News 2023 Year in Review and Seasons Greetings

I just had word that Santa has fired up the sleigh and is headed to the international date line, somewhere around Christmas Island, Kiribati, ready for a world wide tour. For those who need it here is the official Norad Santa tracker: http://www.noradsanta.org/


Seriously though I know we have many members from around the world, who have a diverse range of views and beliefs. Irrespective of what those may be I would like to pass on end of year seasons greetings to yourselves, and those who you hold near and dear.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to Xsimulator.net. All members have advanced our community, plus DIY motion related simulation and peripherals, in a vast array of ways, and the originality and ingenuity you all bring to your many and varied projects continues to amaze.

In 2023 our major community build trends have been the resurgences of 2-3DOF budget rigs, along with ongoing support for peg leg designs, Stewart platforms, the odd G-Seat, plus some interesting and innovative rigs. When it comes to ingenuity and innovation there are many creative examples, but I do think @Chris_Beeves motorcycle project deserves special mentions, encompassing both motion and peripheral creativity, experimentation and refinement.

The use of 3D printed parts is now common, including for motion rigs, control mounts/boxes, and other peripherals. There is ongoing interest for UDP based plugins, to enable motion with consoles, with thanks going to @vthinsel as the stalwart plugin dev for console owners, though others are now also contributing. Commercial rigs continue to proliferate, which in turn has expanded the ranks of our community.

Hardware wise AMC-AASD15A servos now have a number of servo controllers, for DIY and commercial actuators, along with direct drive wheels, making them pretty much plug and play for powerful rotary or actuator rigs. But on the flip-side wiper powered budget rigs and associated IBTs have made a bit of a comeback, largely as a result of @Halloween2go and lately @Kevinski's prolific video tutorials.

DIY peripherals also seem to be gaining in popularity during 2023, and some, such as those by @Lebois have morphed into products.

Software wise FlyPT motion software is now seeing some development action, after a bit of a hiatus, with @pmvcda having our best wishes as he recovers from some health issues. SimTools v3 is nearing the end of its open Beta testing, having made a raft of speed and UI improvements, along with new features such as the integrated plugin repository system. The v3 plugin ranks are filling out, with many plugins seeing refinements when they are updated to or created for SimTools v3, giving more consistency.

We have also seen the introduction of a new generation of hardware in 2023. There has been the release of the 40 series Nvidia card, a whole swag of commercial peripherals, and the increasing use of LEDs as a way to add practical information and aesthetic touches to rigs.

So a big Aussie Christmas koala stamp award to all those who have worked on the plugins, motion software, controller code and cracking hardware support, who we all depend on to bring our motion rigs to life in our favorite games.

There has also been some evolution around Xsimulator.net during 2023, administration team has been rationalized, concurrently a somewhat new generation has stepped forward as very active members, helping to guide and support others, as well acting as DIY motion and peripheral evangelists.

In addition, our community has a strong, active and very experienced core membership, who freely share their experience and expertise, to the benefit of the huge numbers of new members annually. Thanks go to all of you, as you are very much the soul of this wonderful and innovative community.

No doubt 2023 has had plenty of world events right out of left field. Thankfully we have had the benefit of welcome distractions, as the ever increasing activity of this community never gets dull, there is always a new idea and new project. The ingenuity of members is just astounding!

As we put 2023 in the rear view mirror we can hopefully look forward to some real efforts to settle rather than escalation of world disputes, with a focus on peace rather than war.

Wherever you are and whatever you may be doing, many thanks for being a part of this vibrant community. I wish you all the best for the festive season and new year, no matter how you choose to celebrate or spend them, and I look forward to 2024 being a year of endless project possibilities and amazement for our community.