SimVibe (SimXperience)

[Devedander]

Little pricier than I had imagined...

 

[Mr Latte]

It's a rough crowd around here

I get asked for what our research says is optimal and people bust my chops for shoving a configuration down their throat.

If I am asked to suggest transducers and suggest the ones above (which we had to have reengineered because no shelf transducer could meet our needs) I'm sure that will be misconstrued also.

Therefore I will not be offering any configuration or hardware advice. In all honestly, there is quite a bit of enjoyment to be had in learning the lessons I've learned in the last year on your own anyway.

Firstly I want to congratulate you on the release of the software and all the work involved with the team of people involved. It is also good you have been able to get BK to adapt their product to suit which I assume helps from the piston/thud (bottoming) that I know was an issue you expressed once. It is affordable as well which is also important.

Regards the whole tweaking issue. It is quite normal to expect some people like myself to be eager in wanting to experiment and with so many factors/possibilities to find some way to maximise your software beyond just the norm. Over-clockers do their thing, modders do theirs, tweakers the same and others quite happy to stick with everything just normal.

Your right that part of the fun is in the experimentation and for many cockpit builders/enthusiasts they perhaps enjoy that part as much as they do using them.

 

[museumsteve]

Little pricier than I had imagined...

I'm not gonna rush at that price. I'm not sure I understand how it can be so pricey to retail if it's a free upgrade for Simcommander users.

 

[left888]

$79 is cheap for software, I get around to it eventually. I have a great 4 zone tactile system that works fine ATM. Simvibe will be added to my upgrade list.

 

[Devedander]

$79 is cheap for software, I get around to it eventually. I have a great 4 zone tactile system that works fine ATM. Simvibe will be added to my upgrade list.

Depends on the software...I can see the need to price up a bit if the market will be small but doesn't change that its a bit pricey...

 

[LogiForce]

Well, if the software was just about driving the tactile transducer, yeah its a bit pricey. However, you also get the ability to map actions and macros to your steering wheel. Plus you get the ability to have a dashboard (based on the games output) on a separate screen.

So it does a bit more then the basics.

 

[NeoAgent]

Would be nice if they offered a package discount if you purchased the SimVibe software and the SimVibe Buttkicker together.

 

[museumsteve]

$79 is cheap for software, I get around to it eventually. I have a great 4 zone tactile system that works fine ATM. Simvibe will be added to my upgrade list.

Considering you can get free software (xsim) that drives a full motion rig using the same telemetry data from the same games, I think it's over priced.
It doesn't mean I wont buy it at some time in the future but I wont rush out and buy it, especially as I cant try it first (even though I asked to be on the beta)

 

[LogiForce]

I wonder what kind of amp would I need to use for that Buttkicker SE? Would be nice if I could purchase that from the site as well.

Considering you can get free software (xsim) that drives a full motion rig using the same telemetry data from the same games, I think it's over priced.
It doesn't mean I wont buy it at some time in the future but I wont rush out and buy it, especially as I cant try it first (even though I asked to be on the beta)

My install went into evoluation mode until I installed the license. So I think you can try it.
Just go to the sim commander 3 page and click download.

Basically you download Sim Commander 3 when you download the software after your Simvibe purchase. The license will depict your limits within the software.

Direct Download link: http://simxperience.com/Portals/0/Files/Commander3/Beta2/all/setup.exe

 

[museumsteve]

I wonder what kind of amp would I need to use for that Buttkicker SE? Would be nice if I could purchase that from the site as well.



My install went into evoluation mode until I installed the license. So I think you can try it.
Just go to the sim commander 3 page and click download.

Basically you download Sim Commander 3 when you download the software after your Simvibe purchase. The license will depict your limits within the software.

Direct Download link: http://simxperience.com/Portals/0/Files/Commander3/Beta2/all/setup.exe

thanks mate

 

[fatkrakr]

IMO (and assuming a profile that is optimized as best it can be for each device)...

Dayton (4 pucks per corner)
------------------------------------------
-4 pucks wired together = 4ohm (same as all the others below)
-Requires a very specialized bracket or puck stacking mechanism
-Plastic screw holes that connect puck to sim break easily
-Very Detailed Reproduction
-A little sloppy when driven hard
-Very Noisy

Aura
-------
-Very Quiet
-Fairly powerful at low frequencies
-Very limited ability to produce higher frequencies
-Solid mounting mechanism

Clark
--------
-Great Frequency Range
-Don't hit quite as hard as the others at lower frequencies
-Solid mounting mechanism
-Difficulty finding a place to locate them and keep a nice appearance of the sim
-Noisy

Buttkicker Mini LFE
--------------------------
-Good Frequency Range
-Moderate detail reproduction
-Hit very hard
-Unusual popping noises as a result of air compression inside the transducer and internal collision
-Testing was stopped as these issues were show stoppers for me

ButtKicker Mini LFE SE
--------------------------------
This product is the result of the ButtKicker engineers visiting us and observing my complaints above with the standard Mini LFE. What they arrived at is imo the best available result for SImVibe use at the time of this writting.

-Hits Very Hard
-Great Detail Reproduction
-Good Frequency Range
-Multiple,strong mounting possibilities
-Doesn't detract from appearance of sim
-Moderate noise level / noises match the physics and better lend themselves to audio blending

That said, I'm sure that this can easily become a religious debate or be misconstrued as me pitching the BK Mini LFE SE b/c it is currently only available from my company.

The bottom line is, I chose the ButtKicker Mini LFE SE for our sims. They are a little pricey but I wanted a no compromise result. Like everything, there will be varying levels. SimVibe can still be quite immersive and enjoyable with any of the transducers mentioned above. We've done our best here to ensure tunability for any hardware.



This was posted at iracing. Could be useful to some maybe.

 

[Mr Latte]

I had no hesitation to order whatsoever and think it is great a small company has put so much effort into this area of immersion. Personally do not feel it is overpriced considering the control it will offer and how well designed the software is. Well the way I look at it, if this was a bit of hardware at £250 that was needed I'd still jump at it...

Ordered one of the SE as well and will be giving it a close inspection...
Curious to what the differences are with the SE as Buttkickers Gamer/Mini Concert/Mini LFE all share the same type of unit but must have obvious internal differences.

I only had a couple of spare hours today to hook up some stuff to give a quick single unit test but found I could get the test signal to output no problems but I got zero effects from games I tried Dirt3 / F1 2012.

Serves me right for giving Berney a hard time....
Need to get a look later when more time permits

 

[CLIFFO_83]

I just purchased the Simvibe software and I have a few questions......

I have onboard audio on my mobo - Gigabyte 990FXUD3

and a seperate sound card - Creative Sound Blaster fatality recon 3D

Can I run my 2 BKG2's off my onboard audio and still use my creative sound card for my speakers/headphones?

I just tried to re-install my audio drivers for onboard audio but I cant select the onboard speaker option in simvibe.

Is it not possible to have 2 different audio drivers installed at one time on win 7?

 

[LogiForce]

I just purchased the Simvibe software and I have a few questions......

I have onboard audio on my mobo - Gigabyte 990FXUD3

and a seperate sound card - Creative Sound Blaster fatality recon 3D

Can I run my 2 BKG2's off my onboard audio and still use my creative sound card for my speakers/headphones?

I just tried to re-install my audio drivers for onboard audio but I cant select the onboard speaker option in simvibe.

Is it not possible to have 2 different audio drivers installed at one time on win 7?

You will be able to send a signal to 8 speakers from your onboard audio card, since it's a 7.1-channel audio chip. See your motherboard manual for the correct settings and which sockets are outputs.

In your case you'd just need to use the green socket and run the Red RCA connector to the BKG2 amp that drives the tactile unit that is on the right of your rig, and the other to the amp that drives the left one.

I have up to 3 soundcards in my PC (onboard, videocard HDMI out and Soundblaster X-Fi). All work perfectly and are available to select here.

In your case you might have (or is done by default) disabled the onboard audio chip in your BIOS settings. Again please check your motherboard manual to find the appropriate setting in your BIOS. If you don't own a paper copy of the manual, please check Gigabyte's website (support section) for a PDF copy of it by looking up your motherboard.

 

[CLIFFO_83]

You will be able to send a signal to 8 speakers from your onboard audio card, since it's a 7.1-channel audio chip. See your motherboard manual for the correct settings and which sockets are outputs.

In your case you'd just need to use the green socket and run the Red RCA connector to the BKG2 amp that drives the tactile unit that is on the right of your rig, and the other to the amp that drives the left one.

I have up to 3 soundcards in my PC (onboard, videocard HDMI out and Soundblaster X-Fi). All work perfectly and are available to select here.

In your case you might have (or is done by default) disabled the onboard audio chip in your BIOS settings. Again please check your motherboard manual to find the appropriate setting in your BIOS. If you don't own a paper copy of the manual, please check Gigabyte's website (support section) for a PDF copy of it by looking up your motherboard.

ahhhh ha.....cheers mate I forgot about the BIOS setting

Ok so I have my BK's running on my onboard audio through simvibe & wow, this program really lets the transducers shine to their the full potential, I'm very impressed with the software.

 

[Mr Latte]

Sneaked away from my work duties to have another quick check during a coffee...

Getting the same result.

Default audio card working no problems and no conflicts showing with other cards, onboard audio or gfx Hdmi output. Have tried with 3.5mm output and digital for audio making no difference. Have tried with onboard and 2nd Asus soundcard not on. Have tried with HDMI monitor audio on/off.

Windows 7
Within windows card settings speakers are set to large and quad configuration. Test tone works for the tactile here.

Simvibe Device Manager
Chassis not ticked (not using for test but also tried ticked anyways)
Extensions ticked
Appropriate card selected
Test signal works for Simvibe Extension confirming output and card is working

Game / Output Mixer
Same card is selected as used in test to ensure configured

Simcomander launches game exe
Game loads and plays with audio as normal but with ZERO output to the tactile.


Really strange, anyone else have this issue?

 

[NeoAgent]

Ok, I've been holding off buying any sound cards until SimVibe was released. Now that I've got SimVibe I need some help choosing sound cards. Right now all I have is the sound on my motherboard (which is an ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS which has 8 channel onboard audio.

Do I need one or two more soundboards? I would like to have maximum capability and was planning on getting two. The cards I've been looking at are the ASUS Xonar Essence ST 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Audio Card and the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Internal Sound Card with THX SB1270. Is that overkill? Should I go with one internal card and one USB device. I'd like to have at least one really nice sound card (for audio and gaming), any recommendations?

 

[HoiHman]

Ok, I've been holding off buying any sound cards until SimVibe was released. Now that I've got SimVibe I need some help choosing sound cards. Right now all I have is the sound on my motherboard (which is an ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS which has 8 channel onboard audio.

Do I need one or two more soundboards? I would like to have maximum capability and was planning on getting two. The cards I've been looking at are the ASUS Xonar Essence ST 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Audio Card and the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Internal Sound Card with THX SB1270. Is that overkill? Should I go with one internal card and one USB device. I'd like to have at least one really nice sound card (for audio and gaming), any recommendations?

Depends on what you want with simvibe:

- Chassis mode (4 transducers every corner) : 1 soundcard
- Simvibe extensions (place transducers on desired locations ) : 1 soundcard

If you want to combine both chassis and extensions, you need two extra sound cards. You can use your onboard as simvibe soundcard.

No need for expensive 'tactile soundcards' Simvibe just needs a soundcard with two front and two back stereo outputs (quad)

 

[museumsteve]

I've read through the various setup guides on simxperience and a bit confused :s

If you have a motion rig then obviously the seat is independent from the chassis so I assume there'd be no benefit to using the chassis mode.
However, if you use the extension mode then the seat only gets one shaker so you cannot get left and right effects on the seat.
Is this right? Anyone using motion tried this out yet?

 

[HoiHman]

You could still use the chassismode and mount rear left & rear right directly under the back of the seat and mount front left and right at the pedals.

Yes, extensions mode is not directional, butt it still kicks ass

 

[museumsteve]

You could still use the chassismode and mount rear left & rear right directly under the back of the seat and mount front left and right at the pedals.

Yes, extensions mode is not directional, butt it still kicks ass

Thanks mate. I think I'll put Tuesday evening aside to try it out. I have plenty of shakers, amps and soundcards.

 

[LogiForce]

Sneaked away from my work duties to have another quick check during a coffee...

Getting the same result.

Default audio card working no problems and no conflicts showing with other cards, onboard audio or gfx Hdmi output. Have tried with 3.5mm output and digital for audio making no difference. Have tried with onboard and 2nd Asus soundcard not on. Have tried with HDMI monitor audio on/off.

Windows 7
Within windows card settings speakers are set to large and quad configuration. Test tone works for the tactile here.

Simvibe Device Manager
Chassis not ticked (not using for test but also tried ticked anyways)
Extensions ticked
Appropriate card selected
Test signal works for Simvibe Extension confirming output and card is working

Game / Output Mixer
Same card is selected as used in test to ensure configured

Simcomander launches game exe
Game loads and plays with audio as normal but with ZERO output to the tactile.

Really strange, anyone else have this issue?

Maybe the game profile itself is still set to using SimVibe Chassis mode instead of the extensions?

 

[bvillersjr]

You can always contact SImXperience support for assistance. I promise you will not be answered by a representative in India

-When you installed, did SimVibe detect your Dirt3 or did you create the game record yourself?

-Are you running other software / hardware that is consuming the connection to these games? These games use a UDP network conneciton which means only one thing can be connected to them. SimVibe has a forwarding feature that will allow it to consume the data and pass it along to other devices. This is easily tested by disabling other utilities.

 

[LogiForce]

You can always contact SImXperience support for assistance. I promise you will not be answered by a representative in India

-When you installed, did SimVibe detect your Dirt3 or did you create the game record yourself?

-Are you running other software / hardware that is consuming the connection to these games? These games use a UDP network conneciton which means only one thing can be connected to them. SimVibe has a forwarding feature that will allow it to consume the data and pass it along to other devices. This is easily tested by disabling other utilities.

That last part I did notice. Fanaleds does not work anymore since using Simvibe. You say it has a forwarding feature to devices, but is this also possible for software (i.e. Fanaleds)?

 

[bvillersjr]

What about the first question:
-When you installed, did SimVibe detect your Dirt3 or did you create the game record yourself?

Yes, I will write up some documentation on the forwarding feature. For now you can not start the FanaLeds app to see if it solves your issue.

 

[wajdi1977]

Hi guys!
Can you advice me a good/cheap amplificator with 4 channels(with link please)?

 

[LogiForce]

What about the first question:
-When you installed, did SimVibe detect your Dirt3 or did you create the game record yourself?

Yes, I will write up some documentation on the forwarding feature. For now you can not start the FanaLeds app to see if it solves your issue.

The first question should be directed to Latte. I have no issues.

Sorry for the confusion when asking about the forwarding. My sincere appologies.

 

[Mr Latte]

Appreciate the replies.

Going to spend some more time with it now to see if any more success.
The Auto install detected my racing games, also from within the games tab I have tried Dirt 3 and the (no telem) version also. I have made certain each game settings were checked and the correct card is selected and seat is selected output which is the correct one as the test signal verifies.

Would their be any features within the bios that would be effecting this?
My machine is not networked to anything else

 

[LogiForce]

Just tried this myself, Latte. I got a crash when selecting the SimVibe Extensions in the game profile.

Crash log has been included in this post in a PDF.

 

[Mr Latte]

Yes that happens sometime when select say SEAT at bottom, exiting and going back it then has the mode selected correct.

I just updated iracing (do remember havnt bothered playing it since getting this PC in Feb as I have no intentions to get into my gaming proper till the cockpit is closer to being done)

Iracing seems the same problem absolutely no effects...

Back to the drawing board...