So Mr Latte will freely share his profiles with anyone on the new GV discord, he will have a section where he can talk about what he wants as far as what he is doing with his own tactile, people can participate in that if thats the solution they want to go with.
Other people on the GV discord can take his profiles and use it, modify it for their own tactile installation with whatever transducers they have, if they make his slip/rpm/whatever work well enough for a dayton bst they can share it.
Why is there any talk like this is a bad thing? Yes, there has been a lot of vapour ware... its not been vapour ware as such, its been real but its been for a select few. That gets up peoples goat when when your told 'mine is better, yours is worse and no you cant try mine.'
This remedies most issues I have seen as topics of division. So lets just wait and see it happen. If your not building your own profiles what are you going to do anyway?
Firstly thanks to some for encouragement or acknowledgment.
I think anyone sharing their effects or profiles and the work they put into those, wants people to enjoy them. The best route is to look forward and not back. Anton will come around eventually, he wants what we all want. If not he has the ignore button available.
I have a story to tell...
Anyone that begins in experimenting with making their own effects, with continued experience in doing that may likely find ways to improve or fine-tune earlier work they have done.
The early work I did last year, I would be certain if I go back to those effects now I would find ways to improve them or at least offer additional variations that feel different but are still enjoyable. This will happen as I also improved/simplified how we label and map the effect to specific units so that it was easier to grasp.
Much of this year was spent on engine developments. Good progress made but need to reflect as we now have several good options in how to proceed with engines.
Different Scenarios:
A user could have a desire on wanting a very advanced and detailed engine sensation, then limit what other Simhub effects they apply or use. This could then also be supplemented with a motion rig to rely on other haptics it offers.
Someone else maybe wants a profile with a more basic but functional rpm. So perhaps, just with nice idle and peak rpm detection. Placing more focus on sensations that let them feel more the cars handling/chassis/braking/slip. This can work quite well as not just immersive but as a driving aid. I do believe for some, good tactile that connects you more with the sim, helps improve their concentration/connection with the car.
Advanced Engines
What was achieved and now better understood is how to not only find ways to make engines fit really well for certain cars, but an approach that would let a user *(with the correct hardware) be able to build their own engines from already pre-made elements.
How You Want It
Here, the user would select the idle sensation they wanted, then a mid-range they liked and choose the high rpm sensations they wanted. New sensations could be added.
Specific Car Engines
I detest the limitations of the standard approach, in that we have the same rpm/engine effects used pretty much for most cars. Tactile is one area that can address what thrill/depth or vibrational life we try to bring to any car in a sim.
Many cars, have a unique character, that encapsulates the driver.
Yet the truth is engines and the character a car has is very complex and we can't properly capture that thrill or experience with basic tones or engine drone sounds.
For me, this is one of my own set challenges.
I do not believe we can replicate a true to life 1:1 representation of a real car, lets make that clear.
I have found ways to much better incorporate individual character to engines that can have tonal representation generated within Simhub that is based on matching the actual cars own generated audio. This when combined with the audio you hear from the sim strengthens the connection you have.
From this, with my own approach, a user could combine these "tonal elements" then with their own idle/mid/peak rpm if they did not want to use the one included for that specific car.
What you get, is the ability to offer the community the tools to create hundreds of potential variations/combinations in what represents different engine sensations.
It's not vapourware, but all pioneering stuff that has not been possible before. It still needs more work but indeed it works *(using the recommended hardware).
Effects Breakdown
I actually want to go through each individual effect with a full analysis using that hardware I have to explore and show to people exactly what different settings do and consider ways we can have that effect operate.
Something like that has also never really been done before.
Effects Creations & Approaches
I do not recall coming out and saying to people "mine is better, yours is worse". Yes, I showed operational examples of other people's work to some of my own. Yet that was done because some appeared to see the "custom effect" path as a necessary "must do" to improve what Simhub already offers within the options/controls it offers.
Some have described what their custom effect does better or improves over what the standard effect options achieve. Yet when analysed or compared 1:1 often it did not show many operational improvements, in some cases little differences.
I do believe, there are things within the custom effect options that may be possible to give more specific control in the operation of certain effects. Yet for me ultimately the "custom effect" option is best used for those scenarios. To do something regards how the telemetry is applied that will show operational benefits.
Experienced As Intended?
Please take these points below into account, if someone is creating effects for the general community and those with entry-level type hardware. Then you really are limited to what can be done within that typical 50Hz operational window.
That person does not have to worry so much about how their effect is being experienced, or if it is being experienced as they intended it to feel. Because it's quite simple. They may even be building such effects on entry-level hardware themselves.
Vital Differences
Most people, still construct effects based on a single channel or unit. By this I mean all the layers for the effect are generated on that device, going into the user from that device's installation point. Therefore the first limitation we have is the operational performance of that unit.
This is before you even consider other factors that may be detrimental, such if the unit is well installed, in an optimal place or manner, or if the user's rig has or has not any isolation. Relevant things that may have an impact on what they feel from that unit.
Now let me give you a different perspective.
Custom Made
If effects are made by me that have specific layers, for specific hardware units, that also are expected to be installed in certain ways or places.
We have major differences here, first, the effect is not being represented by a single unit or the performance limitations of that single unit. We now have at least 4x the potential operational dynamic range for an effect to use which determines its felt characteristics.
The effect is also, not being delivered into the user's body by the same single installation point of the location of a single unit but instead via multiple locations and body regions.
This brings a vast difference in not just how effects can now feel, but how we apply the output mix in the roles of those different units. We can have different effects using this combination of tactile hardware in different ways.
Many more options are now possible regards the creation of the effects to determine how an effect is represented, not just in what range of frequencies it has but how/which body regions it is felt in.
This approach lets you do two primary things.
1) Helps improve scenarios of multiple effects operational at once.
2) Helps create much more fulfilling immersion with increased detailed sensations for specific effects.
Now, tell me, how is someone with budget hardware or a standard installation or using only some of the desired components going to feel the effects as they are intended?
So If I am trying to do something different with the approach I have found that appears to deliver much better potential with tactile. It was necessary we got some potential owners to experience this properly, to buy into the hardware, and become beta testers to help forward effects creation for this concept.
Happy Meal?
If I give you a recipe for a wonderful meal, with several ingredients, some of these need to be boiled, fried or oven baked. They also need to have recommended preparations in how they are cooked.
If some people try to cook it, with only some of the ingredients, or avoiding one or more of the processes or tries to under/overcook how the meal is prepared. Will that person get the full flavour or richness it was intended to bring?
You then have the potential for a mass of people getting very different results and false representation.
Highway To Help!
Recommendations will be made, support to downscale certain effects has already had some early testing with one of Simhubs moderators. I did this with him to show it was possible and my concept, can be enjoyed with as little as 2x EXC and a cheap soundcard with budget stereo amp. Even that with decent effects may bring some advantages over say a BK Gamer package and still cost less but also be expandable if the user desires.
One of the elements of my own approach is to try and address with the community how we not only offer effects to suit the entry-level users but can have in some cases simplified versions.
You cant take a 7.1-based soundtrack and fit it into a mono-center channel. Then say it's not very good or detailed...
Regardless of whose effects or who approach the community decides to use, as I have stated, people have to be realistic with what they are using as to what the limitations or possibilities are with that.
Let's see what I come up in the next month or so, with a fresh look into effects for 2/4/6 EXC on a seat...
