14 DAY TRIAL // Simulators aren't really the thing nowadays. Compared to their heydays, during the '90s, simulators today mostly remain confined to military facilities or some Oculus Rift development studios.
Well, even if the simulators are a thing of the past, they might be bound to return if Oculus Rift ends up being incredibly affordable while games will be fully compatible with the device. However, no matter how fun, incredible or realistic your simulators will be, while rocking that Oculus Rift on your face, none will match the "Cable Robot Simulator" developed at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.
Omnidirectional treadmill might do the trick for Oculus Rift players who are into looking like some Monty Python characters while playing Arma or Skyrim, but if you really think that you have the Richie Rich money to afford this level of "Simulator," then this is the thing for you. Apparently, the player has to wear a wireless VR headset inside a carbon fiber cage, which is suspended in mid-air and thrown around the room using eight steel cables.
The sitting pad will tilt, bank and move, accelerating the player to up to 1.5g as feedback on the VR experience. Right now, the developers have experimented with some basic racing and flight simulators, but imagine how much fun you'd have playing some Forza Motorsport or War Thunder on that thing.
The device is just a prototype at the moment, and as you can see, it isn't actually a home product unless you can spare an empty barn just for a couple of simulator titles. Nevertheless, it looks fun, and if you see something like that at some games conference in the near future, don't miss it.
