Thanks Thomas, I don't use simvibe yet, I was going to get it once I had this all sorted out. So are you saying if I get simvibe it would fix this issue for me?
I think so, but keep in mind I don't have experience with it yet. I'm just going to upgrade my rig with transducers. From my researches (and everyone is open to tell me something new or different), I think that the only way to go with transducers is to connect them to Simvibe. I don't know if there is an other software on the market, that can modulate physics data to sound, to feed shakers. I only know Simvibe and from all of my research, it got really good feedback from reviewers and users. So yeah, Simvibe will be my way to go and it can handle soundcards and can control the outputs.
AFAIK There's only 2 software that are able to use sim Data to do it. The first is Simvibe, the second is X-sim ... http://www.x-sim.de/software.php?lang=eng But trust me, even if simvibe is 80$ when X-sim is free .. there's a world between the 2. X-sim is more meant for dynamic RIG, and the buttkicker parts is more a side use of it. And it's very very complicate to setup for this use. I never was able to make it work, while simvibe is pretty plug&play. I saw previously that you were thinking about USB sound card: Keep in mind that Simvibe doesn't support USB soundcard, it's not recommended. But any 15$ PCI 4channel soundcard will do it (don't need any 5.1/7.1/etc for simvibe)
Thanks guys, I ended up getting a pci sound card and I got simvibe tonight but I have not had a chance to play with it yet as I have had to make a dash to the hospital with a very ill 4 year old. Tomorrow night I should get chance to play and hopefully get it to work. I'm the meantime I have been trying to get sound out of my wireless headset at the same time as running the shakers and I can only get one or the other. Have tried following instructions and videos but it is not happening for me.
I think you will give us a positive feedback of the issue, when you use Simvibe. ...and the best wishes for your little one!
I had 2 bk gamer2's running and 2 x dayton pucks before I got my motion sim and they ran brilliantly via simvibe, just be sure get the connections right as pointed out by Thomas and you should be good to go. My advice is that when you begin to tune them via simvibe just add one effect at a time and once you are happy with the feel of the output then add another effect because it becomes rather jumbled up when you try lots of effects all together at first. For instance get the feel of the engine vibration how you like it and then add road bumps. Then while you are tuning the road bumps just turn the engine off via the little toggle switch until you have the road bumps feeling sweet, and so on for other effects. Then turn them all on together and fine tune as needed. I like only a couple of effects as they can work against each other when you have too much. The seat you have and the material and build of your racing rig affects the feel of the transducers too so that is why there is no one formula for what feels best. Good luck and hope your little guy is better .... I have a 4 year old full of beans too (rampaging tadpole that broke thru !) and is always a worry when they get real sick, plus I have two older lads at 29 & 24 and an 18 year old daughter so my hair is going gray all over again !
Hi Blanes, i have got simvibe going but I am trying to set up my 2 bass shakers separately in simvibe so i can connect one to seat and the other to pedals, atm by default it is one to seat and one to shifter (i dont have a shifter). It was mentioned that i would need to use the green line out and the black rear connections on my sound card. Atm i am only using the green line out. My amp is a 2 channel dayton apa150, this is the rear of it: My question is how do i connect the line out and and rear ports from the sound card to the line in ports on the back of the amp? It is simple if it was just the green as that is how i am currently running it but i need to connect to the black rear as well. Cheers F1A
Ok so use extensions mode in SImvibe and the green output from the soundcard is Seat or Shifter and the Black is Wheel or Pedals. Those names are labelled for convenience so you could in fact leave the outputs as you already have them and just what it says as Shifter doesn't matter you just mount the Bass Shaker at your pedals. I used extensions mode and had my Buttkicker Gamer 2 configured as seat and my 2 x Dayton Pucks were configured as pedals but I actually moved them to the backrest of my seat and left it configured for pedals. I had my Bkg2 running from the Buttkicker amp and my Dayton Pucks both ran from another smaller Lepai Amp. So in your case if you want to use one output of each channel it is straight forward. Just take the Green or Front Channel output from your soundcard and put that to the left channel input of your amp then connect your Seat Bass shaker to the Left output (Top Row). Then take the Black or Rear Channel output from your soundcard and put that to the Right channel input of your amp then connect your other Bass Shaker for your pedals to the Right output (Bottom Row). Take note that your line inputs are the top row and you have two inputs but you only have to use one. You might have to swap left to right or vice versa and test in simvibe that you are getting a signal to each of your bass shakers which you can do from within settings - output devices of SimCommander4. Watch that Inside Sim Racing TV video that Thomas linked to as it does explain the mechanics of setting up even though it is not exactly your system. Basically you are taking an output signal from your soundcard and feeding into your amplifier and then taking that signal to your Bass Shaker. Simvibe / Sim Commander 4's job is to convert the game/sim physics into data that can be fed to the soundcard and output to the Bass Shakers. You just have to get that signal along the right pathways to work. With that 150 watt amp you could in fact have 4 x Bass Shakers, 2 per channel so you could leave the output as you have them with both Bass Shakers coming out of the Front Channel (Green) and in extensions mode. With 4 x Bass Shakers you can use Chassis mode and have one at each corner using left and right channels front & rear but for the short term you will find 2 x shakers and extensions mode is pretty good. As per my previous advice just start with a couple of effects. Like engine vibration and Road bumps is good for the seat then add Road Texture or Gear Change plus impact to the pedals. Try few combinations and see what feels best on your rig. Another thing I find in particular with RRRE compared to other sims is that I have to have everything dialled up very high and the volume high too. It seems the signal that comes from RRRE is not very strong compared to say Assetto Corsa or Project Cars. I don't know why that is or if everyone has same experience but if the effects feel too weak then experiment with volume levels within simcommander as well as your amp.
Thanks for the detailed advice Blames, I have it up and running and will definitely take your advice about setting up one effect at a time. I have put some rubber feet under my rig after the missus complained last night. The only issue I now have is this horrible noise coming from the one under the pedal plate. I am wondering if it is because I mounted the transducer directly to the metal plate rather than maybe putting a sliver of wood between the two. Do you think this could be the case? Are these meant to be metal on metal? Cheers
Yeah no worries ... probably it is vibration and although you want the maximum transfer of effect without dampening you could try thin layer of cardboard. Wood might insulate too much. I have even used very small blobs of bluetack strategically placed to dampen vibration. Experiment !
now I have had a chance to play I can say they work excellent but I do not have anything to compare them to. I have pedal effects in simvibe at full at the seat ones at 50%. I then run the amp at 75%. I have noticed the pedal effects in rf2 seem to be a bit weak and unsure why as when I had a go in ac tonight they were very strong to the point where I kept losing my foot position on the brake pedal