I heard of those D-box motion chairs first two years ago, never have had a chance to try them out. They seemed cool but at stratospheric prices into the five digits I think I need a new car first, or to pay off my school loans... : P Nonetheless i'm fascinated at the things..
What I was wondering is... is there anything along the lines of:
- Open source hardware that can do the same thing? (primarily concerning home experimentation even if not compatible, just something like buy so much C-channel aluminum, cut, bolt, add motors etc etc since I can assemble stuff but am not much for figuring out the physical engineering)
- Open source controller software to control the above? (think some kind of standard, i've seen other flight sim and racer cockpit people have motion equipment from certain games and I dont know if it's homebrew programming or special driver support or how they are done.. is there anything along the lines of a standard for this?)
- Alternative decoders (commercial, pay or whatever) for the D-box signals that could interface with other home haptic interface equipment? Or attempts to figure out how the control protocol works? Afterall even if I bought a D-box, perhaps as a hardcore gamer I might want to tap the motion signals and have them add some other sensation on top of it, like triggering signals to some Clark tactile transducers or something...
- Encoder information, like if I were to make a game to put those signals on the game without paying for an expensive development kit? (think something released freeware not commercially or for money, if i'm making money they have a right to also)
My interest of course is everything from making a homebrew rig to enjoy a few movies like the new Tron a few years ago which apparently had D-box control codes included, to using it in flight and driving sims... as cool as it is I can't see anything in the design that should cost the price of a good car. : P
