Complete Controller Software for Sim (Racing) Rigs

[TheBigO]

Hello all,

I have a little Xmas present for you. In the past few months I've been working on a software as an integrated solution to control every aspect of our beloved sim rigs. The basic idea is to put your button box in total control of every aspect of the simulation, including tactile and motion feedback, if available. But you can also control your ingame chat system, launch telemtry software, and so on. The possibilities are endless. But since every button box has only a restriced set of controls, I introduced a layer concept, which allow the button box to implement context-sensitive bindings of control functions to actions.

Beside that, the software can control all your favorite applications and simulation games and combine them into one seamless user experience. But take a look at the main features:

* Connect all your external controller, like Button Boxes, to one single center of control
* An unlimited number of layers of functions and actions, called modes, can be defined for your controller. Switch between modes simply by pushing a button or switch a toggle on your controller.
* Modes are defined and handled by plugins, which can be implemented on your own using an objecct oriented scripting language.
* Configurable, visual feedback for your controller actions
* Define your own Button Box visual and integrate it with the Simulator Controller using the simple plugin support. Depending on configuration, this window will popup whenever an action is triggered from your controller, even during active simulation.
* Code your own functions to be called by the controller buttons and switches using the simple, object-oriented scripting language
* Configure all additional applications to your taste, including the simulation games used for your virtual races
* Start and stop applications from your controller hardware or automatically upon configurable events
* Add splash screens and title melodies using a themes editor for a more emotional startup experience
* Full support for sophisticated application automation - for example, start your favorite voice chat software like TeamSpeak and automatically switch to your standard channel
* Several plugins are supplied out of the box:
* Support for Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione already builtin
* Fully customizable plugins supplied for total control of SimHub and SimFeedback - change your settings while racing using the dials and switches on your favorite Button Box
* Send your predefined kudos and rants to the ingame chat without touching the keyboard
* Additional support to trigger every function and action from external sources like a voice or gesture recognition software to always keep your hands on the wheel
* Builtin support for visual head tracking to control ingame viewing angle

Every aspect of the Controller software can be configured using graphical tools:

The software is free for anyone for non-commercial use. You can download the latest build at GitHub. Also take a look at the very extensive documentation, including lots of stuff for developers.

And now - have fun. Happy Xmas, a good start into the next year and stay healthy...

TheBigO

 

[TheBigO]

Happy new year to all of you and welcome to the first release of 2024. After being quite diligent between the years, I can give you an interesting new feature in our first release of the year, the so-called startup profiles. Using these profiles you can manage in one place many interesting settings for a specific session type, for example a solo training session or a team-based endurance race, just to name two very different types of sessions. Startup profiles can be activated with one click, which makes things very easy.

And I would like to draw your attention to a few extensions that are available in the #share-your-mods area of our Discord. Using the SimHub plugin from @Jordan Moss, I built a few overlays for SimHub that show you important information about the strategy or the upcoming pit stop at a glance.

Another important change under the hood concerns the Driving Coach, which can now correlate information about lap and sector times with information about handling problems that have arisen and provide appropriate advice after the end of the session.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-552
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

Thanks to @SlatMars we now have also a French translation for "Simulator Setup", which completes the translation process for Simulator Controller for this language. Beside that, this release comes with many fixes and small improvements, incl. an optimized fuel calculation for races with formation laps in the "Strategy Workbench". Details can be found as always in the Release Notes.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-553
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

This week we have fixes and functional improvements in many areas. Most notably, the "Strategy Workbench" got a very cool and useful new feature to influence the pit strategy even for long endurance races, while running simulations for different strategies.

Example:

Normally, when you create a strategy for an endurance race, the strategy simulation tries to evenly distribute the last two stints, when not enough tyre degredation and fuel related lap time data is available in the database, like in this case:

If you now move the Pit Strategy slider completely to the right, the resulting strategy will create a splash n dash scenario, most likely without a driver change:

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-554
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

@mirko_lesko and I worked hard this week to improve the "Setup Workbench". The tool now has a full understanding of hybrid cars with energy recovery, it can setup Heave suspensions and knows how to handle differentials with separate power and coast settings. All available cars have been adopted to the new settings and there are also a couple of new cars available.

Beside that and a number of other small improvements, a critical bug has been fixed, which prevented correct cold tyre pressure calculations for wet tyres in some circumstances.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-555
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

Another Friday, another Release. Lot's of fixes and improvements in different areas (please take a look at the Release Notes). Worth to mention:

1. New sttings allow you to customize, in which cases the Strategist will inform you about strategy changes.
2. The "Strategy Workbench" now includes detailed consumables charts in the strategy comaparison report. I have attached a typcial report to this post, if you want to have a look.
3. Again we have many improvements for the "Setup Workbench", which now can handle turbo cars with adjustable turbo boost.
4. Many car meta data has been added to the "Strategy Workbench" including the new cars of the GT2 DLC of Assetto Corsa Competizione.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-556
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

This week we once again have extensive expansions to the "Setup Workbench". A new mechanism for so-called DLCs allows metadata for vehicles from the community or from third parties (so-called mods) to be added to the vehicle inventory. These additional content downloads are available as a preset in "Simulator Setup". The list of these vehicles will be constantly expanded from now on and you are welcome to contact us in the Discord if you are looking for metadata for a specific vehicle.

There are also improvements for the "Practice Center" and the "Race Center", as well as some bug fixes. And there are some improvements in Team Server and data synchronization for Teams. If you run your own Team Server, an update is due.

So there's a lot to discover again. Never stop improving...

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-557
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

The most important change for today is that the Push-To-Talk button no longer needs to be pressed twice when activating/calling one of the Assistants. And the Driving Coach learned some more tricks when discussing your performance and the handling of the car after a session. And last, but not least, the icons on the Stream Deck now shows you whether a given function is activated.

Thanks to @mirko_lesko, there are also a couple of new cars in the car meta data DLC. Don't miss that.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-558
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

Todays release 5.6.0 is packed with some ground-breaking new functionalities for strategy development. The strategy optimizer has seen a major rewrite and now offers several new options for you to set the preferences for the resulting strategy. Most notable is the possibility to optimize the car weight over the course of several stints or the ability to choose different strategies for the first and the last stint independently. Furthermore, the strategy simulation now keeps track of each tyre set and the number of laps a given tyre set already has on its rubber. The resulting strategy will always choose the tyre set with the best remaining tyre life, in cases, when a session with a restricted number of tyre sets is being simulated. Last, but not least, you can now fix one or more pitstops at an exact lap with predefined refuel amount and tyre change choices, if necessary. Additionaly, the "Strategy Workbench" now provide a direct view of a resulting strategy without the need to scroll down in the strategy report, which improves the workflow effectively.



I will conduct a live coaching session for all new features of the "Strategy Workbench" in our Discord on Monday evening @ 19:00 CET. I will be happy to meet you there.

Other changes apply to the "Session Database", where you now can export and import settings, for example, to share them with your team mates. And there are additional function configurations available in the Startup Profiles. Please see the Release Notes for more information.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-560
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

Beside several smaller fixes and improvements I can release the first integration for Le Mans Ultimate today. Not everything is working already, most notably the pitstop automation is not working at all, since the data API support of Le Mans Ultimate ist still incomplete and buggy, but most of the telemetry data is already available, the car positions on the track are correct, and so on.

Please take a look at the Release Notes for information on how to install and configure the shared memory plugin for Le Mans Ultimate.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-561
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

Many small, but nevertheless important changes are part of today's release. Opponnent pitstop information in the "Race Center" will be almost 100% reliable now and past pitstops will be taken into account when a strategy is re-calculated for a race with pitstop restrictions. The Le Mans Ultimate integration has been improved and the handling of sessions where drivers with duplicate race numbers are present in rFactor 2 is now handled correctly. Last, but not least, there is now support for team managers who want to create and share an initial configuration for all their team members.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-562
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

The Spotter has learned a new trick today. He can inform you about accidents ahead and also behind as well as about slow cars on the track ahead. Not everything is supported in every simulator (yet), therefore checkout the Release Notes as well.

And support for iRacing weather is here. You can manage tyre compounds and the Assistants have knowledge about the current weather. However, there are some open ends at the moment due to restrictions in the current iRacing API, so be sure to read the Release Notes.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-563
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

Today's release brings countless improvements for the iRacing support. The new weather model is now fully supported, the grip status of the track is recognized and the Engineer can now reliably choose between the available tyre compounds when preparing a pitstop.

For Assetto Corsa Competizione, warning of accidents and slow vehicles on the track is now also supported by the Spotter and the detection has been fundamentally revised for all simulations. However, incorrect warnings can still occur if an above-average number of accidents happened in the first laps during the learning phase. If these erroneous warnings are too disruptive, they can simply be stopped during a running session. This is described in the Release Notes.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-564
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

Two weeks since the last post here and we had two releases in this time. Many smaller improvements and a lot of tweaks for the accident detection. And the Spotter and the Strategist can now refer to a car using the race number and the current position at the same time. Additionally, Nordschleife has been added for ACC and Testdrives are now handled as practice sessions in iRacing.

Please see the release notes for the last two releases for more information.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-566
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

The most notable feature of this week's release is the possibility to specify the frequency with that the Spotter supplies information during a session. Many other, more minor changes are documented in the Release Notes.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-567
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

This time we have improvements in the session handling of the "Practice Center", the Spotter informs differently about unsafe drivers ahead or behind and there is a new info component available in the "System Monitor", which informs in detail about car damage. This data is also available in the integration plugin and can therefore be used in SimHub, for example. Not yet visible on the outside are many preparations for the new GPT based architecture of the standard Race Assistants.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-568
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

This is the first release in a series of upcoming releases, which will introduce GPT technology for the standard Assistants (Engineer, ...). The first release will allow you to send the speech of an Assistant to an LLM, for example ChatGPT, for rephrasing. This will introduce interesting variations in the spoken messages of the Assistants, making the conversation much more natural.

All these upcoming changes will be optional, since using a GPT service for speech processing will introduce a bit of additional latency into the conversation, and it might also impose some costs depnding on the chosen provider. Therefore, you can continue to use the assistants as usual without using GPT services.

To activate the new AI functionalities, you can choose between several methods to integrate a GPT service, even by running an LLM locally on your PC, if your system is powerful enough.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-570
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

The integration of GPT technology for the Race Assistants has made another big step this week. You can use an LLM now to support a much broader understanding of voice commands, even when they are far off the originally defined grammer. Example:

The command grammar requires you to say to the Engineer: "Can you prepare a pitstop?" When the GPT command processing is active, you can formulate this question almost in any way, for example: "I need to come to the pit. Can you prepare everything?"

Beside many other changes that are mentioned in the Release Notes, support has been added for the Mustang GT3 in ACC.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-571
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

Release 5.7.2 is the most important and groundbreaking release in a long time. With this release we complete the integration of GPT technology into the standard Race Assistants (Engineer, Strategist and Spotter). All Assistants therefore have a fluent understanding of natural language and can answer all questions in their area, provided the GPT conversation booster has been activated for the respective assistant. As promised, this feature is completely optional as using a GPT service may incur some costs or require a very powerful system, if an LLM is run locally. If the GPT conversation amplifier is not configured, everything works as before, but I'm sure you don't want to miss the new possibilities.



We will have a live coaching session in our Discord on Monday, 20th May, 19:00 CEST. I will explain all the new stuff and there will also be a live presentation.

As always, there are a few more changes. For more information, see the release notes.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-572
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

This week brings a lot of fine-tuning in several areas:

- The instructions for the GPT-based conversation booster of the Assistants can now be edited.
- The "Race Center" now knows how to handle first lap pitstops after an incident correctly.
- The Spotter can tell you in qualifcation, whether the car in front of you or behind you is on a timed lap.
- The AI Driving Coach now has full access to the telemetry information of the car.
- The workflow for the team manager (configuration of teams, drivers and sessions in the Team Server) has been streamlined.
- And many more...

As always, please take a look at the Release Notes for details. And you want to take a look at this video. It is a recording of our last coaching session, were I gave an introduction incl. demo for the new GPT-based conversational capabilities of the Assistants.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-573
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6

 

[TheBigO]

This week is also all about the new AI functions of the Assistants. It is particularly helpful that the available models of a GPT service provider are now displayed directly during configuration. The integration with GPT4All is now stable after the 2.8 release of this excellent open source project and Ollama is now also supported as a further option for running LLMs locally on the PC. This means that a large selection of commercial providers, such as OpenAI or Mistral AI, is now available, as well as open source models that can run locally on your computer.

As always, check out the Release Notes for more details and other improvements.

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Download: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller#latest-release-build
Release Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Release-Notes
Update Notes: https://github.com/SeriousOldMan/Simulator-Controller/wiki/Update-Notes#release-574
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5N8JrNr48H
Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simulatorcontroller
Support the project: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7GV86ZPS95SL6