emulating amiga Virtual reality ?

[Michael Sykes]

A good port of the original Dactyl game. Input and gfx look relly like in the old version. You can even reduce resolution and fov to the 90's level... And the YT video works fine here.

Sent from mTalk on W10M...

[alexh]

It's "Polygon Nightmare" an oculus rift tribute to "Dactyl Nightmare" on the Virtuality Arcade platform.

Basically they have re-created the game for the Oculus Rift.

It is very interesting watching the footage as the authors of Goldeneye for the N64 were either the same people or they played this game for inspiration.

[simon_m74]

Originally Posted by Bastich

Right Finally been into the office and chatted with Graham. (Dactal Nightmare designer). The very oldest systems (Amiga) used POTs to read angles (3DOF not 6DOF). After that it was all magnetic tracking systems (Polyphemus with the occasional Ascension) and PCs (486 I think).

I found some old Virtuality hardware (Dev systems). They are going to the Leicester computer museum soon. I will try and get access​ again to them before then and try and image their hard drives

Wow, I`m the Retro-VR guy, Simon from the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester.
I look after the 4 VR machines we have there as well as 2 I have at home.
I have met Graham, and he mentioned letting me have those `dev` (not dev) systems for my collection.
Those systems are called Elysium`s - I`m not 100% sure what they were used for - but I`d still love them in my collection!

As for imaging the hard drives...
The games like Dactyl Nightmare & Exorex (that Graham has worked on too) are all Amiga based - while the Elysiums are PC based (I assume - considering they are designed around the 2nd gen machines).

Yes - I have backups of ALL the VR software for Virtuality machines, that I can get my hands on.
As I have said in a previous post - the games look for the custom graphics card upon booting. When no card is found - the game drops to a CLI.

If you want to play Dactyl Nightmare - either head to the museum in Leicester, or if you cant - google for Dactyl Nightmare on Oculus - as its been re-made in Unity -and its looks pretty close!

Please come and visit soon!
( and PLEASE ask Graham to try to find time to visit the new museum and donate the Elysiums!)

[Bastich]

Originally Posted by simon_m74

Wow, I`m the Retro-VR guy, Simon from the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester.
I look after the 4 VR machines we have there as well as 2 I have at home.

Pleased to meet you. I am the sole coder for Maelstrom It's a little old now but have you seen the Dinosaur setup at the museum?

Originally Posted by simon_m74

If you want to play Dactyl Nightmare - either head to the museum in Leicester, or if you cant - google for Dactyl Nightmare on Oculus - as its been re-made in Unity -and its looks pretty close!

Yer I have seen it, but not tried it yet. Do you now if it's OpenVR compatible (Vive and Oculus)?

Originally Posted by simon_m74

Please come and visit soon!
( and PLEASE ask Graham to try to find time to visit the new museum and donate the Elysiums!)

I will remind Graham

[simon_m74]

Originally Posted by Bastich

Pleased to meet you. I am the sole coder for Maelstrom It's a little old now but have you seen the Dinosaur setup at the museum?

Good to meet you too! - Well at least `virtually`. I hope to meet you in reality too!
Dinosaur setup ?

Yer I have seen it, but not tried it yet. Do you now if it's OpenVR compatible (Vive and Oculus)?

I know its on for Oculus... but not sure about Vive.

I will remind Graham

Thanks! I emailed him last night.
I`m off work on Friday 7th - so if possible and OK - I`d love to come to Maelstrom for a visit, to meet Graham again, yourself, and hopefully collect the Elysiums.

[Amiga1992]

simon_m74 is there any way you can assist Toni Wilen in supporting Virtuality? I would guess he would need a video card to play with, or at the very least, some specs and a firmware dump.

[Phantasm]

Is there any suggestion that Toni would be interested and willing to look into this if the software could be obtained? I know Simon and could speak to him if he is not actively responding on here.

[Amiga1992]

My understanding was that he would be interested in supporting anything Amiga related as long as he had ROMs and other stuff to work with. But best to ask him I guess?

[Toni Wilen]

This does not seem very interesting from Amiga point of view. It looks like Amiga is just some kind of controller (any computer probably would have worked, they just chose Amiga)

All the magic happens in other totally undocumented hardware that has nothing to do with Amiga.

This is also mostly guesses because there isn't even any photos of the hardware internals or software dumps!

[Bastich]

Originally it was all coded and run on an Amiga. However there was a custom tracker card and later it did all go over to PCs.

[Amiga1992]

Well then the first step is to be able to get a look at a machine and see exactly how involved the Amiga is.

I am surprised there's no more detailed info online

[Bastich]

I should be in the office next week and I will ask Graham for some more info on the different revisions of the systems.

[Phantasm]

simon posted some info back in 2015

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...3&postcount=10

based on this it sounds to me like the bulk of the software is running on the Amiga with twin graphics cards providing the stereo 3d output.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Bastich - 12 December 2016, 23:19

I work with the original designer of 'Dactyl Nightmare' and a fair few other games produced by Virtuality. I should be in the office next Tuesday and will ask about the tracking system.

@Bastich: yeah sure, we already heard that 2 yrs ago.
Simon, since 2.5 yrs, sits on the software, and nothing released.
are you guys kidding me?

[Bastich]

Simon already has the info on the tracking systems. The last systems (PC) "may" have used the Ascension Spacepad (ISA card), not sure TBH.

As to the main system hardware I do not know. It was Virtuality not Maelstrom (who I work for) and a long time ago. It started on the Amiga and ended on the PC (sound familiar?). If I find anything out I will contact Simon directly.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by emufan

@Bastich: yeah sure, we already heard that 2 yrs ago.
Simon, since 2.5 yrs, sits on the software, and nothing released.
are you guys kidding me?

Hey come on, why the tone? Calm down, it's just a thing.
Hopefully they can sort it out, and f not, whatever.

[simon_m74]

I hope this satisfies a few people here:

VR machines : 1000 series. Based on an Amiga 3000.

The VR machine consists of a computer called the Expality.
Within the Explaity there is :

• Amiga 3000 - with custom Expality gfx cards - one for each eye for stereo vision, or just one gfx for mono vision.

• A `Format Board` - this is basically an I/O interface between the Amiga and the rest of the machine. It controls the audio, arcade buttons/lights, joystick trimming, video switching (between amiga out & gfx card out )

• Tracking system. Polhemus Fastrack for the CS machines (Stand up) and Ascension Bird for the SD (Sitdown). Main difference is the fastrack had two trackers (headset and joystick), the bird has one (headset only)

The tracking system connects direct to the Amiga serial port, while the parallel port is uses to to control functions on the Format Board.

Games:
I have a good few VR games, about 10 I think.
The thing is, without the custom GFX cards, these games are useless, as they will NOT run with the GFX.


The Second gen machines - 2000 series.
PC 486/100 based - on a rack mounted system - 14 slot back-plane.
This system is even more custom.
It still uses a Polhemus Fastrak system - ISA card, rather than serial as on the Amiga version.

The Elysiums that I have been donated - are based on the 2000 series.

I have contacted Toni just tonight, asking about the possibility of emulating the custom GFX cards.

I must say this though... I have met many of the original team behind the VR machines and games.. and I FULLY respect them all.
In that respect, I will not disperse any VR games without their consent first.
I am not being `greedy`, I`m being honest about it all.

[Luckarusky]

So the data for the duel video accelerators is there, it's mostly a matter of turning that info into compiled PC code. ...easier said than done. I'm hoping it happens though. I've built an excellent HTC Vive rig here to support it!




https://flic.kr/p/2h64gJv
Just in case it won't display correctly.

It's a VR platform much like the standing version used by the Virtuality machines, just without the ring. The pad and "socks-only tactile" informs when I'm stepping beyond bounds. I can add a chair/table mounted steering wheel and joystick controls to simulate the original vehicular systems. I already have suitable joysticks and a throttle controllers.

[NPI]

Bumping this, just to ask how things are going? These are the 9 games released for the system:



Battlesphere

Dactyl Nightmare
Exorex
Flying Aces
Grid Busters
Hero
Legend Quest
Total Destruction
VTOL

[kriz]

Really hope this gets dumped and released for future reference.. Suddenly it will be lost if not