my "virtual" home cockpit

Hi all!

I've been a lurker of this forum for quite a while. It's very interesting to see your fantastic home cockpits.

Today I will show you my more or less "virtual" cockpit. It consists of a rear projection screen and a seat. In the following picture you can actually see three screens, but the two screens on the sides are currently only used as "blinds".

For the rear projection screen I use "Plexiglas Crystal Ice White WM500 SC". The matte surface is on the side of the seat. I tested different types of plexiglas from plexiglas-shop.com and I found this has the best price-perfomance(image quality)-ratio. Better material for rear projection is of course their rear projection material but it's way more expensive.

The screen is 1,4 m wide and the distance between my head and the screen is 0,7 m. That gives me a real fov of 90 degrees. With the virtual view in the simulation software set to 90 degrees fov this setup is quite immersive. The resolution of a full hd projector is sufficient.

But sitting so near to a big screen has a disadvantage: Where to place the trackir cam? I found a solution that works quite well. I placed the trackir cam in the upper part of the screen and the vector clip on top of my headphones.

Sitting so near to the screen also has an advantage: I can touch the screen. So why not adding touch functionality to my screen (not to the whole screen, but to the region I can reach with my fingers: the lower middle region of the screen)? Adding the touch functionality costs me less than 40 EUR. The information for this I found at nuigroup.com. The guys there build DIY multitouch tables. The method I use is called Rear Diffused Illumination. You need an IR illuminator, a (slightly) modified webcam, a proper rear projection screen and some software. The functional principle is explained here: http://wiki.nuigroup.com/Diffused_Illumination.

The following picture shows my setup: screen on the left, webcam in the middle, projector and IR illuminator on the right.

I build the IR illuminator myself with 80 IR-LEDs. In the following picture you see more than 80 LEDs, but the upper LEDs are not used.

As webcam I use the XBox Live Vision Cam. The webcam has to be modified that it only can see IR light. That means: removing the IR filter and adding a filter for visible light (simply put two layers of overexposed color negativ film in front of the cam)

The software I use for blob detection/tracking is ccv 1.4. It processes the webcam images and gives the blobs (position where you touch the screen).

I wrote a kind of mouse driver, that takes the blobs as input and translates them to left click, right click and mouse wheel movement. I made a video that shows the touch screen in action. Left click is a tap. Right click is touch + move right. Mouse wheel is touch + move up or down.

In the end some words about the seat: It's based on the design "SimLight" from xflight.de. I modified the design and added consoles left and right for panels.

Depending on the sim I play, I can change the paper "overlays" on the left panel.

WOW

Now, get a TM WH and you'll ge REALLY sorted ;)

somebody did this for blackshark too like 2 years ago on a monitor screen. He kinda disappeared from this forum. You took it a step further and used it on a projected screen. Really cool! :thumbup:

Now you can touch your way through all the sims and play them immediately more intuitively than using the mouse. Pit builders like some of us have not flown much, just building. I think for some of my less favorite sims I'd go this route.

somebody did this for blackshark too like 2 years ago on a monitor screen. He kinda disappeared from this forum. You took it a step further and used it on a projected screen. Really cool! :thumbup:

Yep, "power glove" comes to my mind.

Now you can touch your way through all the sims and play them immediately more intuitively than using the mouse. Pit builders like some of us have not flown much, just building. I think for some of my less favorite sims I'd go this route.

My original plan was a 3 projector setup, therefore the 3 screens. I sat in the center between the screens (distance 1,0 m to the screens). That gave me a fov of 210 degree. For the cockpit instruments I planned to use helios on a touchscreen tft monitor. I tested this setup (I borrowed two other projectors from friends and put a tft monitor in front of me). The immersion of flying was quite good with such a large fov. But the immersion of sitting in a cockpit were not. I realised, to get the "cockpit immersion", I have to build a cockpit replica like a lot of you guys had. But like you said, that is very time consuming. And you are fixed to one aircraft.

Maybe in the future I will go this way. In the meantime I use the virtual cockpits of the flight sims.

I wonder why this thread is without much notice. Found this trough your post on that other thread.

Very cool concept, would need to test it myself to know if I would like it not because I have never used the Track-ir with a pause button. I like it to be moving free all the time and use keyboard keys to press those buttons that are needed in combat.

Place youtube tags around the video so others might watch it too.

Very cool concept, would need to test it myself to know if I would like it not because I have never used the Track-ir with a pause button. I like it to be moving free all the time and use keyboard keys to press those buttons that are needed in combat.

I also don't use the trackir pause button. Thus I'm forced to keep my head steady while I manipulate the cockpit switches.

I also don't use the trackir pause button. Thus I'm forced to keep my head steady while I manipulate the cockpit switches.

Then I must have read some other guys message on some other thread.

How do you like your virtual cockpit so far? I have been toying with an idea that if there was enough resolution in a projector it would be possible to make whole cockpit on flat surfaces using projection picture. Combined with camera you'd have functioning cockpit. If the projection was spherical the same projector could also "paint" the game picture around you...

Currently it just is cheaper to buy multible touch screen monitors and place them as cockpit surfaces.

MUE,

your pit is great ....

i like your Projector solution....

upload some more ....

Avi

the links you add are not working , can you check them ?

Thanks

How do you like your virtual cockpit so far? I have been toying with an idea that if there was enough resolution in a projector it would be possible to make whole cockpit on flat surfaces using projection picture. Combined with camera you'd have functioning cockpit. If the projection was spherical the same projector could also "paint" the game picture around you...

I'm really satisfied with my current setup. Before I finished it, I already thought about a curved screen, possibly with multiple projectors to increase the fov any further. But now I can say that 90 degrees fov with a planar screen together with trackir is absolutely sufficient for me.

the links you add are not working , can you check them ?

Thanks

It seems the nuigroup wiki is currently broken. The rear diffused illumination technique I used for the touch functionality is also explained here.

I love the way this is designed! I am curious what sims you fly with this, and if you'd be willing to share your overlays for the switch panel.

I love the way this is designed! I am curious what sims you fly with this, and if you'd be willing to share your overlays for the switch panel.

Mostly I fly/play DCS:Black Shark, Il-2 1946 and Strike Fighters 2.

The panel overlays are nothing special. Just printed on paper and then made holes for the switches and buttons. If you're interested I can make a picture of the overlays.

Hi

looks very slick indeed, am liking the switch panels.

I would love if you shared your switch overlays. I play SF2 and IL2 as well. I was having a hard time finding a switch layout I was happy with.

I would love if you shared your switch overlays. I play SF2 and IL2 as well. I was having a hard time finding a switch layout I was happy with.

Ok, here are my panel overlays:

IL2:

SF2:

DCS Black Shark (I'm not using it anymore, because now I use the 3D cockpit with my touchscreen):

Awesome, thanks for the pictures.