Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

A Rollercoaster In Your Front Room?


Recommended Posts

For Non-UK Readers, we have a program called the Gadget Show over here in the UK, basically reviews of the latest Technology and every week they challenge themselves to design something.

 

Well, I stumbled upon this video from a month or so ago and I think you'll all enjoy viewing this (I SO WANT ONE!!!!)

 

http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/videos/challenge/rollercoaster-part-three

 

If anyone outside of the UK cannot view this, let me know and I will try to find it on YouTube for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 19
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I found a couple of things interesting about this:

 

1. They chose (probably by accident) Expedition GeForce as their roller coaster.

 

2. Do people really think that when you go over a hill you should be LURCHED forward in your seat? I notice this too with a lot of motion simulators that anytime you crest a roller coaster hill a you go back down, the simulator violently shoves your chair forward.

 

And seeing that it appeared this was the "natural reaction" for the person moving the chair, is that what people think actually happens???

 

It's just curious to me, because I can't think of any roller coasters, not even the roughest ones I've been on where you are lurched so violently forward in your seat to the point of totally flopping forward nearly smashing your head into the front of the train when going down a drop!

 

ps. The moment I'm talking about is at 4:46 in the video.

 

--Robb

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ What an odd thing to point out. I don't think they're trying to lurch you forward. They're just tilting you forward because the first drop makes your body point downward. Because you're not actually on a coaster, your body's going to lurch forward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ What an odd thing to point out. I don't think they're trying to lurch you forward. They're just tilting you forward because the first drop makes your body point downward. Because you're not actually on a coaster, your body's going to lurch forward.

But look at the video and think back to many big screen similators that you'll find in parks.

 

She didn't just smoothly tilt the guy forward. They lurch or shake you forward. I think what they are *trying* to do is show that you're changing direction, but it's just such a poor way to portray this.

 

It's ALWAYS bothered me in simulators because a "simulator" by it's nature is supposed to realistically "simulate" the action you see on screen (think back to actual flight simulators or other simulators used for real purposes, not for entertainment.)

 

But then the "entertainment folk" get ahold of this technology and go "Hmm....it's not fun to fly the plane...but OMG, it's awesome to CRASH the plane!!!"

 

And thus instead of smooth, fluid movements, you have shaking, jerking and jostling every 10 seconds.

 

I remember when I worked for Disney talking to someone who worked on Star Tours when it first opened and they were telling me "We've had a lot of problems with the mechanics because they were designed to simulate flying the plane, not crashing one every 3 1/2 minutes."

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I've never found this violent jerking movement to ever be "fun" in any simulator. I find it to be annoying. So when I saw the woman in that video also shake that chair violently in the same way that an actual simulator would be programmed it got me thinking "Do people REALLY think that is the motion you feel when you go down a drop." Or is it that they just don't know any other way to convey what they think they are feeling?

 

Like "Hmmm....tilting the chair back and forth very smoothly to match the what is on the video is actually quite relaxing and not 'thrilling' at all....so....let me *SHAKE* the chair and *JERK* the the chair from side to side, and *LURCH* the chair forward! There we go! That's really giving the rider a thrill now!!!"

 

That's more of what I see happening here. (and on simulators found in theme parks)

 

I dunno, it was just a moment of trying to understand human behaviour when I saw that video clip.

 

--Robb "Sorry for the rambling and random thoughts..." Alvey

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Oh Suzy, you give such a good ride"

 

hahahaha. haha. That made me laugh. What was the point of the 65" tele when you just put the mask on anyways? You could have gotten away with the laptop and glasses, but what fun would that be? Obviously trying to copy America where everything is bigger and better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ Huh? I don't think they were trying to "Copy America" at all. The giant television was because they were shooting a TV SHOW and that way the veiwers of the TV SHOW would be able to see what is also being displayed on the glasses.

 

It made perfect sense to me.

 

--Robb

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ What an odd thing to point out. I don't think they're trying to lurch you forward. They're just tilting you forward because the first drop makes your body point downward. Because you're not actually on a coaster, your body's going to lurch forward.

But look at the video and think back to many big screen similators that you'll find in parks.

 

She didn't just smoothly tilt the guy forward. They lurch or shake you forward. I think what they are *trying* to do is show that you're changing direction, but it's just such a poor way to portray this.

 

It's ALWAYS bothered me in simulators because a "simulator" by it's nature is supposed to realistically "simulate" the action you see on screen (think back to actual flight simulators or other simulators used for real purposes, not for entertainment.)

 

But then the "entertainment folk" get ahold of this technology and go "Hmm....it's not fun to fly the plane...but OMG, it's awesome to CRASH the plane!!!"

 

And thus instead of smooth, fluid movements, you have shaking, jerking and jostling every 10 seconds.

 

I remember when I worked for Disney talking to someone who worked on Star Tours when it first opened and they were telling me "We've had a lot of problems with the mechanics because they were designed to simulate flying the plane, not crashing one every 3 1/2 minutes."

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I've never found this violent jerking movement to ever be "fun" in any simulator. I find it to be annoying. So when I saw the woman in that video also shake that chair violently in the same way that an actual simulator would be programmed it got me thinking "Do people REALLY think that is the motion you feel when you go down a drop." Or is it that they just don't know any other way to convey what they think they are feeling?

 

Like "Hmmm....tilting the chair back and forth very smoothly to match the what is on the video is actually quite relaxing and not 'thrilling' at all....so....let me *SHAKE* the chair and *JERK* the the chair from side to side, and *LURCH* the chair forward! There we go! That's really giving the rider a thrill now!!!"

 

That's more of what I see happening here. (and on simulators found in theme parks)

 

I dunno, it was just a moment of trying to understand human behaviour when I saw that video clip.

 

--Robb "Sorry for the rambling and random thoughts..." Alvey

 

That's actually an interesting point. I think perhaps since weightlessness and strong g forces can't be replicated as easily with simulators, designers try to compensate with rough motions. Otherwise the simulators would just be boring to ride. I agree though that for the most part it just isn't very fun to be thrown around. I really like Soaring Over California where the motions are more subtle and more realistic.

 

But then again, probably my all time favorite ride is Indy at Disneyland... which throws you around as much as any ride. I've never really thought about why this works so well on Indy though (at least in my opinion), and not as well (again, in my opinion) on rides like Star Tours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This reminds me of those roller coaster POV simulator machines that they have in shopping malls and arcades.

 

Basically you have a seat attached to an old TV screen. When you put money in the machine you can choose between 2 different coasters (Blue Streak or Gemini) and the seat is supposed to move with the POV shown on screen.

 

It looks kinda like this...

http://www.highway.net.au/bulk_offers/coasterider_xpress_rollercoaster/33.html

Except its blue colored.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

words words words words words

 

--Robb "Sorry for the rambling and random thoughts..." Alvey

Actually, that's the reason I don't like simulators. They just jerk you around. Back to the Future was horrible with that.

 

This kind of makes me want to plug my computer into my TV and ride NoLimits coasters in it. I've got a 40-inch TV. Just watching it without any of that VR crap might be awesome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To go with Robb's point at about roller coaster simulators, why were they even built to begin with? There is no real way to do a proper simulation for the G's unless you build a Mission:SPACE style ride.

 

The idea of a jet fighter, Soarin' or even Star Tours is to simulate something very few people can do. The idea of simulation an amusement park ride when, except for a few states, you are no more then a few hours from one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder when one of these will be comercially availiable, with electronics rather than relying on human power of course. I can see it happening as 3D movie DVDs are already availible for sale. 4D is just a step up.

 

As for replicating weightlessness, the only way I can think of doing it is having the seat able to go up and down really fast. Sorta like an elevator if you get what I mean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Look closely at her little NoLimits project. It's hilariously bad.

NoLimits is pretty hard to get used to building roller coasters in, but did you see some of the sharp corners in her track?

 

And then they cut away and used the Expedition GeForce ride that came with the game, and acted like they made something.

99.9% of the viewers would never notice this. I'm not trying to be a complainy enthusiast, it just made the video that much more entertaining.

 

Those virtual reality glasses looked awesome. They should make one with an accelerometer in them, and map the accelerometer to control the camera movement. If they did that, then $200 would be a great dea!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I like how they pretended that they completely made up Expedition GeForce, just whipped it together in a few minutes.

I can't see how a home made simulator would really be anything like riding a real coaster with no real anticipation, thrills, or airtime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/