I Made 2 Videos showing Motion Simulation + Rift in iRacing

[rowanunderwood]

When I saw iRacing had added Rift support I jumped for JOY . This means I can finally try out motion simulation AND VR at the same time! The tentative verdict is WOW , I got fairly ill playing, but had a ton of fun doing it! No really . . . this is AMAZING.

You'll notice a lot of bouncing around that the rift picks up from the motion simulator. I lot of folks were worried about this, but I can attest to the fact that it feels perfectly normal. In a real car, you get bounced around, and your head and view naturally moves. However, the lack of positional tracking really starts to hurt the rift when turning. Any kind of major head movement to the side (such as going into or coming our of a turn) makes you feel that "wrongness" all rifters know so well. Even those tiny movements the G-forces produce in your neck while turning are enough to produce nausea. I feel like this will be mitigated when positional tracking is implemented and the lateral head movements are modeled in game.

In the GUI department, you'll see iRacing's GUI bopping up and down like crazy on the videos. The GUI is activated by looking up or down, which is actually really intuitive and works really well, until you start getting bounced around by the simulator. In practice its much less intrusive that it seems in the video, because you can't actually see most of the Rifts vertical FOV when you are in it. Also, the rear view up at the top of the FOV is a nice touch

Graphically, iRacing is extremely dated; however this actually makes it a great fit for the Rifts low resolution, not to mention the insane FPS means no lag on your rift. I was even able to capture in FRAPS at 60fps without adding any lag whatsoever. Nice. Also the controller latency feels really good. When I turn my Fantec wheel, my mind has no trouble mapping that motion to the virtual character's wheel turning. Same goes for the motion tracking, feels nice and responsive.

The cockpit interiors look very nice too, I especially like the lighting pouring in through all the geometry of the vehicle. I could almost feel the sun on my face

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OUbtdOz ... e=youtu.be[/youtube-hd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf65VGDs8OA

And the making of timelapse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHGiVTEf_xs

[mr.uu]

Having a D-Box GP200 and a rift DK i can confirm your positive experience with iRacing.
Unfortunately the low resolution of the DK makes it difficult to race at full pace for a longer period.

Personally i would loke to add one thing:
When using the rift i had to slide all the movements of my chair down to half. It is as if you need less effects if you think you are in the car. If using my projection setup i had it all almost maxed out to feel immersed and "real".

I like to demo it to my friends. Everyone -so far - was blown away by the immersion...

[rowanunderwood]

Having a D-Box GP200 and a rift DK i can confirm your positive experience with iRacing.
Unfortunately the low resolution of the DK makes it difficult to race at full pace for a longer period.

Personally i would loke to add one thing:
When using the rift i had to slide all the movements of my chair down to half. It is as if you need less effects if you think you are in the car. If using my projection setup i had it all almost maxed out to feel immersed and "real".

I like to demo it to my friends. Everyone -so far - was blown away by the immersion...

Yea the low resolution is pretty rough because you tend to focus on the road, limiting the amount of pixels your concentrating on. Most of the valuable pixel count is taken up by cockpit, which you can only glance at while driving. Not to say that this is a bad thing, we just need to patiently wait for our HD + positional Rifts for the full effect.

How is the D-box btw, can it Rotate in any direction? How does it handle acceleration vs orientation? I really love my SimXperience as it really nails orientation and acceleration separately, where it starts to fall apart is when it needs to do 2 things at once (such as you are tipped left due to the track orientation, then need to tip right to simulate a G-force). The accelation kicks for shifting were especially immersive in the rift cause they knock your head forward and back very realistically. I didn't tone down any of my effects though. They seem toned down to me anyway in Iracing because I'm used to Dirt 2 which slams you all over the place I also have some incredible SimVibe subs attached to my chasis and a buttkicker to my pedals. While in the rift that extra pedal vibration really sells it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQZhR3Xlp0E

[mr.uu]

How is the D-box btw, can it Rotate in any direction? How does it handle acceleration vs orientation? I really love my SimXperience as it really nails orientation and acceleration separately, where it starts to fall apart is when it needs to do 2 things at once (such as you are tipped left due to the track orientation, then need to tip right to simulate a G-force). The accelation kicks for shifting were especially immersive in the rift cause they knock your head forward and back very realistically.

The D-Box GP200 is a 3DOF system and can therefore not rotate in any direction compared to a 6DOF system. Because i never tried other systems it is difficult for me to compare- BUT i am happy with it.
WELL, i just ordered a GEKO- seat, which can simulate g-forces by pulling on belts on your upper body. Therefore you can simulate infinite long g-forces compared to the short spikes of g-force simulation of the D-Box. I will mount my D-Box actuators on the Geko Seat to benefit from both technical systems...

Will receive my Geko on Tuesday and hopefully find time next week for testing.

[rowanunderwood]

snip

The D-Box GP200 is a 3DOF system and can therefore not rotate in any direction compared to a 6DOF system. Because i never tried other systems it is difficult for me to compare- BUT i am happy with it.
WELL, i just ordered a GEKO- seat, which can simulate g-forces by pulling on belts on your upper body. Therefore you can simulate infinite long g-forces compared to the short spikes of g-force simulation of the D-Box. I will mount my D-Box actuators on the Geko Seat to benefit from both technical systems...

Will receive my Geko on Tuesday and hopefully find time next week for testing.

I'm jealous of 3dofs, I've only got 2 . You can get sustained (simulated) Gs with 2DOF though, since the steering is stationary, when the chair is pressing you into the steering, you feel very much like your sustaining deceleration. Does D-box use the 3rd axis when you go off jumps to give you that feeling in your belly? That would rule. I remember riding in a 6DOF VR ride when I was 12 years old that had some epic jumps in it.

[mr.uu]

...Does D-box use the 3rd axis when you go off jumps to give you that feeling in your belly? That would rule. I remember riding in a 6DOF VR ride when I was 12 years old that had some epic jumps in it.

YEP

[mickman]

try dropping a "3M" security screen onto the Rift's LCD. I use one & it has enhanced the rez by approx. 40-50%

make sure you read the thread on 3M screens... it discusses the best setup etc...

[rowanunderwood]

try dropping a "3M" security screen onto the Rift's LCD. I use one & it has enhanced the rez by approx. 40-50%

make sure you read the thread on 3M screens... it discusses the best setup etc...

Yea, I noticed that thread a while back. Might give that a try now that I got my second Rift. Procedure looked a little fiddly to me though