VOTE: How Do You Use X-Sim

I'm sorting out a motion profile wizard to help the community to be able to develop motion profiles more easily and to learn the principles behind the process. It would be helpful to have a better understanding of how most users utilize X-Sim.

The big question on my mind is, do most users have a profiler running on the gaming PC for motion purposes, or are most users running motion from a second PC?

8 votes in 24 hours

9.

I have only one PC for both.

Is it better to use two?

What overall performance do you need from the second PC?

How the hell do you set it up?

Cheers

The dual PC can be avoided if you have a sufficiently fast PC. I've seen hundreds of systems perform very well on a single quad-core PC.

Some would argue a slight performance advantage for the dual scenario. I myself have not observed this. It's actually been opposite here but it would be great to see some performance posts. I've been thinking of a tool to log game data as it arrives from the games api and again at the serial port but I don't think I'll have time for it soon.

Setting up a dual PC scenario requires some knowledge of IP addressing and a properly configured firewall and internal network. If you have this, look to the Wiki for Force Sender documentation.

I would caution you never to split your motion across PC's. For example, never move two actuartos with PC 1 and another two actuators with PC 2. This can be very dangerous on some sim designs if one profiler loses connection.

Thanks Bernard,
I have a good knowledge of networking so might give the two PC approach a go. With regards to the logging tool this might be off interest to you

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts ... 57406.page

All the best
Hoggyjay

My PC an AMD 965 quad core 3.4 gig CPU. Hopefully sufficient enough to run X-SIM as I game with it hard. I run a GTX460 Overclocked.

I've seen good results with the AMD quad cores as well. You should be in good shape.

:

superb software i ever used..

Thats good news. Overall AMD are good cpu's for value for money. They tend to run a bit hot, hence an aftermarket cooler is recommended, and a good gaming case with plenty of fans. I have an Antec 902. Great case, gets the heat out!

hello tell me how to configure sender and force force profile in one pc, I'm new to the forum and I'm starting to learn the software before starting my simulator, I could help, sorry for my English, but only speak Spanish and I am using a google translator, thanks for your help

does this help?
Firstly, big thanks to Eaorobbie for his help and development of the jrk board and its use in this program. Love your work!
This setup is using the reference of wiper motors and the JRK board. And operating system being Window 7, 64 bit. I will add screen shots later.

Step one : install the software
Step two : make sure the program has firewall and administrator access once installed
Step three : plug in the device you are using (wheel – pedals, joystick)
Step four : start the profiler and force sender program, the program should recognise the controlling device (wheel-pedals, joystick) and set itself to using that. You will always need the control device plugged in before you start the program at any time.
Step five : Go to the math section of profiler and look for an “add axis” tab, click to add and axis – motor input. Obviously click once for each motor.
Step six : Plug in the control boards via the usb cable and enter in the output section of profiler the commands needed for the control boards you are using. Example for this is the Pololu JRK.


JRK Setup.
You will need to have the jrks plugged in via the usb cables and setup in the jrk utility program. Here you will need to set the feedback and PID of each motor. To set feedback, go to the feedback tab of jrk utility, move the motor lever with pot attached to one position, click “learn”, it will as you to move it to maximum position. As you should already have the motor – pot in one spot, click “ok” then it will ask you to move the motor to the minimum position. Push the motor lever down to the lower spot and click “ok”. Then click “apply settings to device. Do this with each motor. If you have done this right, the pot has given the jrk a “feedback” position so as the motor “knows” where to go.
The PID is a tricky one depending on motor used. For wiper motors, use 2/2 0/3 1/1, as they do not require too much fiddling. With larger motors like big worm gear motors and or winch motors, you will need to spend more time fiddling with PID. Every motor can be different.
Now go to the input tab of JRK utility, click the “automatically set target” and then “run motor” tab and then move the slider back and forth, If the motor moves up and down, you have successfully got the motors to move in JRK utility. Always click “apply settings to device” – bottom right hand corner when you have changed any settings in the jrk utility program .If a motor moves the wrong way, change the feedback direction in the “feedback” tab and or motor direction in the “motor” tab.
For other JRK settings, refer to the JRK manual PDF file, especially in regards to errors. This is where PID fits in because if you get errors from a motor moving too fast or not stopping fast enough, you will have to change the PID settings. Every motor can be different.
Always create a save file for each board so as you can have a reference pointing case you mess up a setting. Top left hand corner of the JRK utility has a “save settings file”.

Step seven: Now go to the device manager of windows and look as to what comports the jrks are on. Back in the profiler in the output section, click on the USO tab. The on the top right hand side is a tab with “add comport”. Enter the com port number, example \\.\COM10 and click “add comport to list.
Then go down to the “data packet “section and click “edit comport”. This should show you which comport are being set up. Add the numbers in the data packet sections:-

~221~~64~
~221~~a01~ (you may need to change this on the second motor to ~221~~a02~)
~255~
Leave every other settings as they are for the time being. The motors should run fine as they are.
Do this for each comport , and also go to the top left hand side of the profiler and “save” the settings. Always handy to have a backup.
Step eight: go to the force sender and click on the plug in drop down list. Select “test tablet”, then a large screen of sliders should appear. On the force sender, click the “try to send data” tab.
Step nine: go to the math section and add a 1:1 force setting for each axis – motor. Right click on the force and select “edit” and from the drop down list a sender input. I used slider 21 for one motor and slider 22 for another motor.
Step ten: now click the “start” button on the profiler. If all is set well, you should be able to move each motor individually with each slider.
Step eleven: click “disconnect” on the force sender and click “stop” on the profiler.
Once you have got the motors to move in the profiler, you are then ready to move onto making a profile of motion for each game.
Making a motion profile – example GTR Evolution
Go to the force sender, and on the plugin drop down list, select “race07” plug in. On the game exe tab, click this and look for the game exe file. This can be found in this example being computer > program files > Simbin > GTR Evolution > and look for race07 exe. Click to select.
Now go to the math section of profiler, and add a force form the 1:1 force section for each axis – motor that you would like, example “lateral” side to side body roll, “longitudal” braking and acceleration. And vertical force for bumps, if you like as well. You can add as may forces as you like on each motor. Usually 3 is enough though.
Right click on the force on the list and click “edit” and another screen should appear. Look for “automatic maximum adjustment” click this. This will allow the program to “look” for a motion setting number out of the game. Do this for each force.
Once this is done, go back to the force sender and click “play game” then quickly click “start” on the profiler. Once the game starts, select a race, preferably a test time trial. Now, gently drive the car braking and accelerating and turning from side to side and avoid going off the track at high speed, just do it a bit slowly. The motion may be inaccurate, do not worry, it can be fixed later. Go for a drive for a bit until you feel the motion lessen.
Then exit the game and go back to the math section, and then right click on each force setting and you will see a number in maximum and minimum. Now un-tick the “automatic maximum adjustment”. Once this is done, you have now created a motion profile. Also here, you can select the “invert force” tick box, so you can tell the motor to move in the right direction, so as body roll is correct as well as the other forces you may have entered.
From here I suggest increasing the number by 10% amounts, as well as reducing the percentage intensity level from 100% down to suit how you like the motion. Go back into the game using force sender – profiler, check and test and adjust and re-test, until you have a “feeling” of motion that you like.
Note: some big motions may cause errors in JRK utility because of the extreme nature, adjust the motion down or up in increments until it stops errors. I know this from personal experience.
Also save the motion setting, in case you need to start again and re-fiddle with the numbers.
This applies to any game for getting motion. It will take time, but that is the fun of setting up individual motion.
I may have made some mistakes here, so if I have missed something, feel free to let me know.