Space Sims - Discuss

[tthurman]

Hah, I love it

You got it so bad man.....but in a good way

[stigzler]

You could rig up some motors and automate entry to and exit from the captain's chair....

[rockyrocket]

You could rig up some motors and automate entry to and exit from the captain's chair....

Ahem...

[tthurman]

Is Thrustmaster still the same build quality as days gone past?

I recall their sticks were outrageous back around the 95 days, but everyone raved about their heft, and build quality.

I broke down years ago and bought a Formula T2 but it was actually pretty disappointing.

[RIP-Felix]

My only concirn with the need for the keyboard is how to use it with the Rift on my head blocking my view? I confess I never learned to type without looking at the keyboard, and mainly use controllers for games (w,a,s,d aside I suck at finding shift, control, z and x). I was thinking of building my chair from scratch, so a Keyboard/mouse tray is on the blueprints for sure.

[hansolo77]

Solution - Learn to type! I never look at my keyboard. I can even type the numerical keys along the top row without looking, something my dad can't even do. There are all sorts of programs out there to teach you. It's really not that difficult. I self-taught myself from single-digit typing when I was a kid playing MUDs, to the point where I could do it without looking much. Then I took a class in school that I aced because I already knew where the keys were, just didn't know the proper fingers to use when doing REAL typing. The following year I took a 4-credit class for office word processing. It was basically copying out text from a book and learning proper paragraph structuring (like 2 spaces between sentences and the whole "Date then 4 Returns then the address, then 4 returns, then the intro, etc" stuff). They even had a special advanced class the 2nd period where we could work on speed and accuracy. I had a 99% accuracy at 147 words per minute (according to wikipedia, 40WMP is higher than average, and anything over 100WPM is considered high speed). Got offered and joined a state-wide competition for high school students. Only 2 of us went from our school, I got 2nd place, she got 3rd. Didn't get a trophy or nothing, but I did receive a special certification that I put on my resume's to try to help me get a job. Never did help though. lol I would have liked to learn how to use a stenographer's keyboard though. Those are the ones they use in court because of the speed you can get to keep up with what is being said. They probably pay good money for them people.

[rockyrocket]

Is Thrustmaster still the same build quality as days gone past?

The 90`s saw me doing nothing but hang off of rockfaces, so can not compare sorry.

I can say though that I thought my X52 pro was good, but alongside a Warthog it feels just like a toy.

The warthog does have a heavy action that needs time to get used to, but I would never go back now as the resistance feels right.

The thing all the reviews say is that you will never accidentally push a button as the force needed is that high, the warthog is much more accurate around the center point that an X52 also.

My only concirn with the need for the keyboard is how to use it with the Rift on my head blocking my view? I confess I never learned to type without looking at the keyboard, and mainly use controllers for games (w,a,s,d aside I suck at finding shift, control, z and x). I was thinking of building my chair from scratch, so a Keyboard/mouse tray is on the blueprints for sure.

Voice attack will take care of anything you do not have bound to a stick and is great for macros too, the voice dictation in my experience is not as good as in this video, even after many training passes the windows api still output garbage most of the time.

Dragon is how I get around that now, so really a keyboard could e bipassed.

[RIP-Felix]

RANT WARNING:

I haven't used dragon since it stopped working about five years back. I bought it back in 2005 for school and I've tried a few times to install it again, but it won't take my product key. I've been stewing over that the last few years. I'm not buying again a product I've already paid for. I'm cheap when it comes to software. Hell I'm still using Microsoft Office 2003, can't seem to accept defeat and pay the monster again for a newer version when what I have works fine. I expect to own it forever when I buy, that's why I hate subscription based models for software. I know people here work for companies that sell software, and that all that hard work doesn't pay off when a customer only has to pay once. However, for over a hundred bucks I can't help feeling like I should own the software I bought. I should be able to install it over and over again all I want, and keep it for as long as I want until it looses compatibility, then use a Virtual Machine to keep using long after. It's mine, I paid for it. I get the one computer limitation, but when I upgrade a computer, or reinstall windows, or buy a new computer, or what have you, I shouldn't have to be denied the use of MY program because YOU lost record my purchase. Pisses me off when it's too old for them to remember a product key! Idiots, how much space does it take to keep an inventory of all your product keys. Ridiculous!

I just found out that I can't get an ISO of my legally obtained windows 7 because it was an upgrade option that was bundled with windows vista before 7's release (when 7 was released I sent in for physical CD copy of 7, otherwise I would not have bought vista). They say since it was OEM and an upgrade that their "system" couldn't find the key (you provide Microsoft a valid key and they allow you to download the ISO). My CD drive won't fit in my new case with my old mSATA adapter (hits my heatsink) and I wanted to make a USB installation drive to fix some startup issues (Freeze on startup) I've been having intermittently until the new mSATA cable I need arrives. I can just use the CD then. Pisses me off.

So basically, I'm not a big fan of dragon anymore. I wonder if ED will support a virtual keyboard using the Leap Motion tech in the video I posted above. That would eliminate the need for a physical keyboard and solve the problem of not being able to see it with rift on.