JetPad, first impressions in VR

[chiliwili69]

On 31st-Jan I ordered the JetPad which included also the SimshakerWings software license. All paid with Paypal for 309€.

The buying process was easy and fast, with good communication. On 10th-March it was shipped from Stalingrad to my home at Zaragoza, earlier than expected.

The covid thing delayed the delivery, on 1st-May arrived to the spanish customs. After doing the paper work and paying the IVA and management (82€), on 8th-May is was shipped from customs and finally yesterday 16th-May arrived to my home. I think 3.5 months is quite good taking into account the whole COVID impact in the middle of everything.

 

The package was in good conditions, so I read the installation guide on Andre web, plug usb and power and in 2 minutes I was testing the shakers individually with the JetSeat Gametrix Control panel test. All worked well. Obviously my kids wanted to try as well the test and the relax massage!,  It just fun for family.

 

Then installed the Simshaker Wings software and activated the product key, modified the startup.cfg with the required lines and launched IL-2 VR with my index.

Tried all kind of planes, starting by Spitfire, then Albatros, I-16, Mustang, IL-2, Dora, Me-262, etc and trying to test all effects.

The vibration adds a new dimension to the experience, and it was a nice thing to test.

I have never been in a warbird shooting a 20mm cannon, so I cannot compare the effect. Despite of during my military service ("milicias", becoming "a kind" of 2nd lieutenant after 9 months!) I was shooting a MG-42 at 1Km range and a rusian obus of 152mm caliber. But IHMO the shooting thing is good, it gives you the "feeling" that your plane is shooting.

But the G-forces is a different king of thing. You will never be able to "simulate" a G-force just by producing a vibration. G-forces are more related to pressure, no vibration. So, first thing I did was to deactivate the G-force effect which was default in the preset. Unfortunately G-forces is an effect that I will never "enjoy" in VR unless you are in a real plane.

I also activated the engine effect (which was off in the preset).

This is how I set it up for now, but will tune more in future for sure:

IT is good that the user can tune every effect individually, depending on ass "sensibility"  ?  (my wife told that if I need stronger effects she can volunteer to kick my ass...)

 

Seriously, IMHO the all effects are well implemented (excluding G-force and roll/pitch which is not a vibration) and they are well synchronized with the action. I still need to know if the Engine Beat is only implemented as a gain in amplitude vibration or if the frequency of the vibration can me modulated by the rpm of the engine.

I also suppose that APU/JFS don´t apply to IL-2.

 

We have 5 senses. The visual thing is the dominant thing in VR, sound is the second thing (the spatial presence of planes around with Albatros!), then with the Jetpad here you have a third thing which is the feeling. For sure, it also helps to have a fixed seat, with controls in the same place than in plane. And opening the window of my room to enter a fresh flow of air also counts.

And if I need more, for sure my wife will volunteer  too for spraying some dirty warm oil when my engine is damaged...  

 

Overall I am happy with the jetpad, it is not a night and day thing (like VR, you know), but it contribute to the whole experience. So if you are in VR and want to increase realism, I would recommend it.

is it worth the money? well it really depends on where you spend your money. For me it is worth. Some people spend thousand of € in a mountain bike, and it is worth for them. My 15-yr old mountain bike cost me 350€ and it is quite OK for what I do. Other people even own a real plane, so everyone on their own.

 

Many thanks to Andre  and also Jason and Dev team for adding this extra dimension to our favorite flight simulator. 

 

I leave some pictures of The Thing:

[Dutch2]

Guess now its time for the wind simulator, hub Jason ? 

 

[NiiranenVR]

yes , and it give something extra - I have had mine for a while now and I don't think so mush about it anymore - only if Iforgot to turn it on 

And I have the same prioiteres almost - a have fire and damage full - I like the feeling when I'm shooting and .... Opposite  ?

 

I have the G on ... But I have not maked fine adjustment - but thinking that the visual and the body learn it together so it come in common / work together 

[Charlo-VRde]

This may be a contender to replace my Buttkicker Gamer, which I value nearly as much as my Oculus Quest for immersion.  The individual controls also makes this especially enticing.

[Sakivano]

Looking forward to having mine at home.

Edited May 20, 2020 by Sakivano

[WIS-Redcoat]

Mine was shipped on March 15th and I am still waiting; hopefully it shows up soon.   I was quite discouraged until hearing your story and learning it actually took that long to get to its destination.

 

I suppose I am less understanding with the shortcomings of the Russian mail service than the rest of you.

[chiliwili69]

Just some more feedback on this device.

 

1. In some campaigns I sometimes use the time accelaration when covering long distances (150 Km), in other cases I enjoy the trip at realtime. When time is acceletated the game sound is cut but the engine vibration continue. This is not a problem but it could be better to be like the sound, so the vibration stops. Or have an option to disable vibrations when time scale is changed.

 

2. One nice thing I have been dicovering is the stall effect. Before simshaker the noise was the first indication I was close to stall (and sometimes it was too late), but now the vibration is an earlier indication of that phenomena. This helped me to know better where is the stability limit before crossing it. In dogfights is quite useful.

Edited June 2, 2020 by chiliwili69

[belphegor4]

On 5/21/2020 at 11:44 AM, WIS-Redcoat said:

Mine was shipped on March 15th and I am still waiting; hopefully it shows up soon.   I was quite discouraged until hearing your story and learning it actually took that long to get to its destination.

 

I suppose I am less understanding with the shortcomings of the Russian mail service than the rest of you.

 

Mine shipped on May 8th (I'm in the US), I was starting to get a little worried since the last update on the Russian Post site was on May 17th.  Looks like I shouldn't be holding my breath here though.  If I don't get it by August I guess I'll start looking into it.  I do wish the shipping was faster though, I'm really looking forward to having it.

[WIS-Redcoat]

15 hours ago, belphegor4 said:

 

Mine shipped on May 8th (I'm in the US), I was starting to get a little worried since the last update on the Russian Post site was on May 17th.  Looks like I shouldn't be holding my breath here though.  If I don't get it by August I guess I'll start looking into it.  I do wish the shipping was faster though, I'm really looking forward to having it.

 

Well I still don't have it.  Honestly this is ridiculous.  I can get stuff from Virpil and VKB in a couple of days.

 

[belphegor4]

46 minutes ago, WIS-Redcoat said:

 

Well I still don't have it.  Honestly this is ridiculous.  I can get stuff from Virpil and VKB in a couple of days.

 

 

My tracking data shows the "local distribution center" dance too.  I have no idea what "Released from Russia" means though.  I have read that Russia is getting hit pretty hard right now with the virus, so that probably accounts for some of the delay at least.  And FWIW, the US Post Office has a page regarding international shipments from Russia which says:

 

Quote

Russia Post advises that effective March 28 ..., due to measures aimed at minimizing spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), Russian Post is unable to guarantee compliance with delivery standards and is invoking a situation of force majeure with regard to quality of service and remuneration for all categories of mail items until further notice.

 

The tracking page for my shipment also has a link at the top to fill out a form to apply for a package search due to the lack of updates.  Unfortunately it seems to require a login and it's all in Russian.  If I don't get it by the end of July I'll probably see if I can get it filled out somehow.  I agree a delay of this magnitude is kind of ridiculous though.

[belphegor4]

I apparently spoke too soon... I'm happy to report that my JetPad arrived today.  Yesterday the Russia Post site updated to say it was "Processing in United States of America" at USJFKA (JFK airport in New York).  Then USPS tracking kicked in, it arrived in my city all the way across the country early this morning, and was just delivered a few minutes ago.  Hopefully everyone else's gets delivered soon, I'm certainly excited to try mine out!

[Varibraun]

On 6/5/2020 at 12:30 PM, WIS-Redcoat said:

Well I still don't have it. 

Yes, still waiting on mine too.  I am in the Eastern US, and from the tracking it looks like it left Russia on 3/11.  Hopefully, it will show up soon like @belphegor4's did.  But it is a little concerning that it appears to have left Russia 2 months before his  (luckily I have been using @Andre's great software with a Buttkicker while I wait).

[Varibraun]

Good news...my JetPad arrived yesterday.  So, it looks like shipment time was approx 3 months from leaving Russia to eastern US (NC).  My guess is that everything is delayed from Covid.

 

I look forward to "flying" it this weekend.  Thank you @Andre!!

[Andre]

30 minutes ago, Varibraun said:

Good news...my JetPad arrived yesterday.  So, it looks like shipment time was approx 3 months from leaving Russia to eastern US (NC).  My guess is that everything is delayed from Covid.

 

I look forward to "flying" it this weekend.  Thank you @Andre!!

In normal circumstances (before the passenger flights cancellation) it usually took 2-3 weeks, depending on shipping option selected. Thank you for your patience.

[Varibraun]

Finally had some good flight time this weekend with my new JetPad.  My TLDR version is simply a thank you again to @Andre, for making me a better Sim pilot and adding an important element to VR.  The JetPad itself was definitely worth the wait and the cost if you find yourself with some extra cash.  The SimShaker software though, is almost a must have for VR pilots.

 

My journey to the JetPad:

 

-HP Reverb (VR since the beginning)

-ButtKicker Gamer 2 (sound activated - 2019)

-Simshaker (API activated - thank you @Jason_Williams, @Han and team, this was a huge step up from the sound activation - 2/2020)

-JetPad (Buttkicker then moved from swivel chair to the Wheelstand Pro holding my rudder pedals, stick & throttle - 7/2020).

 

The result of each of these steps was to progressively add more immersion into the cockpit.  Andre's software, even with just the Buttkicker, makes the a/c come alive.  With the JetPad, the location of the motors starts to give you even more sensation to feel different elements of the the flight and the fight. 

 

A few specific observations of the JetPad for me personally:

 

-It took me a few flights and adjusting the software to instinctively understand the motor placement as they related to the a/c action - it feels very natural now.  (Probably coming from the Buttkicker under my chair confused my sensations at first because I was used to only one vibration source).

 

-I had to adjust how I was sitting in a swivel office chair to get it right.  At first, I was sitting directly on the middle seat motors, which was not comfortable for me.  After some experimenting, I realized that it was designed for a more reclining gamer type chair, and when I adjusted my Wheelstand Pro a bit to allow me to lean back a little more (to get those motors just behind my butt) it was much better and works fine for me now.

 

-In VR, I lean forward into the sight when lining up my shots.  The negative of the JetPad when doing this (vs a Buttkicker) is that I move away from the 2 motor in the back of seat and lose their sensation.  This isn't a real problem because you still have the other 4 motors, but I think you can lose some of the programming related to those particular locations.  My easy workaround would be to simply keep my current Buttkicker attached to the chair (i.e. using it to augment the JetPad when I am leaning forward).  However, I now REALLY like having the Buttkicker mounted on the the Wheelstand Pro to get the flight sensations in hands and feet too.  (If I decide this leaning is an issue, I may decide to use @SCG_motoadve's kind posting of the 25% discount code to order another Buttkicker at some point).

 

Bottom line, I agree with @chiliwili69's impressions above regarding realism in VR.  I honestly wouldn't want to fly without at least the Simshaker software attached to some type of "shaker" product at this point in my VR journey.

 

 

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Varibraun

[Andre]

16 hours ago, Varibraun said:

-I had to adjust how I was sitting in a swivel office chair to get it right.  At first, I was sitting directly on the middle seat motors, which was not comfortable for me.  After some experimenting, I realized that it was designed for a more reclining gamer type chair, and when I adjusted my Wheelstand Pro a bit to allow me to lean back a little more (to get those motors just behind my butt) it was much better and works fine for me now.

Yes, to get those motors just behind ones buttocks is quite correct. One should seat a kind of between the motors rather than right on the motors.

[ACG_Orb]

Hi all.. are we looking at about 3 months delivery at the moment?  I've got quite some time to wait it seems

 

 

[WIS-Redcoat]

3 months?   I wish it was three months.   I am at 5 months since it was shipped and I don’t think it has left Russia yet.

[WIS-Redcoat]

My SIM SHAKER hit US customs....  finally almost here. 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by WIS-Redcoat

[Sakivano]

On 8/25/2020 at 9:39 PM, WIS-Redcoat said:

My SIM SHAKER hit US customs....  finally almost here. 

 

 

You won't regret buying it. You'll love it

[DD_Crash]

I hope that they dont charge you for it.

[WIS-Redcoat]

Well it finally came!

 

Plugged it in, added the stuff to the startup file and worked like a charm.  I need to do some additional tweaks to the settings but so far its pretty cool.