Simulator + Motion?

Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out of MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device? It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if you could
get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

tom

You can read your joystick axis easily, try: www.stickworks.com


wrote in message ...
Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out of
MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device?
It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if you
could
get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

tom

No; I don't want the joystick position, you are right that, that is easy to
get. It is the horizon as calculated by the simulator program that I want the
coordinates of. In other words, the pitch and the roll of the airplane. You
know of course that they don't exactly follow the joystick commands, depending
on how close you are to stalling, etc.
tom

In article , "Dashi"
wrote:
You can read your joystick axis easily, try: www.stickworks.com


wrote in message ...
Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out of
MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device?
It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if you
could
get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

tom

wrote in message ...
No; I don't want the joystick position, you are right that, that is easy
to
get. It is the horizon as calculated by the simulator program that I want
the
coordinates of. In other words, the pitch and the roll of the airplane.
You
know of course that they don't exactly follow the joystick commands,
depending
on how close you are to stalling, etc.
tom

No **** Dick Tracy, do you know what rudders are?

Dashi


In article , "Dashi"
wrote:
You can read your joystick axis easily, try: www.stickworks.com


wrote in message
...
Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out
of
MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device?
It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if
you
could
get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

tom

schrieb:

Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out of MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device? It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if you could
get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

tom


I haven't heard of such a thing, but a starting point might be Netpipes.
See http://www.scenery.org/tutorials_fs2k2_SDK.htm
The SDK can be downloaded at
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...tpipes_SDK.exe

Sounds like an interesting challenge. A real motion device would be able
to simulate the sensation of acceleration, not just changes in pitch and
bank, but as the Netpipe interface gives you velocity information in 3
axes, you could derive the rate of change of velocity and feed that in.

Good Luck

Tom

wrote in message ...
Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out of MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device? It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if you
could get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

Position data is no good. Apparently using pitch and roll directly
will only make you feel sick. Instead, you need to give motion cues,
like tilting back for acceleration, etc. Read the section on Motion
Platforms at

http://www.epmm.com.au/sim/reference.htm

As for the data, I believe FSUIPC gives the acceleration in all three
axis.

Obviously you'll need to make the whole cockpit closed in and on your
motion device to keep the realism.

I've read comments from some motion sim experts who said that it was
just as cheap, and almost as good, to simply have a good sound system
and total enclosure... your eyes and ears will fool your brain into
everything else.

Kevin

No; I don't want the joystick position, you are right that, that is
easy
to
get. It is the horizon as calculated by the simulator program that I
want
the
coordinates of. In other words, the pitch and the roll of the airplane.
You
know of course that they don't exactly follow the joystick commands,
depending
on how close you are to stalling, etc.
tom

No **** Dick Tracy, do you know what rudders are?



Mr. "Dashi", are you a troll or an ass? Control inputs would not be enough
to simulate motion. I'd suggest that you try it in an actual aircraft, but
you'd waste a perfectly good airplane whilst killing yourself.

And what part of the orginal poster's reply deserved your cutting response?
I garauntee that every reasonable person who read what you wrote thinks
you're a moron right now.

By the way, your original reponse suggesting using control inputs to trigger
the motion, while flawed, would not have merited the kind of response I'm
giving now. Sure, you were wrong, but until the second post, you were civil.

But now your true colors are revealed.

wrote:
Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out of MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device? It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if you could
get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

tom

Not sure about extracting pitch and roll data from MS flightsims but
using the roll data directly would be ineffective for say balanced turns
where you would be keeled over at say 30 deg in the sim pod but should
be feeling only slightly increased g's straight into the seat.

Most real sims only simulate the accelerations due to pitch,yaw and roll
rate as an acutator impulse which only lasts a short time and then
returns you to a calculated attitude so that you expreience the correct
relative gravity vector. If the sim returns at less than one degree per
second then your inner ear will not detect the motion and will tell you
that you are still in the position indicated by visual references on the
screen and the "seat of the pants" feeling.

This last point is the cause of most fatalities due to accidentally
flying into cloud by a non IR qualified pilot. The pilot doesn't detect
the slow roll rate and when he finally notices the abnormal attitude,
increasing bank angle, speed, g force and stick back pressure to
maintain altitude, he will simply not trust his instruments. This is the
dreaded slow spiral and is probably what killed JFK Jnr.

Modelling this motion accurately would be harder than first imagined.

Hi Tom,

You have a good question that didn't deserve the response you got. You are
absolutely correct that the controls have only some relationship to the
motion of the aircraft, so a motion system based purely on control input
would be a poor implementation and make the user pretty sick as well.

Here are a couple of links to have a look at. Although they don't tell you
specifically how to do implement motion control, you may be able to get some
ideas off the sites.

http://www.flightsimulator.ch/Produc.../motion_contro
l.htm

http://users.senet.com.au/~dunkleyj/motion.htm


Regards,
Bob



"Dan Moos" wrote in message
...
No; I don't want the joystick position, you are right that, that is
easy
to
get. It is the horizon as calculated by the simulator program that I
want
the
coordinates of. In other words, the pitch and the roll of the
airplane.
You
know of course that they don't exactly follow the joystick commands,
depending
on how close you are to stalling, etc.
tom

No **** Dick Tracy, do you know what rudders are?



Mr. "Dashi", are you a troll or an ass? Control inputs would not be enough
to simulate motion. I'd suggest that you try it in an actual aircraft, but
you'd waste a perfectly good airplane whilst killing yourself.

And what part of the orginal poster's reply deserved your cutting
response?
I garauntee that every reasonable person who read what you wrote thinks
you're a moron right now.

By the way, your original reponse suggesting using control inputs to
trigger
the motion, while flawed, would not have merited the kind of response I'm
giving now. Sure, you were wrong, but until the second post, you were
civil.

But now your true colors are revealed.

wrote in message ...
Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out of
MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device?
It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if you
could
get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

tom


http://www.etctacticalflight.com/ats_tfs4001.htm