35 replies to this topic

[ORIGINAL SteelWolf]

More pics !!!!!

[Foust]

ORIGINAL SteelWolf, on 28 April 2014 - 04:01 PM, said:

More pics !!!!!

Ask and ye shall receive....

You know what? How about a video of it instead. I've been meaning to do that anyway.



I blather something about needing the keyboard to play. What I mean by that is that I need it to communicate with the team, not to pilot.

(and occasionally reset a vision toggle state after a unfortunate shutdown event)

Hope this will be acceptable in place of pics.

[Barantor]

Looks great man, really need to get you that beer sometime lol.

I really like that you were able to rig all the custom buttons out front.

[Foust]

Barantor, on 28 April 2014 - 05:12 PM, said:

Looks great man, really need to get you that beer sometime lol.

I really like that you were able to rig all the custom buttons out front.

Thanks, and yes. We need to make that brew happen.

[Dazzer]

very nice mate great stuff )

[Loc Nar]

TIL: Foust might be younger than I am, and has a mohawk.

Great update, nice to see it in action to see how you have things mapped. If I did a similar video, it would be a lot more boring since I have no external panels that I use. Since all MWO functions fit on my HOTAS with room to spare, I've kept it all there and the game never has gotten to the point where I felt I could commit to dedicated panels.

Your vid has me thinking more about this, but Star Citizen already had me thinking about it as well and was already looking at little LCD's for my MFD panels as well. I remain steadfast focused on primary controls though, so am not in any hurry beyond my throttle mods (adding pivot point where grip meets lever-arm to operate heave axis in 6DoF flight). Also need to build proper pedals...

Saw you're back on the sprung gimbal... at least the T16000m has pretty light forces. It was pretty predictable that the shim would eventually split if not made of seriously tough plastic like mylar sheet, and that it's cut 100% free of any micro splits that will spread as soon as it's loaded. I have mylar sheet, and would be more than happy to cut some discs for you with a boring scribe or holesaw to ensure burr-free center hole. PM me with dimensions if interested...

Also noticed you switched to a single larger monitor from your triple screen setup. What was your reasoning behind the switch? ...which reminds me, TrackIR can't get through QA soon enough!

[Foust]

I switched from the triple display setup for a few reasons.

First driving three displays on one GTX660 dropped frame rates to low 30s. Playable but not ideal. Next up is the way MWO handles those displays, it just stretches it out. That includes the HUD. Depending on the resolution of your displays that means you could have certain elements of the HUD swallowed by the screen bezels. Which is yet another reason to drop the three screen setup, the screen bezels.

The final reason and the most important reason is that I got that screen rediculouly cheap. So cheap that even I could not turn it down.

TrackIR, I am very interested in using that with the pit. I have also recently become interested in the possiblity of using Nvidias 3D vision.

On the subject of the spring, I have mixed feelings about it. It is certainly a better experience around the center with the friction disc in there, but it is less fiddly for me in every other state. Especially when I have to take a recentering action.

Have you seen this new HOTAS from saitek? The X-55 Rhino? Of course you have, I see you on that SC forum thread. Thoughts on it?

[Loc Nar]

Quote

On the subject of the spring, I have mixed feelings about it. It is certainly a better experience around the center with the friction disc in there, but it is less fiddly for me in every other state. Especially when I have to take a recentering action.

Have you seen this new HOTAS from saitek? The X-55 Rhino? Of course you have, I see you on that SC forum thread. Thoughts on it?

I've never had negative issues with re-centering. I don't often need to do it but when I do it's no biggie. Likely this is an area that having replica control goes a long way towards maintaining orientation, particularly under the gun. Generally I 'undo' it without thinking about it, using opposing leg/torso inputs and pitch doesn't get out of whack. I also just don't use armlock, even though I've had a toggle for it from day 1. That awful accel/smoothing decouples zero-order into a sloppy mess and I can limit my arm travel better using sensitivity adjustment on the fly.

The Rhino was a bit of a disappoint for me in some regards. It's a recast of the x-65 grip and some throttle components, so I was really hoping they kept their diecast metal contstruction, but alas they went plastic, and from what I hear it's rather thin and hollow feeling.

I was elected by the mods at r/starcitizen to review the HOTAS before it came out, and was supposed to get a sample unit from Saitek (that I would have been able to keep...), but my lame ass email host providers at the time had a meltdown and during the few weeks transition to new servers took, I missed my communications from them so missed that boat

I've paid lots of attention and asked some key questions of those that have gotten them, and overall it seems a reasonable investment. Much improved gimbals over the x52/pro, and they have also corrected the magnet issue from that unit as well (uses a different sensor too I believe).

I've seen people complaining about squeaking/creaking, and some having issues with the flimsy plastic locking ring at the base of the grip used for changing springs. Also common to have rattling bits of glue inside, and the ferrite magnet can slam around inside the housing as well. Also see people having issues with the throttle being recognized properly, and they also don't merge into a single output so games like Diaspora are still the realm of emulators if you want to use it.

Unfortunately their 'all new software' is just a warmed over version of SST, their previous fail, so in that regard is a total letdown. They had the chance to upset the balance of the universe, but no. TARGET and Control Manager remain the undisputed champions.

[AztecD]

oh god that is an awesome setup, keep up the good work

[Ryvucz]

Any plans to make a wrap around (3 monitor) display for more immersion?

[DustySkunk]

Ryvucz, on 12 July 2014 - 08:38 PM, said:

Any plans to make a wrap around (3 monitor) display for more immersion?

Read post 27...

[Ryvucz]

DustySkunk, on 12 July 2014 - 09:53 PM, said:

Read post 27...

Why would I do that when I can bring it up?

Besides, two months ago, people can change.

[Foust]

Ryvucz, on 12 July 2014 - 08:38 PM, said:

Any plans to make a wrap around (3 monitor) display for more immersion?

No, that ship sailed a few revisions ago. While it is a interesting idea in theory, practice has a few to many issues to look past.

As far as immersion goes, my face is somewhere around 24-30" from a 42" display. I'm immersed. I did try messing with some stereoscopic 3D. Unfortunately the red in the glasses that I got doesnt match what Nvidia needs to make it work. So while I could see the effects in the demo, the colors were weird. To further put a stop to that experiment, I couldnt seem to get MWO to enable 3D even with the config file changes.

Ill revisit that when 3D support is officially implemented.

[Ryvucz]

Foust, on 14 July 2014 - 05:02 AM, said:

No, that ship sailed a few revisions ago. While it is a interesting idea in theory, practice has a few to many issues to look past.

As far as immersion goes, my face is somewhere around 24-30" from a 42" display. I'm immersed. I did try messing with some stereoscopic 3D. Unfortunately the red in the glasses that I got doesnt match what Nvidia needs to make it work. So while I could see the effects in the demo, the colors were weird. To further put a stop to that experiment, I couldnt seem to get MWO to enable 3D even with the config file changes.

Ill revisit that when 3D support is officially implemented.

Ah, okay.

If by chance they went to Oculus Rift, would you go with that?

[Foust]

Ryvucz, on 14 July 2014 - 11:35 AM, said:

Ah, okay.

If by chance they went to Oculus Rift, would you go with that?

I don't think so. It would make operating my panels nearly impossible as one problem. Another, I think, would be motion sickness. I don't get that with MWO with my current setup but I could only play half-life 2 in 30-45 minute chunks before I would start to feel funny, and be out right sick in an hour.

Not to say that would be everyone's experience, but I know I am susceptible to it and won't be investing in one. I would absolutely try one out with MWO given the opportunity though. I really want to try TrackIR with MWO, however the open source solutions to that are locked out. Trying to get the the open source stuff to work makes my mouse emulation ...ratchet-y... I guess is how I would describe it. I may look into it again after we get the absolute positioning option added to the native joystick support.

[Foust]

I made a few updates to the pit and failed to put them here. So here we go.

First is the seat.


I lucked into a pair of these for the low low price of free. (as in beer) They are out of a Jaguar I'm told. Very comfortable and through a old xbox power supply, all the power functions work. Since Im using a xbox power supply to run the seat, I used its control wire attached to a USB connector to only power the supply when the PC is on. I was pretty happy with that.

Since I now had a fully adjustable seat I no longer need to have the entire thing move. So I set about mounting the right side to the base, and mounting the left side to a pair of drawer slides to allow me to move in and out of the pit by sliding the throttle side back.

Here is the side back.


And here is it forward.


I have a magnetic closure and a couple a alignment...thingys.... to pull the side into position when its closed.


And here Ironman stands guard. (Unrelated)