SimVibe anyone?

The Buttkicker Mini LFE is only a transducer that does not come with an amp (you'll need to buy a 4 ohm amp separately). You use 2 sound cards (or more) with a Simvibe setup. One dedicated to driving the transducer signals depending on if you are doing only chassis or extension mode...another sound card if you are doing both. Then you need a sound card for your normal sound output. For just sound and ONE Buttkicker you need TWO sound cards. If your graphics card can output sound (via HDMI to a home theater receiver), you may be able to have your normal sound out of it.

You can save some money by going for Aura transducers which only need 4 ohm amps or Dayton transducers (8 or 16 ohm) which can be powered safely by an inexpensive consumer grade amp. The Auras feel as strong as a Buttkicker according to other users but require a more expensive 4ohm amp. The Dayton are weaker and need to be positioned so they vibrate on something that comes in contact with your body to feel texture vibration and light to moderate bumps. Simvibe recommends a semi-pro amp like the Behringer Europower or Pyle 8-channel Amp

The Buttkicker Gamer 2 may have some niggly interface flaws, but it comes with everything you need to work out of the box, and is probably the least hassle ways to get strong, impact reproducing rumble without sacrificing the longevity of a consumer grade amp. I'm using a consumer grade amp for my Dayton pucks and the BKG2 for my strong stuff (under the racing seat). All together I've spent about $500 on the whole setup (yikes!), although I did have that Panasonic Receiver gathering dust in my closet that I was able to re-purpose, without it, I've really spent about $300 out of pocket within the last few months to get "rumble".

 

Ok, thanks again, its helped make my next upgrade decision a little clearer.

 

I did some additional research on the Buttkicker Mini LFE and it is 4ohm, which is less resistance than the ButtKicker Gamer 2, but is a larger transducer (theoretically more kick). I've read several accounts that claim that the Auras are more powerful than the Buttkickers (both the LFE and the Gamer 2).

I'd like to find stronger transducers than the Daytons that run at 6 or 8 ohms to either experiment with chassis mode or have another zone all together (shifter-Dayton, seat-BKG2, and pedals-new transducers in between).

 

I have suddenly something strange with Simvibe and my BKG2 settings for rF2 which started yesterday evening. I didn't change a thing in my configuration, but now my settings are not balanced anymore the way I balanced them, E.g. RPM vibration versus Suspensions.

When I start rF2, I'm waiting the plugin icon to disappear (I guess I'm not the only one ) and I use my RPM vibration to raise the BKG Amplifier until I feel the good vibes (which match when my red clip led start to blink really slightly), and know all others SimVibe settings will follow the way I choose (without the red clip light, or really light). Now, if I raise the Amplifier to the usual level feeling RPM vibration, when I start driving all others settings goes too strong (change gear, suspension, winds, etc.). It look like the intensity of the RPM vibration suddenly have been lowered, which is not the case when I go in the Control Center. So this morning I had to raise a lot the RPM Intensity slider to get the same equilibrium I had few days ago.

Did that already happen to somebody (loosing some settings, feeling something different suddenly)? I was thinking about a possible automatic simvibe update I missed... I still have same feeling with my amplifier and the BKG2 with other sims (with the LFE chanel, not simvibe compliant ones)...

Edit: Ok, I found my problem: the bass enhancement was checked by mistake for the sound card I use for Simvibe (onboard Realteck HD) and that changed waves received from Simvibe, hence the change in balancing between all effects. Fixed!

 

adaptable 1

I have SimVibe with a single Buttkicker Gamer 2 attached to my seat. I must say it is amazing, much better than running it straight through the audio, SimVibe allows you to feel every subtle vibration in the SIM. I will be adding a front transducer soon for added effects.

However, I am having trouble getting SimVibe to run on rFactor2 due to its Launcher. How did you get around this? I have tried the Advanced tab, this allows for "Before" and "After" actions, it did not help. If I set it up to launch with the rFactor2.exe SimVibe crashes, if I set it up with the rFactor 2-Launcher SimVibe does not trigger. Could you describe how you set it up, possibly U/L some images? I would appreciate it.

Cheers

 

Are you running Sim Commander as the Administrator on your computer? Mine is.

This is what my settings for rFactor2 in the Control Center.... I did not do anything special to make it work after the initial install.

View attachment 7187

View attachment 7188

 

My tactile experience is startinh now and I must say that I'm sooooooooooooo happy about it!
With SimVibe it's even much better! now I really fell my self in the car and this thinh adds a lot alot of immersion! feelinh every bumps, road textures, Engine, gear.........now my sim-life experience has reached a higher level!
Now I have 2 BKG2 that I installed directly to the seat frame(see screen shot) and I'm planning to add 2daytona to the pedals and shifter!

 

Shouldn't they be the other way up?

 

You can place them also vertical, but now Im doing a lot of tests, so this isn't the definitive position!

 

I have been unable to obtain suitable 64 bit software to interface the game and tactile transducer I purchased. Any recommendations? Thanks

 

Do you mean that you have having problems running rFactor 2 in 64-bit or getting Sim Commander/Sim Vibe to work with rFactor2 in 64-bit?

If you think the problem is with Sim Commander, make sure you have Sim Commander 4 which is still in beta but Berney will give you a key upon request on his forum. The Sim Commander 4 plug-in has been tweaked to run with rFactor 2 in 64-bit and works fine -- I don't know if that is the case with Sim Commander 3.

Some other things to check: test your speakers in Sim Commander to confirm you have your soundcards and outputs correct (for chassis and/or extensions or both depending on your set up), confirm that Sim Commander is pointing to the correct path for your rFactor2 executable file, and make sure you have all your output mixes properly set up and activated for rFactor 2.

You will also want to make sure you are registered for the Sim Vibe user club forum here: http://simxperience.com/en-us/community/ownersclubforum.aspx

You will probably get more detailed help there and Berney usually responds quickly if he is not too swamped.

Good luck!