Mech Simulators

[choowy]

Some more

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[Gravitas]

Back in the late 90's, there used to be a place in the U district of Seattle called Wizards of the Coast Gaming Center. They had about a dozen of the white clam-looking pods. I went there a few times, including on my 18th birthday. I remember it being pretty expensive, like 10 bucks per person for a 20 minute round. Unfortunately, it closed a couple years later. Haven't heard of any other nearby centers since.

Freakazoid, you may be in luck.  Check out The Airlock in Kirkland.  http://www.the-airlock.com/
And you can find their spot on the main VWE forums here: http://www.virtualworld.com/forums/btfrstrm/index.cgi

[BlueT]

I have played those years ago.
They were not that great at all.
Expensive too.

MWLL in a homemade like the one being shown in this thread looks to be much better.

[7.[WD]Poldi]

What keeps MWLL from having the ability to read data from the client and push it to third party apps and i/o like in aircraft sims?

Time? Code Monkey has no shortage of work.

CryEngine supports LUA which could be a great deal in communicating with other apps and could be implemented relatively easy afaik

[Freakazoid]

Freakazoid, you may be in luck.  Check out The Airlock in Kirkland.  http://www.the-airlock.com/
And you can find their spot on the main VWE forums here: http://www.virtualworld.com/forums/btfrstrm/index.cgi

Thanks for pointing this out! I've gotta round up a few old buddies I used to pod with, but the prices look a lot more reasonable this time around.

[Virt]

Choowy: the attention to detail in your cockpit is just superb.

I'm especially in awe of the work on the pilot's chair.   

You have really inspired me 

[Gravitas]

I have played those years ago.
They were not that great at all.
Expensive too.

MWLL in a homemade like the one being shown in this thread looks to be much better.

Well, without knowing about where you played BlueT, I can't comment much on the prices or experience, but I'll agree, years ago when it was the Virtual World/BattleTech Centers, it could be somewhat pricey.  When we had a VWE site in Dallas, it was over an hour away from where I lived and, being to young to drive myself, meant it was a bit more like a theme park visit with my parents taking me.  I went maybe 3 times back then while they were open.  But I never forgot what it was like, no matter how many BT/MW games I had on my pc.

Things are a bit different now with the sites.  It is an updated game from version 4 to Firestorm now (though some of us miss the more sim heavy action in that) and I invite you to check out a site near you if there is one.  A 10 minute game usually sits in the $5 - $6 range and a lot of the sites have nights where you pay a flat amount to play all night.  Plus there's different events and leagues going on at any given time.  VWE still holds a national Invitational tournament each year (with our Dallas site having just hosted the most recent one last September) and regional events are coming more frequently between Dallas and Houston, with some happening in Colorado at the Denver and Colorado Springs sites.  Not sure where you're at, but check the map that Muerte posted that shows all the current pod sites if you're looking for one.

While I won't argue the graphic quality of MWLL as compared to older MW games, I will say that a game in the VWE pods is an experience like no other.  Going up with your lance mates against people, live and in person, is a lot of fun.  We try to build a community at our sites that is both welcoming and challenging.


And to Choowy, that all looks very very nice!  Fantastic work!  From what I'm seeing, you are hard wiring those controls to specific functions... so is this going to be a home pod 'stuck' with MW3?  Will you be able to map the controls to other functions in other games if you want?

[choowy]

Cheers Virt,

Once Frugalsworld is back online you can follow the construction from the beginning 2 years ago. I included a lot of info to help anybody wanting to build their own.

Its the attention to detail (and nothing to copy) that's taken the time. You find yourself continually finding something to add! Its not too difficult to have a go at building yourself a sim pit, it's just how complex you want to make it. I figured it would be more convincing if you were completely enclosed and had a fair amount of detail.

Thanks Gravitas,

yes you are right, I guess if the game allows you to choose what button does what (as MW3 does) then as long as the switch is labelled close to the other games function you could run different games. That is something another pit builder was working on.

If I had a Crysis capable PC, I may be able to run MWLL, which looks brilliant, amazing results.

I saw a Tesla pod once which is another reason I decided to build my own. Those units look brilliant.

[choowy]

Test fitted the monitor and ran through the panel operations. All working so far. No seat fitted yet though. CPU core activity is just an extension of the HDD light.
I have fitted fans to keep the space ventilated. The temp gauge is not powered up yet. Those two units go overhead above the monitor.



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[assassin76]

Very nice.  I started building mine this weekend and all is going well.  The basic frame is all welded.  Mine is more focused on function rather than bling, like yours.   Also mine is for MWLL.  7.1 sound. Water cooled PC. etc.

[[MPB]OM_Sannyasi]

i wonder when someones gonna setup a triple monitor cockpit- that would be freakishly awsome

[(TLL)Sky_walker]

or make a neurohelmet with glasses for Nvidia 3D 

[(TLL)Siilk]

 Damn, Choowy, you're good!

[choowy]

Thanks Siilk

Cheers assassin, mines not all "bling" The only non functional parts are 10 fake circuit breakers!!

Are you going to post some progress pics ? There's a worldwide drought on Mech simulators, I'd like to see what other people plan to do.

[assassin76]

Bad photo:



Its a start..


I'm liking this jokstick tech..
http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/content.php?88-Hall-Effects-Sensors-to-make-a-joystick