SRS 2.0 Motion Tuning Guide

Collated from existing resources and revised with new details. The goal is to have a single place to get started in learning to tune your platform with Sim Racing Studio 2.0. Thank you Sim Racing Studio, Thanos, and everyone else who has contributed to the discussion on motion tuning! Topics include: Introduction to Motion Tuning Intellitune vs Manual Tuning

Tuning Page Features

Platform

Effects

Max Telemetry

Smoothing Effects Advanced Vertical Actuator Effects THANOS (Spike Filter)

Auto Smoothing Low Speed

What is Telemetry

Understanding the Effects Sliders and Max Telemetry

Capturing Telemetry

Exporting Telemetry

Advanced Telemetry Capturing Tips Resetting Telemetry Corrupted and Bad Telemetry Adjusting Max Telemetry General Max Telemetry Tips

General Effect Slider Tips

Platform Differences

Advanced Boost Tuning

Reverse/Invert an Axis

Clipping Bad Telemetry

Miscellaneous Tuning Tips

Introduction to Motion Tuning

The key to getting the best performance and experience from your movement platform is through tuning. Without tuning, the platform might not move enough or moves too much when playing a game. Tuning is essential if you want to create the best possible experience for each game and car and make the platform behave in the way you feel is more realistic or comfortable with your style of racing or flying. Sim Racing Studio (SRS) has created default motion profiles based on the telemetry outputs of each game; however, these don’t take into account the nuances that each vehicle has when it comes to acceleration, braking, cornering, road conditions on many different tracks as well as your specific taste and preferences in terms of immersion in a motion simulator (ie. do you like more or less movement).

Important Tips:

• Tuning in SRS is always LIVE and you feel the effect of the change immediately after you change a parameter. Once you are satisfied with how the motion feels, press SAVE so it will remember and auto-reload when you get back to the game/vehicle.

• You can utilize the Profile Manager in SRS for general tuning setting without having to launch the sim. However, for vehicle specific tunings, you will need to load into the specific vehicle in the sim. You can find details on using the Profile Manager here: https://www.simracingstudio.com/post/profile-manager

• Tuning is disabled when the Profile In Use in the upper right indicates “Stand By”.

• Once you have loaded a game, the Profile In Use name will change to the game name if supported by SRS.

• Once you have loaded a vehicle in supported games, the Profile In Use will switch to the name of that vehicle. Not all sims support vehicle specific tunings.

• If your game is full screen and you can’t see SRS, ALT+TAB out to Windows and select SRS so you can begin to tune. Remember to reselect the game to resume testing once you’re done tuning in SRS.

Intellitune vs Manual Tuning

With the release of SRS v2.9.0.2, a new feature called Intellitune Wizard is available which is an artificial intelligence and machine learning feature that takes into consideration Pro and Community motion profiles to find the best suggestion for settings. Intellitune can be utilized to gather Max Telemetries and basic settings for an improved motion experience over the default motion profiles. Since the telemetry is not manually reviewed, is only 3 minutes long, and limited to a single track, it will not be as accurate as the processes outlined in this guide. If quick setup is the goal, its recommended to utilize the Intellitune Wizard. Please refer to the SRS blog post for more information on the Intellitune Wizard here. This guide covers the concepts of tuning which can be use to modify the Intellitune Wizard profile if needed. Please contact SRS for more information or issues with the Intellitune Wizard here. However, if you want the most accurate tuning available for a specific vehicle, this guide will provide the guidance on collecting telemetry and creating a motion profile.

Tuning Page Features

To start tuning, launch Sim Racing Studio 2.0, select TUNING at the top and then Motion in the left column. Below is the definition of each function and feature found in the SRS Tuning page.

Actuator and Non-Actuator Tuning Page Settings

Sim Racing Studio will provide different options depending on the type of motion platform selected in SETUP > HARDWARE > Motion. Essentially, it will be divided into two categories: Actuator and Non-Actuator. There will be some settings available to each type of platform that is not available to the other. This guide will call these features out if they are exclusive to Actuator or Non-Actuator platforms.

Actuator Tuning Page (Examples: PT Actuator, Thanos, Prosimu, SFX100)

Non-Actuator Tuning Page (Examples: DOF Reality, YawVR)

Platform Settings

These settings are applied universally to the motion of the platform independent from the Effects sliders or Max Telemetry settings. Adjusting these settings will change the overall feel of the motion profile.

· MAX ANGLE: This setting adjusts the maximum amount of movement available to the vertical actuators for actuator platforms and the maximum amount of movement for the entire platform for non-actuator platforms. In simplest of terms, it’s a percentage slider. If you have Max Angle set to 100, it will use 100% of the available travel in your platform. Reduce it down to 50, the platform will only move 50% of its potential motion. It will "proportionally" calculate, for each telemetry value, the new actuator/motor position so it’s not a “stop when reaching 50%” type of rule. The lower the value, the less total movement will be achieved. This value is the primary way to reduce overall motion of the platform while maintaining the fidelity of all the other settings.

Note: If you set the Max Angle to 0, the platform will not move from game telemetry. However, if you have an actuator platform, it will move into the "ready" position which is typically mid-stroke on vertical actuator platforms.

· MAX HORIZONTAL: (Actuator Only - Must have horizontal actuators) This setting adjusts the maximum amount of movement available to the horizontal actuators (surge, sway, traction loss) for actuator platforms. It behaves exactly like Max Angle in terms of limiting motion and is only available if horizontal actuators are available.

· OVERALL SMOOTHING: Overall Smoothing will limit how much the platform moves when large changes in direction occur in a very short period of time. Overall Smoothing only applies to these large quick changes; whereas Max Angle and Max Horizontal applies to all motion. For example, when driving straight in a racing sim and you swerve very quick hard to the LEFT and then to the RIGHT:

• If the Overall Smoothing slider was set to 0, then the platform would move 100% to the LEFT and 100% to the RIGHT.

• If the Overall Smoothing slider was set to 50, then the platform would move 100% to the LEFT and only 50% to the RIGHT.

• If the Overall Smoothing slider was set to 90, then the platform would move 100% to the LEFT and only 10% to the RIGHT.

The higher the Overall Smoothing value the less motion there will be in quick changes in telemetry. Too much Overall Smoothing can result in extremely limited motion. If the value is set to 100, during large sweeping motion the platform might not return to center as the return value is too low. This is most noticeable with joystick motion tunings and high-performance aircraft. In addition, actuator platforms can also be impacted by an increase in Overall Smoothing which potentially results in jerky motion in surge and heave (likely a result of the high update rate and capabilities of actuators being limited by the setting).

Important Note: With the addition of Effect Smoothing (See Effect Smoothing section), the usefulness for a global smoothing effect like Overall Smoothing has been minimized. Overall Smoothing can still be utilized to minimize large fast changes in telemetry to avoid jarring/jerky motion; however, utilizing Effect Smoothing, accurate Max Telemetries, and other values has essentially made Overall Smoothing obsolete and remains in SRS for legacy tunings or for those that still utilize its functionality.

· REACTION SPEED: (Non-Actuator Only) Limits how quickly the motors will move to get to the desired position. For example, you are in a high-speed tight S-curve and the SRS formula has calculated that your platform need to go from position 100% left to 30% right and back to 80% left in a very short amount of time. Reaction Speed at 100 (max and also the default of the platform) will try to reach the new position as fast as possible. Reaction Speed at 70 (the minimum value available) will slightly slow down the speed and thus will be smoother. However, latency can become an issue if performing very quick movements if the Reaction Speed is too low.

Note: Reaction Speed is a global setting and will apply to all motion profiles once changed and saved. For example, if you have one motion profile that has already been saved with Reaction Speed at 70 and are tuning a different game and vehicle and set Reaction Speed to 100, the previous motion profile's Reaction Speed will increase to 100. This is because Reaction Speed is a global setting in firmware and not saved locally via software.

· BOOST: Increases the amount of movement in each actuator/motor when small quick changes in telemetry occur. (Boost is the opposite of Overall Smoothing).

For example, if there was a very small and quick change in telemetry for heave (bouncing up and down with small quick movements) and the platform needs to raise up only 1%, Boost at 0, will move the platform from 0 to +1.0%. Boost at 50, will move the platform from 0 to 1.5%. Boost at 90 will move the platform from 0 to +1.9%. The higher the Boost value the bigger your change in direction for small changes.

Boost can be used to increase the feel of the small details in the road (like bumps from small rocks, minor divots in the terrain, poor road conditions) as well as small bumps from turbulence for flight sims. Boost is completely dependent on if the telemetry output for the sim supports these small changes. Be careful when increasing Boost too much since it can also increase the “jerkiness” of the platform due it constantly shaking.

VERY IMPORTANT: Boost is a global setting and will apply to all axes. If you are only attempting to boost the feel of road telemetry, an increase in Boost will also increase pitch, roll, yaw, sway, surge, and traction loss. It is HIGHLY recommended to utilize the individual Effect Sliders and accurate Max Telemetries instead of using Boost.

See Advanced Boost Tuning below for additional guidance on tuning boost if required.

Note: The minimal value for Boost is 1 as it is a multiplier for increasing telemetry.

Effects Slider Settings

These settings handle how much travel and how predominant the motion is on each axis (pitch, roll yaw, sway, surge, heave, and traction loss). They will determine how much surge you feel when accelerating or braking, how much roll occurs while on a banked curve or while banking in an aircraft, how much sway occurs during fast cornering, or how much heave is felt from bumps on the road.

· PITCH – Pitch controls how much the platform pitches up and down based on the angular position of the vehicle. For racing, it will be how much the platform rises and falls as it goes over hills, jumps, or anything that will raise or lower the front end of the car. For flight, it controls the pitch of the platform based on the angle of the aircraft as it climbs or dives. If you are climbing to gain altitude, doing a loop, taking off from a hill, Pitch controls how much the platform will pitch up and down. Pitch is the angular position of the vehicle on the pitch axis.

· ROLL – Roll controls how much the vehicle will roll side to side. The angle of the vehicle from side to side vs the horizon. This would be felt while in a vehicle and on a banked curve, driving on the side of embankment, or rolling during a crash. For aircraft, its when a banked turn occurs or whenever the pilot rolls the aircraft. Roll should not be confused with Lat G Sway which is the lateral g-forces felt when going around a curve. Roll is the angular position of the vehicle on the roll axis.

· YAW – The twisting movement when you use rudders in an aircraft/spacecraft without rolling or pitching. Yaw represents the platform pivoting on a central axis. Generally used for aircraft, especially helicopters. Note: Depending on the sim, Yaw can be driven by either g-forces on the yaw axis (angle rate which is typical for most flight simulators) or the positional representation of the vehicle within 360° on the yaw axis (compass heading (ie: 0 = North, 90= East, 180 or -180 = South, -90 = West)) which is typical for most racing simulators). Tuning for yaw should take this into consideration.

· LAT G SWAY - The lateral g-force affecting the vehicle (Sway). This would be felt when you are on a high-speed curve and your car is being "pushed" to the outside of the curve or when you are on the track warming up the tires with sudden left and right movements in the steering wheel. Sway is what will move the platform from side to side. Sway is not as predominate a force in aircraft as it is in road vehicles.

· LONG G SURGE ACCEL - Long G Surge Accel (aka Surge Accel) controls how much the platform will pitch backwards or surge forward (for actuator platforms with a surge actuator) during acceleration. For racing, this is the primary effect when you accelerate, take off from the start line, and feather the throttle. For flight, it’s the feeling when taking off from the runway, launching from an aircraft catapult, or engaging the afterburner. If more platform movement is desired when accelerating, increase the Long G Surge Accel slider towards 20.

· LONG G SURGE DECEL - Long G Surge Decel (aka Surge Decel) controls how much the platform will pitch forwards or surge backwards (for actuator platforms with a surge actuator) during deceleration. For racing, this is the primary effect when you brake, shift gears, or crash head on into a wall. For flight, it’s the feeling when braking on the runway, using air brakes, or crashing straight into the ground. If more platform movement is desired when decelerating, increase the Long G Surge Decel slider towards 20.

Important Note: Long G Surge Accel and Long G Surge Decel work together to provide the feeling of acceleration, braking, and gear shifting. This is because there is only a single value for surge that is either positive or negative value. (Long G Surge Accel is POSITIVE surge telemetry and Long G Surge Decel is NEGATIVE surge telemetry). The larger the values of the Accel and Decel slider, the more the platform will need to move during a gear shift or braking event. This is due to a larger value of the Accel slider pitching or moving the platform in one direction at a larger distance while the larger value of Decel is pitching or moving the platform in the opposite direction at a larger distance as well. The acceleration, braking, or gear shift event still needs to happen in the same amount of time; however, there is now more distance for the platform to move. This can result in jarring or jerky motion. A balance between the two sliders is key to a good motion profile for surge and those values are completely dependent on the vehicle and sim. The tuner will need to find the balance and adjust the sliders accordingly. Use of Gear Smoothing Factor will help to eliminate the jarring motion during gear shifts.

Note: Long G Surge Accel and Long G Surge Decel had to share the SAME Max Telemetry value in SRS prior to version 2.20.0.1. Ensure SRS is updated to this version or higher to utilize this surge information in this guide.

· VERT G ROAD HEAVE - The vertical g-forces affecting the vehicle (Heave). For a car, this would be the road texture and bumps. For planes, it would be felt in turbulence or when you hit the ground. Heave also includes transitions in both inclines and declines of the vehicle position. Affects both cars and planes in similar ways.

· ENGINE HAPTIC - An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents the engine shake from a vehicle if the RPM telemetry is available. The Engine Haptic effect will create a shaking effect in the platform from the actuators/motors and the strength of the shaking is handled by the Engine Haptic Effect Slider. Note: This effect is different than the Engine shake effect available to transducers/shakers via the Shake Tuning in SRS which uses sound waves for the effect.

Max Telemetry

Max Telemetry tells SRS when to move the platform on a specific axis to its maximum amount of potential movement. For more information, see the "Understanding the Effects Sliders and Max Telemetry" section below.

· MAX TELEMETRY - The numerical value in the black box tells SRS when to move the platform to its maximum potential movement, the Effect Slider allows you to tune that motion against all the other axes. See the "Understanding the Effects Sliders and Max Telemetry" section below for more information.

· EYE ICON - A shortcut link that will take you directly to the GAME > Telemetry page of SRS in order to Capture or Export game telemetry.

· On/Off SWITCH - A switch that will allow you to turn On or Off a specific axis. If Off is selected, that specific axis will not move from telemetry when motion is active.

Racing

· TRACTION LOSS – The force when the back part of your car is rotating quicker than the front part. For traction loss, the platform will pivot on a front axis so only the rear of the platform moves. Examples would be when you are drifting or losing control of the rear. Generally only for cars and usually not for aircraft.

· WHEEL SLIP/LOCK – An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents the Wheel Slip or Lock for each individual wheel on the vehicle if the telemetry is available. Wheel Slip occurs when tires spin with no traction independent if the car is rotating or completely standing still (slipping). Wheel Lock occurs when the car is moving but tires are not moving (locked). Note: Not all games support Wheel Slip/Lock. Please refer to the SRS blog post for supported titles here.

· RUMBLE STRIPS - An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents individual wheel shaking for when that specific wheel encounters a rumble strip. The effect strength is not impacted by speed; however, it can be adjusted using the Effects slider. Note: Not all games support Rumble Strips. Please refer to the SRS blog post for supported titles here.

· ABS LOCK - An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents the shake that can occur with Anti-Lock Brakes if the telemetry is available. Note: Not all games support ABS Lock. Please refer to the SRS blog post for supported titles here.

Flight

These effects are created exclusively by Sim Racing Studio and are based on actions within the sim. See SRS Blog post here for more information.

· AFTERBURNER - (Telemetry based) An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents the shake that can occur when an afterburner is engaged. This effect requires the simulator to export telemetry that the afterburner has been engaged and is not available for all flight sims.

· CANOPY - (Telemetry based) An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents the shake that can occur when the canopy on an aircraft is closed. This effect requires the simulator to export telemetry that the canopy is closing and is not available for all flight sims. It is recommended to leave this value at a lower number to avoid excessive shaking.

· LANDING GEAR - (Telemetry based) An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents the shake that can occur when the landing gear is lowered or raised. This effect requires the simulator to export telemetry that the landing gear is up or down and is not available for all flight sims. The effect is queued when the landing gear is deployed or raised and may not match the exact length for the gear deployment.

· CANNON FIRING - (Button Box/ Joystick Shortcut based) An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents the shake that can occur when firing the cannons or guns in a flight sim. This effect requires a Joystick button short to be created that will shake the platform whenever the button is pressed. This effect continues as long as the user holds down the button shortcut for the cannon firing effect and is not related to any in-game telemetry (ie. this effect can continue to occur even if the vehicle has no ammunition). See the SRS Blog post above for information on creating a Joystick shortcut.

· MISSILE FIRING - (Button Box/ Joystick Shortcut based) An effect created within Sim Racing Studio that represents the shake that can occur when firing a missile in a flight sim. This effect requires a Joystick button short to be created that will shake the platform whenever the button is pressed. This effect continues as long as the user holds down the button shortcut for the missile firing effect and is not related to any in-game telemetry (ie. this effect can continue to occur even if the vehicle has no missiles). See the SRS Blog post above for information on creating a Joystick shortcut.

Smoothing Effects

Smoothing Effects is the ability to average telemetry over time that helps to reduces telemetry spikes specifically to Pitch, Roll, Sway, Surge, Heave, or Traction Loss. This targeted smoothing will only be applied to the adjusted axis and will not impact the all motion like the Overall Smoothing.

The values can be set from 0 to 100 exactly like the Platform Smoothing slider. 0 will turn smoothing off; whereas, 100 will be maximum Smoothing for the effect.

NOTE: Effect Smoothing ONLY works in increments of 5. For example, 5, 10, 25, 40, 60 are all valid Smoothing Effect settings. If you set a slider between an increment of 5, it will only use the lower value (ie. if you set the slider to 7, it will only register as a 5). Sim Racing Studio may update the slider in the future to represent these increments.

WARNING: Be careful when applying Smoothing Effects. Smoothing Effects will average out telemetry overtime to smooth it out. The higher the Smoothing slider setting, the farther back it averages out the telemetry to remove spikes. This can easily cause small telemetry changes such as road heave or surge from gear shifts to disappear completely. Effect Smoothing should only be utilized to fix issues with motion that are unable to be resolved via Max Telemetry or Effect Slider settings. In addition, a higher value in Smoothing Effects might require lowering the Max Telemetry (1 or 2 digits max) for that axis since telemetry spikes are reduced.

For example, there are some games that have telemetry spikes for specific axis either due to in-game functions or corrupted/bad telemetry. These could include Pit Speed Limiters in iRacing for specific vehicles in which Surge Smoothing would assist in calming down the motion when entering the pits, DCS sway spikes while on the ground or loading onto the catapult, or other games that have corrupted telemetry, such as Epic Roller Coasters, to smooth a specific axis. If there is a jarring/jerking motion that can't be mitigated by Max Telemetry or Effect Slider settings, smoothing a specific axis could potentially be utilized.

These Smoothing values will be applied after the Effect Slider and Max Telemetry settings before they are calculated for the final platform position. Here is an example of the workflow:

GAME TELEMETRY -> EFFECTS SLIDER + MAX TELEMETRY + ADVANCED AND SMOOTHING EFFECTS -> MAIN SRS FORMULA -> PLATFORM SETTINGS (MAX ANGLE, SMOOTHING, BOOST, REACTION SPEED, BOOST)

Advanced Settings

These settings allow specialized tuning for specific effects/axis as well different motion platforms. Some settings will only appear if the game or platform is supported.

Racing Sims

Flight Sims

· MIN TRACTION LOSS ACTIVATION – Is utilized to make Traction Loss more noticeable by only engaging when there are larger movement swings so it’s not lost in other movements from the platform. This will cause the platform to “snap” into Traction Loss so it’s more noticeable. For example, if Min Traction Loss Activation is set to 30, then the platform will not begin to move Traction Loss until the telemetry input has reached “30% of its range” then it will snap to the left or right to catch up making it easier to feel the traction loss. If less snap is wanted when Traction Loss begins, reduce Min Traction Loss Activation. If you want more snap, increase this value. Note: It is HIGHLY recommended to set Min Traction Loss Activation to 0 which will disable it to avoid jarring motion. This will allow all the traction loss motion to be available to the platform.

· ENHANCED G-FORCES – (Non-Actuator Only - Only available for DOF Reality H6/P6 platforms) If Enhanced G-Forces is turned OFF, the platform will move parallel to the ground during surge and sway restricted by the maximum movement range of the platform. With Enhanced G-Forces turn ON, the surge telemetry will be used to pitch the platform forward instead of surging forward, and the sway telemetry will be used to roll the platform instead of swaying side to side. This allows for a constant "g-force" being felt during long periods of acceleration/deceleration via pitch or sideways movement via roll. Important Note for H6/P6 tuning: Test with Enhanced G-Forces set ON and OFF to ensure the proper motion is being felt for the type of vehicle being utilized.

· ROLL (Angle/Rate) / PITCH (Angle/Rate) - For flight sims that are supported, there will be an additional option in Advanced to set either Roll or Pitch as Angle or Rate. If you select Angle, the platform will follow the Angle of the plane and maintain that angle regardless of the rate of angle change (ie, you pull up and climb at 45 degree, the platform will stay at 45 degrees the entire climb). If you select Rate, the platform will return to a level position once the rate of the angle change is complete (ie. you pull up and climb at a 45 degree angle, the platform will pitch up initially, but since you are no longer changing the rate of the climb, it will slowly move back to level). Again, tuning is essential as each game and plane have different rates of self-leveling that are sent to SRS. Some of them are smooth, some are more abrupt.

· GEAR SMOOTHING FACTOR - When a gear shift occurs, there is a momentary spike in decel surge telemetry which can cause the platform to surge/pitch back and forth extremely hard. Gear Smoothing Factor will apply a momentary amount of Surge smoothing during the gear shift to minimize the movement. The amount of Surge smoothing depends on how high the Gear Smoothing Factor slider is set. When the slider is at 0 there will be no smoothing, increasing it towards 100 will increase the amount of smoothing added during the gear shift.

Important Note: Increasing Gear Smoothing Factor above 50 can induce a potential latency in the return of the platform to its normal surge position. This is due to the large amount of surge smoothing that is still occurring after the gear shift has been completed. If a delay in surge is felt after shifting (normally felt when downshifting), lower the Gear Smoothing Factor.

In addition, if an extremely high Gear Smoothing Factor is utilized (at or near 100) and gear shifting is very quick (ie. F1 racing), the gear smoothing could potentially still be applied to the previous shifting event, making subsequent gear shift feel more abrupt or jarring as the Gear Smoothing Factor has not reset. Lower the Gear Smoothing Factor to resolve the issue. · MOTION REFRESH RATE - (Actuator Only - Only available on Prosimu platforms) This setting adjusts the number of instructions per second sent to the platform. For actuator based systems, such as Prosimu, the default is 1000. This should be adjusted if you feel lag in your movement from what is appearing on screen versus what you feel in the platform. Increasing the slider will use more of your CPU. If increased too much, this setting can begin to introduce latency which is dependent upon the power of your PC and the motion platform. Default settings are highly recommend and only should be adjusted if necessary.

Vertical Actuator Effects

(Actuator Only - Only available with dedicated horizontal actuators utilized for Surge, Sway or Traction Loss).

Vertical Actuator Effects enables the ability to add Pitch to Surge, and Roll to Sway or Traction Loss. This can be utilized to match the pitch of the vehicle as it accelerates/decelerates or roll during sway or traction loss. It can also be utilized to emulate sustained g-forces during these effects due to the limited horizontal travel of the actuators. The higher the value, the more pitch or roll will be factored into the overall effect performed by the vertical actuators which normally would not move from surge, sway, or traction loss telemetry.

Note: It possible for the horizontal movement of an actuator to be minimized by the roll or pitch movement from the Vertical Actuator Effect. This will apply to Sway, Surge, and Traction Loss. For example, when sway occurs when turning left, the bottom platform will move to the left (representing the car moving inward of the left turn) causing the sway feeling in the bottom of the seat as the vehicle moves out from underneath you. However, with Sway Vertical Actuator Effects turned up, the platform will roll to the right simulating the g-force. The issue is the bottom platform is moving to the left while the top platform is rolling to the right. These two motions at the same time tend to cancel each other out and the user no longer feels the sway of the bottom platform. Thus it is recommended to use very little Vertical Actuator Effects unless there is a lot of body roll in the vehicle due to loose suspension.

THANOS

(Actuator Only)

The Spike Filter settings is where you set the level of the spike parameter (distance between two positions on a scale from 0 to 65535) that determines when the motion the platform will be slowed due to a motion cue that would cause the platform to exceed a safe speed and result in a jarring level of motion. A default level for the Spike Filter for normal racing is approximately 1800; however, this lower number will likely engage often in high performance vehicles or on extreme tracks. A value of 2700 will enable most motion found in typical road racing; 3600 for rally racing.

The Spike Filter value represents a stroke travel. For example, if you use the recommended Spike Filter level of 1800, the total stroke for a 150mm actuator would be approximately 4mm of free travel for fast vibrations/motions. If there was a motion that instructed the actuator to go instantly to 5mm, the Spike Filter would activate and slow down the motion of the platform. The Spike Filter calculation is as follows: 150mm / 65535 = 0.0022888533 1800 * 0.0022888533 = 4.11993594 mm

The Spike Filter Vertical will apply the spike value set to the vertical actuators. The Spike Filter Horizontal (TL) will apply the spike value to the horizontal actuators (if available). Note: If the Spike Filter value for either Vertical or Horizontal is activated, BOTH the vertical and horizontal actuators will be slowed down until the telemetry is below the spike filter threshold.

The Spike Filter Veritcal and Spike Filter Horizontal (TL) values are saved to each specific motion profile in SRS; therefore, you can have a general Spike Filter setting for the sim as well as different Spike Filter settings for different vehicles.

Thanos Spike Filter Settings

Sim Racing Studio will override the value set in the Thanos controller for the Spike Filter range. Therefore, the Spike Filter value within the Thanos controller will only be utilized if 1) Sim Racing Studio is closed before the Thanos controller parks the platform or 2) if the PC that is running Sim Racing Studio crashes, is shut down accidentally, or suffers a power outage. A UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) could be utilized to power the Thanos controller and actuators in case of a power supply failure (See the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and Actuators guide here for more information).

Spike Filter Settings from Cloud Tune Shared Profiles

Sim Racing Studio Motion Profiles that are downloaded from the Cloud Tune Shared Profiles do not import the profile's Spike Filter settings. This is due to the different types of platforms available and potential risks with values that are too high. SRS will utilize a default Spike Filter setting of 1800 which, as indicated above, could result in the Spike Filter engaging often resulting is slow or sluggish motion for some high performance vehicles, rally racing, or flight sims. Utilize the recommended Spike Filters from the creator of the motion profile if it is posted in the Motion Profiles - Actuator forum here. Otherwise, adjust the Spike Filter settings based on your personal preferences and platform.

Auto Smoothing Low Speed

With Sim Racing Studio version 2.20.0.8 or higher, a new global feature was added that will greatly increase effect smoothing on ALL axes when a vehicle is under 6 kph. This will mitigate jarring motion during pit stops, hard braking or other events that occur at low speeds. To enable this feature in SRS, go to the SETUP > HARDWARE and under MOTION, click the button to turn ON Auto Smoothing Low Speed. Important Note: This will apply to all vehicles and all games as it is a global setting. This could result in some vehicles or aircraft at a stand still or very low speeds not reacting quickly with changes in telemetry.

What is Telemetry

Telemetry are positive or negative numbers that originate from a game that provide data on the position and other metrics for a vehicle. Telemetry data includes Pitch, Roll, Yaw, Sway, Surge, Heave, Traction Loss along with other telemetry for Engine RPM, Suspension, Gear and Wheel Slip if available from the game.

For example, below is a single segment of the telemetry output for a Porsche 911 GT3 in Assetto Corsa:

This data represents 1/20th of a second of telemetry for the vehicle. The speed at which SRS exports the data is 20 times per second. The game and platform may have higher output settings; however, for tuning motion 20 times per second is enough. The numbers are rarely 0.0 and will sometimes have very small numbers even if there is nothing occurring on the axis.

There is only a single value for an axis. To determine which direction on the axis the movement is occurring, a positive or negative value is utilized:

• Pitch - going up is usually a positive value, going down is a negative value.

• Roll - rolling right is usually a positive value, rolling left is a negative value

• Yaw - yawing to the right is usually a positive value, yawing to the left is a negative value

• Sway - swaying to the right is usually a positive value, swaying to the left is a negative value

• Surge - accelerating is usually a positive value, decelerating is a negative value

• Heave - heaving upwards is usually a positive value, falling downwards is a negative value

• Traction Loss - swinging to the right is usually a positive value, swinging to the left is a negative value.

These numbers will vary from game to game and vehicle to vehicle. Their values will depend on 1) the physics engine utilized by the game developer and 2) the performance output of the vehicle in that game. Since these values can change from game to game and vehicle to vehicle, motion software like Sim Racing Studio need to know how to handle the values which is done via the Max Telemetry setting.

Understanding the Effects Sliders and Max Telemetry

To adjust the motion profile for a vehicle in a game, you must first have a good understanding of exactly what the Effects slider actually does and how it relates to Max Telemetry. Telemetry data can be different from game to game and vehicle to vehicle, thus Sim Racing Studio uses a very complex formula that takes the telemetry output from a video game and converts it into an platform position. However, since every game and vehicle's telemetry can be different, Sim Racing Studio needs to know the potential range in values of the telemetry (ie. 0 to 20?, -24 to 14?, -180 to -180?, etc.) that will be available for a specific vehicle in a specific game for a specific axis. Without knowing the range of the telemetry for a vehicle, SRS doesn't know how much to move the platform when a telemetry value comes up. If the telemetry value is 8, does it move the platform halfway? Should is move its maximum potential movement? Should is move very little? The value that makes that determination is Max Telemetry.

- Max Telemetry tells SRS when to move the platform on a specific axis to its maximum amount of potential movement.

For example, if you set the Max Telemetry for Pitch to 10, and the game sends a telemetry value of 5 for pitch, then SRS knows it needs to move the platform to pitch to about 50% of its potential travel. Set the Max Telemetry for Heave to 8, and when the game sends a telemetry value of 2, it will heave up the platform about 25% of the potential travel. The key here to remember is Max Telemetry is ONLY telling SRS when to move to the maximum amount of potential movement.

- The Effect Slider tells SRS how much of that potential movement to utilize and how predominant it will be felt against the other axes.

Since we now have the Max Telemetry set correctly for the potential max telemetry output for that specific axis in the game, we need a way to tune how much of that potential motion is actually utilized. The Effect Sliders is how you adjust the overall motion.

For example, if for Surge you have the Effect Slider maxed out at 20 and have the Max Telemetry at 15, when the game outputs a telemetry value of 15, SRS will attempt to move the platform as much as possible with the available amount of potential movement. If you reduce the Effect Slider down to 10, keep the Max Telemetry at 15, when the game outputs a telemetry value of 15, SRS will now only attempt to move the platform about 50% of its potential movement.

- Max Telemetry tells SRS when to move the platform to its maximum movement, the Effect Slider allows you to tune that motion against all the other axes.

IMPORTANT: It is not this simple as SRS calculates ALL the axes together to determine the best potential motion. It will avoid potential motions that conflict with each other as well such as when braking hard (pitching forward) while climbing (pitching backwards) a steep hill. There are many different factors, but the above examples are good generalizations to understand the basic principle.

Max Telemetries, though based heavily on the actual telemetry from the game, can also be adjusted to impact motion (ie. Lowering the Max Telemetry will INCREASE the speed at which the platform moves to the maximum amount of potential movement. For example, if Surge Max Telemetry should normally be at 10, but you lower it down to 5, it will reach its maximum amount of movement for surge in half the time). See the Adjusting Max Telemetry section below for more information.

Capturing Telemetry

The closer Max Telemetry is to the actual maximum telemetry an effect might output during optimal driving or flying, then the closer the platform will be to replicating the actual movement. Capturing telemetry is the first step to create a motion profile for a new vehicle or a game. Sim Racing Studio has 3 methods to obtain telemetry: Capture, Export, and Intellitune Wizard.

Capture - After you have loaded into a vehicle in a game, in SRS, go to GAMES > Telemetry and click the button next to Capture. This will display the active telemetry at the moment. You can view the telemetry in real-time if needed. Note: Though the Min/Max values are the overall min/maximum values for the entire session, it could contain corrupted telemetry (crashes, telemetry bugs, loading the vehicle in to the game, etc) and might not accurately reflect the appropriate Max Telemetries for that vehicle.

Export - This is the primary and most accurate way to export telemetry. It will capture telemetry output up to 20 times per second that can be then evaluated over a long period of time to identify the correct Max Telemetries and exclude bugs, erroneous data, and poor driving/crashes. Intellitune Wizard - The Intellitune feature can also be utilized to estimate Max Telemetry values. However, since it’s limited to 3 minutes, unable to be reviewed for errors, and greatly dependent upon the singular performance during the capture session, it should only be utilized as a base line or when advanced tuning isn’t desired. For more information on the Intellitune Wizard since it won't be covered in this guide, please contact Sim Racing Studio or view their guide here.

Exporting Telemetry

Sim Racing Studio has the ability to export telemetry into a .CSV file which will include the telemetry output 20 times per second. With exporting telemetry, its possible to have 24,000 points or more of telemetry data (5 min sessions across 4 tracks - 20 minutes total of captured telemetry) that can now be easily put into a spreadsheet and graphed in charts to spot corrupted telemetry. This process provides the best results in obtaining accurate Max Telemetries. Below is a process developed to analyze the telemetry data. It its focused on the idea of an Evaluated Max Telemetry. The Evaluated Max Telemetry is simply the value that the Tuner has decided upon when reviewing the telemetry data for a specific axis. The Tuner could exclude spikes and/or see patterns in the data that indicate what the average standard Max Telemetry value for a specific axis. This should be repeated multiple times over different tracks to ensure the vehicle performance is accurately identified. Once the Tuner identifies this value, it can be considered the Evaluated Max Telemetry value. This value should likely be averaged among all the sessions for different tracks, compared against the raw telemetry data as a reference, and then finally tested as a Max Telemetry setting for that axis.

To use this feature.

1) In SRS go to SETUP > Telemetry

2) Select the Export button to turn it ON

3) Telemetry is now being captured at 20 times per second in a .CSV file. 4) The file will be located in Documents > SimRacingStudio 2.0 in the export folder. The file will have the game name and date/time stamp for ease of identification for multiple sessions of collecting telemetry.

5) This file can be opened in Excel as a .CSV file and put into a chart to review the data over time for each axis. Example of the .CSV telemetry data output:

This data can then be put into a chart to evaluate if there are any spikes or corrupted data. Here is an example graph in Excel of only the sway telemetry for the 2019 McLaren 720S GT3 in Assetto Corsa Competitione for 5 minutes of data (6,000 telemetry data points):

The Tuner would then review this data and adjust the Max Telemetry for Sway as needed. Multiple sessions of the same car on different tracks should be utilized to verify if sway is consistent and accurate on all tracks. Here is the same 2019 McLaren 720S GT3 in Assetto Corsa Competitione data, but with 3 more tracks:

As you can see, there are a couple telemetry sway spikes in orange that if utilized might results in a sway max telemetry setting that is too high. All the data must be reviewed and then an evaluated Max Telemetry can be set which is a good average of the high telemetry value for sway. In this case, it might be 18 or 19. You can then create a dashboard of charts and information that is gathered from the telemetry over time session to make evaluation easier.

1. Shows raw telemetry data as a reference point. This will provide the Min/Max values purely for informational purposes to make decisions.

2. Provides a chart/graph for each axis for individual evaluation (pitch, roll, yaw, sway, surge, heave, and traction loss)

   1. This is a key element. Each telemetry session should be reviewed manually to identify the actual max telemetry value that is not impacted by spikes.

3. Provide a method to document an evaluated telemetry for a specific axis for each specific track so it can be averaged out with 3 other sessions to provide the most accurate evaluated max telemetry possible. Often, this evaluated max telemetry value will be a point or two lower than the raw telemetry Min/Max absolute values.

4. If Smoothing Effects are being utilized, they will low the spikes in telemetry as its averaging the data over time. The higher the Smoothing Effect settings, the lower the telemetry spikes will be for that axis. This could impact the overall Max Telemetry setting since its being averaged to a lower value. Decreasing the Max Telemetry value slightly depending on how much Smoothing Effects are utilized will ensure maximum travel on that axis is still possible.

5. Once all the Evaluated Max Telemetries are averaged, compared against raw telemetry data to ensure there are no sweeping inaccuracies, and confidence is high by the tuner the sessions provided accurate telemetry, then the final results should be utilized as the Max Telemetry settings for the motion profile.

Example image of the dashboard utilized for Pro Tunes:

Zoomed out view:

Continued at the Advanced Telemetry Gathering section below.