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First time loading simtools, no game data, followed manuals SOLVED: just not far enough

Discussion in 'SimTools DIY Version' started by cfischer, Oct 23, 2016.

  1. cfischer

    cfischer Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Hi guys, after a couple of attempts I cannot get any game telemetry into my game engine or game dash. I will try to explain what I have already done.

    Current system:
    Windows 7 64 bit
    Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz
    Radeon HD 6800
    16gb ram
    2nd hard drive with Dirt Rally and Burnout Paradise from steam
    G27 Wheel



    The first time I attempted to mess with simtools was a few months ago.
    I followed the quickstart guide but could not get the game to output telemetry to the output testing section of the game engine. I gave up on it for a while as I didn't have the time to get into much detail.


    This weekend I sat down for several hours trying every button I could, reading the whole thread on the dirt rally plugin, read through all the documentation for installing and setting up simtools and still nothing.

    My ultimate goal for the weekend is to get an arduino to read game dash output.

    So far this weekend I removed everything and downloaded a fresh copy of simtools and the dirt plugin, used the pluginupdater to get the game to show up in game manager, patched the 64bit version of dirt in the my documents folder, gave a packet rate and enabled dash output, setup a default axis assignment for a 2dof seat(even though I'm not outputting motion right now), got the game manager to show connected to game engine, got the game manager to show game runningwhen dirt loads, and I'm still not getting any output when I "turn on" virtual axis nor do I get any headings in game dash(the regions show dash1, dash2, etc instead of speed, gear, rpm).

    At this point I dont know quite what to do and would love some guidence. Thanks in advance.
  2. yobuddy

    yobuddy Well-Known Member Staff Member Moderator SimAxe Beta Tester SimTools Developer Gold Contributor

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    What output interface are you using?
  3. cfischer

    cfischer Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Thanks for the quick reply yobuddy. For game dash it's serial. For game engine it currently is not set since the latest installation. I have tried mock net and serial yesterday. Do you think not having an output in game engine would restrict game telemetry from being shown on the virtual axis?
  4. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Please post pictures of all settings and hardware connections.
  5. cfischer

    cfischer Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Ok here are my settings and an action shot of driving with the game on. Notice with the game running game dash turns its values to 0 instead of ---



    1.jpg 2.jpg 3.jpg 4.jpg 5.jpg 6.jpg 7.jpg 8.jpg 9.jpg 10.jpg 11.jpg 12.jpg
  6. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    What are the interface settings and is it a 32bit or 64bit version of Windows?
  7. value1

    value1 Nerd SimAxe Beta Tester SimTools Developer Gold Contributor

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    If you have *no* interface set, there will be no data in GameEngine!
    Just select a Com port on your PC and suppose, this is your interface.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  8. cfischer

    cfischer Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Before my fresh install I tried that but to be sure I tried again just now. Same result. @noorbeast 64 bit Windows 7. My goal is not motion at the moment so I havent been putting too much emphasis on my interface in GameEngine. My goal is to get game dash output so I have been trying to first get the virtual axis to move thinking that is where I am stuck...

    Thank you so much for the replies guys!

    13.jpg
  9. cfischer

    cfischer Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Oh and here are my interface settings I had in GameDash before adding the serial interface in GameEngine. I understand that I cannot use the same com port for both programs and I only want to use it for GameDash at the moment.

    14.jpg
  10. yobuddy

    yobuddy Well-Known Member Staff Member Moderator SimAxe Beta Tester SimTools Developer Gold Contributor

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    @cfischer,
    I think you may have not installed the plugin correctly?
    Did you drag and drop the game plugin zipped file in the SimTools plugin updater?
    it looks like you have no game banner or max min file?
  11. cfischer

    cfischer Active Member Gold Contributor

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    I hope thats it. Although I have done it several times now.
    I downloaded the dirt rally plugin, opened the plugin updater, and dragged it in. This allowed me to select dirt rally in the game manager, game engine, and game dash. Then I went to the patch panel in game manager and found the 64 bit version of the directory which is my documents/my games/dirt rally. I also tried the 32 bit directory where the game is installed but I got a message telling me this is not the directory to find. So I feel like I patched the game fine. Also game manager shows the game as running when I launch it.

    I also went through all this for burnout paradise thinking that maybe the dirt rally plugin didn't work for me. However my results were quite the same. Although it is not easy to confirm with burnout revenge because the game will not run in a window and to even get to the windows environment I have to get into the menu structure of the game(I cant go to windows directly from gameplay).


    Is there any way to confirm if the plugin is installed correctly?
  12. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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  13. yobuddy

    yobuddy Well-Known Member Staff Member Moderator SimAxe Beta Tester SimTools Developer Gold Contributor

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    With all codemaster games, you must first play a lap or 2 before patching.
    Try unpatching the game, then play the game for a few. then repatch.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  14. cfischer

    cfischer Active Member Gold Contributor

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    First of all I want to thank you guys for your time in helping me with this. I have been reading a lot of these forums and you guys are ALWAYS helping us all out. Thank you!

    Mr beast you nailed it. I had tried the tuning center before but not since going through everything with a fresh reinstall. I see data from the game here and after tuning for the games output the sliders work too. The sliders in the virtual axis default to a really large min and max. So large that when the game output data they didnt even move because it was so far from the min/max.


    So I have motion data coming from dirt. So excited. Only gamedash has nothing. There are still no headings for speed rpm or gear, and I get nothing but zeros in all the value regions. What rookie mistake am I making now? The settings for game dash are still the same that I posted up above...

    15.jpg
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  15. simonmjensen

    simonmjensen New Member

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    I have pretty much the same problem as cfisher did at the beginning of this thread.
    I copied all the settings he has screenshotted in here, but I am not getting any positive results.
    I tried the tuning center base setting, but when i press reset and get 0 in all values, they dont change when I drive around.

    At the moment I am only trying to make this work with Life for Speed game.

    The only real difference in my setup and cfishers is that I am running Windows 10. Is this the problem, and what can I do to fix it.

    Desperate for help.
    Thanks in advance.
  16. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    You need to post screenshots of all of your settings @simonmjensen and what hardware is being used, plus explain how that is setup and tested.

    Windows 10 is not the issue, SimTools works fine with it.
  17. simonmjensen

    simonmjensen New Member

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    No hardware at the moment, just trying to get the program to work with the virtual axis and output testing.

    Pics:

    2.JPG 3.JPG 4.JPG 5.JPG
  18. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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  19. cfischer

    cfischer Active Member Gold Contributor

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    ... also make sure you go far enough through the instruction manual to record game data and set the min max appropriately or you might not see anything move on the virtual axis even though it is working!
  20. simonmjensen

    simonmjensen New Member

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    But did you see the values changing in the tuning centre, when you didn't get the virtual axis to work?