SimVibe (SimXperience)

  • Thread starter the_greeze
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bvillersjr
We posted 150 Watts with SimVibe for a reason. 250 Watts with normal audio. 150 Watts Max with SimVibe.
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Thanks for clearing that up Berney:tup:

Andrew thought it was a typo, but still it might confuse people that the SE were less powerfull.

Any update on my shipment?
 
I would be the wrong guy to ask and this would be the wrong venue in which to ask. I believe the sales and support guys are both a bit overwhelmed these last few days with the SimVibe release, but an email to sales or customer support will get you the information you need. The website also keeps tracking information in association with your order in the My Orders section. If you don't see tracking information there then it won't be able to ship until Monday.
 
the_greeze
Henk, just to reiterate; I'm really interested to see what you make of those new Buttkicker SE's! :)
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It's very easy to take apart these units to see how the piston moves up/down.
I'm sure someone will be doing a full comparison in good time and showcase the redesigned internals with I expect additional dampening.

The Mini LFE is a good little unit, punchy too but it is limited regards it's low end whack.
 
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Easy to take apart? Hmm, might have to open one up and have a look. Maybe put some dampening of my own in one? Would save a bit of money (particularly as I'd need eight).

EDIT: Had some good (really good!) results with SimVibe after a day of tweaking. Will post up more tomorrow... 👍 Very impressive software.
 
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the_greeze
Easy to take apart? Hmm, might have to open one up and have a look. Maybe put some dampening of my own in one? Would save a bit of money (particularly as I'd need eight).

EDIT: Had some good (really good!) results with SimVibe after a day of tweaking. Will post up more tomorrow... 👍 Very impressive software.
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I'm not gonna take them apart, i will let Rodney make that comparison:)

I will be interested in your simbive Iracing profile, when i have my my setup complete.

Funny how everyone who was sceptic at first are now all over this program and are really loving it.:D......
 
Greeze, curious to hear what effects your preferring and what you have done so far in testing Chassis with or without extensions.

I'm currently building a test platform and one of my concerns will be getting Chassis Tactile working satisfactory (not attached on the seat). So having Chassis effects (suspension bumps) to feel good in the seat but using separate tactile that is attached on the seat and pedals for (engine revs).

One challenge for me may be isolating the seat for the "on seat engine tactile" but still enabling "chassis tactile" to filter through into the seat allowing a good mix of both. I do have an idea with my own seat which may work but needs to be tested.

Have you tried this yet on your own setup Seperating engine effects with any success compared to just using engine revs included in Chassis mode.
 
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I had a great weekend playing around with SimVibe and tweaking various settings. Attached is a revised flowchart detailing my current configuration (probably the final configuration; can't see me changing it much).

Here's how it looks:
'Chassis Mode'
Front L&R: Front Suspension Texture / Front Suspension Bumps
Rear L&R: Rear Suspension Texture / Rear Suspension Bumps

'Extensions Mode'
Shifter: Engine Vibration / Gear Change
Seat: Speed-Based White Noise (Wind)
Pedals / Wheel: Engine Vibration

How does it feel? Excellent! 👍 Bear in mind that I also have 2-DOF motion; when this is all singing along together it's sublime.

I also took a Buttkicker Mini LFE apart to see if I could add some sort of dampening in there but it already has foam pads on either end of the piston. Quite what the difference is between the standard LFE and the SimVibe edition remains to be seen; I wouldn't have thought there's much to change...
 

Attachments

  • Tactile Layout v2.15.pdf
    48 KB · Views: 106
Really getting to grips with SimVibe now but have a slight snag with Game Stock Car 2012. I can't get engine vibration from it..on pedals or shifter. I've got gear change on shifter just fine so it's not related to signal to the shaker.
Anyone got any pointers? or anyone using SimVibe with GSC 2012?

I've just ordered a 10" Lilliput usb touchscreen monitor for use with SimVibe so I don't have to keep exiting the racers to play with SimVibe settings :)

Gear change is already one of my fav effects as it adds an almost 'mechanical' feel to my TH8RS...
 
museumsteve
Really getting to grips with SimVibe now but have a slight snag with Game Stock Car 2012. I can't get engine vibration from it..on pedals or shifter. I've got gear change on shifter just fine so it's not related to signal to the shaker.
Anyone got any pointers? or anyone using SimVibe with GSC 2012?
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I've got a similar issue with the Impala 'B' class in iRacing; can't get anything out of the Suspension settings; not a thing. Anyone?

museumsteve
Gear change is already one of my fav effects as it adds an almost 'mechanical' feel to my TH8RS...
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Cool isn't it? A nice mechanical 'clunk' 👍
 
Aura bas shakers pro is 4 ohm. Does amp have to be same 4 ohm?
Or you can use standard 5.1 or 7.1 amp aiwa,sony,kenwood...with standard i mean cheap!???
With simevibe software can i use optical out for speakers and motherboard 7.1 for amp(aura)??
 
grubyc
Aura bas shakers pro is 4 ohm. Does amp have to be same 4 ohm?
Or you can use standard 5.1 or 7.1 amp aiwa,sony,kenwood...with standard i mean cheap!???
With simevibe software can i use optical out for speakers and motherboard 7.1 for amp(aura)??
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Many 'good' amps can run 4ohms without a problem. Some mid-higher end have switches between 4-8 ohm etc. Some dont have switches but can still run 4ohms (check specs) If you were to use a low end/entry level amp that wasn't designed for 4ohm then you would probably get issues with overheating and damage it in the long run. You can get good old amps for cheap these days, now that everyone wants HDMI and 3D :)

You have to use analogue outputs for SimVibe. It seems most are using the built in sound card outputs together with one extra sound card. I use onboard sound card for extension mode and a PCI 7.1 card for chassis mode.
 
grubyc
Thanks museumsteve but im still in the dark.
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You could try a cheap amp but if it doesn't cope with 4ohms then the amp will probably end up overheating. More powerful amps have more capable power supplies.
You can try a cheap amp, you'd probably damage the amp before the shakers..or it just may not work very well. Most amps would shut off if they get too hot anyway.
If you want to use more than 2 shakers in one mode (4 on chassis mode for example) you really need an amp with multi-channel inputs.
If you have one shaker and a cheap amp you can always fit it to your seat and run a single shaker in extension mode and start there.

To connect it up you must use the jack plugs (3.5mm) from sound card or onboard audio to phono/RCA inputs on the amp. You use 3.5mm to stereo phono/RCA cables.
 
I bought Simvibe and got it working more or less. I do have a few lingering questions that are sort of deflating my tires. :) Long story short, I don't have the room on my mobo for a sound card. GTX 570's are triple size, so with 2 of them there is no room. So I picked up one of those USB external sound cards, a Startech. It works, alright and for $39 Cnd the price was right. I connected my 2 Aura bass shakers to my 150 watt Dayton amp, then to the front channel (green) on the Startech.

On Simvibe, under "Manage sim setup buttons" then "output mixer" I have 7 buttons, I added engine vibrations. I have yet to tweak the "intensity" or "sensitivity" yet, I may once I become more familiar with Simvibe. So now I want to connect my 2 buttkickers, well one of them for now, because on one of them I over tightened it and it broke the cast iron, dam thing kept sliding off of my buttmount under the seat. I will deal with that later.

Anyway, from what I figured with 3-5 hours sleep over the past 3-5 days, playing with Simvibe sort of rattled me a tad. :) Anyway under "settings" then "output devices" then "Simvibe sound card" I would change the settings from "speakers "(2- USB multi-channel audio device)" which is where the Aura bass shakers are connected. I changed it to the on board sound. Then I connected the 3.5mm plug from my buttkicker amp then to my PC, then to Simvibe extensions instead of the Simvibe chassis where the bass shakers are connected. Problem is only one will work but not both. While running iRacing under "options" then "sound" then "simulation" then "device" there is a drop down box to select which option I want to check. Well I check the "speakers (2- USB multi-channel audio device)", if I check my on board sound then I loose the "(2- USB multi-channel audio device)" and my Aura bass shakers. Any ideas? I currently have the buttkicker behind the pedals and the other one under the seat once I get it fixed. I want to connect both buttkickers to the Simvibe extensions.

I really like Simvibe and I see absolutely no purpose of using audio tactile again. Berney and staff hit this one out of the park. If anyone has any ideas that perhaps I am over looking I would like to hear them please.
 
Did you change anything in windows/control panel/sound?
As far as I can tell you do need to go into that and change/confirm that the card for extension mode is set to 5.1/7.1 and the one for chassis mode is set to quadraphonic.

To use both pedals and seat you need to use Green and Black from 'extensions' card (Left from Green and Right from Black)
 
Yes I did change that Steve, I think it was configure, first I went with 2 speakers, then I tried all the options, one by one. Also I do know about the green and black, front/back. The problem, (it seems) is that iRacing is only recognizing one or the other. Well at least I think so. I will try again.

The first time I tried to use Simvibe on my on board sound, it would not work at all. Couldn't get my USB Logitech headphones to work. So I then switched to the USB sound card and it works well except only one card is being recognized. The on board card will not work. Back to the drawing board, I am sure with the lack of sleep I am missing something right in front of me. Thank you Steve.
 
I'm pretty sure that Berney said that USB soundcards are not supported? This could be the issue.

I had a similar situation regarding squeezing in soundcards too Darren. Fortunately, I was able to get two half-height PCI-E cards in there...
 
museumsteve
You could try a cheap amp but if it doesn't cope with 4ohms then the amp will probably end up overheating. More powerful amps have more capable power supplies.
You can try a cheap amp, you'd probably damage the amp before the shakers..or it just may not work very well. Most amps would shut off if they get too hot anyway.
If you want to use more than 2 shakers in one mode (4 on chassis mode for example) you really need an amp with multi-channel inputs.
If you have one shaker and a cheap amp you can always fit it to your seat and run a single shaker in extension mode and start there.

To connect it up you must use the jack plugs (3.5mm) from sound card or onboard audio to phono/RCA inputs on the amp. You use 3.5mm to stereo phono/RCA cables.
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How many shakers is minimum to feel right? shift,engine,vibration and so on..?
 
grubyc
How many shakers is minimum to feel right? shift,engine,vibration and so on..?
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The best setup would be 7 shakers I guess. 4 in chassis mode, one in each corner of the rig. One under seat, one by shifter and one by pedals. The would require 2 amps and 2 sound cards (or one onboard card and one other)

However, any shakers are better than none. I'd say maybe the seat would be the best to start with, if you were to have only one.
In SimVibe you tell it where you want the effects to come from, so you can have engine vibration coming from shifter, or pedals or seat..or all 3. It's really very flexible.
 
the_greeze
I'm pretty sure that Berney said that USB soundcards are not supported? This could be the issue.

I had a similar situation regarding squeezing in soundcards too Darren. Fortunately, I was able to get two half-height PCI-E cards in there...
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Ya I read where Berney said they had all sorts of problems with the USB external sound cards. The funny thing is, it's the external one that works. :)

Well thanks anyways you guys. I guess my options get very pricey from here on. Bigger case and bigger mobo. Get rid of the humungous GTX 570's for a couple GTX 6xx's, money, money, money.:ouch:
 
wajdi1977
Thanks:
this this the link for the Denon avr:


http://www.superfi.co.uk/P-5936-discontinued-denon-avr1906-home-cinema-receiver.aspx
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That's a good multi-channel receiver mate but it doesn't state 4ohm so you could still run up against it overheating. They usually have circuit protection so if it did struggle it would normally switch off. Something like a Denon would have a decent power supply so it would be more of a safe bet than a lesser make IMO.
I don't know how the demand from a shaker compares to a speaker. I would hate to be the one to say it's fine and something goes wrong :s
 
wajdi1977
It says this in the specification:
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Two primary things are needed.

1) Multichannel Inputs
2) 4ohm rating

Very few new or recent AV amplifers now have "Multichannel" although more expensive ones will. Also many amps are now doing 6-8 ohm ratings not 4ohm.

I done lots of looking for 2nd hand purchases last year. While mainly a Yamaha man in the past. One of the most affordable and good quality models with decent amplification @ 100w + are:

Sony STR 1200ES / 2400 ES / 5300 ES
I have some of these myself and Carson has one also.

These will easily drive most of the midrange tactile rather well and have a safety protection mode if overdriven.

My advice is to avoid cheapo brands in amps were possible. I had a Skytec PA amp rated at an apparent 1000w which caught fire trying to power the Buttkicker LFE. I do not agree with comments that any ole amp will do if it is 4ohm as if amplification isn't an important factor. Just because tactile is not so much audible it is very demanding on amplifiers. Additionally many budget amps will not deliver below 40hz while not essential requirement but to be considered if getting the best out of your tactile is a factor.
 
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