Slashdot Mirror

Just far, far underground...

Check out my URL - I am one of the "underground" sites (though I haven't had much time to do anything lately) - there are others out there.

Cybermind are the rebadged form of W Industries - and seem to still be a big player in the commercial entertainment uses of VR (mostly in Europe and some parts of the US).

Other areas VR is being used in is commercial and academic research - mostly CAVE-style setups. NASA helped start up (via a grant) Flogiston, which sells the "flostation", with an interest in using it to train astronauts. The DOD has their "Dismounted Soldier" training project (a good site is Rudy Darken's site, but it appears to be having problems).

One thing I desperately want to do is republish, in CD form, the entire PCVR magazine archive (of what I have - which is all of the back issues, and a bit of the software that came on floppy). I have tried to contact the original publisher through numerous leads, but no luck (his name is Joeseph Gradecki - if anyone knows of his whereabouts, please contact me). I tend to wonder what the response would be if I did something like this. I figure it would at the minimum help the homebrew VR community (what little is left of it).

...this, then think how you can do it dirt cheap:

1. Get a large bounce ball, to use as a mold for the hemispherical screen - stretch white musilin or similar white gauzy material over it, then starch the shit out of it to stiffen it up. You might even try a light white spray paint or similar. Or, put plaster of paris over the whole thing, smooth it out with sandpaper, then get a piece of acrylic soft in the oven, and "drape" it over the mold. Let it cool, cut, shape, then have it lightly sandblasted to "frost" it.

2. Use one of those lightweight folding lounge camping chairs for your "neutral posture" system. You can pick these up for $20.00 at Walmart.

3. Mount Aura Bass Shakers to the chair - you could even strip some out of el-cheapo interactive Aura vests from Ebay. Just remember, you will need an amp for these things - if you use the vests, they already have a matched amp, so use it. But if you buy the shakers seperately, get a cheap 50 watt Pyramid car amp to drive the things.

4. Get a cheap projector and hook it up to project onto the hood, mounted to the chair. I have a Fujix P401, that I got cheap ($250), you can find them sometime on Ebay - you might have to build your own projector from an LCD TV and slide projector system to keep the cost below $500. You will also need a VGA->TV converter (or TV output on the video card) to hook up to the projector, unless you get lucky and your projecter has VGA or RGB inputs.

5. Hook up the bass shakers to amp and PC, hook the projector to the PC, split the sound output to some headphones, sit down, and fire up Fisheye Quake!

It can be done cheap - in fact, the Flostation site used to have pictures of the original prototype system - the projector was propped up on a board placed between two ladders! So, it can be done cheap, cheap, cheap!!!

If you wanted a system on which you could "stand" in front of, or sit down in front of, try building a curved frame from wood/plywood (look up info on solar cooking to find out how to easily make parbolic mirrors, so you can get the parabola shape), and stretch a white shower curtain across it for the front/back projection screen, or, if you are doing front projection only, use a white pull-down shade for the material...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

"some people have mentioned using PanQuake to render onto hemispherical screen"

Actually, I wrote this guy when he released "Fisheye Quake", in asking whether it would work for such a system, like the Flostation - man, I want one of those baaad...

Actually, last night I got back my "el cheapo" Fujix P401 from Fuji (had to send it in to get it repaired) - anyhow, it works great (for the POS it is - but it was cheap enough, a video projector the size of a VHS tape, for $250!!!), and I have a VGA->TV converter, all I need now is to build the hemispherical hood, place it over me on one of those camp lounge chairs - cooool...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

As noted before, this is an old idea - but one that is interesting, and of course, still in development.

Another individual noted that the military was developing an omnidirectional treadmill - this is true. It is part of the dismounted soldier project. Here is a link. Look around his site, under research and publications - you'll find it as a PDF file.

Basically, the treadmill can be thought of as two perpendicularly overlapping treadmills, the belts of which are composed of longitudinal "rows" of rollers along the length of each belt. Thus, when the user is walking in the center of the overlap, the motion vector is translated into X and Y motion, one axis for each belt (it is tough to explain, but once you see the thing, you will smack your head). It works real similarly to a holonomic drive robot, except in reverse. Also, various "terrain" can be simulated by tilting the platform, as well as controlling the belts with active braking/acceleration.

There is also a Japanese "toroidal" omni treadmill, but it is VERY hard to understand (I may have a link to it on my site).

Personally, I don't think any of these devices will see much entertainment or personal use in the future, just because of the scale of the devices, the complexity, and the cost of materials that go into them.

I personally advocate HMD's with tracking devices, because it allows for the most interaction with the virtual environment (ie, you can explore and look around the world easily, and manipulate and examine objects as well).

With that said, though, I think that this guy is onto something, and may make inbounds to the commercial and personal arenas before anyone...

I support the EFF - do you?

Ok, maybe the mouse thing is cheap enough - but I can guarantee you that the VisionStation is anything but.

For one thing, the projector alone is going to set you back at least $2000 - probably more. The dome will probably run double or triple that. One thing that struck me as funny - aside from the desk, how is this thing different from the Flostation? The only differences I can see are front vs. rear projection, plus the VisionStation allows multiple people to share the same view (or nearly the same - seems like unless you looked at the exact center of the screen, things would be distorted). Actually, the FloStation allows users to share the experience, just in seperate stations, networked together. Plus, the chair is a "zero-G" chair, which allows for a comfortable position during use.

However, neither of these technologies is cheap.

And true, neither is true immersion (though the Flostation comes much closer).

True immersion is when I can look anywhere around me - turn my head, duck, look between my legs, peer around the edge of a building, etc. I have only experienced this kind of immersion once - using the Virtuality 1000/2000 machines. Almost everything in them were OTS, and while the HMD's could have been better, they weren't bad. I am sure today's offerings (what little there is) are even better, but still not cheap.

No one but a rich geek will be able to afford these for personal use. So what can all of the normal geeks do?

Simple.

Break out the soldering iron, and build your immersive experience!

I am not saying you will get the best of the best - it is homebrew, after all. But with today's PC's, and cheap prices on LCD TV's, anyone can build thier own HMD, for less than $500. In fact, it is easy to buy an old VFX-1 or, if you are really cheap (like me), and old Stuntmaster, off of Ebay. VFX-1's go for about $200-$400, and Stuntmasters can be found for less than $50 in most cases!

Head tracking can be built easily, and using a Forte Cyber-Puck for navigation, exploration can be painless (use the cyberpuck for nav in one hand, and use one of those handheld, trackball mice in the other for manipulation). Cobble some software together using AVRIL or REND-386, maybe throw in Mesa for good measure, or some other rendering library. Output the image through a VGA to TV converter, and into the HMD. Track the HMD via pots connected to ADC's on an ISA interface board (or use PICs and serial ports). Break out back issues of PCVR magazine, and use them!

Heck, it is even possible to cheaply do one of these dome things, with imagination! Fuji used to make a cheap projector called the Fujix P-401 - it was about the size of a video tape, and ran on a 6V source. Not great res, but good enough. I recently found one for $250!!! Build a dome screen (definitely not the easiest task, I imagine), run a version of FishEye Quake, and you're there!

What has heppened? Why isn't there any interest in homebrew VR (on a related issue, why did they change the terminology from VR to VE)? Why, especially when we have all of this great technology to produce greater realism than ever before? To explore worlds of our own creation, data in new ways for new insights...

Or are we simply content to sit on our collective asses, and watch the world go by?


I support the EFF - do you?

Regarding fisheye Quake, do any of you out there think we could build our own homebrew flostations using this code...?

If you got the money, then go here:

Flogiston

or, if you don't, go here:

Omniscience Futureneering Flight Sim Chair

Either way, these are much better devices...