Buying advice please - Next Level v3 Motion Platform

[MarkR]

I'm looking for some advice and thoughts of other owners or people with good knowledge of the product, please.

I always said I'd buy myself a motion simulator if I could afford one and had the room available. Well, that day may have arrived. I'm impressed by what I've seen of the Next Level v3 Motion Platform

This seems to meet all my criteria:

+ Limited space requirements, I don't have room for a huge sim rig but this seems compact enough to work.
+ Works with Oculus Rift VR, that fixed head position setting solution is impressive
+ Great support and regular updates from the developers
+ Available in the UK
+ Works with my current Thrustmaster wheel and accessories.
+ Sub £3k for the full setup, I'm not a pro racer I'm not looking for a practice simulator this is just for fun so the cost/fun balance has to be right.

So help me do the man maths! Is it worth it?

Is there another similar product I should also look at? It would need to be reasonably compact, work with VR, available in the UK without too much hassle and in the same £3-5K price range.

Is there anywhere I can try one or even better several of the systems in the UK?

 

[RCHeliguy]

Your order of priorities is interesting.

I have a P1 Cockpit ordered and currently have a Fanatec setup ( Club Sport 2.5 WB, Porsche 918 wheel, V3 pedals with performance kit, H Shifter and hand brake and only sim wearing a Rift. I also have flight controls, ( metal A-10 Warthog flight stick and throttle, Crosswind pedals )

I was thinking that having a seat mover would be the next logical step to improve immersion. My plan is to mount my flight controls in a quick release fashion and the seat mover would improve flight games as well.

I'm considering waiting to see how the Fanatec DD wheelbase is received since most early opinions of it are that it feels very much like an OSW setup and I like the Fanatec integration and game support. I plan to at least keep the H-shifter.

I'm considering the Heusinkveld Sprint Combo with sequential shifter and hand brake. The Fanatec hand brake feels a bit flexy to me and I like how the Fanatec H-shifter works but I don't like how it feels in sequential mode. FWIW I love Dirt Rally and also have PC2 and AC.

I have 1/4" x 2x4x12" aluminum angle ordered, have a drill press and 8mm and 10mm jobber bits waiting.
I've also been playing with bicycle seat post quick releases that have 8mm bolts. I think that I may be able to very quickly bolt the flight throttle and stick. The Crosswind pedals will drop in about 1" below the top of the base frame and they will fit between the vertical wheel base supports.

Back to your priorities. Do you really think that a DD steering wheel adds more immersion than a seat mover? Or are you talking mostly about improvements in your driving. I could see how having better pedals and steering would make a difference there.

 

[Turvey]

Your order of priorities is interesting.

I have a P1 Cockpit ordered and currently have a Fanatec setup ( Club Sport 2.5 WB, Porsche 918 wheel, V3 pedals with performance kit, H Shifter and hand brake and only sim wearing a Rift. I also have flight controls, ( metal A-10 Warthog flight stick and throttle, Crosswind pedals )

I was thinking that having a seat mover would be the next logical step to improve immersion. My plan is to mount my flight controls in a quick release fashion and the seat mover would improve flight games as well.

I'm considering waiting to see how the Fanatec DD wheelbase is received since most early opinions of it are that it feels very much like an OSW setup and I like the Fanatec integration and game support. I plan to at least keep the H-shifter.

I'm considering the Heusinkveld Sprint Combo with sequential shifter and hand brake. The Fanatec hand brake feels a bit flexy to me and I like how the Fanatec H-shifter works but I don't like how it feels in sequential mode. FWIW I love Dirt Rally and also have PC2 and AC.

I have 1/4" x 2x4x12" aluminum angle ordered, have a drill press and 8mm and 10mm jobber bits waiting.
I've also been playing with bicycle seat post quick releases that have 8mm bolts. I think that I may be able to very quickly bolt the flight throttle and stick. The Crosswind pedals will drop in about 1" below the top of the base frame and they will fit between the vertical wheel base supports.

Back to your priorities. Do you really think that a DD steering wheel adds more immersion than a seat mover? Or are you talking mostly about improvements in your driving. I could see how having better pedals and steering would make a difference there.

How do the crosswinds go ? For me it was between them and the slaw pedals, i ended up ordering the slaw pedals cant wait to get them,also have the warthog love it, looking into virpil flight sticks also they look awesome.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I've had the Crosswinds for a year and have no regrets they are smooth, accurate and they are extremely adjustable with a nice place to rest the heals of your shoes or work great in stocking feet..They also have multiple spring cams. I've spent many back to back hours playing Eve Valkyrie when I was completely obsessed with that game and they were extremely comfortable and reliable. I calibrated them once and they have been perfect.

The Slaw pedals have a cool as hell look to them and I'm sure they work well with any shoes that have a bit of a heel to them to catch on the bar. Enjoy!

I've flown sail planes and single engine planes IRL. The pedals vary quite a bit. If there were one thing I might get it would be a real twist throttle collective helicopter arm to switch out when I'm flying a heli.

I also got an extension tube for my stick. FWIW, this is where I'm coming from. I built up the plywood for this and the seat is shared with my driving rig. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting my Sim-Lab P1 cockpit

 

[Turvey]

I've had the Crosswinds for a year and have no regrets they are smooth, accurate and they are extremely adjustable with a nice place to rest the heals of your shoes or work great in stocking feet..They also have multiple spring cams. I've spent many back to back hours playing Eve Valkyrie when I was completely obsessed with that game and they were extremely comfortable and reliable. I calibrated them once and they have been perfect.

The Slaw pedals have a cool as hell look to them and I'm sure they work well with any shoes that have a bit of a heel to them to catch on the bar. Enjoy!

I've flown sail planes and single engine planes IRL. The pedals vary quite a bit. If there were one thing I might get it would be a real twist throttle collective helicopter arm to switch out when I'm flying a heli.

I also got an extension tube for my stick. FWIW, this is where I'm coming from. I built up the plywood for this and the seat is shared with my driving rig. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting my Sim-Lab P1 cockpit View attachment 287969

Maxflight stick huey collective is what ill end up getting the komodo heli sim hardware looks great but just out of my price range, hows this for a rig ,i help this bloke out from time to time

 

[Slipstream]

@Slipstream Unfortunately I don't have the cockpit anymore and I don't think I have pics of the wheel deck but I can see if any pop up. Basically I put a thick L shaped bracket under the rear of the wheel deck. Picture your thumb and pointer finger at right angle like pointing a fake gun and that's about the size of it. It's probably 4mm thick. Long side under the wheel deck, shorter side on one of the square tubes of the frame just underneath it. Pre-drilled and bolted with nuts and washers.

Thanks for re-posting that pic. I had a Discord member talking about bracing and I knew I had a photo of mine somewhere on here!

I think I follow. I will try that. Thanks. Any other mods you did to it, maybe for the triple monitors? Overall this rig is not good at all for medium to high end gear, but its too late now to complain. I used it for quite some time with g27 and g920 setups. Once I upgraded to fantec flaws sarted to come out. Thanks again.

 

[anton_Chez]

I don't think so. I made sure all bolts were tight as they could be. I used some washers to pack the monitors on the mounts by a couple of mm to make sure they lined up properly once they were nearly there and just needed some very slight tweaking to get them perfect.

 

[RCHeliguy]

It's funny because for my flight rig I've actually enjoyed the COMPLETELY unrealistic side of flying like Eve Valkyrie more than the realistic side of flying. I lost interest flying planes IRL. Some people just love flying. I got bored with it and have found ultra realistic flight simulators more tedious than anything else. Being shot out of a space carrier into battle put a huge grin on my face. Granted once I maxed out all my ships and got to lvl 60 in EV, I lost interest. I'm still more likely to use my existing flight rig for fantasy space battles than to bother preflighting a jet before flying into a sortie.

However for the car racing side of things, I actually am looking for more realism. Go figure. However my favorite game for the last half year has been "In Death" which is a room scale game using only my
Touch controllers.

FYI for RC helis, this is what I like. I find it more exciting than flying planes.

 

[RCHeliguy]

OK, that was off topic. So I've got 4 transducers and SimVibe right now and I'm wondering how the NLR V3 is feeling these days on the tactile side. Is SimVibe still better or does the NLR software driving transducers complement the motion system well ?

 

[anton_Chez]

I wouldn't rely on it but it's definitely worth trying before buying something.

Alternatively you can try Simhub which incorporates Shake It for bass shaker use. I use that now and find it much better than Simvibe and I own Simvibe. Simhub is free.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I pulled the trigger. My NLR V3 will be here Wednesday. The angle aluminum arrives on Monday, but the P1 Cockpit probably won't be here until first week of February or so. Now the long wait....

I'm planning to bolt up my existing car seat to the rig. I like it and it's comfortable. It has a steel frame that will easily bolt up to 8020. (After a little quality time I spent with a cutting disk and grinder ) It came out of a VW Passat, has all manual controls for lumbar support, reclining and height. It weighs 45lbs and I'm about 180lbs, so I have a bit of head room to add quick release flight controls to the moving part of the rig.

One other thing I like about it is that the bottom seat cushion is suspended but has a steel support under it that my transducers mount to. This allows the vibrations to go straight into the seat without having to move the rest of the chair.

I'm planning to mount my other two transducers directly to the 8020 under my pedals.

The whole thing has to be mobile so I have a set of retractable casters for it. Luckily since I only use VR, there is no triple monitor rig to worry about.

 

[anton_Chez]

but the P1 Cockpit probably won't be here until first week of February or so. Now the long wait....

I LOL'd.

I waited 6 weeks for mine............

 

[RCHeliguy]

I ordered my P1 Cockpit a while back and then I modified my order for the next 2 weeks with Darko. Last week he told me that my cockpit should be put together this week and shipped. How much of those 6 weeks was your cockpit in shipping?

My Sparco Gaming gloves arrive this week. Ironically I ordered them while recovering from a 2nd degree burn on my right hand. I'm just now at the point where I could put a glove on without being in pain. So I ordered a bunch of stuff while I had my right hand slathered in an antibiotic cream and wrapped in gauze.

 

[anton_Chez]

Not long. Maybe 2 weeks. To Australia.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Darko emailed me and said that Sim-Labs now has a mount kit for the NLR V3 and just hasn't listed it on their website! It's now included in my order. He described it as 6 brackets, some spacers and fasteners. I bet that will look a lot cleaner than what I was planning. Too bad I already purchased the angle aluminum.

 

[sebna]

If it is submerging the NLRv3 then you are grand if it puts it on top of P1 then I would say you would be better off looking at submerging it

Cheers

 

[anton_Chez]

I had mine mounted on top and have now done the drop in method. Much better. It's nice that they've accounted for the mounting of the V3 but it sounds like what I did when I ordered mine. I just got 6 extra gusseted brackets and asked for a couple lengths extra of profile. I've now removed all of that and just run with angle brackets mounted to the main railing.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I've figured out exactly how I'm going to mount my Crosswind flight pedals. It will drop in and be a little below the top surface of the base and will have about 4" fore aft adjustment riding on a couple 320mm 40x40 pieces. I'm still working out how I want to attach the throttle and stick to move with the seat, but I'm getting a lot closer to a solution for both.

Usually I like a more upright posture when flying and I think dropping the flight pedals below the driving pedals would help, but it will still need to be removable as they would get in the way of the driving pedals.

And yeah if you are correct about them being upright mounts, I'll use my angle aluminum. I agree that the NLR V3 should be mounted below the surface, but with enough room for ventilation for the fans at the bottom. Does NLR have any guidance in terms of how much clearance they think it should have for cooling purposes?

 

[Mascot]

Darko emailed me and said that Sim-Labs now has a mount kit for the NLR V3 and just hasn't listed it on their website! It's now included in my order. He described it as 6 brackets, some spacers and fasteners. I bet that will look a lot cleaner than what I was planning. Too bad I already purchased the angle aluminum.

I posted details of a low mount for the NLRv3/P1 earlier in this thread - is this what you're using? It couldn't be easier or neater really. And rock-solid. And lets you move the seat fore/aft just by loosening the top bolts and sliding.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I have 4 pieces of 1/4" thick 2"x4" x 12" long angle aluminum arriving today.

Did you drill about 3/4" up from the edge for the NLR side ?

I only need two, but the shipping cost relative to the part cost had me thinking I should get a second pair just in case I made a mistake. I also figured I could use it somewhere else.

 

[Mascot]

Not sure of the exact dimension for the hole placement and it's impossible to measure without demounting it, but this was the sketch I did. It's to scale. The dims might be somewhere in this thread?