
M.H.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 05, 2001 - 5:17 pm: |     |
I have tested a good solution how not to hang
yourself on VFX3D cable when you are to much in the game: \image {My VR laboratrory}. It is realy comfortable and in controversion to the design it realy avoid hanging youself on the cables  .
I am just building some more heavy device than the Cyberpuck for shooting - to get the feeling that i have SOMETHIG in the hands when fighting the monsters . |
M.H.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 05, 2001 - 5:18 pm: | |
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Anonymous
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2001 - 3:15 pm: | |
MH how about connecting a cheap walking exercise machine to your setup-- the kind with rails and rollers on the bottom with a large "belt" that you walk over. You could use a belt or torso harness attached to your back with a rope to keep you in place as you hold on to a "weapon" and walk forward on the machine. (Side supports to the rail might be needed to keep you from falling over.)
I suppose it would be fairly easy to setup a hardware system that used your forward walking movement on the machine You could probably even work up a system that can detect a jump by the player... that is a real jump by the player on the walker....maybe an overhead harness with a large spring would be needed for this....maybe some climbing gear could be used...Very immersive. Good for an experiment at any rate. If you put something like that together, please share it with us, eh. |
Myalias
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2001 - 3:50 pm: | |
I like it, Michal! Funny that you mention "hanging," because it kind of looks like *gallows*... :-)
Is that wood you used, or PVC pipe or something? Gee, I'd build one of those, but my wife would probably throw a fit.
I don't care for the Cyberpuck either, for the same reason -- because it's too light weight and too "generic" of a shape. With the HMD on and while turning my body around, it's difficult to keep the puck oriented in its "vertical" state. Maybe if it had something slightly weighty extending on the bottom, so that gravity could help me keep it oriented? I don't know. Another thing I always wished the puck sensed was yaw motion. It does pitch and roll, but when new people try my system, the first thing they want to do is twist the puck in in a yaw direction -- like how your body turns while you're in the game. Making it like a joystick, where what's actually a hand roll motion translates to a yaw motion of your "virtual body" in the game, doesn't seem intuitive to me. It'd be nice if someone could make a baseless hand controller that's 3 DOF. You listening IIS? Make a new Puck with your new tracker! I'd buy one.
Then you could turn with yaw, move fore and aft with pitch, and roll could be either strafe, or something like "lean" (like what System Shock 2 offered, where you could lean/shoot around a corner)!
Anyway, M.H., thanks for the pic of your Lab (I want one!) |
Myalias
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2001 - 4:05 pm: | |
P.S. -- I know I'll get flak for this, so I better say it. Having the controller sense yaw AND the HMD sense yaw, someone will undoubtedly wonder how to keep the two straight. That is, if your body is turning, hence turning the HMD, you'll also be turning the controller in your hand as well. The key will be to correlate the HMD tracker reading with that of the Puck, then let the difference between the two be your Puck reading. At that point, you could either let the Puck yaw motions translate directly to changes in view yaw, or you could do the thing where twisting the Puck to increasing angles (from straight ahead) rotates your view left/right at increasing rates (all of which could be user-selectable).
P.P.S. -- I've posted here before, but my new alias will be this -- "Myalias" -- i.e., I'd like to be more or less anonymous, but distinguishable from the other 'anomymous'es!!! |
Rob
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2001 - 7:31 pm: | |
I've been using the microsoft sidewinder duel strike controller with mine.just tape the ball joint with black tape and you have 16 butons to use(8 plus a function switch to map 8 more)it has worked out great and its usb. |
M.H.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2001 - 8:05 pm: | |
Sory for my English, I have probably manipulated with the word hang in a wrong way ...
The walking machine is a good idea. Unfortunately
it shuld be rotated in synchronization with the
headtracker. You usualy rotate your whole body
when you change the direction and it will make
the fixed walking excersize machine non-usable ...
Inertial moment of such device will be the problem
for this device constuction ...
I am more thinking about some way of aditonal
2D (XY) user position tracking (just to get
forward motion and backward motion information)... Any idea ? Maybe some optical
system (circle on the ground made from photosensitive elements ?) ?
According something HAEVY in the hands -
I am realy thinking about combination a model of
some real weapon with joystick + placing the
buttons for shooting and weapon function change
on the real places . Disasambling some standard joystick and using its electronic for such thing will be easy ... Shooting force feedback could be adied ...
Weapon with 3DOF tracking will be something excelent. It will be possible to watch in different direction than you are shooting +
probably more precise shooting .
I have tested such arangment during CAVE Quake 2
playing ... It is realy something excelent ..
To make such HW will be not so horrible - the price of the 3DOF tracking HW is about 300 $.
Much more dificul problem exist - games are not prepared for this sort of shoting navigation. It will be nessesery to modify the engine, wrapers will not help ... It will be posible only for
engines with accesible source codes ... |
Anonymous
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 07, 2001 - 2:13 am: | |
MH be sure to unload the "real" weopon b4 you play. ;) |
iztok bajec
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 07, 2001 - 8:13 am: | |
We have done something in this direction too a few years back though (using the VFX1). We called it ELEPHANT. It comes form the fact that this is a self substained walking machine used for tracking, and also for the VR user's support (you know the lack of support usually exhibits in disorientation, nausea etc.) 
 |
M.H.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 07, 2001 - 11:21 am: | |
Not to unload the real weapon befor I play coud give force feedback with great realizm . Maybe much more feedback than expected ...
Maybe to usie some toy-weapon with real pyrotechnic inside could add even smellt of the gun powder to the game ... |
Anonymous
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 07, 2001 - 9:09 pm: | |
In regards to the "Elephant" project. I'm not sure what the genital attachment is for? |
iztok bajec
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 08, 2001 - 11:27 am: | |
The genital atachment;) is for stability. The main idea is that inside the construction there is a whole PC with the wireless lan connection realvideo output and the cabel for the HMD. The elephant is infact a bigger version of the allaround know rodent (mouse), which is used for navigation in the virtual environment. |
Steve@IIS
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 14, 2001 - 7:30 pm: | |
Hi Guys,
We actually have a custom headset configuration that has the comm cable coming out the top of the VFX3D, instead of the bottom. We put a heavy duty aircraft cable through the comm cable for strength. It does not allow you to disconnect the VFX3D from the comm cable, but it is great for not tripping over the cable, or "Hanging" yourself, eh Michal? Thanks,
Steve@IIS |