Flight Simulator 2002 With 13 Monitors And 9 PCs

Ant points to Steve Ferris' site demonstrating what Ferris has done "using Wideview software, Multi Monitors and Fs2002 Panel Interior view Bitmaps. 9 PC's & 13 monitors. Server PC is a 2.0ghz AMD and has 1 Asus 4800se G4 AGP and when Motor flying 4 PCI graphic cards for the instrument panels.. All 8 Clients have AGP cards and are AMD 800 to 1.5ghz... My Ask21 Glider with 3 Asus 4800se G4 cards on the front 6 monitors, giving great downward landing view. When you sit in front, all screens line up reasonably well ... Windows XP on the 3 front PC's and 98se on the rest."

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Uh

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you take some real flying lessons, and maybe buy a plane?

Re:Uh

[sahonen]

My father's a pilot, I've seen him go plane shopping. For a 30 year old 4-seater it usually costs a bit more than a new luxury car, so they'd have to all be HD plasma displays before they'd even approach the cost of a new plane. Oh, and before you ask... A 30 year old plane is quite flyable. Heck, we have military planes that are over 50 years old and still flying into enemy air. Pilots pay much more attention to aircraft maintenance than most drivers, 'cause when your engine goes out at 7,500 feet, it's a little bit more serious than when it goes out at 0.

Re:Uh

[The Clockwork Troll]

Why don't you take some real flying lessons, and maybe buy a plane?

Totally agree with your careful conclusion.

For the same reason, although we think Halo would be fun as fuck running on 16+ monitor screens, my friends and I have opted instead to take real sniping lessons, and buy a warthog.

Re:Uh

[homebru]

There are three ways to get aloft:

1. Rent an aircraft. To do this, you'll have to show pilot's license, current medical certificate, and your log book(s). Absent these credentials, you won't be renting and the owner may take it upon himself to call the local law enforcement about "the terrorist".
   
2. Buy an aircraft. The seller will want to see your credentials so he knows he isn't selling to either a suicide or "a terrorist". If he does, he's in trouble.
   
3. Steal an aircraft. At least for this, you don't have to show paperwork. But you will be wanting to (at least) buy gasoline and, once the theft is discovered, every airport in the country will be watching for a plane stolen by "a terrorist".
   

Without the experience gained while earning a license, and no matter how much sim time you have, your first landing will probably be spectacular enough to have someone asking to see your license. And refusal to produce your license is like refusal to take an breath-alcohol exam; automatic guilty.

Smart mouth works right up to the point of endangering the lives of others. Past that point, there are real, not simulated, consequences.

When you sit in front...

[dynoman7]

When you sit in front, all screens line up reasonably well ...

WHERE ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO SIT?!?!

Re:When you sit in front...

[KingDaveRa]

I'd like to know where the in-flight movie is. Is there a monitor behind his seat with it on?

That'll do wonders for pr0n

[kaltkalt]

seriously...wow.

Re:That'll do wonders for pr0n

[SN74S181]

One of the best things about pornography is that it takes so many slope-foreheads out of the gene pool.

Flight simulator har har

[rkz]

Flight simulator my arse, hes only saying that because of his wife!!! the real reason is his DVD porn collection!

Realism

[sk3tch]

...incredible crash realism thanks to our friend Windows 98. :)

Re:Realism

[msgmonkey]

Probably sounds like a plane too with all those Case/CPU fans :)

Re:Realism

[JDWTopGuy]

When he gets tired of this setup, that can be his next project: an ultralite plane made from computer cases and using case/CPU fans for power.

Go for realism?

[secolactico]

Nice, nice. But, isn't that seatbelt on the chair taking things a bit too far?

Re:Go for realism?

[msgmonkey]

Thats for his own safety, just incase all those monitors come crashing down on him :)

Re:Go for realism?

[BladeMelbourne]

After increasing the GAMMA Correction, I saw his speakers under the lower/center monitor. They look rather small, and their seperation is not good for locating other aircraft by listening to where the sound is coming from.

If he wants extra realism, he should have a 4 speaker system FL + FR + BL + BR with a sub-woofer to annoy the neighbours at 3AM.

For the price of all those monitors, I would rather purchase a 23" CRT, if I had the money.

Re:Go for realism?

[Unoriginal Nick]

After increasing the GAMMA Correction, I saw his speakers under the lower/center monitor. They look rather small, and their seperation is not good for locating other aircraft by listening to where the sound is coming from.

Uh, those are rudder pedals, not speakers. ;-)

Re:Go for realism?

[mog]

I fail to see how being strapped down below 13 falling monitors adds to your safety.

Re:Go for realism?

[Ralgha]

A real general aviation airplane is loud. Very loud. My headset has roughly 50dB of noise attunation, and it's still not quiet.
Obviously you're not going to be able to locate another airplane by the sound of it, you won't even hear it at all.
You don't need a good sound system to simulate flying, just a speaker that can survive producing really loud sound.

Not sure how he'd manage to snag a 747

[dynoman7]

ebay

IMAX

[sahonen]

Now all we need is flight simulator in an IMAX dome. Now THAT would rock. Though the hardware to do that many pixels would prolly be more expensive than lessons, and an IMAX theater prolly goes for more than the $50/hr a plane usually costs.

speakers

[Frostalicious]

Cool, but where are his speakers?

There's a flaw in the simulation

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

With all them PCs running under his desk, the guy must be wondering why he still hears the wind roars when his plane is parked.

So...

[Spoticus]

when the win98 machines BSOD in succession, do the wings fall off?

Mirror

[spydir31]

expecting this to get slashdotted,
here's my mirror.
contains large images, please don't kill me needlessly

Hot Dog

[Scot Seese]

..I've always wondered what it feels like to be a hotdog inside a microwave oven.. There's a guy that knows!

Ahh it burns, the pain!

[Alystair]

That room must be great for loosing a few pounds, you know, like in a sauna? My room only has 4 machines in it with 2 displays and it's a hot house....

Gah!

[drudd]

*wipes drool off of floor*

Does anyone remember battletech? It was kind of like an arcade, but just with the one game, a Mech type battle simulator, complete with cockpit, joystick, and multiple screens for views just like this. I remember playing at the Navy Pier in Chicago many years ago....

It's amazing how much multiple screens increases the realism. You look left, right, and there's still more game!

Doug

Re:Gah!

[zedmelon]

The D&B in Denver (south side) has battletech as well.

I'm not surprised to hear it's an old game; if it was a one-screen setup, it would be junk, but get in those pods, close the door, and you're right about immersion factor. With several friends it can be fun--almost worth the massive credits cost to your game card. With inter-cockpit coms, it would really be a blast.

I found the actual gameplay extremely frustrating, and the jackass attendant wouldn't show me how to get it out of beginner mode with its crappy unidirectional look/fire/run.

"Well, that's something you just don't do until you've played 20 times or so."

I didn't know I'd be shooting my own foot by telling him this had been my first game. *smacks forehead* He gave me the impression that the skill level was set in the same computer he used to put our names above our pods.

I wouldn't have played again except for advice from a veteran standing around waiting for his buddies. He gave us a few pointers and told me how to set the machine to let me walk and fire in separate directions.

There are about seven jillion controls inside the pods, and in expert mode, you have to worry about locational damage and keep track of things like coolant, oil pressure, losing this weapon or that system, conserving ammo, etc. You gotta make more cash than I do... Jeez.

Expert Man even said he'd be leaving it set on medium.

"I've only been playing 2 or 3 times a month lately, so I've been keeping it on intermediate."

Addition

[Scot Seese]

Addition: He could have purchased a low-hour used ultralight for what he paid for this setup.

Re:yikes...

[welthqa]

No. Having a computer to simulate any aircraft. as well as the awesome bragging rights is and will continue to be better than anything you can ever put up, save 14+ monitors. This man is godlike and should be treated as such. Can you even imagine how much better he is than us? millions of times better. godlike, man. GODLIKE.

Need some flat panel displays

[j0e_average]

Nine PCs and 13 monitors???? He must have one hell of an electric bill, not to mention that that room probably heat up to 103 with the a/c going full tilt.

I hope his chair rotates slowly

[sprior]

So he'll get an even tan from all those displays...

Re:yikes...

[netsharc]

Try here? :)

As a sailplane pilot...

[InsaneCreator]

...I can tell you, that all flight simulators are missing two most important instruments - a piece of string and your butt. No, seriously. You don't look at instruments at all, you just check the piece of string stuck to the outside of the canopy to see if you are not flying slightly sideways. And when you find lifting air currents, you feel you're being pushed into the seat, even before instruments register anything. Other that that, you just enjoy the view (and fly in circles a lot :) ).

Re:As a sailplane pilot...

[sakusha]

There was a story on /. a while ago about how to simulate the G forces. Some scientists were experimenting with external vestibular stimulation, they used electromagnetic transducers mounted like headphones behind your ears. It was intended for physical therapy for people with balance disorders. Eventually they should able to induce any vestibular sensation like rising/falling, being at an angle or upside down, spinning, etc. and it could be developed into an bionic replacement for damaged sense of balance.
Of course this got on /. because some geek fantasizes about hooking this up to Quake. Anyone who wants to wire their nervous system directly to a PC game is totally insane.

I wonder if using WidevieW for other games....

[antdude]

like Battlefield 1942, RTCW, etc. would be possible. :)

Removing the Gaps Between the Monitors

[barureddy]

How would one go about removing the gaps between the monitors?

The display is great, but The gaps between the monitors is not very attractive and could be destracting.

Re:Removing the Gaps Between the Monitors

[jonbrewer]

How would one go about removing the gaps between the monitors?
Use projectors instead. Or just pretend the gaps are structural pillars between the windows.

Re:Removing the Gaps Between the Monitors

[mnemonic_]

Some fresnel lenses should do the trick. The monitors with the attached lens boxes could be spaced and angled to make the edges of the lens boxes adjacent.

dB Hell.

[achilstone]

How can he stand the noise?

What with all those psu, cpu, video and case fans blowing it must sound like a jet taking ...oh wait.

Licensing ...

[BillsPetMonkey]

Windows XP on the 3 front pc's and 98se on the rest

That's a total of 13 licenses needed. Are you inviting the BSA into your home or is 13 your lucky number?

MS product activation

[dtfinch]

Notice that only 3 of the computers are running XP. I suspect that he installed it 3 times and couldn't get it activated the 4th time. This reminds me of an article interviewing some Microsoft executive regarding their product activation, which was new and contraversial at the time, where they said that they did not intend for it to prevent casual copying, because that would hurt regular customers, but rather they would only disable a product key after several hundred installs.

One of my bosses is a pilot on the side. Our current and previous offices have both been adjacent to an airport.

Re:yikes...

[seanadams.com]

Rough guess

CRTs: 10 x $250 = 2500
TFTs: 3 x $650 = 1950
Vid cards: 13 x $250 = 3250
PCs: 9 x $500 = 4500

So about $15K altogether, give or take a couple K.

Not that bad

[Stonent1]

Compared to the multi-screen Air Traffic Control systems that are commercially available. Screens
Assembled

Some of the smaller models such as what are used at the FAA Academy use 3 27" displays. Of course the resolution is different. The big screens use $15,000 projectors and custom mounting hardware. And commercially available 3D image generation systems. But you can scale it down to a p4 and a Geforce card per screen.

Re:But...

[Graff]

You can seriously crash a RL airplane once, with a lot of luck twice. And with this one you can crash over and over!

Especially since most of those computers are running Windows 98...

So? X-Plane does this natively

[dustoffx]

X-plane does this sort of thing natively using TCP/IP,
costs less, and has a more accurate flight model.

Other info at theX-plane UDP networking information site.
-----

Re:Other flight simulators

[SN74S181]

There are probably more third party commercial vendors supplying addons for Microsoft Flight Simulator than there are thrid party commercial software vendors for all of Linux.

I'd be REALLY impressed

[DasBub]

if he put some imagination into it and spent some of the Huge Wads of Cash on a few lcd projectors and fashioned some curved projection screens...

I mean, come on... It's hard to get excited about a field of vision one foot tall and 8 or 9 feet wide, plastic monitor edges chopping it up every so often.

Re:yikes...

[Quarters]

A pilot's license will run you, on average, about $5,000.00. That can vary depending on how many hours you need before you're cleared for your checkride, but $5k is a pretty decent round estimate. That leaves $10k. Most places charge (again on average), about $80 - $85 per hour for a rental Cessna 172. Even using the $85 number that equals about 118 hours of pilot-in-command time. Figure abot 40 hrs to get the license and that means $15k will get you a real life pilot's license and about 160 hours of flight time. That's a far better value, with some tangible returns for the money invested, than a bunch of PCs that will be obsolete in 3 years and just simulated stick time.

Re:yikes...

[The Clockwork Troll]

actually that was a 737 we took, and we promise we are bringing it back soon.

we are just getting it washed for you, yes that is it, that is the tikrit.

Re:Windows Licenses

[BlueRibbon]

Why wouldn't he?
After all, he does have the money to afford all that hardware!

Re:yikes...

[AKnightCowboy]

Figure abot 40 hrs to get the license and that means $15k will get you a real life pilot's license and about 160 hours of flight time. That's a far better value, with some tangible returns for the money invested, than a bunch of PCs that will be obsolete in 3 years and just simulated stick time.

Well, you kind of forgot the part about not dying when you crash your flight simulator airplane. ;-)

40 hours is the FAA MINIMUM

[Beatlebum]

The average length of time taken to get a PPSEL (Private Pilot Single Engine Land) is around 70 hours. I got mine in 72. The FAA requires at least 40 hours of training. Most beginner pilots focus on the number 40, but soon realise that 40 is a pipe dream. If you're lucky you will solo in about 15 hours. At 40 hours you will have good allround experience and will be ready to plan the require 2 short and 1 long cross-country flights. If you're really good you will be ready for the check-ride at 60.

*IF* you read the site, the cost is WAY less

[noahbagels]

I actually read this site just yesterday - He's using far cheaper gear.

10 CRTs (currently my company is selling off surplus for $50 a piece) = $500

TFTs - currently, 17" CRTs are about $400 = $1200 He said that they are mostly cheap-o video cards such as the nVidia GF4MX = $40 each ==> $520

PCs - most are of the 800mhz variety - can be had for $200/piece at an auction. --> $1800

Price Total: $4020.

Now, I don't know where this guy lives, but my Private Pilot Certificate PP-ASEL cost me approx $8000 in the SF-Bay Area.


I love flying - read: LOVE flying - nothing comes close.
However, let this guy have his kicks... if he got deals on the gear, it's only 33% more expensive than your high performance gaming PC setup listed on arstechnica and other hobbyist sites.

At least it's better and far cooler than having neon fans and powered liquid coolant systems overclocking by 10% to get 500,000 fps in quake.

Re:*IF* you read the site, the cost is WAY less

[noahbagels]

hey Anonymous Coward, but you *are* a TROLL.

1. Most auction computers come with the operating system.

2. Do you really think someone went out and *purchased* 6 new licenses to Win98?

3. Ok Ok - I guess I just took the TROLL BAIT. Crawl back in your hole.

Re:But does it run on Wine?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hah, lets see Linux do that..............

Re:yikes...

[homebru]

The ASK-21 (1) sailplane shown in the sim photos is a fiberglass younger brother of the Schleicher Ka-7 (2) (proven steel tube & fabric technology).

Although prices fluctuate during the summer soaring season, there was a Ka-7 for sale this spring (in England) with an asking price of GBP2500. Less than a third the cost of simulation.
Both birds can be found in the USA. Price and availability vary according to present owner's situation.

Notes:

1. Schleicher ASK-21

2. Schleicher Ka-7

Re:Yeah but...

[24-bit Voxel]

Betcha didn't know the your fancy 3D card and just about all modern computer graphics in general are a direct result of an Navy (ARPA) project with the University of Utah to create... you guessed it, a simulation machine that gives pilots a virtual view so that they have some training before flying. So they could get used to it before they actually flew a real airplane.

Some basic background: Here

Ever heard of a phong shader? I belive Phong himself was involved in this project at one point. PDF on Phong at Utah

Vox

Re:Seriously

[timeOday]

Naw, he just fires his lawnmower up in the living room.

All the large and small planes I've heard didn't have very interesting noises. More like annoying in fact.

Re:So how much...

[mnemonic_]

Al Qaeda probably doesn't even need a simulator. Flying is easier than most people think-- people with no flying experience have landed aircraft under the coaching of another. Flying into a building does not require as much precision.

Re:TERRORIST!

[shadowbearer]

Terrorist training at camp of your choice: Free if you're a fanatic

Pilot training: ~$5000

Simulator cost (monitors, PCs, etc) ~$15000

Getting to fly planes into buildings over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over

PRICELESS

*ducks*

SB

Re:But does it run on Wine?

[arose]

You mean Flightgear?

For what that Setup Costs

[GnarlyNome]

You could take flying lessons (it's easer than the Linux Command line

Re:Holy Moly

[the_PRODUCE_mgr]

So realistic that when you crash you die in real life. Where do I sign up?

May want move all those boxes away from yer nads

[vuud]

I cannot imagine the fields that are pulsing through this guys body. We should start a pool on tumors... Where he gets one first...