Seat Vibrations via Tactile Sound Transducer (aka buttkicker) in Condor 2

[Gunth3r]

Got my tactile sound transducer working with Condor 2! It's like buttkicker. Takes sound from the simulation and converts it to vibrations which are felt through your sim seat. Combine this with VR and you take it to a whole other level!

Now the vibration of the plane through the air at high speeds is felt, at slow speed it stops, when opening airbrake you feel it. Drop the gear you feel it. Land you feel the rumble of the wheel on the ground.

Wish there was an option for a low rumble sound to trigger buffet from thermals...

Awesome.

[Rühmann]

Nice!

I'm using simular "Buttkickers" (4x ST-BS 250) and a Motion Seat (Sim Experience), but I can't get it work!
What software are you using?

[Gunth3r]

First off, I'm sending sound to the transducers via a PCI Express ASUS Xonar DGX sound card, whilst the Rift headset still gets audio via USB.

The Xonar DGX Audio Center must be set to HiFi.

I have to select (Win10) sound settings > Output device needs to be selected to "Speakers ASUS Xonar DGX audio device".

I also had to go into the Oculus software > Devices > Rift and turn on "Hear VR Audio from Computer" (it is off by default).

Hope this is of some help to you.

It seems various sims need different methods to get the sounds to the transducers, while still allowing sound to the USB Rift headphones... for example:
DCS I use "Simshaker for Aviators". With sound settings > Output device selected to "Headphones (Rift Audio)".
Aerofly FS2 & IL-2 I use Voicemeter. With sound settings > Output device selected to "Voicemeter Input".

[k6chris]

Amazing idea! How does it filter out the sound of the vario??

[Rühmann]

Yes, sounds good! Thanks.

[Bre901]

Amazing idea! How does it filter out the sound of the vario??

Don't know a thing about those devices, but I do have some signal processing knowledge, I guess it's not very complicated : from what one hears on Condor, the vario has a rather higher pitch (frequency) than the other sounds
Hence a basic low-pass filter would do the job, or even the mechanical device itself as I doubt it would be able to vibrate at frequencies above some 100s Hz.

Edited to add that IIRC, the power needed to produce a given acceleration (say 0.1g) at a given frequency varies as the frequency squared : at 500 Hz, to would need 100 times more electrical power to produce the "same" effect as at 50 Hz.

[Gunth3r]

Amazing idea! How does it filter out the sound of the vario??

Well... it filters it out. It is too high of a sound to trigger the shakers. I wonder if the Varioup.wav file could be modified with a sound editor?

I've read that people have had luck with a free program called Audacity which has a bass boost option... will try later today and see if it works.

[Bre901]

I wonder if the Varioup.wav file could be modified with a sound editor?

There is no reason why it could not, just be sure to make a backup copy before.

[janjansen]

IM not sure variometer audio is a good source for the buttkicker. You dont really feel a constant climb, which is what the vario audio will give you and it certainly doesnt feel like a 5x per second bump once you centered a strong thermal or increasing frequency bumping the faster you climb.

Condor UDP data gives G forces and acceleration vectors in all axis. Maybe the Z acceleration vector would be a better source to be able to "feel" thermals (or bad landings). It would likely require some programming if no tools exist to convert UDP datastreams in to butkicker signals. I thought car simulators also use UDP telemetry and I believe some tools exist to use that data to produce audio for buttkickers. I could be wrong though.

[Gunth3r]

IM not sure variometer audio is a good source for the buttkicker. You dont really feel a constant climb, which is what the vario audio will give you and it certainly doesnt feel like a 5x per second bump once you centered a strong thermal or increasing frequency bumping the faster you climb.

I think you are 100% correct.