FAQ
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Yes, but only if they have provided their parent or guardians written consent to the operator of the SkydiVR unit.
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You provide us your Latitude and Longitude of the center of your landing area, you can use Google Maps to get the Latitude/Longitude. We will produce a geographic representation of your dropzone in virtual reality. If you have more than one landing area, the average/middle of all landing areas is ok. Please also provide your logo, and a photo that is fun-representative of your dropzone, such as the hangar, manifest, or packing area. We will use this as the splash page background whenever one of your users selects your dropzone. We will work with you further to change the images as needed so that your dropzone is best represented.
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You can jump solo or jump with friends (JWF - Multiplayer). A user starts SkydiVR like any other Windows application to configure/start a jump (solo or JWF). Select the dropzone, canopy type, wind conditions and starting altitude.
If doing a JWF jump, as jumpmaster they also have the ability to select opening/starting orientation (circle, line or side by side).
The Jumpmaster can then invite online friends with SkydiVR who then join the jump. Once they join the jump, before and during the jump everyone can talk to each other.
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SkydiVR works best at a drop zone to compliment existing tools and techniques. After completing the first jump course, students then have the ability to use SkydiVR:
In "study" mode which is while they are flying in VR, the Instructor can make suggestions
In "test" mode where the student experiences canopy flight and comprehends the decisions needed without verbal advice. This replicates the possibility of their radio not working.
We have found a package of five pre-defined jumps works efficiently to consistently produce canopy confident students. From easiest to hardest these jumps portray the drop zones landmarks, wind conditions, common landing patterns and problems presented to students.
After the five jumps a student now has the experience of five parachutes flights over the drop zone into which they will jump.
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SkydiVR currently works best as a canopy navigation tool not a canopy landing tool. From 3000 feet down to 100 feet SkydiVR helps the student to understand what information they need to understand and when to make wise decisions under canopy. Students can at all times have a fully functioning digital altimeter.
But of course we also want them to get realistic practice at landing!
On final approach we like to get our students to practice gauging their height and flare altitude using their peripheral vision (just like on a real jump).
The basic dropzone we provide is two-dimensional, and the buildings and trees do not appear to have any height when the user is close to the ground. We can add relevant buildings and trees to help a student on final practice comprehend their height below 100 feet. This extra work to make your drop zone 3D is an added option and we will need to work closer with you to make sure we have produced what you need.
We are working on some enhancements to provide what we call a "landing coach"...we will keep you updated.
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The X-box controller is the simplest way for a user using just their thumbs to steer their parachute. There are many other joystick like controllers available. It plugs into the PC via a cable, is reliable and low maintenance.
The option is available for a student to sit in or lean against a harness then grasp steering toggles. SkydiVR then determines if their hands are in the toggles. It interprets the users arm movements and reacts to give the user the impression they are steering their parachute. Contact us for details.
Checkout a video here.
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Yes SkydiVR requires the Internet to work. It uses little bandwidth (by design). We offer a one month trial so you can confirm for yourself.
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Giving our users the ability to choose from different canopies is on our product roadmap. Currently we provide two choices: a "student" or a "pro" canopy. We can replicate the performance of an actual parachute jump recorded by Flysight (www.flysight.ca). Then you can watch the jump in VR.. So we will keep you fully informed, you can sign up to be one of our testers here.
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The current canopy used in SkydiVR is our calculation of the performance of a standard 160 sq foot reserve parachute.
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The Oculus and Vive headsets we have developed have cables. We are aware wireless versions are available for an extra cost.
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The Oculus and Vive headsets allow for easy removal and cleaning of that foam rubber part which touches a users face.
There are also available simple sanitary towels made to fit the Oculus goggles. Lysol or Clorox wipes can also be used to wipe down the VR Headset before use.
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A user can choose any direction from which the wind will be blowing on the ground and at 3000 feet. They can also choose the strength of wind from between 0 and 25 knots.
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The Instructor has the ability to select between 5000 and 3000 feet (1524 to 914 meters) as the starting altitude.
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Yes. We have spent time to develop an algorithm which calculates parachute performance (patent pending). We feel it provides a realistic representation of a canopy in braked turns.
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Most definitely yes! Currently we have several drop zones including Skydive Arizona, Skydive Deland, Skydive The Ranch, Pullout (Italy), Startskydiving, Over the Poconos and many more...
And for no charge we will make available other drop zones to you when they become available.
We also have what we call fantasy drop zones. Currently we have Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Kjerag fiord in Norway and The Statue of Liberty. We will make available other fantasy drop zones to you as they become available.
If there are specific drop zones you do NOT want, we will also remove those.
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The definition of virtual reality comes, naturally, from the definitions for both ‘virtual’ and ‘reality’. The definition of ‘virtual’ is near and reality is what we experience as human beings. So the term ‘virtual reality’ basically means ‘near-reality’. This could, of course, mean anything but it usually refers to a specific type of reality emulation.
We know the world through our senses and perception systems. In school we all learned that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. These are however only our most obvious sense organs. The truth is that humans have many more senses than this, such as a sense of balance for example. These other sensory inputs, plus some special processing of sensory information by our brains ensures that we have a rich flow of information from the environment to our minds.
Everything that we know about our reality comes by way of our senses. In other words, our entire experience of reality is simply a combination of sensory information and our brains sense-making mechanisms for that information. It stands to reason then, that if you can present your senses with made-up information, your perception of reality would also change in response to it. You would be presented with a version of reality that isn’t really there, but from your perspective it would be perceived as real. Something we would refer to as a virtual reality.
So, in summary, virtual reality entails presenting our senses with a computer generated virtual environment that we can explore in some fashion.
https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/what-is-virtual-reality.html