SimXperience G-Belt review

[NeoGrotesk]

It seems the UDP option may have been removed from sim commander.

As per the attached (diffucult to see captured off a you tube video) the UDP option seems to have once been under games advanced. This seems no longewr to be at that loacation.

No wonder we couldn't find it then! Maybe try emailing their support? They were pretty good at getting back to me when I had a query.

 

[mgh24]

Anyone had experience with the G-belt universal seat mount?

I have a P1-X cockpit, with some transducers mounted under the seat. Hoping there is quite a bit of adjustment built into their seat mount.

Thanks

 

[Dirtydub]

For anyone that may be interested I found a workaround regarding the issues I was having running AMS2 while sending telemetry data to my G-belt, Sim racing studio for motion and simhub for dash and buttkickers.

Essentially I had to launch from sim commander and AMS2 would launch. Sim commander would revert back to the home screen. I would then relaunch AMS2 from sim commander and it would then receive telemetry and display game running.

This could be done while sim racing studio was open and both would function correctly.

The final step was to open and launch simhub with AMS2 running and it would also receive data.

The key was to relaunch from sim commander once AMS2 was already running and to only launch simhub last as this appeared to be causing a conflict.

The effect with the 3 dof motion, G-belt and buttkickers is very immersive and I am sure that ongoing tuning will only improve the experience.

 

[wajdi]

Lately I noticed that “ braking effect” has been weak . I even tested my G-Belt without my PT system to confirm this feeling and yes the effect was really weak then I remember that I had increased the other effect last time ( bumps, accelerator and sway effect ) so I reduced this effect again and the “ braking effect” returned to be as was before.
Is it a bug or It’s normal?
I use only braking, bumps and sway effect so only 3… why increasing the other effect has to decrease automatically the braking one?!
I spoke with someone from Facebook Simxperience owner group and he confirmed that he experiences the same thing.

 

[anton_Chez]

I'll have to test that out. I've only really set one level for the sliders and pretty much left it as is.

 

[wajdi]

I'll have to test that out. I've only really set one level for the sliders and pretty much left it as is.

Try to increase “ acceleration effect” and leave the “ braking effect “ the same and test it.

 

[John Bruno]

Is anyone else having issues with one actuator being stronger / more responsive than the other?
The left side acuator seems to be doing all the work.
I've disabled Cornering effect as it made the issue worse.
Josh from SimXperience is telling me to let the belts calibrate on start up then strap myself in and tighten up the belts like i would do normally in car.
Unfortunately it hasn't addressed the lazy right side.
Am i missing something?

 

[wajdi]

Is anyone else having issues with one actuator being stronger / more responsive than the other?
The left side acuator seems to be doing all the work.
I've disabled Cornering effect as it made the issue worse.
Josh from SimXperience is telling me to let the belts calibrate on start up then strap myself in and tighten up the belts like i would do normally in car.
Unfortunately it hasn't addressed the lazy right side.
Am i missing something?

Have you inverted them ? One of them should be inverted.

 

[wajdi]

I contacted Simxperience
This is their last response


You are dividing 100% of the possible travel across all of the effects.

If you set the intensity percentages of each effect such that they add up to no more than 100% travel and enable the checkbox inside the effect to allow them to clip, then the problem you are saying should never happen.

For example:

33% braking
+
33% cornering
+
33% acceleration

The above combination should not exhibit any confusing issues because the total of all the effects in the profile will only try to consume 99% of the total travel.

Another example,

80% braking
+
80% cornering
+
80% acceleration

The above example can exhibit some confusing behaviors depending on what you are doing. For example, lets say that you are turning in before braking. In that case, 80% of the travel might be used for the cornering, leaving only 20% of the possible travel left for you to feel braking.

Is it possible that you are having some profile induced confusion like this?

Do you experience any unusual behaviors with a default cloud tuned profile, which is designed to make good use of the 100% possible travel range?

If you use a default cloud tune profile, but turn the overall G-Belt intensity up to 150%, which would basically give a 1.5x greater output for each effect, do you experience a similar problem?

 

[NeoGrotesk]

I contacted Simxperience
This is their last response


You are dividing 100% of the possible travel across all of the effects.

If you set the intensity percentages of each effect such that they add up to no more than 100% travel and enable the checkbox inside the effect to allow them to clip, then the problem you are saying should never happen.

For example:

33% braking
+
33% cornering
+
33% acceleration

The above combination should not exhibit any confusing issues because the total of all the effects in the profile will only try to consume 99% of the total travel.

Another example,

80% braking
+
80% cornering
+
80% acceleration

The above example can exhibit some confusing behaviors depending on what you are doing. For example, lets say that you are turning in before braking. In that case, 80% of the travel might be used for the cornering, leaving only 20% of the possible travel left for you to feel braking.

Is it possible that you are having some profile induced confusion like this?

Do you experience any unusual behaviors with a default cloud tuned profile, which is designed to make good use of the 100% possible travel range?

If you use a default cloud tune profile, but turn the overall G-Belt intensity up to 150%, which would basically give a 1.5x greater output for each effect, do you experience a similar problem?

Ah, that's interesting. So are they saying that all our effects should only add up to 100% for it to work as intended? I'm sure the defaults don't... Or have I misunderstood?

An instruction manual for sim commander would be useful

 

[wajdi]

Ah, that's interesting. So are they saying that all our effects should only add up to 100% for it to work as intended? I'm sure the defaults don't... Or have I misunderstood?

An instruction manual for sim commander would be useful

Yes.. I’m really surprised of this response from them .
So it’s like SimTools? If you go over 100% of the total of all effect you will clip?
Why they didn’t mention this before?

 

[wajdi]

Let me add that setting the profile with this logic, let’s say using 3 effects
Braking 40%
cornering 25%
acceleration 35%
I would barely feel each effect .
Personally to feel the seat belt tightening I need to set “ Braking effect” to 120% using the Extreme profile .
Is the dual motors which they use in the G-Belt so weak?

 

[NeoGrotesk]

Let me add that setting the profile with this logic, let’s say using 3 effects
Braking 40%
cornering 25%
acceleration 35%
I would barely feel each effect .
Personally to feel the seat belt tightening I need to set “ Braking effect” to 120% using the Extreme profile .
Is the dual motors which they use in the G-Belt so weak?

Yes, me too. I use about 120% for braking and cornering to get a good feel. Very confused...

 

[metalnwood]

I contacted Simxperience
This is their last response


You are dividing 100% of the possible travel across all of the effects.

If you set the intensity percentages of each effect such that they add up to no more than 100% travel and enable the checkbox inside the effect to allow them to clip, then the problem you are saying should never happen.

For example:

33% braking
+
33% cornering
+
33% acceleration

The above combination should not exhibit any confusing issues because the total of all the effects in the profile will only try to consume 99% of the total travel.

Another example,

80% braking
+
80% cornering
+
80% acceleration

The above example can exhibit some confusing behaviors depending on what you are doing. For example, lets say that you are turning in before braking. In that case, 80% of the travel might be used for the cornering, leaving only 20% of the possible travel left for you to feel braking.

Is it possible that you are having some profile induced confusion like this?

Do you experience any unusual behaviors with a default cloud tuned profile, which is designed to make good use of the 100% possible travel range?

If you use a default cloud tune profile, but turn the overall G-Belt intensity up to 150%, which would basically give a 1.5x greater output for each effect, do you experience a similar problem?

That seems like a very strange way to do things. So you can never have 100% braking at heavy braking area because you you might use some of it for cornering?

For example, say you like it pulling on you hard in a F1 car before turn 1 at monza but you like some cornering force at lesmos. Do you have to balance what you get in each and cannot have full force for braking if you want it for cornering too?

 

[NeoGrotesk]

Thinking about it, I don't understand why they've said the intensity percentage matches the travel percentage. Because if that were the case then why do the intensity sliders go above 100%!? Anything over 100% travel is surely impossible.

 

[Clover11]

Question from someone who knows nothing. Since you are never going to have much braking and accelerating at the same time, could you really do braking and corning = 100? Alternatively, accelerating and cornering = 100. In my mind that makes sense but I'm just a potential customer with no experience.

 

[blekenbleu]

braking and corning = 100

Some tires do a little better at braking than cornering,
but the first approximation most often made is a friction or grip circle,
where total = square_root(brake* brake + corner*corner) <= whatever the limit,
which amounts to 1G or less for many cars without aerodynamic aids.

For sure, you should be able to have more than 0.5G braking and 0.5G cornering.

 

[wajdi]

That seems like a very strange way to do things. So you can never have 100% braking at heavy braking area because you you might use some of it for cornering?

For example, say you like it pulling on you hard in a F1 car before turn 1 at monza but you like some cornering force at lesmos. Do you have to balance what you get in each and cannot have full force for braking if you want it for cornering too?

I was thinking the same thing. When you brake hard in the stringhe line it we should feel only the “ braking effect” and you won’t feel acceleration effect or bumps effect. The same thing when you accelerate, you won’t feel the braking effect or cornering effect. It’s rarely 2 effect in the same time.
Maybe it can be cornering effect and bumps effect at the same time but personally I use the “ bumps effect “ very low having 3DOF motion system.
I really hope the guys from Simxperience could be more clear here.

 

[anton_Chez]

It's not correct, the travel vs intensity. It can't be. I can be related, but not completely correlated to match 100% intensity with 100% travel. Here's the thing though. If you're that heavy into a braking zone and your belts are pulling mad tight, like nearly all the travel and also at high intensity (speed and force is what intensity should be measured as, so a quick, hard pull is high intensity, opposite for lower values) you really wouldn't be feeling any g load laterally, and definitely nothing in acceleration. So in essence I can't see too many situations where you'd want two effects giving off as much energy as each other, at a high intensity. Brake + turn? Going to get more brake, most of the time. Turn + accelerate? Probably a bit more balanced but more lateral than acceleration, surely. Doing all those, plus add some bumps in? You wouldn't need barely any change in torque at all, even at high sustained load, to get a feel for a change in road surface. So a bump would not need to take much away at all from what's already happening.

Basically, you should separate your effects into primary and secondary/complimentary. Braking and turning would definitely be primary. Acceleration, bumps, gear shift and perhaps damage (I can't even remember if there is an effect for that?) are all secondary. So I'd be setting my profile up to reflect that and even if you don't I'd expect the lesser secondary effects to not come through as forcefully as the primary ones.

But I don't agree that 100% on the slider matches 100% travel. That doesn't sound right at all. I understand there is a limitation on the system overall, but it shouldn't be as literal as that.

 

[simxperience]

Try to increase “ acceleration effect” and leave the “ braking effect “ the same and test it.

Are you saying that you experience a change in the behavior of the braking effect if you increase the acceleration effect? If so, that would be a bug. These are based on longitudinal G-Force. You cannot be accelerating while braking due to the nature of the data, therefore the acceleration effect really shouldn't impact the braking effect in any way.

With regard to my response to you in your support ticket, I think you are misunderstanding me. I was asking you to try the things I suggested and report back the results. If you would like to continue troubleshooting, please try the suggestions and let us know if you observe your reported issue at the stated settings. This will serve as a basis for further troubleshooting. EDIT: Re-reading my response, I should have been more clear/instructive. I was trying to help Josh finish up his support tickets because his PC died Friday/ I think I hurried yours a bit too much to be honest.

Question from someone who knows nothing. Since you are never going to have much braking and accelerating at the same time, could you really do braking and corning = 100? Alternatively, braking and cornering = 100. In my mind that makes sense but I'm just a potential customer with no experience.

Yes. You can do exactly that if you wish because these two effects are mutually exclusive as described above.

Combining braking and cornering effects is where it gets a bit interesting. Obviously the lever arm has a finite amount of travel. Let's call it 100% travel. It can't move any further than that. The goal then is to make the best use of that travel for our goal. If you use a default profile with cloud tuning, you are right there where you want to be. Just tighten your belts AFTER it calibrates, when you sit down to drive ands tighten them well so you don't lose anything in belt slop. If any adjustments are desired, you should first try with minor adjustments to the overall intensity slider. This will help to accommodate some cases like we've seen recently where all effects in iRacing suddenly seem a bit less aggressive than they used to in the previous update of iRacing. Cloud tuning will continue to observe this data and make weekly improvements to accommodate the changes in the game, but the overall intensity slider lets you quickly adjust for this.

The reason a default profile + cloud tune works well is because it takes into account the tire traction circle based on the cloud tuning data. It's the reason why you can have a value of more than 50% travel allocated to braking and more than 50% allocated to cornering. If you aren't familiar with the traction circle, this might be helpful: http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/traction_circle.html#:~:text=The traction circle is way of thinking about,care in what direction the force is applied.

We put a lot of effort into making the Sim Commander both powerful and flexible, but it is possible to confuse yourself, especially when you start playing with offsets and tuning effects without understanding their relationship to each other. If you get your profile to a point where it is exhibiting an unusual or unexpected behavior, simply reset it to defaults like so: https://www.simxperience.com/slides/slide/how-to-reset-profile-to-defaults-45?search_category=44

If you think you have found some bug that no one else has found in the last 2 years, please file a bug report here with detailed reproduction steps and it will be researched: https://www.simxperience.com/helpdesk/bug-investigation-team-6

NOTE: All commentary above assumes adequate G-Belt mounting for the upper torso height of the occupant. As an extreme example, you can imagine how a G-Belt of any kind will be ineffective on a child who's head is the same height as the seat belt holes in the seat. The belts would never make proper contact with the child's shoulders. In short, nothing about the G-Belt will work as intended if the seat isn't properly sized for the occupant. The seat belt/harness holes in the seat need to align properly with the drivers shoulders.