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SimTools - What's Next for development

Discussion in 'News' started by yobuddy, Feb 16, 2019.

  1. nclabs

    nclabs Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Other stuff occured to me:
    4) Adding a live slider to change the effect we have on the Game Engine profile (like smoothness)
    5) This one has been advised by a friend of mine, and I'm not that sure that SimTools don't do it already. He developed himself a software for traction loss and the thing goes like this. When he slide to one direction he has a pretty fast movement, and right after that the actuator start slowly creeping back to the original position, in this way (when using vr) you can't feel the re-centering process, and it seems pretty clever to me. Cheers.
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  2. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    That is a washout effect.
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  3. splendiddd

    splendiddd Active Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Would be really nice to export a preset together with minmax (tuning center settings) for other users to load into there simtools.
    And maybe more then one config for tuning center?

    Just my 2cents
  4. yobuddy

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

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    Although here is not an official export button or anything.
    You can zip these files together and they can be emailed and imported all at once.
    (With the plugin updater)

    Take care,
    yobuddy
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  5. yobuddy

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

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    Just a quick update and pics to show what I'm working on over here.:thumbs
    (All this stuff is functional, but needs lots of testing still, v2.4 is still a work in progress)

    First some of internal stuff that is awesome to get done (finally!)
    - All internal network communication for SimTools has been completely overhauled for speed and efficiency.
    - GameDash and GameVibe communication was also overhauled.
    - PCars fix (I can't get PCars to crash GameVibe anymore, I think its fixed?)
    - Company Tools now includes GameDash and GameVibe (with auto correcting re-setup - com ports/sound card settings)
    - GameManger and GameEngine are now live synced! (select a game profile and the other app has it selected too)
    - GameManger and GameEngine connection and re-connection chatter is completely gone. (now super efficient!)

    Now some good stuff!
    Game Engine now has 3 modes. (Default is Standard)
    If left in Standard mode, everything works as it does now.
    This is great, as it means it does not get any harder for the new user.
    Modes.jpg

    If you set Game Engine in Advanced Mode, you will get per Game Manger profile Min / Max settings.
    (The current profile you are editing is shown in the main title bar as seen in the pic below.)
    ad.jpg

    But then some of you need even more, that's where the expert mode comes into play.
    Here you get per Game Manger profile Min / Max settings but also can also have different Min / Max settings per Axis Assignments.
    ex.jpg

    Clicking save will ask you what assignments you what to save.
    ssd.jpg

    The expert engine is pretty smart also.
    If you have the same Roll (Min/Max) values for both (a & b) Axis Assignments, it will only compute the needed value once for both Axis Assignments.
    But If they are different, it will compute both sets.
    This continues the trend in only doing as much as is really needed in the engine for output.
    (The axis assignments also only starts up calculations for what's really needed. if roll is not used, why compute the math for it?)
    (Maybe it just me, but this is the kind of fine tuning gets me excited lol.)

    Oh, and by the way, you can change the Game Engine Mode your using at any time.
    (all modes create files for the other modes, so changing at any time is possible)

    And the Entertainment Version is getting some love too.
    logging.jpg

    You can set the interface (trigger) so it will begin logging only when that interface successfully starts up.
    So it only actually records sim time and not just if the game is running.
    And of course you can set some dates and generate some reports etc..

    Well that is all for now.:cheers
    Take care all!
    yobuddy
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    Last edited: Mar 13, 2019
  6. BlazinH

    BlazinH Well-Known Member

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    Makes sense although it takes a tick longer for condition testing when both still need computed.

    I suppose a Simtools 3 designation would create even more work for you but imo these upgrades are worthy enough to be considered a major upgrade. A Simtools 3 designation also immediately conveys to everyone whether they currently use it or not that your software is making major advancements and its not just setting around getting stale. As long your happy though I'm happy ;).
  7. yobuddy

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

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    It only tests what it needs once on startup and then uses its own efficient 'loop' as needed. :thumbs
    Having it test every iteration would add a 'tick' and that's why it was avoided.

    Thanks man!
    I'm still working on v2 over here... lol
    I haven't found anything we want to add that breaks anything we have now.
    (Like what happened with 1v and needing to upgrade all the plugins for the new functionality.)
    (And leaving the 2 versions of SimTools incompatible with each other.)

    So I think right now just pushing out quality updates is whats important.
    And I enjoy doing it.
    Take care,
    yobuddy
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  8. BlazinH

    BlazinH Well-Known Member

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    Nice :thumbs, I wasn't thinking that advanced. In and of itself it likely doesn't matter a hill of beans anyway but unnecessary ticks can add up throughout an app if not dealt with.
    I didn't know that was your criteria. :)

    I'm looking forward to testing with my new g-force pressure system and 3dof motion rig once released. However I've got everything working good now since my software that runs it allows the user to rescale a default set of tuning numbers to run individual systems per user wishes via sliders on every dof.
  9. hexpod

    hexpod http://heXpod.xyz

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Standard - advanced - expert. Great idea!
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  10. yobuddy

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

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    Few more updates to report.. :thumbs
    After all the code cleanup that's been done over the past couple of months, It' been a ton easier to add all the new stuff we want!

    - Output Testing has been revamped. (gone is the 3..2..1.. countdown).
    (It now only takes about ~0.5 seconds to start or stop output testing)

    - Game Manger Profiling System has been completely overhauled and bulletproofed.
    (All profiles now make backups of themselves when saving)

    Should GameManger detect a corrupt file, It will:
    1) Load the backup
    2) IF the backup profile fails, it will load the default profile for the game.
    3) IF the default profile fails, it will create a new profile.

    Probably overkill, but not only will it keep us from having any problems in the future, it can fix any problems people may have now with profiling.
    (Simply install this version and it will fix your profiling errors)

    - Soft Centering & Soft Startup / Resume! I know allot of you have been waiting for this.
    Soft Centering = You press the Pause button and the sim Slowly Centers.
    Soft Startup / Resume = You Un-Pause the game and the sim Slowly gets Back to Speed.
    I'm really liking how this upgrade is truing out!

    (Gui not final)
    upfin.jpg

    That's all for now guys... :cheers
    But there is more on the way...
    Take care,
    yobuddy
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    Last edited: Mar 16, 2019
  11. hexpod

    hexpod http://heXpod.xyz

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Did you thought to increase the number of extras let's say to 6
    3 is to less in my opinion
  12. yobuddy

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

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    Changing this would require a new api and all the game plugins to be done over.
    I think 3 is enough to be honest.
  13. hexpod

    hexpod http://heXpod.xyz

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    I dont think at all 3 is enough but I understand how painful it will be to readapt.

    Please reconsider for the future (maybe on next major release) not the upcoming one. :)

    See how quickly you get stuck if you want to mix some other effects like rpm slip/skid and maybe others.
    You have to swap with other effects which you want to keep actually.

    slip-skid.JPG
    sli.PNG
  14. yobuddy

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

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    I would argue that all of those affects are already in the output data for Roll, Pitch, Heave, Yaw, Sway, Surge.
    (But we are just talking about the 3 extra that the users can tune, keep in mind that the plugin writer himself can mix whatever they want in the plugins thou.)
  15. hexpod

    hexpod http://heXpod.xyz

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    "
    It's damn logical what you said. It' more about the philosophy.

    I think you want to keep it simple but also open and versatile.

    "Standard - advanced - expert"

    As you know because our stewart platforms can not do 360, scaling it to 40 - 60 deg at max makes some of those "components" simply disappear.

    Although we have all we need with the "basic telemetry", it's more than interesting to exaggerate some of the conponents.

    Doing the math inside the plugin makes it much less transparent for the user to tweak in details what he want to output.

    Its not for now, just keep it in mind, I hope you will reconsider some day... I hope.
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2019
  16. value1

    value1 Nerd SimAxe Beta Tester SimTools Developer Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Please add a version check when loading plugins. This will allow backward compatibility for future versions and more freedom to change the plugin structure.
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  17. yobuddy

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

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    You mean API version?
    Interesting, I like it!

    Now sure how it would work with the axis and interface plugins thou?
    I'll need to think it over a bit.
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2019
  18. Joeri

    Joeri Member

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    I would also like this.
    maybe game engine and game manager can start as 1 program at the same time.

    especially at the start of your sim build. you need both programs a lot.
    for me as a noob it is hard enough lol

    thanks for the fantastic program!

    Gr. Joeri
  19. yobuddy

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

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  20. Joeri

    Joeri Member

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    Last edited: Mar 16, 2019