ButtKicker Control

Opus Software wrote: Hi Chas If OpusFSX crashes then that's an error in the Windows audio out driver or library which is rather fragile. We are looking into it at the moment. Can you delete your OpusFSX\ButtKicker.dat file and then after running FSXSERVER reconfigure the ButtKicker settings enabling only one BK device. That should fix it for now. Cheryl

Yep, did that and actually got the Sound Blaster USB soundcard and used it instead of virtual audio cable. Although both work, the isolation caused by the Sound Blaster USB card is remarkable.

A note here, I had to turn the sound volumes down on the SB-USB soundcard to almost single digits including the master volume control. That was not the case when using virtual audio cable.

Can others post their settings, VAC, regular and Sound Blaster USB card settings. I think that would be an interesting comparison.

I am really digging this added dimension of immersion!

...Now if I could just stick a trio of 12 inch linear actuator pairs under, and to the back of the chair,

    … And use ALL the butt kicker output to each...

        ...AND FSUIPC, Roll, PItch, Yaw, and heave data… wellll, ya know a girl can't quit dreaming about six DOF vibratory MOTION,can she?


... I wonder if the folks at Sybian would sue us…

Great add Steven and Cheryl! And thank you all for your accounts of experiences .

Stephen, I'm pretty sure that you were probably a beta tester, so are there any hitches glitches or advisements as we download our version 2.0 P3D this coming Monday?

THANKS y'all

Chas

YAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Hello,

how is the buttkicker working with helicopters? Are there any improvements to immersion there?

I've been looking at getting a BK, but the talk of poor integration with the flightsim put me off. This thread definitely got my interest up again.

Opusfsx buttkicker feature is the only way we could feel the weather effect and bumpiness of the different stages of a flight. I fly long hours each week and the ability to feel the weather keeps me awake. This is one of the most important feature of Opusfsx weather engine that differentiate from others.  Please continue with the development with BK. Thumbs ups.

Eagerly waiting for OpusFSI in 2014...

Love the BK effects and look forward to landing effect and reverse thrust.

I just purchased the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go Pro USB and wanted to check if I understood why I just spent my money..
This USB soundcard will allow the BK to be seen as a separate audio device and will isolate the feedback that I hear using a splitter and headphones now.
And all my other games will still be able to use the BK right?

Thanks for your help, I had read the guide but still didn't understand how this was supposed to work. I didn't even know about USB soundcards until I purchased Opus!

I am a new user of your software and have a couple of questions/problems with the buttkicker control. I am using A2A C172 and the new Piper. I use Prepar3d v2.2 exclusively under windows 7 64bit. Buttkicker is connected via the sound blaster usb device you recommended.

Problem. There is a vibration which is sometime periodic sitting on the ramp with nothing on or running in the plane. When I go into configure, camera or any other dialog it quits then when I exit the dialog it returns stronger at first the declines and sometimes goes away?

Question. I currently have one gamer 2 kicker attached in horizontal mode. If I add another gamer 2 kicker in vertical mode and select the in the kicker control panel, will I be able to tell any difference as both kickers will be coming off same sound card. In other words does your software separate vert and horiz signals from the sim and feed to each kicker, or is the same signal fed and the difference if any is solely due to the different orientation of the kickers.

Thank you
Terry

As Toby mentioned, Opus does initialise the BK device (mostly needed to initialise the silly Microsoft wdmaud driver) with three pulses of audio. Audio control is quite a crude process (as in there is a limited amount if finesse when all you can do is send low frequency audio to the BK) so there isn't that much difference between using one USB device wired into two BKs or two separate audio devices each wired to their BK power amp. The bottom line ... best just wire up your BKs the simplest way. We've only ever wired up a single device as we only have one to test with.

Stephen

Because some users have three BK devices used to vibrate a platform containing the whole cockpit. We allowed up to three devices to be supported to make sure these users were accommodated and coordinated the audio actions with different axes within DHM to provide better variety.

Stephen

Ok, I've plugged the audio cable from the BK into the USB soundcard microphone and speaker slots but nothing is happening in OPUS... hmmm
What do I do now?

You will find instructions about configuring OpusFSX and testing the audio output here,

http://www.opussoftware.co.uk/opusfsi/opusfsx_ButtKicker.htm#_Toc371597474

Again bare in mind there is a known bug in DirectX where the audio device order can be wrong, so if the obvious device selection does not work then try a different listed output. You can use the Windows Sound monitor (the dialog you use to adjust master volume it also allows you to select audio devices) to see the BK audio output on the desktop.

Stephen

OPUS didn't identify the correct source label for the BK input.
Once that was corrected, everything worked as advertised.
Thanks for your round the clock support Stephen, much appreciated for those of us with precious little time for this hobby.

In the RealAir Lancair Legacy, the engine vibration is constant with OPUS set to 70% Master Volume BUT the vibration is intermittent, meaning it regularly cuts off every 3 or so seconds for a split second.
If the vibration could be visualised, it would feel like this...

mmmmmmmm uh mmmmmmmm uh mmmmmmmm uh

What kind of voodoo could be causing this? I'd love to fly this aircraft with a smooth vibration.

Also, in the stock P3D Carenado Mooney, there is no engine vibration but gear up, flaps etc works fine, why would that be?

I fixed it.
It was caused by Accu-Feel, which I forgot to deactivate for this aircraft.

Ok, after finally flying in another sim, IL2 COD with Team Fusion mod, I could not find a way to get the buttkicker to work without unplugging the cable from the usb soundcard and plugging it into the splitter, together with the headphones, directly into the motherboard soundcard. There was no feedback in the headphones.

Please remind me, why did I buy this usb soundcard? just for when I use Opus in FSX?
I know you said that other games need to support split sound channels but I think Opus is the only one that does.

Toby, I have never mentioned anything regarding other games, that's really not my concern.

We recommend the use of a separate USB sound stick for pretty obvious reasons. OpusFSX generates specific low frequency audio to provide a control signal for BK, which is best used by wiring the audio control directly into the BK power amp via a dedicated sound card. Hence you don't hear the low frequency audio control signals.

I really don't care about other games and this forum is not intended for such discussion. As I said above, OpusFSX and OpusFSI are flight sim interfaces for FSX and P3D only. All other sims or games are irrelevant.

Stephen

Any platform motion would have to be coordinated with our DHM turbulence for the best effects though.

Stephen :-)

I have a Buttkicker 1, which I used with FSX for a while. Since moving to P3D I haven't used it, until now. I am a dedicated OpusFSI user, so it seemed logical to give it a go. I bought a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go Pro USB External Sound Card with SBX to separate the Opus-to-Buttkicker feed.

Hi Stephen,

I have read all posts with interest. I am intent to use the Opus software soon. About the default settings of the BK. I assume that you mean the front settings of the BK unit. On the unit I can set the lowfilter cutoff switch, the high cutoff frequency and high on/off

Can you tell me how these are set to default please.

Thanks and regards,
Ed Koorevaar