[Rehaan]

Last week jalsa777 and me had a chance to check out the racing simulator at the latest gaming complex in town – Smaaash, at Lower Parel, Mumbai.



Centered in a dark room is a black Sparco seat, flanked by three glowing 42” LCD screens and held up by six large electric actuators. It’s the Cruden Hexathrill, a very high-end racing simulator that probably costs as much as a sports car itself!

The six actuators are electric, and when connected to the massive universal joints on each end allow the whole unit six degrees of freedom. This means that the entire cockpit can move vertically, horizontally, sideways, as well as pitch, roll and yaw. Naturally cars don’t move this much (except perhaps a Tata Safari), but the movement itself uses gravity to simulate the forces of acceleration, deceleration, cornering and impacts you’d feel if you were driving a real car.

Interesting fact – this simulator has “KERS” built in! Nope, not a simulation of KERS where you press a button and it makes your car faster – but an actual energy recovery system (ie probably re-generating energy as gravity/weight compresses the electric actuators).

There were only two tracks on the setup when we drove it : Zandvoort and Autodromo De Lunyachamps – but they should be adding more soon. Car choices too were limitied at the time, with a choice between a Cruden GT450 (rally car) and an F1 car that sounded quite nice over the speakers!

In our few laps around the circuit, the steering had he ability to return fairly powerful feedback, and felt a lot more real than more rubber-bandy or disconnected videogame steering wheels. The pedals were on the hard side too, with the brakes requiring a firm foot. Jalsa777 brought up an interesting point when he said that F1 drivers are supposed to hit the brakes very hard at the beginning of their braking, since that’s when they are traveling the fastest and therefore have the most down-force and grip.

You can choose between full auto and paddle-shift manual. There’s even a few LED shift lights ahead of the steering, along with a gear indicator and some more info. Overall a fairly realistic and very involving experience.

Expected pricing is around Rs. 250 for 5-10 mins – quite reasonable, though its still not confirmed.

Don't miss the video in my 3rd post.


Kitted out cockpit, complete with 4-point racing harness


Massive 42"x3 display matrix


In motion


Motors for the 6 electric actuators


Massive universal joints, almost like truck axles!


Driver's view (the seat moves forward and back, but the steering tilt is fixed)


Shift-lights, gear indicator and more are shown on an actual read-out (not on-screen)


Super accurate linear potentiometer for the accelerator, and what looks like dual hydraulic cylinders for the brakes, including a front/rear bias bar! Clutch pedal is a dud.


The rally car


The F1 car, with the open wheels in view


A time-challenge game for changing an F1 tyre. The wheel and tyre probably weighed about 5-8 kgs.

[Rehaan]

The place also has a food & drink area, arcade games, a thai spa and a lot of cricket simulators!

In this one, a projected video of your favourite slinger runs up towards you, and a ball gets shot out of a small opening on the far wall. Batting practice.


You can also bowl, and according to where the ball hits the far wall, the batsman plays a shot (or gets clean bowled)


There's 4-6 batting lanes (sorry didn't count them upstairs), and one bowling lane


For those who prefer dietary sports, they can sit around and stuff their faces whilst watching others work up a sweat


Cool stools


The hang-out area


The seating area (looks nice outside too)


They even have some shoot-em-up games, complete with this super heavy gun with rotating barrel


Air-hockey and some games of yore


I don't know what this is, but i'm sure its popular in Korea and Japan


Outside, they have a room with a 360-degree white wall and an omni-directional treadmill. This is used for first-person shooter games. Each treadmill segment moves away from the center, so to move forward you actually step onto the treadmill ahead of you and walk.


5 projectors on the ceiling, along with some other sensors. You might have seen a UK TV show where they first concocted this thing


The drive system for the treadmills


Robo-Goalie!
They say you can win a Harley if you score 3 consecutive goals. The “goalie-unreachable zones” are in the top left and right corners due to the limited sweep of the keeper. The system has to be turned off when someone goes to recover the ball so that no arms get chopped off by a diving 2-dimensional goalie!

[Rehaan]

Here's a video of the simulator in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh8SFAkIF8U

Timings:
Smaaash is open, 10am to 1am, 7 days a week.
(Its got three "a"s in the name if that makes it easier for you to spell it).

Address:
City Studio, Oasis Complex, Next to Kamala Mills Compound, Gate No. 4,
Pandurang Budhkar Marg, Lower Parel,
Mumbai 400013

Its on the road between the TV Tower and Hard-rock cafe. Roughly in between the two in terms of distance.

Here's the map:
(I placed the red dot where i remember it being - it should be close )


cya
R

[neel385]

Interesting stuff. Simulators have come a long way from the days of yore, but this one seems top notch and in league with some aircraft training simulators as far as the 6 DOF aspect is concerned.

[paras211]

Where is this exactly? Is it open ? I am super excited for it.

[Saanil]

Originally Posted by paras211

Where is this exactly? Is it open ? I am super excited for it.

This is actually near Phoenix Mills lower Parel. A friend of mine had been there and he praised the cricket simulator a lot.

[Y@SH]

QUite interesting, like the SEGA racing simulators they have in the UAE. The sega ones have an actual car shell though which makes it more realistic. This is located in Phoenix Mills, was launched a few days back and even Sachin Tendulkar was present at the launch.

[Rehaan]

Video added above.

Originally Posted by paras211

Where is this exactly? Is it open ? I am super excited for it.

Yep it opened this Monday from what i know. Do update us with actual pricing if you do visit.

Originally Posted by Y@SH

This is located in Phoenix Mills...

On the map its shown next to a place thats called "Phoenix mills", but its NOT in or near the phoenix mills we know.

I've added a map above.

cya
R

[9thsphinx]

Gaming is one industry that will probably never lose its charm. There are so many developments going on and futuristic technologies going into it - almost like there's no end to it. Also, many people turn to games for a short term escape from reality. The sheer feeling of becoming one with the game is a fantastic feeling and it can't get better than simulators! I hope they come up with an Assassins Creed simulator one day

[sumathindra]

OMG ! I would love to be in that seat. Hoping one comes in Bangalore, not sure if it has already. Anyone aware of this?

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by sumathindra

Hoping one comes in Bangalore, not sure if it has already. Anyone aware of this?

In Bangalore you can check out "Race Tantra"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASLT_X0Py98

cya
R

[GTO]

Super report as always! Thanks for sharing it with us, Rehaan.

Inviting enough for us petrol-heads. Always on the lookout to do different things on weekends. However, this doesn't look like an experience suited to a noob (which might form 99% of the footfalls at this place).

Keeping in mind the equipment price you indicate, 250 for 5 - 10 minutes sounds alright. But they should come out with packages that sweeten the deal for gearheads like us who'd use it for longer (say, 500 - 600 bucks for 30 minutes).

[KL54]

Costs around 90k quid. More than 78L!

source : http://beforeitsnews.com/science-and...at-565248.html

[n:CorE]

Just happened to visit the place today. Very close by to where I live. The racing simulator is such a treat for us petrol-heads. Rehaan has summed the whole experience up beautifully and I'd like to add and confirm the pricing is indeed Rs.250/- for around 5-10 minutes.

The input on the paddles be it however aggressive or soft are translated instantly into a gear change and the sounds of simultaneous gear dropping on a steep corner are spot on. Steering feedback is also delightful and this simulator is miles ahead of the age-old simulators with their endlessly rotating steering wheels.

Super high tech stuff, I went in twice .. The 2nd time around was really good as I was more familiar with the track.

There is a plasma screen on the side as well for spectators to see your lap from an-eagle eyed camera along with a speedometer, gear indicator and a pulsating throttle/brake light in between the circular speedo.

More to add: The clutch pedal has been removed now, and the brake pedal has been enlarged and boy is it stiff!

I also happened to have some food in the restaurant, that was pretty good as well. Nothing we ordered on the table dissapointed us. Service was nice and in a reasonable time as well.

Really good place to spend a weekend holiday. We were there for almost about 4 hours today afternoon.

Regards,

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by GTO

However, this doesn't look like an experience suited to a noob (which might form 99% of the footfalls at this place).

Well, they have different levels of assists on this thing (beginner / pro, etc). I'm sure that by default they'll keep it on the lowest.

When we were there we tried out the whole gamut, but didn't really have time to notice the differences.

Originally Posted by n:CorE

... I'd like to add and confirm the pricing is indeed Rs.250/- for around 5-10 minutes.

Originally Posted by n:CorE

...More to add: The clutch pedal has been removed now, and the brake pedal has been enlarged and boy is it stiff!

Thats good news, as they were stacked pretty close earlier and the clutch was just a dummy.

Any update on how many cars / tracks they had?

cya
R