Just to add my two cents, the eyepoint motion sounds like an interesting way to add some cues to make up for the cues missing in a motionless sim. Only small movement in the x and y planes would suffice to provide the cues. There is some movement in the z axis, mainly from the springiness of the soft seat cushion. There is also the "bouncing eyeball" effect, which is most noticable at night (I suppose in the daytime the brain can more easily smooth the effect of step inputs). This effect can be demonstrated by going into a very dark room and staring at an LED display while eating something crunchy, like an apple. (If someone asks, tell him you're doing a scientific experiment). This can really increase the difficulty of nighttime instrument flying.
There are two other cues that are helpfull. One is pre-stall buffet. For instance, the T-38 flies the entire base turn in pre-stall buffet. One reads the visual, tactile and audio severity of the buffet to estimate the angle of attack. The initial "tickle" is low-amplitude and periodic, about 10 hz, give or take. It progresses with increasing AOA to "elephant", high amplitude and about 4 hz. The buffet can be applied to almost any airplane at some point in its AOA range. It can also model mach buffet or severe engine/prop vibration. Another cue, like someone else mentioned, is the grey/black/red-out effect. It is nearly impossible to do a proper loop in the T-38 without this cue (unless you have a very prominent g-meter installed). I'd recommend a graying of the entire screen starting at about 3 g's and increasing linearly to black at 6 g's (without g-suit) or 8 g's (with g-suit) or 9 g's (f-16). This is important in acrobatic and fighter airplanes because much of the basic maneuvering is done at the 3 to 4 g level, with eyes outside. (The audio level diminishes at the same rate.) A really accurate blackout (as modeled in AW3, a great sim) will last about 2 or 3 seconds, and the return to normal senses will occur gradually, say three seconds. In a *really* accurate sim, which I haven't seen yet, the return to normal senses will be accompanied by "seeing stars" during that time. Dave Culp _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
