Showroom DX - Compact Simulator

Ignore the driving in the video, it is staged using the Assetto Corsa AI. The sole purpose of including my sister as a ride along user was to test the addition of heave on my compact motion simulator.

I have reinstalled the 60:1s at the front with 50mm CTC levers, as they really don't need to work that hard, with the adjustable heave spring balancing the weight, even on its lowest setting which was used for the video. I will add a tad more sway to the new heave profile as I refine it. The 25:1 handles the heave.

While it may not look like it surge is pretty good even without using the surge table, as the heave pivot allows some actual forward and back movement via its arc of travel, so you don't need a lot of pitch up and down for a good surge effect.

The projector is pretty washed out in the video, but I wanted the light to capture the sim movement. The track is Nords and heave adds so much to the experience of it.

One of the challenges with assisted heave is calculating the proper spring rate for the intended load. Often heave ends up being complicated, with a custom spring and possibly a shock like strut, hence expensive. I am guessing that is why it is not often done, other than for larger sims where there is plenty of room.

To get around that what I did @mariano68 was take the adjustable tilt mechanism for an office chair, which is already made to support a person and chair, flipped it upside down and made a custom adapter for the uni joint. I think that is an elegant, compact and cost effective way to implement heave. The angle of the adapter is critical, as it is designed to minimise the effect on the uni joint of the arc the heave mount travels through. But I have found that you can exploit the small change in fore and aft position of the uni joint for surge in the motion profile.

Keep in mind that from the onset my compact sim has been as a way to further experiment and explore presence (immersion) with the Oculus DK2 Rift, I came to motion simulation via VR, not gaming. For me my motion sim is a giant haptic device. It is something that adds immersion and compliments a lot of other tech I am playing with in conjunction with the Oculus DK2 Rift. I have learned a lot along the way in terms of compact design for VR and motion simulation and there is more to come yet before I will be happy with it.

My sim is also my office chair, which is what it started out as in the first place. With the 60:1s at the front and the 25:1 at the rear when the rig is unpowered the heave spring can support me and has some give, which is very comfortable for when I am using my compact simulator as an office chair.

I already had the mechanism but this is an example of the style I used, so it could be purchased. You would want to hunt around concerning price if there was a need to buy one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Office-Chair-Seat-Plate-Knee-Tilt-Mechanism-Control-NEW-/380342104992

This is a recent Big Boy test of my compact sim.

Even with the adjustable heave set to its softest setting it still easily managed to balance the weight and bounce Ben around using the 200W DC heave motor and 25:1 gearbox, with a 40mm CTC lever. The front motors are using 60:1 boxes and 50mm CTC levers.

The motion was dialed back to 80% in the SimTools Game Manager Profile Editor, as Ben and other willing testers where trying the Lotus Exos 125 Stage 1 at Nordschleife in VR for the first time.

I have not added cars of late as I have been busy with the heave and other projects, but will add those and take them out for a spin @Nick Moxley.

The real focus for me is not the game play but rather exploring my sims heave capacity, in this case with around twice the normal load. I was rather surprised I did not need to stiffen the adjustable heave spring for such a big bloke.