UE4 and Motion Simulators

Hey all!

We have a potential project coming down the pipe where the client is wanting to build a VR experience paired with an existing vehicle motion simulator. Without getting too much into the specifics, from an entirely birds-eye point of view, assuming we have access to the SDK and interfaces of the motion control system, would UE4 have the ability to export triggers to the motion simulator? Of course I know there are plenty of ways to input into the engine, but getting realtime data out of it is a bit of an unknown to us.

I know there are a million technical specifications that would greatly affect the feasibility of this project, but from a big picture perspective: Could UE4 be paired with an external motion simulator? Would this require extensive work assuming that there is some type of technical language the motion simulator could interpret? And finally, according to the client there is a plugin series that works with Unity; could we use this plugin as a reference and incorporate it into UE4? We’d love to avoid having to use Unity if at all possible.

Apologies for the vague question, if anyone has any input that would be fantastic. You guys rock!

Presumably this is just a stream of vectors if it’s a 3axis machine or 2 vectors of its 6axis. You can easily transmit out of the system on tcp/ip. Just ask them what the device expects. You could easily find someone to write you a plugin.

Dannington you are a hero. So presumably we’d be looking to find someone who would be familiar with outputting vector informatino via tcp/ip in a way that would interface with the vector inputs that the motion simulator would be expecting. I’m sure the simulator is going to have some type of lookup table with the network inputs it’s expecting to receive.

Based on your knowledge, is this an in-house kind of job? Someone would likely need access to the simulator itself I’d imagine.

I’d say take a look at the sdk if there is one or documentation for the type of message the machine is expecting and how it’s expecting it and post it here - someone will point you in the right direction - it’s a great forum with great contributors. In the past I’ve paid Rama - see the blueprint sub forum - to make a TCP/IP plugin for me. Things are a bit more mature here since then so post up some sample data and see what happens.