I have read peoples experiences on here of the Buttkicker, and overall the feedback was one of slight dissapointment.

The problem seems to stem from a lack of sounds in the game which trigger the device, in fact most people commented how only the wind noise seemed to generate a response.

My idea is to augment the sound files for the barrier collisions, and all the skid sounds, with an ultra low frequency (say below 40hz) sine wave, which you could then set the Buttkicker to respond to. You could make the signal louder in some files to make the Buttkicker respond differently, so say make the signal louder in the heavy crash .wav when compared to the light crash .wav. You could also vary the signal within the wav to simulate bumps, so within the skid sound files, you could make the car feel like it is going over lumps and bumps.

There is real potential I think to bring an extra dimension to the game in this. Heck it would probably even work for those people running a decent speaker set up as the sub would thump in a similar way to the Buttkicker.

Now I dont have a Buttkicker, or the ability to edit .wav files, but there must be someone out there willing to give this a go?

Thoughts?

Even if you manage to augment the original sound files, wouldn't you hear the low frequency parts through your subwoofer? Well my subwoofer goes down to 36Hz, I guess anything lower than that won't come through.

Potentially you would. Two things though, sub frequency response at very low Hz is generally poor unless you have a really, and I do mean really, good system. Something like a logitech is unlikely to reproduce anything audible under 40Hz even though the speakers tech specs say it can, simply because it will be so quiet. Also, even if your sub does end up reproducing the sound, it wont matter. If anything, it would add to the experience. Most crashing and skidding in real life would be accompanied by such thumps in the low frequency range.

I think its fair to point out that my terminology of using a sine wave is probably wrong. It makes it sound like I would want a simple tonal sine wave playing along with the sound file. Rather the idea would be to have a 'boom' or 'thump' noise but at a very low frequency in the sound file.

Right, further investigation of the sound files reveals that the crash sounds are already fairly heavily laden with sub bass. I also had a look at some of the other sounds, like the road and wind noise, and noticed that again these sounds are quite bass heavy. There might be some problems associated with these sounds causing the buttkicker to be on basicly all the time when the car is driving. I need to look at bit more closely at some of the lower frequencies on these files to work out whats going on there.

I'll give it a go with my system and a laptop tonight. My system is plenty capable, and even if I don't have a tactile device I get plenty of couch-moving action during movies. Do you have a waterfall plot of the crash files?

Nah sorry mate. Well I do, but the low end isnt high res enough.

I made some .wav files with some extra bass sine waves in them. The Heavy crash has a 20-100hz sweep buried in it, and so does the skid dirt one. Also the crash light sample has a couple of low spikes in it. I then re did the wind noise sticking a pretty harsh, high pass filter on it. It doesnt sound amazing though and would probably benefit from a more accurate high pass (say filtering out anything under 150hz) being done an the original file.

Unfortunately I cant upload em here as .wav isnt accepted

Wind noise has a surprising amount of low frequency energy though, and I think cutting it too high will make it sound tinny and artificial.

It might yeah. You can try with the original and 'high passed' wind noises and see how you go. There will be a balance between setting the buttkicker at a setting where the crash noises with the added bass gets the thing shaking, and the windnoise doesnt.

I'll try it out. I haven't tried LFS on that system before. Will be interesting to check the sound system out on a proper system and a big screen.

Have fun, let me know your findings!

Well, so far im doing quite well. I went and made a 'tactile transducer' (a buttkicker) this evening in about half an hour from an old speaker. Powering it using an old home stereo I identified the resonant frequency of my new transducer (about 80hz) and augmented the 'softscrape' sounds with two pulses of 80hz, and the 'hardscrape' sound with three closely spaced pulses. I also found that the default 'skiddirt' sound has a fair amount of 80hz in it already (not as much as my pulses that I added to the other files though). These files are quite different to the ones I uploaded in the zip above.

The results are excellent. The newly made buttkicker jumps around quite a bit when these sound files are played.

Next will be playing the game with the transducer wired up to see what other sounds in the game might set it off, and ill then deal with those samples in turn to reduce their effect.

The upshot of this is that basicly I have added a working vibration element to the game, and to my cockpit, for $0 and a couple of hours work.

Result!

Sweet! I never got around to hooking it up last night. If the vibration is as high as 80Hz then no system should have a problem playing it back. I was looking for some sub-20hz action! 8-)

Yeah I think that the 80Hz is a product of the system I have the transducer wired to, and its built in bass boost, rather than the speaker itself. This doesnt really matter too much, as the transducer doesnt really play any real sound, it just wobbles.

80hz is not a wobble, that is a tickle... 80Hz is what my wife likes...

Real men want single digits! 8)

I always hankered after one of those Phoenix Gold Cyclones, they dropped into single digits

Right, all finished. I miscalculated the resonant frequency. Its actually 40hz which is damn low! Most cars (using the CSR) have a nice low idle, so my rig vibrates nicely at idle and lower rpms. I used to own a car with solid hard rubber engine mounts, and it behaved in exactly the same way! Once up to racing speed, collisions, skidding, and trips into the gravel or sand cause vibrations, as does driving on the dirt sections of the autocross tracks. It works exceptionally well. So much so, that disconnecting it whilst racing makes the whole game feel 'dead'. Its kinda like the same level of effect you get from force feedback.

My only slight complaint is that riding curbs doesnt trigger it, mainly because in the game there is no extra sound when you hit a curb. The other thing that doesnt trigger it is hitting bumps on the track. Mainly for the same reason as the curbs, there is no sound in LFS when you hit a bump.

There might be a way to use a small app to generate the 40hz sound in response to suspension movements, but that kind of thing is way beyond my ability!

Anyway, I recommend if you have an old speaker lying around, to give this a go. I dont think youll be dissapointed.

I am happy to share my sound files, and to help someone identify the resonant frequency of their home made transducer to make custom sounds for their rigs if needed. Its not that hard at all!

Pics in this thread if interested http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=71211
Link to DIY transducer how to guide (turn the volume down unless you can understand spanish!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIBDeC3G3_4

i installed my buttkicker and its working with all games except lfs
what do i need to do to make it work?
thanks