SimTools v3 Alpha (Questions, Answers, Fixes, Show & Tell)

Excellent!
Since sims are so much fun, the software should be kinda fun too I think.

w00t!

Bug! I will push a update later to see if we can squash it!

Worked for the Wii, is all I'm saying .
Maybe we have it so the thumb mouse button or etc goes back to home too.
Once we have an idea we like, we can add it to the build.

I know whats going on here, will get it fixed.

Basically, If the buttons are red they are temporarily disabled on next run.
(so you can just test vibes with no motion or something)

If its gray (it's probably not dark enough yet) Then it means you have no interface setup for the section.
If its white, its setup and ready to run.
This way we can tell exactly why something may not have started just from a gui screenshot.

You can get a 4 channel amp on ebay, and 4 puck transducers all for under $125 bucks last I checked.
And do some cool 3D vibes collisions and bumps.

Thanks, will get it fixed!

Hmm.. I know i was playing with the network one lol, think I forgot to add them.

So yea. I didn't know where to put the export function. lol
Exporting seems like an "option" anyway lol.
It could be tucked anywhere we want really.

Something that was not very easy with v2, was making backups.
(Another thing I hate about typical backups, is they are always out of date when you need to use them.)
So i thought we could fix both of these issues with v3.

Once you have a working setup goto the "options / exports" and export a Setup plugin.
This is your backup, and can be used to completely re-setup the Current version of SimTools v3.
Next, it takes time to configure games, so we should be able to back these up also, and now we can.
Goto the "options / exports" and select Game Plugin, then custom plugin


Notice you can add all of your motion(axis profile), Dash , vibe, and crash settings to the plugin.
Lets export a custom game plugin now!

Ok, sweet we have both a Setup plugin and a Game plugin!
If we now remove SimTools from our PC, and install the current version of v3, we can re-setup by simply drag- dropping the setup file into the main gui!

It will ask you to unplug you simulator and replug it in so it can correct a com port if a com port is used in your interface settings.


We disconnected and press next (not shown here)


We connect it and it does this:


SimTools restarts and everything is setup.
Meaning all your interfaces are setup and the axis plugin are setup.
Next we drag-drop in or game backup, and bam! lol its all setup again with all of its axis profiles.
We just need to hit play!

Pretty cool right? Its even cooler yet, if you think about how we can create custom repos for people with the same type of sim builds, And with a few people good at configuring the plugins and loading them to the online repo, anyone building a sim like this could be up and playing in a little as 3 to 5 minutes. lol

There's more too, but I think this is probably enough to digest for now.
Thanks for the detailed report! I really appreciate it!
Take care!

Yes, we can make the play button so it has a smaller launch area.
Like you actually have to click the white part or something.
Let's come back to this thou when i get all the stuff that not working right fixed.
I defiantly want to polish it correctly, and I'm kinda nip-picky lol
So we will address this for sure as well as anything else you guys find.

Setup files loaded to a repo can be uploaded with an optional:
- A link to the original project. (http forumlink)
- Wiring Diagram
- Parts List
- Build Guide
- Manual

There are a ton of good projects in the forums, but they can sometimes get lost in all the posts.
This way thou, we can sort of catalog projects, and new users can simply pick a build, and have everything they need to get going in one spot.
And when the build is done, they can use the repo to setup and simply pick a pre-setup game to play, with no settings needed.

Anyway, I think I have everything on your list fixed @Marc Fdx.
The vibe test tunes now work without saving the settings first.
Logging label fixed and a few other small things.

Let me know if the reg issue is still there please, its the only thing that's hard to test.
I'll push a update shortly.
Chat Soon!

Thx @NjMotion,

w00t!

This is just altering the control, should we want it to work differently.
(Maybe a skin can have options on how the GUI works or something.)
For now, since its working, I will try to knock out any breaking bugs first.
But I will for sure come back and polish it up correctly in the beta stage!

Awesome, think your the first to try out the one-click-setup besides rich and I!
Remember the axis assignments / profiles for any game plugin, get copied too, and then re-installed with a custom game plugin.
So the setup would not have allot of axis assignments / profiles, if your were expecting to see some.
We do need to add the global profiles to the setup files thou, and will get to this shortly.
Chat soon,
yobuddy

w00t!

There is no first run-popup screens yet.
But there probably should be.

w00t!

This is the default ms control, and its how they decided to make it work, strange right?
You will notice that the whole app has custom controls to correct all these issues.
But the plugin are still using the ms common control set for now.
But all the plugins with gui's support skinning now, and can be updated with custom controls too to fix these issues.

Typing values will be fix with custom controls above.
Multiples at once would be tricky I think.

Note that there is a profile intensity at the bottom right of the motion section for applying a first order smoothing to all axis at once.
Where the plugin smoothing uses 3rd order.

Click capture settings to be able to type in the fields.
(this also enables the reset and save button)

I tuned it down allot, what you are seeing is normal.
x2 version was way overboard i think.
But if it needs tuned back up we can do that also.

With the game running, goto Max/Min tuning and click capture.
Then hit reset and you will see it auto captures max/min values from the game.
Hit save to use the new values.
And you can do all this without stopping the game.

The game running screen is still mostly empty at this time with only basic buttons to get to each section.
But we can fill it with common controls used or startup info etc...

Chat soon!

Awesome!
I will make it so its not so picky!
Thanks for testing everyone!!!

LOL, its looking for my test file.
Please under 'Sound' de-select audio file.
Looks like weapon flairs is like that too.

So GameVibe has a few new tricks up its sleeve!
You can, as always, create live sounds for any of the inputs.
But now you can also trigger audio files!

You can trigger a audio file when an input hits 0 and/or when it hits 100%.
So take landing gear as an example, you can create a sound for landing gear up and one for landing gear down.
And then trigger them to play with the landing gear input. (auto de-bouncing is applied)

You can Drag-Drop mp3 audio files directly in SimTools (main gui) and then use them in game vibe!

Pushed an update with all the Dash plugins (except memory mapped).
So dash should be fully usable now!

To assign dash vars with v3, you use the label for the entry, example shown circled in red.


If little white down 'tabs' appear (you can see one on Pressure) you can select an entry to show, as the section has more than one entry.
Hope that makes sense, chat soon!

For a game that supports auto-profiling, you can turn it on here!


And it will auto select/create a profile for the vehicle currently being used in the game.
Chat soon!

Windows defender? lol
The files are digitally signed, so once the cert has enough street cred, it should not be a problem anymore.
With that said, I have tested AVG free and Avast Free and they are working great!
I may have to submit the end file to get defender to chill out lol.
but I'm updating so much right now it does not really make sense yet.
White listing simtools in defender may be a good option too.

Serial Motion Interface - Startup Output, Interface Output, Shutdown Output settings save/reload fixed.