A primer on the visual, motion, audible and haptic cues necessary for immersive environments by David Hambling.

The Link “Blue Box”, the first effective flight trainer, was created in the late 1920s when aircraft had been flying for more than 20 years. This is a strong hint that an effective simulacrum may be harder to build than the real thing.

Our senses, sharpened by millions of years of evolution, cannot be fooled easily, making it difficult to give a realistic impression of flying high while still rooted firmly to the ground. Effective simulation requires visual, motion and audible cues, all fully integrated. Even minor flaws may result in simulator sickness, rendering the simulation useless. Other errors risk mis-training and making the simulation worse than useless. Standards for simulation are therefore necessarily high.

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