Tutorial GameVibe Manual

Thank you for trying to reproduce it. It did not crash in multiple sessions I had (fantastic work @yobuddy and team, what a great set of lightweight tools). One thing is on my mind is that when it crashed, I had GV tuning center opened while launching rF2. Another thought maybe device enumeration got messed up because I turned on Pimax headset while GV was running (it has USB Audio device)? I'll try again when I get a chance, but I am too excited about my new addition of transducers to test anything

One thing I do not blame GV, but I had a freeze while racing (which is typically due to CPU spike somewhere), and on my PC I never had freezes, I wonder if some GV code paths need optimization. Hope this is helpful.

Edit: just crashed with the same stack I posted previously. I will try reinstall, but before I do I'd really like to catch what causes it. I could send my settings over for a diff.
Edit2: reinstalled, still crashes. Now it crashes every time I start the game, so the workaround is to start GameVibe after rF2.
Edit3: this PC has multiple versions of Visual Studio installed, however - if it was dependency issue, crash would happen all the time, but it happens often, not all the time.

Hi @yobuddy,

I wanted to suggest some Game Vibe features and report some minor issues.

The reason I got myself transducers is to get hints of when tires lock and skid. To my surprise, I did not find that in Game Vibe and, from reading docs, SimVibe cannot do that too. So there goes:

• Feature: Individual wheel lockup hints (3D): I know for sure that rFactor 2 and Raceroom expose rotational wheel speed. On top of that, rF2 exposes exact wheel size. Combined with speed of vehicle, it should be possible to detect when the wheel is locked up and issue an effect. Information about surface under the wheel is available as well, so surface could be taken into account. Such an effect would be great addition to overall realism, because locked tire is felt very strongly in real life. Wheel lockup detection works fairly reliably in the Crew Chief, so I am pretty confident wheel lockup vibe is possible.
• Feature: individual wheel skid. This one is trickier, but in rF2 vehicle orientation is exposed, so maybe something can be done by using direction of motion, orientation and steering values?
• Issue: would it be possible to mute transducers when game is paused?

Also, I wanted to ask, would it be possible to make Road Details Vibe 3D? I might be missing something, or maybe it is game/plugin issue, but I get kerbs (for example) from the Road Detail vibe. I followed Tutorial to set up my min/max ranges. (I actually do not get much info from Chassis vibe at all, but that is another topic). It would be nice if kerbs were felt on the side they are hit.

Thank for the consideration!

@yobuddy,

I think I caught what causes GV crash on my system. I have a USB Audio card that I turn on only sometimes, to listen music (it has on/off button). So, if I ever turn on that card in Windows session, GV will crash later, even if card is off when I start game/GV. The workaround is the OS reboot.

I am not deeply familiar with device enumeration in Windows, but, I noticed weird things around joysticks, for example. Depending on which joysticks I turn on during Windows session, some games lose assignments of buttons (what was considered Joy1 becomes Joy3, for example). I wonder, if something like that happens to the enumeration of audio devices.

I don't suppose device Guid changes, but maybe some order number is used for audio cards known to system, somewhere in GV? Cheers!

You are right, this will require a lot of experementation. But there's not just one on/off variable. Here are variables:
* Wheel rotation speed
* Vehicle motion speed
* Vehicle motion direction
* Surface type underneath the wheel

All that said, while I do not have a sports car with slicks to test, in regular road car locking wheel produces rumble of rather narrow frequency range, but it is strong sensation. I truly think wheel lockup vibe will be great addition. Just imagine how will it feel with ABS on - it will be very immersive. And, it will also be appreciated with ABS off, because driver will know when to ease up on the pedal.

I do agree it will be kind of artificial, because ideally, game should simply transfer such vibration via motion physics. But, I hope you would agree, transducer stuff is more artificial in general - take Vibe gear shift effect, it isn't physics based, is it? Good thing is that game vibe allows on/off and volume for each effect, so it will be up to the user.

I do not know - but suggestion comes from someone who drove GT3 car. He told me the sensation of wheel losing grip/jumping on the tarmac is strong. How to implement that, no idea - maybe something to consider on a backlog? In any case, IMHO this is lower priority compared to wheel lockup sensation.

It does not work in rFactor 2. Pausing game leaves RPM vibe on forever. Not sure if it is plugin issue or GV. If you have access to game fields, I can tell how to detect pause state in game? One of the easiest is to test if Elapsed Time changed since last tick.

Thanks. Specifically in rF2 I have difficulty getting any info from chassis. I used your guide for setting lo/hi, but range is very small: 0.08-0.12. Maybe game simply does not implement suspension dynamics well. EDIT: fixed this by manually setting lower bound to 0.001.

Yes, most likely 3rd party driver issue. I'll keep rebooting my PC before GV session. I do not have much time to test, but if you ever came up with and idea of re-enumeration of audio devices or something (maybe Xaudio has some cache that needs to be invalidated?) I'll gladly test private .exe.

Have a good weekend!

Yes, we are on the same page. I meant new Vibe(s) - wheel lockup and, possibly, skid.

I will reach out to rF2 plugin dev - not muting the telemetry during pause is a stress for transducers and amp.

I have a question about Road Detail and Chassis vibes. I was able to make Chassis work fairly decently by lowering the lower bound. I followed tutotrial in post #2 and if I capture Lo the way it is suggested, I get pretty much no vibes for chassis. But anyway, I am unblocked on that one.

My question is: I set my Lo/Hi as you suggested, but it seems to me that Road Detail is the one I get kerbs and bumps from, and Chassis feels more like a road surface feel, and there's little to none feel of kerbs in Chassis vibe. I thought that sensations will be the opposite (based on post #2) - Road Detail will communicate road surface, and Chassis will be bumps. Could you share your insights on this? Or, maybe this is plugin/game dependent? Thanks!

Thanks @yobuddy with your help I was able to figure it out. 3D effect on chassis is really cool. Even though pointing out location of the vibe is difficult, 3D feels nice in action, feels like things happening around the car great surprise.

Do you happen to race with transducers? If so, could you maybe share your Vibe Creator settings for RPM, Gear Shift, Road Detail and Chassis?

Good luck with the move, wish you a smooth one

Now that I own motion system and transducers all neatly set up, potential move in the future is of my nightmares, really not looking forward to that

yobuddy, thank you for this awesome app and thank you value1 for the iRacing and RRE plugins.
All your hard work and talent is GREATLY appreciated!

I have a volume problem I'm hoping someone can help with.
While in iRacing or RRE the rear transducers for road detail are barely noticeable no matter what settings I try.

The 'volume balance test' produces even sound levels between FR, FL, RR, RL, all.
Collisions are set to 3D and FR, FL, RR, RL have the same volume levels.
Road detail is set to ALL and the rear transducers are very faint while the front are strong.
I tried every combo of 'front' and 'all' in the sound card settings.

So, collisions in 3D have same volume but for some reason 'All' does not like my rear transducers.

current setup:
- Win 10
- SimTools 2.4
- GameVibe 2.0
- iRacing plugin 2.0.3.2
- RRE 2.0.7.1
- 2 x 120 watt amplifiers
- 4 x 50 watt bass transducers
- 1 x pcie 5.1 sound card
- 1 amp for 2 front transducers and 1 amp for 2 rear transducers
- all drivers are up to date

The sound card is setup for 5.1 surround in win 10 and in the sound card's software:
- turned off center speaker and subwoofer
- set front and rear to full range speakers

I'm sure I'm missing something. Thanks in advance for any help.

Gary

Thanks for the fast reply.

There is no distance setting and I verified all the correct speaker settings again in win 10 and the software.

Not sure this has any bearing but I have SimHub for rumble pedals (gas = wheel slip and brake = wheel lock) and tried the bass shaker option and my rear did not work until I set them to channel 5 and 6 in custom settings.

For me, road detail is not that important, the 3D collision tuned for curbs, bumbs, etc is my immersion sweet spot, but I'll keep testing various settings.

I found the speaker volume adjustment in the sound card's software but the rear are still not felt for 'road detail - ALL'.
Will keep trying various setting... i'm convinced the right combo is in there .

I can't for the life of me get the vibe signals to work while playing anything in Oculus Rift S. If I play on a virtual desktop in Oculus it works but not in full VR mode. I have done several searches and re-reading of guides but no luck. Any ideas or probably something I am missing?

edit: I have actually only tried Project cars 2 and DCS since they are the only ones I really ever play. Once I get all of this working I plan to play several other titles.