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3DOF Pitch/Roll/Drift vs. 2DOF G-Force Simulator

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Building Q&A / FAQ' started by bberger, Aug 22, 2010.

  1. bberger

    bberger Member

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    Hey folks,

    I'm wondering for some time now which one would give me better results for the feeling of the car.

    As far as I am concerned G-Force's don't give you any hint about what your car is doing, except where YOUR forces are beeing taken. The best solution maybe would be a combination of both, 2DOF GF on top of 3DOF PRD, but so far I have only got the budget to build one of those 2.

    What do you think would give me the better of those 2 possible builds? (not in case of driving sensation, but in case of the feel for the drive).


    Any opinions welcome!

    regards,
    Bernhard
  2. bvillersjr

    bvillersjr Active Member

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    I think you need to define what you mean by what your car is doing in terms of data that is obtainable from today's games.

    People often think that Yaw, Pitch, Roll And G-Forces are mutually exclusive simulator designs. This is not the case. Take for instance the design I use on my Stage IV. We combine some of the Yaw, Pitch and Roll Effects into our G-Force style sims. At first this may seem to be a foolish concept because pitch and longituudinal G-Forces are conflicting effects as are lateral G-Forces and roll.

    However, think for a second about most on road car scenarios and what your car is doing. Under heavy braking (remember that race cars have stiff suspension), there is very little suspension squat which would be represented as pitch and very little body roll which would be represented as roll. A G-Force style simulator can and easily represent these small movements as well.

    If we were to to try to define your: (what my car is doing) I would start with:

    -Body Roll
    -Rear Traction Loss (you need to feel the rear end of the car in the seat of your pants)
    -Suspension and wheel hop under braking
    -Wheel Slippage under acceleration
    -Feel when a wheel is placed on a curb or off track and with your eyes closed, the feeling should tell you which wheel.

    In order to get these effects, a proper combination of Yaw, Pitch, Roll and G-Forces are required and I can say for certain that they are obtainable in G-Force sytle sims.

    This being said, there are compromises. So suppose that you are on a NASCAR track with a high degree of banking. Most G-Force sims wont actually be able to represent the roll value of the high banking, and most JoyRider sims wont be able to represent the high g-forces. THis is because the roll value would be extreme left, and the g-forces would be extreme right. Simply put, an actuator cannot move two directions at once :)

    I am testing with new designs that solve this problem and several others.

    To answer your question in short, todays sims are not G-Force or Yaw,Pitch Roll exclusively. When properly mixed, you can have the best of both worlds and only compromise in the extreme scenarios such as the example above.
  3. bberger

    bberger Member

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    Thanks for that long answer! I am thinking of combining 2 levels of actuators in a long term. A frex style sim on top of a bodyroll sim and those on top of a reparieren end loss sim like that stange 4 thingy..