> Actual linear acceleration is of limited value in simulation because...
Linear acceleration is immensely useful for sudden accelerations. Image a sudden linear acceleration (e.g. a racing car accelerating). You cannot recreate this acceleration by suddenly rotating. The angular accelerations would ruin the experience. Rather, you make a linear movement, and THEN you rotate the simulator (if you need to sustain the acceleration).
> you run out of room and have to apply an opposite acceleration, which can conflict with the simulation needs.
wrong again. If you move the simulator at slow speed, you can actually come back to the optimal position and the subject does not notice it (washout filter [1])
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_simulator#Implementatio...
> you make a linear movement, and THEN you rotate the simulator (if you need to sustain the acceleration).
I have zero experience with this though, I'm merely interpreting and copying what ghgr said.
Am I understanding this wrong or are you saying long accelerations can be achieved by accelerating, turn, accelerating, .... etc? Wouldn't the person wearing VR headset feel the turn?
Someone published a similar hack for full-room VR, showing you can 'bend' someone's trajectory, to create the false sense that they're walking straight when in fact they're curving. In a large enough space you could simulate an infinite hallway (by having the user walk in a circle).
Sorry, I tried but can't dig up the link right now... but it's out there somewhere.
I think you were searching for that. It seems it also comes from the Max Plank institute.
It seems like the sort of fun project that would be cool to simulate in a graphic engine -- pairing the playing of certain games with a 3D model of the simulation room :)
Actually if your whole simulation has ||aceleration||>1g you should be able to do it perfectly (save for jerk/rotation effects) with some large centrifuge: the rate of rotation of the large centrifuge dictates the "perceived gravity" and gimbals dictate the "perceived direction". In this sense it would be perfect if you could get a centrifuge with a gimbaled end in a 0g environment.
Hey NASA, I have this one little idea for the ISS... :)
Any acceleration up to g = 9.81 m / s^2 can be easily simulated, and it can be maintained indefinitely. All you need to do is to rotate the subject so that the perceived acceleration is aligned with g, or keep it at an angle, to get a fraction of g. Interestingly, for VR you don't need to simulate velocity, as it cannot be perceived by the body.
Flight simulators have been using this approach for decades now, and it works really well: http://arabiansupplychain.com//pictures/300x200/CAE-simulato...
But this system looks to have the advantage of being able to simulate accelerations above g.
PS: Is gimbal a verb now?
On the other hand this looks more useful for something like movie making, to throw actors around in front of a greenscreen.