SimCraft STAR e con iRacing

[VELOCIPEDE]

SimCraft Integrates with iRacing to Deliver the Ultimate Virtual Car Racing Experience

iRacing integration to be featured with SimCraft simulator at the 2009 International CES

[VELOCIPEDE]

SimCraft introduces STAR - The Motion Simulator Development Kit

05/14/2009

Five years in the making, low-cost military grade simulation has arrived

Marietta, GA (May 14, 2009) -- Over the past five years the team at SimCraft has been working on refining a new CORE architecture for simulating the motion of 4-wheeled ground vehicles and aircraft. Unlike many other approaches to vehicle and aircraft motion simulation, the SimCraft architecture moves the entire cockpit, including the controls AND the visual display systems.

"There is really no other effective way to accomplishing an immersive simulation experience. If you want a realworld simulation, we have learned, it is generally best to take your lead from how things work in reality. With this in mind, the entire environment must be captivated in the simulation.", says Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Sean Patrick MacDonald.

Along this journey of development toward compelling simulation, SimCraft's unique technology has been applied to practical application. As a result, the company is working alongside some very smart people on a project called S.A.V.E. - Synthetic Automotive Virtual Environments - a research project to study, understand, and in the end effectively simulate the dynamics of a vehicle being driven in a loose surface environment. (Dirt, mud, snow, sand, gravel, etc.) This project aims to save the lives of the men and women in uniform by giving them a real training environment - synthetically - to practice high speed loose surface driving techniques. Collaborating on this project with SimCraft are Ford Motor Company, MIT, GA Tech, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Vehicle Control Training, among others.

In addition to working with the bright minds involved in S.A.V.E., SimCraft's team has been working with professionals and serious amateurs in motorsports and aviation specifically because it is within these groups where the company's benchmark of high performance is defined. Taking in these experiences and feedback over the years, the company has prototyped many different versions of the SimCraft application. The company launched the APEX sc830 in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"It is the best sim we can possibly make at this time and incorporates all of our years of chassis design knowledge.", says MacDonald.

MacDonald continues, "The sc830 is also a great example of the application of the SimCraft architecture as it utilizes the very same components found in the STAR kit. The chassis of the sc830 just happens to be built from welded chromoly steel, making it very expensive to make, but it's strength and stability allow for unmatched performance and a higher standard in durability as well as incredible longevity."

Going back to 1997, MacDonald's father - the late William Dexter MacDonald - had an idea for a balanced mass architecture to reduce the need for high force actuation. This idea led to many observations over the last 5 years as his son and team continued developing the architecture. SimCraft's architecture requires less power, is safer to work with, and allows for ZERO latency from controls input, to motion output. In addition to these observations the team also has discovered that the SimCraft architecture is modeled more like a real vehicle since the rotation axes (roll, pitch, and yaw) are always fixed, rotating at or near the actual center of mass (of the sim), and intersecting at a single, static point.

"Because this is exactly how actual vehicles behave (on land or in air), the organic experience created from such a system is the closest you can come to real world vehicle dynamics. No other motion simulation system on planet Earth is designed this way."

Although the seeds of SimCraft's CORE technology were in place 10 years ago, the R&D team has iterated again and again to improve the performance of the system.

"We began our long iterative process by moving away from air pressure control and primarily working with electro-mechanical systems because they allowed for more consistency, better performance, increased longevity, and in the case of motorsports simulation - more intensity."

The actuators SimCraft uses in their systems stroke linearly and because they are electrically driven, they respond at the speed of light.

A key component in the SimCraft architecture is the support of, and movement around the rotational axes, accomplished with a novel device the R&D team calls a knuckle.

"A knuckle is essentially a bearing assembly designed to provide near frictionless rotation in any orientation while supporting hundred of pounds.", MacDonald claims.

The company has designed many different versions of knuckles over the years and felt the idea was novel enough that they filed a United States patent for them.

The R&D team has also been working on constantly improving their efficient code base, which now allows raw physics to be extracted from dozens of racing and flight physics models and then processed and deployed to the motion control system in less than 1 millisecond.

MacDonald continues, "We have built in rich features into the software allowing for realtime customization of the motion of each axis and the ability to save, restore and share these XML based settings for a particular title, a particular car setup, or a specific aircraft training situation."

SimCraft currently boasts high-performance physics based integrations to 16 simracing titles, 8 flight sim titles, and 3 military/commercial level vehicle dynamics modelers.

The company has also built over 15 different chassis designs over the last four years using everything from lumber to aluminum extrusions to welded tubular chromoly steel. After building a chassis out of wood in just a couple of days as a mockup sim project, the company began working on a development kit incorporating the engineered components of their motion simulation architecture and has now productized the kit as STAR.

----------------------------------------

STAR from SimCraft - Some Time and Assembly Required from $3,995

STAR, the motion simulator development kit is a product that incorporates all the hard parts of the engineering behind the sim - the SimCraft architecture - and leaves the chassis building up to you.

Included in the STAR product:

1. Two (2) electro-mechanical linear actuators that position at the speed of light, coupled with high precision Aurora rod end bearings.

2. Four (4) aluminum housing knuckle assemblies that allow for frictionless rotation in any orientation.

3. Four (4) high precision actuator chassis mountings

4. One (1) pre-wired power and USB communications box

5. One software interface to anyone of our flight sim or simracing titles and the CraftCon system for realtime motion control and XML based settings adjustment and sharing and access to the Craftware SDK - the software control library for the system.

6. Plans to build a 2 Degree of Freedom (Roll / Pitch) sim from lumber and access to tubular aluminum plans, extrusion kits, and chassis parts that are stocked at SimCraft

Additional costs to you? $300 in materials. Plus a computer, a monitor, and some controls - most of which you already have anyway. And a weekend of your time. One long day if you are a superstar builder and have a couple of buddies to help.

----------------------------------------

You can read more about STAR on the company's website:

http://www.simcraft.com/star.html

The company is also offering a bonus to the first 100 orders for STAR: a free lifetime license to ALL 24 Racing/Flight integration modules and access to future modules as the company continues to expand it's integrations.

[VELOCIPEDE]

Simcraft STAR in azione con iRacing

[VELOCIPEDE]

SimCraft announced the release of STAR- 3DOF which allows sim builders to experience YAW rotations. "Yaw is the most important axis of rotation to feel car control" - says Co-Founder and CTO Sean Patrick MacDonald. "With our zero latency motion simulation system coupled with a yaw axis of rotation, you can actually feel the backend break loose and counter-steer in time to save it." To read more about the STAR 3DOF system from SimCraft, goto

http://www.simcraft.com/star-3dof.html

Former Manager for McLaren Compares APEX sc830 to McLaren F1 Simulator

"The McLaren full motion Formula 1 Simulator is a sight to behold, even more incredible is driving it, as I have. It comprises a full Formula 1 cockpit and moves in every direction as a single unit, enabling it to perform just like an on track F1 Car. The placing of the screens within the driver's cockpit enables the same view of what is seen in the real car. I also got a chance of riding a 2 seater F1 a few years ago so I can make the comparison to reality very well."

"After a drive in the SimCraft sc830, it immediately brought me back to my McLaren sim experiences in that as soon as you get going you feel as if you are testing the real car...

[VELOCIPEDE]

Greetings!

Once a year, we discount our state-of-the-art simulation products. This year, we have decided to do so around our country's birthday and in celebration that we are an American company. SimCraft simulators are hand made right here in the USA, and all of our motion systems are assembled and deployed from our facility just outside Atlanta, Georgia.

For the next 7 days, we are discounting our base model APEX simulator by 20% or 5,000 bucks. An offer to obtain the most advanced 3DOF simulator ever created for $19,997 will not be something we do again. This is a one time deal. Teams, drivers, driver coaches, researchers, trainers, and simmers - now is your chance to own the height of advanced motion simulation for racing. Check out our updated testimonials page for some really powerful words from industry professionals about our groundbreaking motion technology.

In addition and for all of our sim builder friends, ALL of our STAR motion systems will be discounted by 15% during this same time-frame. After July 9th, these offers will not be back. Join the SimCraft owners and builders community today!

[arc_team]

A questo L I N K la pagina della nuova versione APEX sc830 presentata e utilizzata durante l'ultima 500 miglia di Indianapolis.

Bisogna dire che questi americani ci sanno fare...

[VELOCIPEDE]

Skip Barber and SimCraft Announce Partnership

(Braselton, GA

[VELOCIPEDE]

[VELOCIPEDE]

Greetings! I am very excited to announce the VERTEX3 GT and the APEX2 GT simulators from SimCraft.

The VERTEX3 GT is a bolt-together 3DOF motion simulator rig, designed for enthusiasts of simracing and flight simulation featuring YAW motion. I have been working with three beta customers over the first part of this year validating the design and refining the step by step assembly manual.

The APEX2 GT is a soon to be revealed chassis for professional and commercial customers. With a small footprint, TIG-welded and powder coated chassis, this COMPLETE, field deployable unit brings APEX class construction, durability, and build quality in a lower cost 2DOF format.

We have prepared an introductory price for the VERTEX3 GT chassis and some additional discount offers for all enthusiast products from SimCraft. We have also prepared an initial reveal of the APEX2 GT simulator. All I ask from you in exchange for sharing these offers is a little knowledge. Please take two minutes to take this SimCraft designed survey, and we'll send you the details of our limited time offers and the APEX2 reveal.

Survey http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=7etiz8cab&et=1106483055339&s=374&e=001U_zYuxH-b4sB5QzMm3aLoqnaxVbgcTVy94PzdO10G_mH955Isf0bneC75ScABVR5Xibkz8srPk_1-YXPveLrBAlEm8AH2fvgBIKpBXFQN0kjLgko1rOvBfY5Z7NgowdNlFFqNK-Dz3FTKdgmgQbemQ8zbTW6dgkn71ccXWtOPbLIpR-aVXGgnzbFZ_yNvCzoD9DyhEnZR8w=

[VELOCIPEDE]