Motion Platform Advice

[Rocky_53 1,581]

I am chatting to a friend who has shown more than a little interest in flight simulation. It seems he wants to eventually build a motion platform for MSFS and has asked me for some help. I am in the dark with this specific request and was wondering if anyone here could offer a few lines of advice or a link/links to some good information. I know there are some commercially available products aimed at the hobbyist but I'm wondering if these are in fact any good. However, I get the impression he would like to build his own and wondering if this is a viable idea?

Edited October 11, 2023 by Rockliffe

[Overload 91]

VR Sim guy has had one for 9 months, and produced a long term review of his motion sim here: It looks impressive, I love the way it really throws him around! It costs around £2000 which in hardware terms isn't expensive. He's done over a thousand hours in it, and gives it a glowing review.

I'm planning to go down the motion sim/VR combo at some stage, they're an ideal match. Once you ditch the big screen, and the hardware, the sim footprint is actually very small, another advantage to those without a lot of space.

I think this is the rig he uses: https://www.amazon.co.uk/DOF-Reality-Motion-Simulator-H2/dp/B07KRGRCQ8

Eugene

 

 

 

 

[hhbrbg 139]

Simhanger tested a motion platform. A completely different 🎱 ballgame ✈️

 

[Malaromane 422]

The DOF Reality rig that the two videos posted above seem to get consistently good reviews. On the other hand, if your friend wants to go down the DIY route, this article posted on Roman Design's website is a good starting point:
https://flightsimulation.romandesign.ca/roman-design-motion-vr-cockpit-project/

It gives an overview of the motion rig that he built from scratch and has links to design files and BOMs.

[Rocky_53 1,581]

1 hour ago, Overload said:

VR Sim guy has had one for 9 months, and produced a long term review of his motion sim here: It looks impressive, I love the way it really throws him around! It costs around £2000 which in hardware terms isn't expensive. He's done over a thousand hours in it, and gives it a glowing review.

I'm planning to go down the motion sim/VR combo at some stage, they're an ideal match. Once you ditch the big screen, and the hardware, the sim footprint is actually very small, another advantage to those without a lot of space.

I think this is the rig he uses: https://www.amazon.co.uk/DOF-Reality-Motion-Simulator-H2/dp/B07KRGRCQ8

Eugene

 

 

 

 

Many thanks, that's great Eugene..

Edited October 11, 2023 by Rockliffe

[Rocky_53 1,581]

1 hour ago, hhbrbg said:

Simhanger tested a motion platform. A completely different 🎱 ballgame ✈️

 

 

13 minutes ago, Rockliffe said:

Many thanks, that's very helpful 

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Rockliffe

[Rocky_53 1,581]

21 minutes ago, Malaromane said:

The DOF Reality rig that the two videos posted above seem to get consistently good reviews. On the other hand, if your friend wants to go down the DIY route, this article posted on Roman Design's website is a good starting point:
https://flightsimulation.romandesign.ca/roman-design-motion-vr-cockpit-project/

It gives an overview of the motion rig that he built from scratch and has links to design files and BOMs.

Thanks for the reply, appreciated.

[Gate99 246]

I've had the DOF Reality H3 motion platform now for a few months and use it in VR. The motion cues it provides greatly adds to the illusion of flight and for me was almost as big a step as going from flat screens to VR. The prices for these sorts of platforms has dropped dramatically over the last couple of years but it's still  certainly not cheap. But the combination puts you as close to actually being in a cockpit as I think is possible.

[Bond 109]

You can also check https://www.xsimulator.net/community/.

There's a lot of info there about motion platforms.

[jon b 2,050]

2 hours ago, Gate99 said:

The motion cues it provides greatly adds to the illusion of flight and for me was almost as big a step as going from flat screens to VR.

Sold , thanks.

I see you're in Canada so it's probably a different system to me here in the UK but did you have to pay import duty ? I believe they're sent from Ukraine ? 

[F737MAX 5,616]

13 minutes ago, jon b said:

Sold , thanks.

I see you're in Canada so it's probably a different system to me here in the UK but did you have to pay import duty ? I believe they're sent from Ukraine ? 

Jon, as far as I could work out, no.

See my post here: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/does-the-dofreality-motion-system-really-make-a-difference/608840/23

Best bet is to contact DOFReality directly.

Note that on that same linked thread above people's experiences were more mixed.

[Gate99 246]

56 minutes ago, jon b said:

Sold , thanks.

I see you're in Canada so it's probably a different system to me here in the UK but did you have to pay import duty ? I believe they're sent from Ukraine ? 

Hi Jon

                I thought I was going to have to pay duty on it but surprisingly I didn't YMMV. However I did pay sales tax and the shipping cost to Canada was steep costing me $800CND. The platform comes unassembled in two boxes weighing a combined 70Kg. and was shipped from Poland. Hope this helps

[jon b 2,050]

6 hours ago, F737MAX said:

Note that on that same linked thread above people's experiences were more mixed.

Hmm, yes it does seem that way, I’ll maybe hang fire.

[MauBen 82]

I built my motion platform to suit my specific needs and I used Simrig SR1 actuators from Simrig.se. Enclosed are 2 links to videos showing the platform details and the platform in motion.

I wanted my motion platform to be very versatile so that I could fly either helicopters or airplanes and I could not see a way to do that with the DOFreality unit. Mine is 3 DOF incl roll, pitch and heave. 

I much prefer having heave instead of yaw, but yaw would likely be better for car racing sims. When flying, I like feeling the up and down motion during turbulence or when having a hard landing😊

 

 

 

 

 

[turbomax 3,286]

4 hours ago, MauBen said:

I built my motion platform to suit my specific needs and I used Simrig SR1 actuators

what did the complete assembly cost you?

are the motions soft or jerky?

what software drives the platform?

thanks.

Edited October 12, 2023 by turbomax