SimuCUBE Open Source Firmware Development Update Thread

I still haven’t found where to put possible bugs and questions so i hope you guys don’t mind doing it here.
Tonight when starting up config tool i immediately had smbus counter at 2. I have no idea what smbus does but is this considered a firmware bug or is it something on my side (like hardware failure or something). Answer would be appreciated because i’m complete noob at these things.

SimplemotionV2 is the RS485 serial bus and protocol that is used to communicate with IONI servo drive. Both the Granity tuning software and the firmware itself use that to communicate with the drive.

The debug counter shows up the number of times the communication has failed since the Firmware has last booted up, requiring a reset and complete reconnection. At start it should be set at 1.

The counter purpose is mainly to find out whether the connection stays pretty much stable during normal operating conditions. A hickup in communication could make the steering loose the center point of the wheel, and user would also feel it in FFB. As the connection has been solid for many people that still seem to loose the center point while driving, I think this debug indicator has served its purpose and it will be replaced with another value/values to get data from beta testers like yourself.

Thanks for explaining at this hour Mika :wink:

Additional thoughts on the effect sliders:
So far, effect usages have been so that Constantforce slider would be the same as the overall strength slider (excluding the bumbstops)

Also sims like rFactor 2 use Periodic Effect (sine signal) with just the offset changing, and magnitude always at 0, and period (frequency) whatever.

I think its fair to expect no sims to use sine effect in any other way, and no sims should also be mixing constantforce and sine effects as the end result would not be sensible torque. Maybe good for xbox controllers, etc.

So, do people really need different sliders for sine, constant, sawtoothup, sawtoothdown, spring, trianglewave and squarewave effects?

Comment, please.

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I add, that the reasoning behind friction and damping (and inertia, in the future) sliders are that the parameters that are sent via DirectInput for those effects are not in any specified units - they are just random coefficients and nowhere is it specified their relation to directinput update rate, real time, and the range of the parameter. Thats why most game controllers and wheels have different sliders for them.

I agree @Mika. I don’t use the sine effect in rFactor2 (i turned them off in contoller json).
So imo no sliders needed

rFactor2 by default uses sine effect - not as a periodic effect, but so that the offset gives out the torque.

Does turning that off in controller.json change it so that it switches to constantforce effect? Otherwise turning the sine effect off would be just mangling with parameters, and it is very likely that I won’t test these kind of user-made adjustments, so any non-default settings could just result in unwanted behavior.

If they are ever needed they could always be implemented at a future date.

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I am not sure if i understand your question correctly. But the way i always understood the sine effect is that it is a canned effect added to the normal steering rack forces.
I know i have turned them off back then. But i am in contact with rFactor 2 devs so i am gonna ask. And will post here when they give me their answer.

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all the sine effects are canned, that is true. But rFactor does not use the sine effect in that way, it will just use the offset-parameter to give the force magnitude.

Benefit is that the ConstantForce effect maximum range is -10000 - +10000 where as the sine effect offset setting can be -2,147,483,647 - +2,147,483,647

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I have pm’ed your question to devs @Mika they said they’ll get back to me with an answer. And that would be way better then me answering because it is way over my head :upside_down_face:

Hands up, if someone is willing to try to repeat, and overcome the “forces become numb” issue. We may have found something, but we need to verify it via someone that can consistently run into that bug.

@Mika - posted in iRacing forums. Just posting here if it’s useful. If not, I’ll delete.

Seems that a common trait is becoming apparent, and hopefully you can do something to change it.

From the earliest release, there’s been a feeling that the cars feels ‘rubbery’, and recently Jason Jodarski mentioned that it had lost a lot of that ‘kick’ and ‘lively’ feel that MMOs had.
Sure, MMOs may have been ‘harsh’ for some, but it seems that the Simucube firmware has gone too far in the opposite direction?

I understand that cars ride on rubber tires, but race cars have very stiff suspension and tires that are not anything like regular road tires.
They should feel harsh, they should feel a ‘kick’ when you hit a rumble strip.

I tried the latest version just for curiosity and it’s far too soft, almost to the point of feeling muted. Granted, I could play around a little more with settings, but I don’t think I would be able to get close to what I felt on MMOs.

I’m lucky to have spent a considerable amount of real life track time over the years in a range of vehicles that ultimately have all been modified for track purposes. Currently I have a Porsche Cayman that’s mainly for track use, which has been upgraded extensively with adjustable lowered race suspension, sway bars, slicks etc (no roll cage as I still use it from time to time on the street and it has to be passenger friendly) and MMOS feels far more like a real race car than this new firmware. My car is far from a dedicated race car, but I’ve had the opportunity to drive a friends’ Cayman that’s a pure track vehicle and much more brutal than mine.
Regardless, my car does not feel spongy/rubbery, and whilst I can still feel the tires flexing under high speed cornering, the ride is very firm and lively. Its harsh and bumpy, but every change in road surface, every hit over a rumble strip/bump in the road is felt in jaw shaking detail. But that detail is crucial to understanding what the car is doing, and should not be ‘muted’ away.

I’m not bashing the new firmware, and this is just my opinion, and I know it will likely be disagreed with, which is fine.

Hoping you can re-think things and bring back some of the very good aspects of MMOs to compliment your new firmware.
I didn’t realize how good MMOs was until I moved away from it. It’s rough in certain aspects, but it’s a much more enjoyable driving experience in my humble opinion having compared the two.

I know this is still beta, but I hope that you are not set on this ‘feel’ and not open to changes. I personally won’t be using it if decisions are cemented that this is how cars should feel and the ongoing focus is predominantly on fixing technical bugs.
Again, just my opinion, that seems to be echoed the more people use it so hopefully I’m not on my own here!
Not trying to start any kind of heated debate, simply my honest feedback.

I am heavily invested in Simucube and want it to be as successful as everyone else.
But that requires critical feedback, sometimes painfully so.

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Turning off the Recon filter makes it behave and feel practically identical to MMos IMO. Has he tried that?

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I can recreate it in Pcars2 easily, but I would imagine you want someone with iRacing to try your fix?

PCars2 is fine too, if its the bug that forces get subdued and return after a while. I’ll drop you a PM soon.

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Sounds more like you have your settings wrong since this has more feel then MMOS.

Turning off rcon doesnt make it feel like mmos. mmos without overall filter (5-10) is just as useless as Simucube firmware with no rcon.

u need about 5-10 minimun overall filter in mmos
and i would suggest you start with rcon filter 5 in Simucube firmware.
But since you want rough try rcon 1

I got a Cayman R and i would say nothing steers lighter then a cayman even on slicks. even with 20-30 % of your ffb strength on a small mige it will be heavyer than a cayman on slicks will ever be imho.

People drive with ridiculous ffb strengths in their race sim games.
Race cars don’t steer that heavy at all. they all got power steering.
With some rare exception, and old cars.

btw which sim do you play?

It’s rare that 2 people share the same preferences in FFB feel so the only real solution seems to allow enough variability to suit as many players as possible. I can’t think of a single title where I would be happy with the harshness I get with no Recon-filter applied; most need it set between 2-5.

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Yes for rFactor 2. So here is my hands up. Although i am not sure if we are speaking about the same because i loose forces and they never come back. So i leave it up to you guys to decide if what you have found could be solution for my problem in rF2 also.

You cant even use mmos or simucube without overall filter 0 or rcon 0 for somucube firmware.
Since the ffb signals of the games are so bad you can actually feel the 60hz signal of the game. (iracing)
And even the 360hz signal of ac / rf / ams, you literally feel the signal.
You need at least rcon 1

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