-
Do not share user accounts! Any account that is shared by another person will be blocked and closed. This means: we will close not only the account that is shared, but also the main account of the user who uses another person's account. We have the ability to detect account sharing, so please do not try to cheat the system. This action will take place on 04/18/2023. Read all forum rules.Dismiss Notice
-
For downloading SimTools plugins you need a Download Package. Get it with virtual coins that you receive for forum activity or Buy Download Package - We have a zero Spam tolerance so read our forum rules first.
Buy Now a Download Plan! -
Do not try to cheat our system and do not post an unnecessary amount of useless posts only to earn credits here. We have a zero spam tolerance policy and this will cause a ban of your user account. Otherwise we wish you a pleasant stay here! Read the forum rules
-
We have a few rules which you need to read and accept before posting anything here! Following these rules will keep the forum clean and your stay pleasant. Do not follow these rules can lead to permanent exclusion from this website: Read the forum rules.
Are you a company? Read our company rules
SimTools Settings, Tips and Tricks
SimTools, Settings, Tips and Tricks
Page 2 of 2
Here you will find useful information about SimTools settings, tips and tricks
Dual PC SimTools Setup
Startup and Shutdown positional controls
You can use Startup and Shutdown options to hold you sim in position when using motors that can be back driven when not powered: https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...ation-for-oculus-rift.7684/page-3#post-111568
With JRKs 221 is the on command for Position, 63 tells it where to go and 225 turns it off: https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...ght-with-oculus-rift.6179/page-14#post-106293
Which way to set SimTool axis movements
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xsimulator.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fselecting-a-filter-for-dof.png&hash=a755ba47cb0f52f510483bf91ce215c6)
Nomenclature of movements in SimTools by @value1: http://www.xsimulator.net/community...r-simtools-api-documentation.4612/#post-44027
Pitch is the tilt of the car forwards or backwards in [°]
Roll is how much the car is dipped to the left or right in [°]
Yaw is the heading of the car (north, east, south, west) in [°]
Surge means the acceleration of the car in longitudinal direction [g]
Sway means the acceleration of the car in lateral direction [g]
Heave means the acceleration up and down [g]
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xsimulator.net%2Fcommunity%2Fdata%2Fattachments%2F11%2F11809-eec6c8a953549bdb886287ec878c60f8.jpg&hash=b9b8b877e3a2360b65c7b5d73c7d2c82)
Direction of movements in SimTools
Acceleration → pitch slider moves to left, surge slider moves to right
Deceleration (braking) → pitch slider moves to right, surge slider moves to left
Right turn → roll slider moves to left, sway slider moves to right, yaw slider moves to left
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xsimulator.net%2Fcommunity%2Fdata%2Fattachments%2F11%2F11808-582002aa004b0597be42d0798175428a.jpg&hash=e03323fabb3052b146ca8c859ddc5cbb)
Left turn → roll slider moves to right, sway slider moves to left, yaw slider moves to right
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xsimulator.net%2Fcommunity%2Fdata%2Fattachments%2F11%2F11807-a6caffba38d645ab1f05945be27e302c.jpg&hash=2aa050fb8024dac646928b22ee324c70)
Driving downhill → pitch slider moves to right
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xsimulator.net%2Fcommunity%2Fdata%2Fattachments%2F11%2F11805-809a71a7aedfd28f0fbed8603317521f.jpg&hash=3062262f61bc26bd8bd6bbeff465338e)
Driving uphill → pitch slider moves to left
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xsimulator.net%2Fcommunity%2Fdata%2Fattachments%2F11%2F11806-04e7a008db5d51c4312e1f8f7165438b.jpg&hash=8111b326d168cae28ee6244aa7f7bb14)
Tilted to the left → roll slider moves to left
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xsimulator.net%2Fcommunity%2Fdata%2Fattachments%2F11%2F11804-3d5246ffd20d6871f66a91eb023f7e70.jpg&hash=49eebfe16b560d6f90322e829a4e17ab)
Tilted to the right → roll slider moves to right
![[IMG]](proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xsimulator.net%2Fcommunity%2Fdata%2Fattachments%2F11%2F11803-6f0ab723d952b0637219b87cc7cb62e8.jpg&hash=e69b2da2d16323b11c80a8c32e0f2f3f)
Tuning Center - Entering manual values
To do so in the Tuning Center un-check the tick in the box next to the name of the axis you want to manually enter a value for, say Heave. The check boxes are Green by default, which means the Min and Max values will default to the same value, Blue is to capture values and uncheck them to Pink (Off) to manually enter values. Hit Capture Max Min, change the values, then hit save.You can then manually enter Max and Min values all the way down to 0.01.
The values must be entered like this, 0.5 not like this 0,5 as a decimal point is the recognized deliminator. Sometimes the computer language setting may be an issue when trying to enter a decimal point if they are set to something other than US English.
Source: http://www.xsimulator.net/community...ter-simulation-plugin.4777/page-17#post-91187
Manually removing a game patch
If you don't then the SimTools patching button will be greyed out and you won't be able to patch the new install because SimTools stores the old game installation path.
You can follow @eaorobbie's advice to manually unpatch a game: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/how-to-unpatch-plugin-without-game.5831/#post-61244
"You will need to go to this directory c:\user\(yourPCname)\AppData\Local\SimTools\GameManager\GamePathSaves
And delete the save file for the affected game.
Restart Game Manager and you should now be able to patch the new game directory".
When & how to run SimTools in Admin mode
However, just to be confusing some games do need the GameEngine and GameManager to run as administrator for things like patching. You can set them up in permanent admin mode like this: http://www.xsimulator.net/community...of-elevation-needed-to-launch-the-program.54/
UDP games produce no output data
13956
Here is an alternate method that can use the original settings on your control panel for those who uses unicode languages to avoid language compatibility issues with other applications here.
The SimTools developer @yobuddy has advised that the output bug has been found and will be fixed in the next release of SimTools: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/game-data-input-0.4909/page-2#post-50117
Thanks @jamesdio for the solution.
Traction Loss in SimTools
Tweaking traction loss - slow break out, fast return: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/traction-loss-slow-break-out-fast-return.5999/
Testing SimTools without a simulator
Here is a handy tool by @perdixero which simulates the movements of a 2dof, without having hardware or needing to connect anything: https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/simple-application-to-analyze-the-axis-setting.10430/
Alternatively SimTools comes with the Live For Speed plugin already supplied and here @value1 explains the steps where you can test SimTools with Live For Speed without needing a simulator: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/game-engine-exceptions.7080/#post-82208
As an alternative you can also use the free version of Google SketchUp to make your model motion controlled by a game of your choice and SimTools:
The latest version of SketchUp: http://www.sketchup.com/download
How to connect SimTools to SketchUp: http://www.xsimulator.net/connect-simtools-sketchup/
See @SilentChill's tips for configuring Sketchup 2015 for SimTools: http://www.xsimulator.net/community...v-dc-motors-mms-and-arduinos.6948/#post-79442
Backup - Reinstall SimTools without loosing your profiles and settings
Now go ahead and reinstall or update SimTools.
Unzip the saved SimTools folder back in its original directory location.
Credit @noorbeast: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/game-manager-window-wont-open.7046/
Flight simulation - How to exploit human percption in motion simulation
Getting the most out of a flight simulator with motion is tricky, but @Archie has put together a guide to show what is possible with Prepar3D, including how to get around some of the physics based limitation of motion simulators: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/getting-the-most-out-of-p3d-and-your-sim.6889/
Game Manager DPI fixes
But if you have a high resolution screen, or just bad eyesight, you may not want to have your icons at 100%. Luckily @eXntrc has created a High Res hack fix for SimTools, which you can read about and download here: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/user-fixed-fix-for-game-manager-dpi-issues.6086/
Set base tuning motion values in the Tuning Center
Keep in mind that the Tuning Center is working with whatever % you set in the SimTools Game Engine.
Increasing the Min/Max numbers will slow how fast the rig reacts for that force and decreasing them in value makes the rig respond quicker. By unchecking the tick you can set the Min/Max at different values, which is useful for simulating things like gear shift
There are default values that plugins supply for the Tuning Center, but they are not always correct.
The first thing to do before fine tuning motion settings in the Tuning Center is to get you simulator to establish some base settings. The proper sequence to do so is click capture max/min, reset all, drive/fly for a while without hitting anything, back in Tuning Center save then finally stop capture, as explained by @noorbeast here: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/pitch-problem-with-fsx.6482/#post-71837
See here for the official Tuning Center documentation: http://www.xsimulator.net/tuning-centre/
Snappy gear change motion
Axis Assignment Percentage Totals
It is recommended by @eaorobbie that the total axis assignment, per axis, should not exceed 100%: http://www.xsimulator.net/community...ors-and-item-structure.6102/page-4#post-68586
Others have found that sometimes going over the total 100% axis assignment is necessary to get decent motion on their particular rigs, as @bsft explains here: http://www.xsimulator.net/community...t-mover-big-worm-gears.4898/page-2#post-63188
There can be issues in going over 100% axis assignments though. As @bsft, @Nick Moxley, @Blame73 and @noorbeast warn more that 130% starts to create real problems , which often means lowering the axis limits, for which there are a variety of approaches: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/motors-keep-stopping-need-some-advice.6790/#post-76066
Its mentioned by BlazinH :
https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...-question-and-answer.8175/page-36#post-125786
Simtools1.x allows a maximum of 6 output interfaces but Simtools2.x allows 12. Therefore we can run two different simulators as one so to speak. The best example is a 6dof Stewart platform that also has a g-seat on it. In this case, interfaces 1-6 (Axis1a thru Axis6a) would be used for the Stewart platform and interfaces 7 up to 12 (Axis1b up to Axis6b) would be used for the g-seat (in actuality you could put the g-seat first though). Then what we would do is use the tuning center to adjust the forces to where we want them for our Stewart platform. But we only have one set of tuning numbers, not two.
Therefore, in order to tune the g-seat part of the simulator, where we may need to use more or less than the Steward platform uses, we adjust it with axis allocations instead since we don’t have separate tuning numbers for it. As an example, there may be a possibility where we may need to use more than 100% of an axis in order to get the motion we want on the g-seat and therefore why an axis allocation can go up to 150% now.
Page 2 of 2