30-06-2010, 10:20 PM
Well after two days of research (and a day of COD to treat myself) I’ve come up with the best and closest way you can literally immerse yourself in your games. I know most of you won’t try this (or be able to afford this) but hell, it’s worth a read if you’re interested 
Ok, the easiest way to do this is to buy yourself a decent PC. It produces the best graphics and therefore closest to real world simulation you can get hold of. It can be done with a PS3 or Xbox 360 but (weirdly) it ends up more expensive than a decent PC. OK… on to the other equipment
Audio
Now, in a PC the equipment is easy to get hold of (or at least easier than the games consoles). Get yourself a Logitech G35 headset (Or a Razer Megalodon if you’re a wireless freak and for Xbox, get yourself a Turtle Beach X41 headset and PS3 get the PX21s
Why did I pick these? Well the G35 is a choice headset and the Megalodon is designed purely for gaming, both are 7.1 surround sound and have good quality microphones built in. As for the Turtle Beach headsets, I’ll be honest, I know nothing about high end gaming for consoles but they both come highly recommended.
Video
The best way to do this for any console is to get yourself a high spec curved projector screen and a high end projector, which amounts to roughly £1200
For PC this gets a lot more complicated. As you can have up to 8 screens per PC (6 per normal PC) you have a lot more flexibility with what you can use. Get yourself a Dell 3008WFP… then get 5 (or 7) more. You will also have to build yourself a mount for enough monitors as nothing exists on that sort of scale, and the total cost should come to around £13,000 (you see why nobody bothers with this? Or closer to £19,500 for 12 monitors if you use an Eyefinity card, which would be enough to get a complete field of vision.
Controls
Now, I realise I’m probably going to get damn-near raped for this but Games controllers are the better option for this, as they’re smaller and you don’t think about using them as much. If you’re into racing simulators then by all means get hold of a steering wheel and pedals/shifter (I find the Logitech G25s are good sets) and for other specialist sims there’ll be the other specialist controls. Being an RTS or TBS player is the only reason I would use a full keyboard/mouse set-up, as you can get hold of smaller sub-keyboards for FPS with just the keys you need.
Seating
Now, looking at stuff to do with seating I’ll have to break everything down into sections, as special games convey different moods
Racing fans:
The obvious solution for racing fans is to get yourself a car seat from the local scrapheap (there are some gems to be had if you look in the right place) and convert it to a proper seat (I look forward to the project logs). Alternatively there are readily made gaming seats for around the £300 mark.
Flight sim fans
As with driving simulators you can get hold of a seat for around the £300 mark. Look around scrapheaps for the more luxury cars and with a bit of extra metal you can make your own complete mounts.
FPS/RTS/TBS fans
Get yourself any regular chair with arms. There are actually no seats with specialist mounts for keyboards and mice. If you’re using a controller there are plenty of specialist gaming chairs out there but in honesty there’s no point in them, a better bet is just to get a nice comfortable chair with decent sized arms and to add some metal on so you have a mouse surface and a mount for the keyboard.
Alternatively, Build your own. As soon as I come into some money I’ll be building my own gaming chair, so keep an eye out for it in the project logs area
In honesty the entire solution could cost an absolute bomb (most of which going on the displays) but using your initiative you can save a bit of money.
Ok, the easiest way to do this is to buy yourself a decent PC. It produces the best graphics and therefore closest to real world simulation you can get hold of. It can be done with a PS3 or Xbox 360 but (weirdly) it ends up more expensive than a decent PC. OK… on to the other equipment
Audio
Now, in a PC the equipment is easy to get hold of (or at least easier than the games consoles). Get yourself a Logitech G35 headset (Or a Razer Megalodon if you’re a wireless freak and for Xbox, get yourself a Turtle Beach X41 headset and PS3 get the PX21s
Why did I pick these? Well the G35 is a choice headset and the Megalodon is designed purely for gaming, both are 7.1 surround sound and have good quality microphones built in. As for the Turtle Beach headsets, I’ll be honest, I know nothing about high end gaming for consoles but they both come highly recommended.
Video
The best way to do this for any console is to get yourself a high spec curved projector screen and a high end projector, which amounts to roughly £1200
For PC this gets a lot more complicated. As you can have up to 8 screens per PC (6 per normal PC) you have a lot more flexibility with what you can use. Get yourself a Dell 3008WFP… then get 5 (or 7) more. You will also have to build yourself a mount for enough monitors as nothing exists on that sort of scale, and the total cost should come to around £13,000 (you see why nobody bothers with this? Or closer to £19,500 for 12 monitors if you use an Eyefinity card, which would be enough to get a complete field of vision.
Controls
Now, I realise I’m probably going to get damn-near raped for this but Games controllers are the better option for this, as they’re smaller and you don’t think about using them as much. If you’re into racing simulators then by all means get hold of a steering wheel and pedals/shifter (I find the Logitech G25s are good sets) and for other specialist sims there’ll be the other specialist controls. Being an RTS or TBS player is the only reason I would use a full keyboard/mouse set-up, as you can get hold of smaller sub-keyboards for FPS with just the keys you need.
Seating
Now, looking at stuff to do with seating I’ll have to break everything down into sections, as special games convey different moods
Racing fans:
The obvious solution for racing fans is to get yourself a car seat from the local scrapheap (there are some gems to be had if you look in the right place) and convert it to a proper seat (I look forward to the project logs). Alternatively there are readily made gaming seats for around the £300 mark.
Flight sim fans
As with driving simulators you can get hold of a seat for around the £300 mark. Look around scrapheaps for the more luxury cars and with a bit of extra metal you can make your own complete mounts.
FPS/RTS/TBS fans
Get yourself any regular chair with arms. There are actually no seats with specialist mounts for keyboards and mice. If you’re using a controller there are plenty of specialist gaming chairs out there but in honesty there’s no point in them, a better bet is just to get a nice comfortable chair with decent sized arms and to add some metal on so you have a mouse surface and a mount for the keyboard.
Alternatively, Build your own. As soon as I come into some money I’ll be building my own gaming chair, so keep an eye out for it in the project logs area
In honesty the entire solution could cost an absolute bomb (most of which going on the displays) but using your initiative you can save a bit of money.
![[Image: Bulbasaur_by_bigsharn.jpg]](http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/113/9/8/Bulbasaur_by_bigsharn.jpg)
As you do...
