Is this a race car stimulator or a flight stimulator?? I am very interested to learn more.
Blue Tiger is a motion base that can be configured as a car, aircraft, boat, etc, depending on what the user wants. You provide (or they will sell you) the particular controls for the type vehicle you want to simulate. The great thing about this is the open architecture concept that enables the user to customize the motion base and not rely exclusively on whatever accessory hardware Blue Tiger supplies.
Software is one key to their future success, of course. Some of the racing games don't yet output the data required to drive the motion base, but some do. Bob is making the protocols available to software developers and I believe that soon this data output will be part of every game sold. We drove the Blue Tiger with several different PC based games, and were very impressed - especially with one particular rally game. I hesitate to refer to them as games, because when you add motion it starts to get very real.
The basic premise of a motion simulator is to add sensory inputs beyond sight and sound to more accurately represent reality. There are lots of clever ways to fool our senses and that's what Blue Tiger does. When you hit the gas pedal, Blue Tiger tilts back and a small amount of weight is transferred from your butt to your back - and it feels like acceleration G's. When you hit the brake, Bue Tiger tilts forward and your body is fooled into feeling like you are decelerating. In a left turn, for example, Blue Tiger doesn't lean left, but leans RIGHT. This gives you the proper sensation of lateral G's throwing you to the right in the turn. Because the whole rig is moving (including the display screen), you are quickly drawn into the desired sensations. Anyone who's done spatial disorientation maneuvers in an airplane knows exactly how this works. The final result is that the
game is transformed into an
experience.
Two (or more?) Blue Tigers can be linked and you can go racing against your buddy. After you've driven a couple of sessions, your mind starts to go wild with possibilities. For instance, it would have been great to have one or more of these at LVMS for Rally III, set up to simulate the track we were driving. Maybe for Rally IV?
If you want to drive Blue Tiger, I'm sure we can set up another session - and give us an excuse to go back! :cheers
