What you see is a glorified DIY joystick controller with a LCD (‘MFD’) and plenty of RGB inspired by a VF-1 (Block 6) Valkyrie of the Macross franchise.

I use it mainly to play Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, X4: Foundations and plenty of other Space Pew Pew.

Three monitors form a wall around a box that embeds a fourth monitor, many buttons and switches in various colours are also implemented. Some LED display the status of a spaceship. The computer game that is played with this contraption is Elite Dangerous Odyssey

It’s mobile and can be stashed easily because my battlestation is, unlike most gaming rigs, also my workstation and has to move a lot. It’s also frequently occupied by my kids who also love clicky buttons and compete with me for stick time :D

Three monitors form a wall around a box that embeds a fourth monitor, many buttons and switches in various colours are also implemented. Some LED display the status of a spaceship. The computer game that is played with this contraption is Fly Dangerous

It’s completely DIY and made on a budget (no really). It’s also Work In Progress, like probably any home cockpit out there.

Picture of the building phase of the frame. One unpainted panel is already screwed to the wooden frame. Other panels do not exist yet or are still cardboard mockups

For the PC it’s just a joystick and an additional display. The magic starts to happen when I manage to interface with the games to display live game data and adjust the blinken lights depending on the current ship telemetry.

Am I crazy? Yes, probably. It’s a hobby and when Corona happened indoor hobbies became kinda a thing again 🤓

Edith says: Should have added this from the beginning: I do foster a project website that has additional details, pictures and videos: 🌐 https://SimPit.dev (yes it’s slow - hold the line :P)

Videos are usually mirrored to 📹 https://tube.tchncs.de/a/bekopharm or 📹 https://www.youtube.com/@BekoPharm (pick your poison).

Additional content may be found on 🌐 https://beko.famkos.net/category/simpit/ or on ☠️ https://hackaday.io/bekopharm

  • Ananace@lemmy.ananace.dev
    4·
    1 year ago

    I hope you’ve joined the Linux User Group - LUG - Org in Star Citizen.

    We’re steadily gunning for the top ten spot in org sizes. (Currently the 14th largest)

  • interolivary@beehaw.org
    3·
    1 year ago

    Ha, that’s fucking awesome. Also probably the only way to make E:D actually fun to play 😅 I put in about 100h before I got tired of how shallow it ultimately is

    • Beko Pharm@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      Not going to defend ED but this type of game is usually more about the journey especially with friends. Yes, the grind is unreal and also nothing for me which is why I almost completely ignored engineering so far. I do enjoy other parts of the game though.

      100h? My would you look at my SC playing time: just 57h and half of that is walking back to the spaceport xD

    • Ananace@lemmy.ananace.dev
      1·
      1 year ago

      I personally burnt out after only 70 hours of in-game time, the way they kept releasing patches and DLC that added more and more levels of grind onto the game finally ended up absolutely killing all my enjoyment of the game.

      • interolivary@beehaw.org
        2·
        1 year ago

        Yeah Frontier really dropped the ball with game design for E:D, the ratio of grind to content is just ridiculous.

        I mean it’s definitely a fun game for a while and it gives space a sense of scale like nothing else, but everybody I personally know who’s tried it has ended up exactly where you and I did. It’s a mile wide and an inch deep, and sooner or later folks realize they’re just doing the same mission, seeing the same planets, visiting the same Guardian ruins, seeing the same spaceports, again and again.

        The planetary procedural generation is somehow especially disappointing. While, yes, they’re all unique in a mathematical sense and the fact that it’s a 1:1 simulation of our galaxy based on real astrophysics is extremely cool, once you’ve seen one icy lump you’ve seen them all; the variety of planets you can actually land on is very small, they’re all barren, and have no weather, no oceans or anything like that, just rock or ice. And if you’re playing as an explorer the “alien life” you can scan is limited to a handful of plants that all look identical except for some minor color variation. So the fact that the topography of this particular icy lump is different from that other icy lump is lost when that’s the only thing that distinguishes them

  • jarfil@beehaw.org
    3·
    1 year ago

    You just made my 10yo self massively envious… all I had was a couple cardboard boxes, fake dials, some blinkenlights, DIY switches and paper code cards, and some paper tube graphite heaters fed from an old high voltage TV cap that I’m still unsure how didn’t set the whole thing on fire.

    • Beko Pharm@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      my first version was cardboard too and I also call it my little fire hazard 😜 The backside is really ugly. Thanks for your comment. My 10yo self is very proud and happy that I finally built this.

      • Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
        4·
        1 year ago

        I’m just yanking you chain. In all seriousness though, I’m curious if you could enable finger tracking on a headset and line up your physical buttons with the virtual ones. Could be insanely immersive if the scale is correct!

        • Beko Pharm@discuss.tchncs.deOP
          1·
          1 year ago

          I see. In theory that’s possible but there is no game that has this as virtual cockpit as well. I know this exists for e.g. “real” jets but it’s really not for me. Getting motion sick fast (even from shaky YT videos), wearing glasses and like drinking my beer while simming.

  • Luci@lemmy.ca
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’m a bit confused, are “, ,” and “Space Pew Pew” the names of the games?

  • Strayce@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    This confused the living shit out of me for a good five minutes, seeing a sidey on the MFD but a battlestar in the main screen and an X4 HUD.

    • Beko Pharm@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      Mission accomplished 😜

      Edith says: This is mostly because I don’t have any icons for X4 yet. The HUD app (written in React) can switch that on the fly but I’m really not big on the gfx side and that’s also a lot of hot needle coding going on. Currently also experimenting with Rive animations that are more suited for classic MFD applications. See this [unlisted] demo snippet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suik2_baUfU

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
    1·
    1 year ago

    That’s so cool. Do you have any videos showing off the build process or final product

  • Crotaro@beehaw.org
    1·
    1 year ago

    Very impressive! Maybe when the next global pandemic flares up, I’ll build something similar >:)