What I do

Okay, you've got a motion base and you've got a film and you've got a theater. Now you need to tell the base how to move in sync with the film.

Many people assume the motion somehow comes from the visuals - i.e. the camera moves are tracked and translated to the base automatically. If these were "real" simulators, that might be true.

But entertainment simulators are intended to give the audience a thrill, not really to simulate anything. Also, most motion bases can't duplicate those visuals very well at all - something as simple as a right-hand turn is beyond the ability of most entertainment sims. (A level turn would be a "yaw" move, and yaw is the rarest DOF in the showbiz sim world.)

So how does the base simulate that turn? It can't, is the honest answer.

And that's how I became a Medallion level frequent flyer - as a globe-trotting freelance motion-base programmer. Venturer programming consoleIt's my job to fool the audience into thinking the base is doing things it's not, while still maintaining the illusion of "realistic" motion. (If the motion doesn't seem to match the visuals then the audience will blow lunch all over each other, which would be bad.) I also have to give the audience the thrill they paid to get. Oh, and I also have to deal with the peculiarities of each type of base. Um, and also do all this with whatever motion control software the client has chosen to use. And not get killed in the process - motion bases are tricky beasts until the safety systems are in place and I don't often get the luxury of waiting that long.

Which is why I suppose I get enough work to make a living at this - if there's anybody on the planet who's programmed more bases in more types of theater venues with more varieties of input software, I'd like to meet him or her. (Because then we could unionize!)

In order to program a motion base, we need some software to make it run in sync with the audio and visuals. Some base manufacturers (Hughes, Moog and Reflectone, for example) supply this software, others don't. On the other hand, Triad and MediaMation don't manufacture bases, but they do market generic motion base software packages. (This, for example, is a Triad programming console.)

Most software used for motion simulator programming comes in the form of a "waveform editor" - something that should be familiar to anyone who's worked with computer animation or MIDI music editors.

The waveform editor is used to shape the motion of the ride - each axis has its own wave to be adjusted, and they all have to blend together. (Many people seem to think a "motion base programmer" literally programs, as in writes C code or something. Well, I don't. I just say "programmer" because "movement sculptor" or "motion artist" sounds pretentious as hell.)

A representative editor package is the Moog programming system seen here. (I helped design the interface, so I guess it's okay to show it...)

Moog waveform editor

In its most basic form, the process of motion base programming goes like this -

  1. Watch the film. A lot.
  2. Sit on the base. Repeat Step 1 while moving the base with a live joystick (*)
  3. Repeat Step 2 while the programming computer records the moves
  4. Refine the recorded moves with a waveform editor
  5. Ride the base again with the refined motion data
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the ride is safe, fun, and non-nauseating.

(* This is when the motion base will try to kill me.)

I've gone through those steps in as much as a year, and as fast as three days. The ideal time period is somewhere in between.

Now you know

Whew. That's the brief overview. Contained here are descriptions of simulators I've programmed, along with the technical info about the venues, graphics and pictures, and a special bonus - trivia! And because I've seen these films frame-by-frame, several hundred times apiece, I'll also tell you what to "Watch for" if you should ever see any of these films yourself. Use the Table of Contents to check out the individual simulator tales.

Oh, and that thing reading "E-stop" is the Emergency Stop - something a motion base cowboy like myself always wants to have close by. If at any time you should feel nauseous while reading these pages, E-Stop will take you back to The Truly Dangerous Company main page.