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

[777Driver]

If anyone wants a way to manage the Buttkicker intensity during boosting, entering space ports etc give the following application a try. Installation / usage instructions are provided in the archive.

Keep in mind that I developed this for my personal use so it may have a few minor bugs.

Let me know if it helped or you can think of any improvements.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/oq5z82

You do realise you can configure the BK2 to filter out certain frequencies? I have had mine for years with Flightsims, also use it with Elite & hook it up to my couch for some movies.

You should never have to use a third party application (or create one!)just spend some time testing the cut of ranges and most importantly check how your sound card is outputting frequencies. Adjust your soundcards inbuilt eq separately to your amps eq

 

[CylonSurfer]

You do realise you can configure the BK2 to filter out certain frequencies? I have had mine for years with Flightsims, also use it with Elite & hook it up to my couch for some movies.

You should never have to use a third party application (or create one!)just spend some time testing the cut of ranges and most importantly check how your sound card is outputting frequencies. Adjust your soundcards inbuilt eq separately to your amps eq

I do, however no amount of filtering seems to prevent the buttkicker from going crazy when entering a space port through the blue slot while still being able to pick up and react to subtler sounds such as when you are just cruising at top speed in open space.

If you have overcome this issue then I would love to learn more.

 

[777Driver]

I do, however no amount of filtering seems to prevent the buttkicker from going crazy when entering a space port through the blue slot while still being able to pick up and react to subtler sounds such as when you are just cruising at top speed in open space.

If you have overcome this issue then I would love to learn more.

Unfortunately I am abroad till the 25th. Will pm you with my settings when I'm back. As mentioned, check your sound card eq levels, That is what feeds the BK unit. Even with the cards eq levels flat you can still get the heavy bass sounds back using the eq on your sound system.

 

[foxpur]

I would SO get kicked out of my place if I used this...

 

[CylonSurfer]

Unfortunately I am abroad till the 25th. Will pm you with my settings when I'm back. As mentioned, check your sound card eq levels, That is what feeds the BK unit. Even with the cards eq levels flat you can still get the heavy bass sounds back using the eq on your sound system.

That would be sound if you could. I'll continue to fiddle / use the app in the meantime.

Cheers

 

[Titus Balls]

Oh cool, this thread pops up today. I just bought one today because of this thread on reddit and seeing they had them in stock. Instant purchase to go with my DK2 and HOTAS setup.

Away for 5 days, but I'll be able to set it up Monday night when I get home - can't wait

 

[777Driver]

I would SO get kicked out of my place if I used this...

Nice thing abou the BK is you can have a huge subwoofer felling whilst having your speakers turned down low.

 

[Tony Spaniels]

You do realise you can configure the BK2 to filter out certain frequencies? I have had mine for years with Flightsims, also use it with Elite & hook it up to my couch for some movies.

You should never have to use a third party application (or create one!)just spend some time testing the cut of ranges and most importantly check how your sound card is outputting frequencies. Adjust your soundcards inbuilt eq separately to your amps eq

I didnt realise this. How can I configure my BK2 better?

Cheers!
edit: oh did you mean the freq controls on the Amp?

 

[Ven Jarvik]

For that kind of money, I'm saving it up for an Oculus Rift when they go CV1. Cool idea tho.

For you and anyone else who is either saving for something else,or can't afford one,theres always an alternative these days...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeYi4KgzcNo&index=3&list=PL6TjereuyD7UVQ_2IwOX8HDApNbEKyU--

 

[Marconi]

I have Astro a50 wireless headphones and its a nightmare trying to get them to work alongside the Buttkicker
Astros have a optical pass through so I bought a optical to coax converter but Iis still not working properly? Maybe I've set it up wrong? Also tried Voicemeeter but unsure how to set everything up? Can someone give me some help? Please!

 

[Marconi]

Has anybody used Virtual audio cable?

 

[Commander Jameson's Ghost]

I've heard they're awesome and will take delivery of mine in a day or so...

Peace - Naz

Does not seem to be available in the UK right now
Found a YouTube video while searching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILbhBVcsC0I

 

[atlas974]

A little review of my buttkicker gamer 2!
After running some fine tuning i can say that playing ED with a oculus rift and the buttkicker is really impressive!
The key element here is the tuning of the vibration in order to have a realistic experience. I can feel the rumbling of the thrusters and the impact sounds, landing gear lowering and retracting, space stations low bass vibrations, laser shots, ships explosions, and omg the fsd charging up is so real.

The first time i used it i was underwhelmed so i'll give some advice to quickly use it to it's maximum fun:

--the buttkicker is sound card dependent so the better your sound card the better the vibrations feelings
-- it can be plugged on line out (2.1 systems) or in LFE/center (5.1 system).
-- on 2.1 systems the buttkicker amplifier get most of the spectral sound power and is in built filters will cut off the high frequencies, that means that the vibration will be stronger.
-- on 5.1 systems the buttkicker will get only a portion of the spectral sound power ( center channel or bass channel) and with some settings on your sound card you can filter most of the high frequencies so that the buttkicker amp filters wont do anything.

-- In order to get the most realistic vibations you must use on 5.1 systems the bass channel, the problem is that most of the time the power outpout is very low so you'll need to manually up the sound level of the bass channel in your sound card settins. Doing that i'll advise you to not active the bass boost option as it will give you too great vibration when entering starport or jumping to another system. Instead of doind bass boost simply boost the sound volume of the bass channel. Next step is to use the intensity settings on the buttkicker amp in order to get vibration with all the bass sounds in game. Do a sessions of gaming while monitoring the green light on the amp. With bass sounds it will light lightly or deep green with really strong bass. You must avoir the red light on the amp as it means that theintensity outpout is to high and that it can harm the buttkicker unit.

My sound card is a soundblaster Z and i use the bass channel for best reproductability of the vibrations.

PS: english not my native language, feel free to correct my errors ^^

 

[RingoD123]

I would honestly say, stay away from buttkickers, far too expensive for what they are, and if you spend 30 mins doing some research on google, you will find that you can make your own 4 transducer set up using a regular home AV Amp for the price of a single buttkicker.
I use 2 heavy duty transducers which cost £30 each brand new and a £100 8 channel AV Amp, if I want to then upgrade it to 4 or 6 then it'll only cost me an extra £30 per transducer.
The added benefit being you can route all the game sounds into a second sound card which can filter out the treble and up tha bass before being sent to the Amp, and then the Amp can easily filter out the rest, much better than branded buttkickers in my eyes.

 

[NoshDaMinsk]

I would honestly say, stay away from buttkickers, far too expensive for what they are, and if you spend 30 mins doing some research on google, you will find that you can make your own 4 transducer set up using a regular home AV Amp for the price of a single buttkicker.
I use 2 heavy duty transducers which cost £30 each brand new and a £100 8 channel AV Amp, if I want to then upgrade it to 4 or 6 then it'll only cost me an extra £30 per transducer.
The added benefit being you can route all the game sounds into a second sound card which can filter out the treble and up tha bass before being sent to the Amp, and then the Amp can easily filter out the rest, much better than branded buttkickers in my eyes.

I have almost finished building my own shaker setup, along the lines you have posted.

4 shakers (50w) and 4 channel 100w amp and planning to use SImVibe for IRacing in Chassis mode.

But (!) how do I get this working in ED once I have it up and running?

I plan to use the mobo soundcard to run the shakers and a USB soundcard off my Steelseries V2 to play sounds from the game....

Can you help?

Thanks
Nosh

 

[Stein]

I have almost finished building my own shaker setup, along the lines you have posted.

4 shakers (50w) and 4 channel 100w amp and planning to use SImVibe for IRacing in Chassis mode.

But (!) how do I get this working in ED once I have it up and running?

I plan to use the mobo soundcard to run the shakers and a USB soundcard off my Steelseries V2 to play sounds from the game....

Can you help?

Thanks
Nosh

SimVibe uses a separate soundcard. That wouldn't work in ED. In ED you'd need to take the sound signal from the same soundcard as your regular audio. You'd also need to add a low pass frequency filter to your amp (simvibe filters the frequencies in the program, if you put the regular sound output from ED to the shakers you'd get all frequencies, you just want the low bass)
So, AFAIK, you will need to do some rewiring when changing from iracing to ED. I have roughly the same setup as you with 4 shakers, haven't tried them in ED yet though.