Hardware & Technical If you love immersion then you really need to get a Buttkicker Gamer 2

Crimson1973

C
I've been watching youtube videos of ED (I'll buy it on day one when it's available) and this thing was made for the Buttkicker. Lots of beautiful low end sound effects. I hooked my buttkicker onto the PC (was on the xbox360) just for this game I so far it is hands down the best use for the peripheral. You feel the seat shake with thrust gradually increasing until max. You feel violent explosions in or near your ship. Playing in the dark late at night would be an absolute bast. If you have one, give it a try. Anyone seriously investing a lot of time in this thing... Get one now.
 
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Senet

Senet
Thanks for reminding me about those. The only concern I have with it is for those of us living in apartments. How much does the vibration carry through the floor below you? Is it pretty localized to your chair?

The last thing I need is someone knocking on my door at two in the morning because I'm engine boosting all night.
 

CaptainKremmen

CaptainKremmen
This brings back memories! I had something like this installed under my car seat, driven by the same amp as the "audible" subwoofer. :)

We called it a "shaker"... basically a speaker driver coil without any air-pushing cone.

It was great "feeling" my music without needing eardrum-rupturing levels of bass.
 

Crimson1973

C
The best thing about these things is that you can wear headphones with them Which is how I run it (I plug stereo headpones in the left/right and the buttkicker in the the subwoofer out. There is also a remote that comes with the unit which changes the intensity. If it's an issue you can lower it. But put the office chair on carpet. or a rug. It is a non issue. You would not notice from outside/next door.
 

neogeo

neogeo
To the OP: Which would you choose for E: D specifically, the Buttkicker Gamer 2 or the Buttkicker Simulator Kit for sim racing and flight games?

Might add this to the xmas list haha
 

Crimson1973

C
neogeo said:
To the OP: Which would you choose for E: D specifically, the Buttkicker Gamer 2 or the Buttkicker Simulator Kit for sim racing and flight games?

Might add this to the xmas list haha
Click to expand...

I have the Gamer 2. The only other kit I have seen is a type of wireless wedge transducer you place under a 3 seat lounge. That is for movies. It is too strong and far too expensive for this purpose. The gamer 2 is a lot smaller and perfect. Costs about $200 odd dollars. It bolts easily to the post underneath an office chair. There is an amplifier, which takes the audio right from the sound card via RCA plugs, processes it through the amplifier and sends it to the transducer under the chair. All bass type sounds make the chair vibrate. There is nothing like feeling your chair shake in the dark while you engage the engines at full. It really feels like you are in space.
Butkicker1.jpg

This is the Amplifier. Signal goes from the sound card to the amp, which has filters and cutoffs you can change so it does not go off at every noise.
Butkicker2.jpg

This is the part that bolt to your chair. You hook the large cable up to the amp and you're good to go. I recommend not rolling the chair around too much because it might run over the cable, but it comes with ties to keep it out the way. And even if you do run over it. The cable is thick and solid. The other good thing is that the amp easily unplugs from the chair to allow you total freedom when you're not using it.
Apart from the rattling sound, it makes no sound since all the bass has been changed into vibration. You should try it from somewhere. I kid you not this is the best use of the peripheral I have found, and I come from a sim racing background. (which is why I originally purchased it.)
 
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Crimson1973

C
CaptainKremmen said:
This brings back memories! I had something like this installed under my car seat, driven by the same amp as the "audible" subwoofer. :)

We called it a "shaker"... basically a speaker driver coil without any air-pushing cone.

It was great "feeling" my music without needing eardrum-rupturing levels of bass.
Click to expand...

This works on exactly the same principle only this is designed for gamers. It works on anything which outputs sound xbox One PS4 PC Xbox 360 Blu ray DVD, oh, and when you buy the thing, they give you all cables and splitters and plug adapters to make it run on anything you want.
 

PacalB

PacalB
Careful now folks, all that butt shaking for hours on end ... you might just end up with a bad case of piles! :eek:
 

Toumal

Toumal
I have the first version. Sadly, that one has a huge amplifier box with an extremely noisy fan :/ It's cool that they fixed this with the Gamer 2, but that doesn't help me of course
 

Mars

Mars
Vagabonds!

Here I was innocently browsing the forums and now I have just been lightened by £163! (I paid for next day delivery so I could set it up at the weekend)

I will report back on if it was worth it soon, by my guess is Yes.
 
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Leo Sagan

Leo Sagan
Hmmmm, don't want to crash the party here but I'm not so excited by the Buttkicker Gamer 2.

I bought mine a couple of months ago (mainly for Elite Dangerous) and I have mixed feelings about it.

My problems :

1) It doesn't work easily with an USB headset, which can be a problem especially when you're using TS (I'm always on TS while playing E: D). Fortunately I have a Siberia II usb headset which can be used with a jack, but not everyone has this option. There is a third party software to make it work though, but I didn't try it.

2) The vibrations are soundcard dependant, meaning that it will react to a reactor boost (which is great !) but also to the ingame music, Winamp or even a teammate speaking on TS (which is not great at all).

3) The wire linking my chair to the BG2 gets in the way despite the cable given to secure it. To tell the truth, I find the whole stuff a little clumsy, especially if (like me) you're the kind of person always moving your armchair.

All in all, it is easy to setup, work as intended : it is certainly not some useless trendy gizmo. But it can still be a liability and is not *that* immersive : I would never forget to turn on my IR track 5 to play E: D, but I easily forget to turn my Buttkicker on.
 
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