Everything Else

My futile bid for a VFX1 VR headset was the winning bid in the end and in two weeks it should arrive at my door.
According to the net there were two ways to hook it up. You either used the ISA Interface card that came with it or a special Link box that never made it to full development and can only be found once in a blue moon and sometimes in schematic form.
From the photos the auction you get the basics. The controller, cables and the headset. I worried about what happened to the VIP interface card. I hope it's just off-camera (he couldn't use it without the card or link box) There's a complete VFX1 here (minus the SDK, that was extra.) and with it you see the card which connected to your video card using the VESA Feature connector.
No matter what, it looks like fun!

EDIT: Darn. The last place where you could download drivers and software, Mindflux seems to be full of dead links. This will be fun trying to find them now.

I used to have one of those way back when. It was a lot of fun with the Novalogic games (Comanche, F-22, etc.) I kept it on a glass head sculpture I found at Pier 1 Imports. Had great sounding headphones too.

And if I remember correctly, the VFX1 would not work with AGP video cards, only PCI.

Not really.
If you built the Link box you could bypass the VIP card and plug directly into a standard VGA output (or use a passthrough). The only real reason you couldn't use AGP was because it lacked the VESA Feature connector.
People have managed to get resolutions up to 1024 x 768 with link boxes but so far it looks like alot of work with the soldering iron. At least we have a component supplier in town.
Do you still have the cd's/disks? The utilities and drivers would be really nice.

pentium wrote: Not really.
If you built the Link box you could bypass the VIP card and plug directly into a standard VGA output (or use a passthrough). The only real reason you couldn't use AGP was because it lacked the VESA Feature connector.
People have managed to get resolutions up to 1024 x 768 with link boxes but so far it looks like alot of work with the soldering iron. At least we have a component supplier in town.
Do you still have the cd's/disks? The utilities and drivers would be really nice.

Trust me, the AGP card in question did have feature connector. This was during the AGP 1X/2X era. Even my VooDoo5 5500 had a feature connector.

That link box could either be a lot of fun to build or an enormous headache. But if you could find one of these... http://www.geocities.com/vr_junkie/LinkBox.jpg At least with a VIP card you could make sure the entire unit still works properly first before modding it.

I don't have anything left of it. I sold all of it plus the computer it was hooked up to.

Hmmm, that linkbox looks like it does not include tracking support.

BuMP
Guess what I picked up at the post office yesterday morning.
I'm still bummed out that I didn't get the VIP card. I have a system all ready for the card and headset.
It's a bit bulky though.
Oh yeah, I have managed to gather all the software and papers related to the VFX1. Among other things, I now have the drivers, SDK and some great datasheets and schematics unzipped and stored on a CD.

You must get some incredible sound out of those headphones! Have you got it up and running yet?

Have you got it up and running yet?

Nope.
Without that VIP card the headset won't work. I don't have the money to make a linkbox either so I will just have to pray for now that I find one of those cards.

Hey, just stumbled across one of these on ebay (then found this forum)... picked it up, came with the VIP ISA card, and 2 cds, I assume with drivers and everything. I'm mainly a mac guy, but have a spare dell optiplex that I just had to order a cheap ISA expansion card of some sort for (comes with 2 PCI slots and 2 ISA)

But I'd REALLLLY like to get my hands on a VGA linkbox if anyone has one they're willing to offer, in exchange for my VIP ISA card. Don't really have the intense circuitry experience to make that happen on my own.

Anyone?

They are not that hard to make. There are schematics available that can be used to build one as well as a parts list.
You can also get the SDK for free.

Wonderful!
While it's not a pci card (well, there goes putting use to my dual PII system) but I found out that the old 64 meg Winfast Geforce 2 Pro I pulled from my linux box a few months back (too old for latest Nivdia drivers) has a VIP card compatible feature connector.
Well at least I won't be stuck with that horrendous 8 meg thing I was planning on using once I found one of those dang cards.

I have a famous Abit BP6 with dual Celerons, AGP 2x and ISA slots that would take a VFX HMD in base form off my GF4 card.

Oooh, a BP6. That would work nicely.
Did you ever recap the thing?

pentium wrote: Oooh, a BP6. That would work nicely.
Did you ever recap the thing?

Didn't have to. It was a later revision with better caps.

great!

A fun head gear project .

Who remembers this old thread? Guess who took eight years to build the damn machine?
Oh my god I looked like such a dork when I was 17.

Anyways, it's up. Sometime in the past I bought a second VFX1 to make up for the missing VIP card and got another 25 feet of cable, a complete spare helmet and the docs and software (actually, it turned out my bonus CD is a bad master so the files are unreadable. Anyone got a backup? ). At some other point I basically imaged everything on the fortevfx1 Yahoo group, then for a few more years the system and two boxes of parts bumbled around in storage. Anyways, the board is recapped, the software is loaded and now the fun finally begins.





Sorry folks. No truly fast 3D acceleration here. Every high-end AGP card I owned with a feature connector (including my previously mentioned Geforce 2 and no 87porche, apparently the Voodoo5 5500 won't work either) turned out to not be compatible in one way or another. Instead I'm forced to use a nasty Rage Pro Turbo chipset. On paper it's been said that Half-Life works but in testing so far it does not.


The textures are all 256 color but the engine I believe wants to run at another depth that isn't supported. There's gotta be a way to fix this. Quake on the other hand plays like a dream.
Actually in the last eight years it seems a lot of talk on the VFX1 died off int he advent of the Oculus Rift. It's all an uphill fight from here on in.
Also it appears the foam padding in the helmet is of the variety that does not age well. In both helmets the foam has begun to decay and crumble. It's all held in with velcro so they can be removed, templated and new pieces cut and installed.

Say SiliconClassics, didn't you make a video on the VFX1 a while ago?

Nice to see it up and running! Yes, I made a video about the VFX1 a couple of years ago.

Like you, I had difficulty finding a video card that was compatible with the VIP board, so I ended up using a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000, which doesn't really have any 3D acceleration features to speak of. Apparently the VESA feature connector was an ill-defined standard that was implemented differently by manufacturers. Even the Stealth 3D 2000 Pro, a slightly newer board from Diamond, doesn't work properly.

But once you finally get it all working, it's a lot of fun to toy with.

Under Quake alone it's been quite an enjoyable experience.*

a blast from the past it must be getting quite warm under that helmet after a while? personally never tried anything but crystaleyes + headtracker in an onyx-run CAVE back in the day.

the oculus rift DK1 might also be worth it - unless that's too recent a hardware for you. easier to install/operate than DK2 and already totally mindblowing. great to tinker with in unity 4 (and possibly unreal 4) engine.