Head Mounted Displays

[Pagan]

Wonder if HT has considered the use of head mounted displays in AH in the future. Really would be kewl using one of these with the pan view  . Too bad right now tho, they are cost prohibitive.

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The Pagan
I'll be watching.

[Ripsnort]

This is one dept. of technology that really fell behind all others in the 90's.  I had predicted that by the year 2000, we'd all be using head-gear for virtual reality, but alas, not enough development, prohibited costs and lack of market evidently has pushed this market back further yet.

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Brian "Ripsnort" Nelson
++JG2++ ~Richthofen~
(Formerly VF-101 Grim Reapers~Defected~)
"There is no reason anyone would
want a computer in their home."
   Ken Olson, president, chairman and
founder of Digital Equipment Corp.,1977

[Dingy]

Ya know...I was in Babbages today at lunchtime and saw the Erazor GeForce card on sale...attached to the box was a coupon valued at $69 to get free stereoscopic glasses which plug into the card (no  they werent the paper glasses with one red lens and one blue lens  )

Wouldnt THAT be cool....looking out your cockpit in rendered 3D!!

-Ding

[Rebel]

I remember playing EF2000, and using the VFX-1 helmet to do just that.  Worked great  

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-Rebel
"With a Rebel yell!"

[Kirin]

Dingy,

those glasse are the ELSA Revelator 3D stereoscopic shutter glasses. The 3D effect in certain games (e.g. TombRaider, Ultima9, Earth2150) is just awesome. Sadly enough AH does not work with em because it lacks z-buffer which the glasses need. And that's about the only thing they need, every D3D game with z-buffer should work fine. The only flight-"sim" I tested that gives a real stereoscopic effect is MigAlley. You really can tell where the planes are and the landscpae just looks great - well horizon bend is a bit "overmodeled"...  

Brief reminder to HTC: I am now a paying customer -   - so where is the z-buffer???


Kirin out

[Pagan]

Yep, been doing a little research since I first posted. Ran across shutter glasses but am unsure if there are any head tracking devices for any of these. Guess it doesn't really matter, as was stated, shutter glasses won't work because of lack of z-buffer.
Also found a HMD from Sony, called the Glasstron, $2200.00 street. Sh*t!!!!
Uh oh, did I start somethin'?  

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The Pagan
I'll be watching.

[Westy]

sheesh. I saw the topic and started thinking I have a thick neck but no way will it support or swing around a 30lb 19" NEC MultiSync monitor!

-westy

[Rojo]

Once upon a time, WB claimed it worked with the iGlasses brand of head-tracking VR set up, but I never found out exactly how they implemented it.  iGlasses were actually fairly inexpensive ($500-$700) and would track both vertically and horizontally to very high angles.  Unfortunately, the resolution was rather poor.  I played with one in a computer store playing MechWarrior.  They worked great, but I couldn't read most of the text, and gauges would be very hard.  I believe EF-2000 supported them, and worked pretty well.  Poor resolution has been the bane of VR systems, and they've not managed to produce a cost-effective set up for the general public.  However, some defense contractors have been messing around with some really hot set ups for a number of years.

Sabre/Rojo

[Lady Hawke]

Hehe....when I first read the title of this thread, my first thought was that you wanted pictures of the heads of the AH pilots with their callsign above em...you know, like a hunting trophy!!  

Lady Hawke

[Sundog]

LOL LH!!!! For all of you guys interested in HMD's here is a link to an article at Combatsim about them with links to all the major manufacturers.
 http://www.combatsim.com/htm/nov99/HMDisplay.htm  

It's an excellent article....the prices will make you cry though  

[Vulcan]

Well my VFX-1 is gathering dust in the corner now (VFX-3D is on my wishlist).

But heres a list of great titles that do work with em that i had heaps of fun with:
EF2000
Flight Unlimited 1 & 2
Commanche 3 (supports full stereoscopic vision as well as the headtracking)
Mech Warrior II
Terra Nova (this game was _designed_ for HMDs)
Skynet (driving a jeep with the HMD and the HMD tracking minigun around the cities is hilarious)
and the early Star Wars 1st person shooter, forget the name now.

EF2000 was pretty cool, but experiencing Commanche 3 with the stereoscopic (depth perception) enabled was a complete step up.

I have tried the 3D Sterescopic LCD shutter glasses. They work well with some software, however there are some issues, you need to run them in a dark room, and you need a big (I have a 21") monitor.

Sterescopic worked with WB in 640x480 (not 1024), I tried on the Flight Unltd 2 as well and it was VERY good on this. It have a real feel of depth, and on a landing approach this helped, flying down canyons ... well... it was just awesome.

-vlkn- in

[spinny]

How do those ELSA glasses thingies work if you wear regular glasses? Do they fit over your regular glasses easily or what? Anyone know?

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Spinny, VF-17, The Jolly Rogers 8X

[spinny]

I went to the Combatsim site and saw that very nice article. One thing that was mentioned was the potential liability from induced cybersickness. If you've never experienced this playing Quake or, most recently in my case, Halflife, let me tell you that it's no fun at all. I've never suffered from it in any flightsim. But I don't know what would happen with a 3D headset on. Something to think about.

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Spinny, VF-17, The Jolly Rogers 8X

[Kirin]

Spinny,

you can wear your regular glasse without any problem with the ELSA Revelator. I wear glasses myself and don't experience any problems. Though I have to admit that a big screen and dark room helps alot.


Kirin out

[spinny]

Thanks, Kirin.

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Spinny, VF-17, The Jolly Rogers 8X