Question SimTools and NLR Motion Platform V3

I've recently acquired a Next Level Racing Motion Platform V3.

I chose the NLR V3 after seeing a friend's DIY actuator rig and deciding there was no way I could build one myself. The V3 platform is made by the folks at motionsystems.eu and sold through NLR.

The V3 is only a 2DoF motion platform, but it's compact, has some nice quality of life features (automatic locks) and has a user friendly software interface called the "Next Level Racing Platform Manager".

It supports quite a ton of games out of the box, has built-in VR compensation, and their customer support folks are super helpful.

Unfortunately I've got a hankering to play Elite Dangerous in VR on my Oculus CV1 and naturally the NLR software doesn't support the game due to no proper telemetry data from the game.

I've been lurking on the site for awhile before getting a motion platform and I noticed SilentChill has been working on and updating SimTool plugins for Elite Dangerous for quite some time.

Do any of you fine folks out there know if it's possible to use SimTools with the Next Level Racing Motion Platforms? Or perhaps there is an alternative work-around I just haven't been able to find?

Currently I am using a joystick direct input plugin that comes with the NLR Platform Manager, and it works for turning joystick movement into motion platform movement, but it's less than ideal.

Thanks for taking a gander at my question!
Take care.

As far as I can tell the Next Level Racing Motion Platforms use their ForceSeatPM software and communicates to the platforms using both their ForceSeatMI and ForceSeatDI programming interfaces.

These interfaces support the following languages; C, C++, C#.
The C# API is compatible with Unity 3D and it is possible to use Unreal Engine.

They have a rundown of the SDK on the platform manufacturer's website:
http://motionsystems.eu/software/sdk

They also have full documentation of the SDK here:
http://motionsystems.eu/software/sdk/forceseatmi-documentation

And here is where you can download the SDK:
http://motionsystems.eu/files/3314/8896/9773/ForceSeatMI_2.61.zip

I'd love to be able to figure this out myself and make an interface plugin for SimTools for the NLR platforms, as I do own their V3 platform and could do debugs, but unfortunately I am just not knowledgeable in any programming language. That's all beyond my abilities.

I have some updates.
I've been trying to get in touch with MotionSystems.eu and Next Level Racing (manufacturer and distributor for the NLR Motion Platform), and this evening I received a reply from them from Paweł Koczan.

They've said SimTools won't work to control the platforms, but using memory hooks in their platform manager like @SilentChill has in his SimTools plugin for Elite Dangerous would work.
However, as a company they said they can't devote resources to finding the pointers for the memory hooks after each update themselves.

BUT they did said this:

"The only solution would be to get the correct pointer from somebody else (3rd party) so we could just update the plug-in with new values without spending time on finding them. That would work for us. I even proposed once to contact Silent Chill (he has made Elite Dangerous plug-in for SimTools) and discuss if he is willing to let us use his work."

@SilentChill, is this something that you would even be interested in helping with?
Or did this contact Paweł Koczan is referring to already happen years ago and is dead in the water?
Or perhaps they never reached out to you in the first place?

I'd love to help out any way I can to get this commercial motion platform to work with Elite Dangerous, but I have zero programming knowledge.
At anyrate thanks for pointing me in the right direction for help @noorbeast.

Hi There, I can't remember them contacting me ? Maybe they proposed to but never did, I don't know.

The amount of time it takes to make a ED plugin is not something I would give them for free.

It's not just as simple as putting memory locations into their software there is some math involved and flags to change to different memory locations. Also I don't know if their software is 64bit, if it is then it would work and if it is 32bit they would need someway of reading the 64bit locations.

One last thing the memory locations have now changed they are different for VR and Non-VR which is making it even more difficult.

I think it would be easier getting simtoools to work with your rig but without knowing what hardware is inside it's pretty hard.

All of your points are completely understandable SilentChill.
I am assuming they proposed to contact you and never did.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post.

Should MotionSystems.eu make an Elite Dangerous memory hook plug-in themselves for their software, would you consider giving them just the pointers to the memory hooks each time you updated your own plugin if they paid you?

It's pretty much sounding like Frontier just needs to implement a telemetry API, and then no more memory hooks changing every update.

Ive contacted Frontier's support staff recently and they said they'd love to have telemetry data, but that it wasn't up to them and that I should post in their suggestion forum so the devs can see that there is interest.

Here's a link to my post in case anyone else is interested in helping it get visibility for the devs:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ort-with-Telemetry-Data?p=5519204#post5519204

If they would pay me for my time to find the pointers yeah they could have the pointers but I wouldn't come cheap and that's why they probably wouldn't pay me and why they won't do it themselves it would just cost too much.

I have replied to your post on Frontier, we have asked before a long time ago and nothing came of it. The simplest way is for an API but whether they do it is another story, it really would not be too hard for them to do as they have access to everything.