Hi all,
I am evaluating (part of largeer project) the options regarding a simulation supporting 3 screen (front + slight left and right view) for a driving simulator.
1)Is it possible ? Does anyone have experience with that in terms of GS ?
2)Any info about realistic input devices like adapted real steering wheels, not the xbx styled game steering wheels.
The intention is to create a real environment with "half of a car" and large screens, but no motion feedback and so on.

I have only basic 3D graphics background from 3DS, but years of development in VC,VB and J.
And I will not develop the thing by myself, but with a team (to be).

Thanks for your input
Cheers
Sven

PS: I am enjoying working with the trial ;-)

The solution for the first question is simple: If the 3 screens are to be controlled by a single PC, open 3 borderless windows on an extended desktop and connect the 3 applications through the network protocol. Or else use a single app with a window over the whole desktop, and 3 views. In both cases it should be a fast PC.

thanks.

i dont mind using 3 PC's. But there we have a big challenge to keep the 3 views in synch (I assume) accross 3 indep. applications. But in your first suggestion you are using also 3 applications (indep?) on the same PC, means they also need to be in synch.

cheers
Sven

3 PCs are the best solution. Keeping them in sync should not be a problem - they are automatically synchronized over the network.

I would try using 1 PC to start with. I've worked on a project that runs 7 screens using only one PC (3 video cards and 2 RGB splitters) with no slowdown. But only one of the views was fully 3D.

If you scale up to the 3PCs, keeping them in synch shouldn't be an issue. Do some reading on network code in the user manual.

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Also look into using a force-feedback wheel. You can get an okay one for under $70 but, if you have a budget, you can get a pro-wheel for a few thousand. Even simple feedback makes a *huge* difference in car simulation.

If you are doing this with very limited cash, you might be able to buy a cheep XBox wheel and attach a real car wheel to it somehow (you can buy one at your local auto-parts store).

Appreciate your feedback !

The main, left and right screen would show the same viewpoint but with 3 "cameras" looking into different directions.

Will also do some more reading regarding networking.
The more I read about the GS the more excited I get about the whole topic.
Ordered the book and will buy GS pretty soon.

Will start with one screen setup to gather experience and do some prototyping with the team to be and customer.

Cash is not the issue, its (will/would be) a commercial solution (to-be) for customers who dont want / cant to spend/invest 5 mill U$ into full flavor fancy simulator but go for a basic budget version.

I guess we need to keep the hw costs below 20 to 25kU$ inclusive "steering wheels" and "chair".

cheers
Sven

I'm not sure if you are doing a racing game or an learning simulation, but make sure to check out the online car racing communities. There is a lot of information on making home simulators on a budget.

it will be a simulator for driving and equipment operating practice similar to the driving school but in a complete different business domain.

Found the LOGITECH G25 steering wheel (doesnt have the usual plastic joystick look-and-feel).
Do you think the force-feedback feature can be "programmed" with 3DGS ?
I would start with the G25 for prototyping. The price is about 250 Euro.

cheers
Sven

If it supports DirectX9 (and I would be surprised if it didn't) then you can use it with 3DGS.