I stumbled upon this video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIe9O529MR0
Simulators have always fascinated me but my google search came empty.
So does anyone have an idea where do i start in order to build similar stuff? Any recommended software/hardware? And where can i buy them?
Thanks
If you are serious about this, i can help.
J4D wroteIf you are serious about this, i can help.
YES!
J4D wroteWhat they are using in the youtube video that you shared is complex, big, over engineered and not perfectly real. in a car you would not be jumping around like this. what they have made is more of a roller coaster ride !
what we can do is a system similar to this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Rwsy3LbZ0&feature=related
minimalistic and quite real !

Edit: the mechanism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqJjSF8BKH8&feature=related
The simulator in my video looks pretty fancy compared to this. But I guess I should start with the one you showed me and then think bigger.
What about the software? How did they connect the program to the motors?
clearly its custom. but mainly and logically you need to have a microcontroller to mediate the flow of data from the computer to the motor drivers. very simple once you can poll the data from the game itself. Should not be a big feat as well ! try to figure out what game they are playing on the system. if they can hack it, we surely can ;)
Well i searched the internet and couldn't find any decent racing simulator software with a public api. My friend went the hard way and put a camera in front of the accelerometer on the screen and then used a program to translate it to data (he used it on gran turismo).
J4D wroteWhat they are using in the youtube video that you shared is complex, big, over engineered and not perfectly real. in a car you would not be jumping around like this.
I don't think that it is over engineered, and the simulator it is very real... the jumping is to simulate the G-force...

In reality when a car slows its speed suddenly, the driver moves forward but the seatbelt prevents him from crushing the car front glass... in the simulator, at sudden car deceleration, the seat is inclined rapidly to the front, so the driver feels as if he is attracted forwardly and the seatbelt prevented him from crushing the front glass (which is the screen).

The driver in the simulator will not perceive the sudden inclination as an inclination, because the screen is inclined with him (the screen is the outer world, and it is his frame of reference)... only us (the outer observer) will see it as an inclination...
Actually there's a lebanese company that manufactures simulators: http://real-motion.com/
They did the formula car at yammine in ABC
The mechanism youtube video has a comment stating that a similar design can be found on this link: http://www.x-simulator.de/forum/ (.de => Deutschland = Germany, surprise, surprise).

One of the coolest posts for the week *Adding "do a racing game simulator" on bucket list*
offtopic: just paid a visit to the Williams F1 simulator ..... wow.
2 months later
I happen to be the dude Rami is talking about, all simulator stuff I found were for pc.
Given the fact that I'm more of a mechatronics dude and not a software guy, I can not hack the PS3, and as we all know, the best car simulator out there is Gran turismo only available on PS3(kind of a personal opinion, but I bet it's shared by many), I will be doing a small setup, a two degrees of freedom servo thingy, and run it on the camera setup. I know it's not a good system, but if it works with a tiny lag, I'd be happy to apply some hydraulics to it(that's kind of cheaper for me to get lol) :D