On Tuesday 23 November 2004 00:16, Alex Perry wrote: > From: Boris Koenig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > David Megginson wrote: > > > I understand > > > that there are USB devices that you can wear on your head > > > to control the view in games, and those would probably > > > work in FlightGear, but it would be hard to survive the > > > ridicule from family, friends, and neighbours for wearing > > > one. > > > > LOL, that would indeed be very amusing ... must probably > > look very similar to the "BORG" on Star Trek ;-) > > There are two different things here. > > Normally, for gaming, people want to keep their head > stationary (in linear dimensions) and look in different > directions (angular). What people are talking about here is > wanting to keep their direction of gaze (fixed object) but > change their point of view. > > The former is easily addressed with a simple magnetic compass > module, to figure out which way you're looking, and a head > mount display so that the screen is always located in the > correct direction (in front). The compass module is usually > integrated into the HMD and so not really a source of looking > 'odd', at least compared to the HMD unit itself. > > However, the compass module doesn't work when the user wants > to be able to move their head and still look in the same > direction. For example, to lean forward in order to read the > tiny little numbers on the altimeter. For that, you need to > track the position of the head, not direction, so you really > want a different kind of sensor to address that need. You > don't need a HMD either, since the instrument panel doesn't > move. There are sensors for this, for example by putting > ultrasonic ranging transducers on your head and on the four > corners of the monitor, but nothing I'd really recommend to > you as being a marvellous solution. > > Assuming there is a network socket that is providing the 3D > position of the nose (for example) of the user with respect to > the monitor, how hard is it to get FGFS to slew the > camera/viewport relationship ? I've got stuff lying around at > work here that is fairly cheap and can be made to do the > sensing job, so it'd be interesting to try it out ...
I had a bit of a go at something along the lines of moving the viewpoint in the Comper Swift. The design of the a/c meant that the wing was directly in front of the eyes (in early models of the Swift the altimeter and airspeed indicator were set into the cut-out in the trailing edge of the wing around the cockpit) so it was necessary for the pilot to lean out to either side to get a view directly ahead. As the Swift didn't have flaps I re-mapped the key bindings to move the cockpit view sideways - when I get around to updating it I'll use Nasal to handle it. Anyway, when I also get around to making the 3d instruments for the cockpit, the viewpoint change should work with the 3d instruments, one of which, iirc, was a horizontally mounted mag compass that cantilevered out from the panel. LeeE _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
