Difference between revisions of "Simucube 2 True Drive releases"

• Migrate your Classic profiles to Paddock or to Offline Profiles with 2021.7 or 2021.9 release before updating to this release.

Changes and fixes

• Fix FFB effects not starting correctly if device is started when game (like iRacing) is running.
• Fix rare fault where the wireless wheel receiver module is not detected on device start.
• Move & regroup some buttons in True Drive.
• Add back the missing active DirectInput effect indicators in the Edit FFB dialog.
• Properly pop up firmware update/downgrade dialog in downgrade situations.

(... work in progress)

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package (64bit version) from Microsoft's server if you get msv dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

• Migrate your Classic profiles to Paddock or to Offline Profiles with 2021.7 or 2021.9 release before updating to this release.

Known issues in 2021.11 releases

• FFB effects not starting correctly if device is started when game (like iRacing) is running. Workaround: iRacing Options -> FFB off -> Done -> Options -> FFB on -> Done.
• Simucube Wireless Wheel receiver module is sometimes not detected device startup. Workaround: Power off and power on again.

Hotfix changes and fixes

• Missing fix from last release: True Drive Paddock will respect the user's setting of redirecting to My Profiles in Paddock. Setting for this is available in Paddock (Click your user -> edit profile), and default is to direct to My Profiles.
• Wireless wheel images are first searched from Documents/Simucube 2/wheels, then install directory/wheels, and if not found, then the default image is shown
• Wireless wheel image does not unload when user closes the custom image mapping dialog without having done any changes.

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package (64bit version) from Microsoft's server if you get msv dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

Simucube firmware major rewrite

• Supports only Paddock/Offline profiles

• Migrate your Classic profiles to Paddock or to Offline Profiles with 2021.7 or 2021.9 release before updating to this release.

• Compatibility to downgrade has been maintained, however Classic profiles are lost
• Supports Simucucube Tuning Button functionality on Simucube Tahko GT-21 wheel
• Supports Simucube Wireless Wheel 2 based wheels
• This software release does not send any anonymous telemetry regardless of user's consent.

Installer

• Software is installed via exe file
• User's setting files and cached/offline profiles are stored into Documents/Simucube 2/cachedprofiles directory
• Custom wheel images are to be stored in to Documents/Simucube 2/wheels directory. Remappping wheels might be required if custom mapping is used.
• Firmware update/downgrade to the installed True Drive version is automated without the need to use command line parameters

Changes and fixes

• Some reliability improvements in communicating with the servo drive at device startup
• Fixed timing issue on True Drive startup which may have caused a mismatch between the profile on device < - > profile indicated by True Drive Paddock
• Added a workaround for Raceroom Racing Experience bug (wheel spins on game exit).
• Hide unneeded context menus in True Drive Paddock
• Bugfix: True Drive Paddock will respect the user's setting of redirecting to My Profiles in Paddock. Setting for this is available in Paddock (Click your user -> edit profile), and default is to direct to My Profiles.
• Wireless wheel tab does not accidentally close when pressing ESC button
• Fix trayminimized command line parameter not working as intended
• Remove nonworking "reload from Simucube" and "Start from Scratch" buttons from the last tab in True Drive. They are not needed with Paddock.
• Bugfix: Make it possible to only enable High Torque Mode manually once the device has reached the Operational state.

Offline mode improvements

• Added "save as default" button.
• Added renaming of offline or cached Paddock profile.
• Added confirmation for deletion of offline profile.
• Readjusted UI to show more profiles at once.

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package (64bit version) from Microsoft's server if you get msv dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

Changes and fixes - general

• Added menu for importing settings from a classic profile when editing settings for Paddock profile.
• Small additions to offline mode functionality.
• In Paddock, added support for quickly trying out profiles without adding them to user's list of profiles.
• Disabled saving&restoring of window position in the Paddock application to help a white screen on start -issues for some users. Saving the window position shall return in the future.
• Set the True Drive Paddock to use software OpenGL rendering to fix issues with screen flicker and also to potentially solve the white screen issue.

Changes and fixes - servo drive

• Re-instated some audible noise mitigations that were removed in 2021.8 release.
• Added audible notifications for some future Simucube Wireless Wheel functions.

Changes and fixes - hardware support

• Release supports Simucube 2 units manufactured after week 36/2021. Hardware change is a minor change to support alternative components to battle the global chip shortage.

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package (64bit version) from Microsoft's server if you get msv dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

Note: Package was updated on September 18th to fix a software not starting -issue when trayminimized -parameter was used.

Changes and fixes - general

• Access to True Drive Paddock has been enabled for all Simucube 2 racers!
• Small tidy-ups and fixes in the True Drive User Interfaces
• Added a friendly deprecation reminder for the True Drive Classic mode. Classic mode will be removed in an upcoming release.
• Added Troubleshooting.txt for some common issues regarding True Drive not starting.
• Fix device not starting or FFB dropout when driving -issues that occurred on a few Simucube 2 units in all firmwares since 2021.1 release and up
• Change current measurements to as they were in 2020.10 release. Device may be slightly more noisy compared to other 2021.x releases. Improvements shall return in the next release.

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package (64bit version) from Microsoft's server if you get msv dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

Changes and fixes - general

• Telemetry consent change is being shown correctly in the True Drive.
• Fixed an issue where the True Drive Classic moved the profile settings scroll area, making it very difficult to change steering angle in Expert mode.

Changes and fixes - True Drive Paddock

• Rearranged indicator and button for High Torque Mode in True Drive Paddock.
• Fix some random crashes
• New feature: Set default profile to device. Device will start with Paddock profile settings if a default profile has been set from True Drive Paddock.
• New feature: Offline mode. True Drive caches profiles that have been applied to device, and they can be used in offline mode.
• Steering angle indicator will correctly track the real steering angle when a True Drive Paddock profile has been applied but Paddock has not yet sent any new profile to the device.
• Button to conveniently access FFB settings has been added to My Profiles view.

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package (64bit version) from Microsoft's server if you get msv dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

Changes and fixes - general

• Adjusted servo drive tuning to fix rare device reboot issues for some units happening since 2021.1 release.
• Switched to 64bit compiler for True Drive. Note that you might need to download 64bit version of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 redistributable package (link below).

Changes and fixes - True Drive Paddock

• Fix crash when clicking save -button on the hardware tab in Paddock mode.
• Fix some random crashes
• Fix Paddock mode application always crashing on exit.
• Change the steering angle in Paddock mode to track with assumed 900 degree steering angle if the online application has not yet sent any active profile to the device. Also the buttons and analog axises keep tracking in Paddock mode.
• Fix application crash when exiting via tray icon.
• Fix the tray icon options to work with also the paddock application.

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package (64bit version) from Microsoft's server if you get msv dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

• Release is the same as 2021.4_4 but with Simucube 2 True Drive Paddock Early Access.
• See our FAQ for details.
• Community forum thread is here.
• You can also leave feedback by clicking the Feedback button directly in True Drive.

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package from Microsoft's server if you get msv dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

Changes and fixes

• Fix potential crash in True Drive when it loads.

Note: Please download and install Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable package from Microsoft if you get msv_something.dll errors when you try to start True Drive.

Changes and fixes

• Fixed servo drive not updating -issue that happened on some devices in original 2021.4 release.
• New feature: True Drive remembers its window position and size. Fixed to work in _3 release.

(still temporarily hosted on a 3rd-party service.)

Changes and fixes

• Simucube Wireless Wheels: Fixed an issue that could cause wireless wheels buttons to stop registering in games in some very rare situations.
• Servo drive tuning: Reverted some changes in 2021.1 release that increased the audible noise in some situations.
• USB changes: Reverted USB interface changes in 2021.1 release that caused device disconnects and device not recognized -issue after PC reboot.
• Added protections to firmware to prevent corrupt settings when more than allowed number of profiles are stored into "classic" profiles. More than 99 user-made classic profiles cannot be used anymore (they never worked properly anyway).
• Simucube hardware revision is shown correctly in the UI.

Build system update

• This and all later releases are built with Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. Fresh Windows installs need to have the runtime libraries installed. If you get DLL errors, please run the vcdredist_x86.exe installer.

Release supports Early Access of Simucube Profile Online

• Profile Online Early Access is enabled for Simucube 2 R1 Sport/Pro drivers, and all Simucube 2 Ultimate drivers.
• Profile Online Early Access will be released soon as a separate download.

How to use Profile Online and Classic modes

• The _Online Early Access.exe file launches the online version, and if online mode is active, the online mode sends the active profile to the device.
• If _Classic.exe is launched, Online mode is deactivated and classic-mode profiles can be used as backup. Note, that classic mode as-is will be removed in future version.
• Migrating to Online profiles: Export each of normal profiles to separate .ini files and import them when creating new profiles in Online mode.
• Save settings -button (for permanent settings saving) in Online Mode has been moved to the Hardware settings tab.

Note: Download is temporarily hosted on a 3rd-party site due to an unforeseen configuration issue.

• We are investigating a USB fault in this release version. Symptons are that device will require a restart after PC restart. Very rare sympton could also be that the device suddenly gets non-recognized even when just idling in Windows.

Bumpstop behavior fix

• Changed bumpstops to avoid issue where the bumpstop force could be overcome by game-generated FFB in some cases.

Torque tuning changes and audible changes

• Fix constant audible tone issue in some Simucube 2 Sport and Pro R2 units
• Change the long beep of going to standby mode to more informative tone.
• Adjust controller tuning to reduce other audible noises from the motor.
  • This will be tuned further based on feedback from this 2021.1 release.

Forget all wireless wheels

• Added function to forget all previously paired wireless wheels and tidied up the UI for this.

Bumbstops

• Bumpstops begin at exactly the same angle that is indicated in the user interface. (old behavior was to be at 100% torque at that point, so bumpstop began earlier.)
• Bumpstops are not affected by the constantly operating filters on the servo drive.

Other changes

• Added a possible fix for some "stuck at waiting for the drive to get ready" -issues.
• Added support for Simucube 2 Sport and Simucube 2 Pro manufactured after week 38/2020.

Important fix for Simucube Wireless Wheels

• Fixes too high battery consumption on some Simucube Wireless Wheels. Bug was introduced in release 2020.4.

Wireless wheel scan changes

• Wireless wheel scanning is not required to be started/stopped. The confusing buttons in True Drive been replaced with clear list and restart scan -button.

Bumbstops

• Bumpstop rework, including safety and ease-of-use changes
• Bumpstop effect has been simplified. All bumbstop settings have 100% power, and there are three well-tuned settings (soft/medium/hard) available.
• Bumbstop setting is now a per-profile setting.

Other changes

• Internal device telemetry data sync event does not cause wheel torque to be at zero anymore. This mainly affected non-FFB game titles.
  • Only slight torque roughness can be felt during the data syncronization event, which should be much better than it was before.
• Desktop centering spring has been significantly strengthened to make it more usable.
• There is a button in the advanced tab that can be used to copy all device identification data (software versions and serial numbers) to clipboard.
• Further fine tuning for high-DPI displays, with command line options small and large to give some options.
• Profile export functionality: Drop-down menu selection for exporting all the profiles, or just the current profile.
• Device status updates are not frozen anymore after unsuccesfully importing profiles (bad file or not a profile file). Credits to Nir Nave for finding the issue.
• Internal fixes, tidyups and changes in the device firmware.

Grainy feel fix

• Some tuning parameters were changed in the servo drive to get back to 2020.1 behavior.

Small changes and fixes

• Disconnection of a wireless wheel will not cause torque to be disabled, unless the wheel had a torque off switch configured.
• After unlocking locked profile settings, they can be relocked again.
• Audible beeps enabled/disabled checkbox also affects wireless wheel status beeps.
• Physical sequental shifter connected to the D15 Accessory Port will map to same pins as the Simucube Wireless Wheel shifter paddles. This can be configured per-profile.
• There is a command line option 'trayminimized' to launch True Drive to Tray Icon in minimized state (window is not shown).
• Remove Simucube 1 overvoltage fault detection that was sometimes triggered when it was not actually the fault cause.
• Added detection of possibly low wireless wheel battery in some situations where battery voltage remains high but the battery voltage would drop under load.

Upcoming in the next releases

• We decided to release 2020.4 due to some important fixes, and these features were not completed in time:
• Bumpstop rework, including safety and ease-of-use changes
  • Bumpstop effect has been simplified. All bumbstop settings have 100% power, and there are three well-tuned settings (soft/medium/hard) available.
  • Bumbstop setting is now a per-profile setting.
• Internal device telemetry data sync event does not cause wheel torque to be at zero anymore. This mainly affected non-FFB game titles.

• Automatic Simucube Wireless Wheel idle disconnect - wheels will disconnect after 1h of inactivity to optimize battery life. Activity is monitored through wheel turning 10 degrees or more. Also the disconnect is not allowed to happen if there are FFB effects in use.
• Built with Qt 5.14.1 - True Drive should scale better on high-DPI displays
• Drivers can set password protection for profile settings. This feature is especially useful for commercial sim operators - if a password is set, visitors can't make unwanted adjustments.
• Brief display of wrongly showing 2.56 V for wireless wheel voltage when connecting a wireless wheel is fixed.
• Sometimes impossible to click Re-enable Torque button is now always possible.

Automatic High Torque Mode

• Drivers can set the High Torque Mode to be enabled automatically on device start.
• If automatic High Torque Mode has been enabled, the standby mode functionality including the beeps are disabled as well.
• For these to work, True Drive must be running on the computer.
• There is a command line option 'tray' to launch True Drive to Tray Icon.

Changes and fixes

• It is possible to save No as the answer to device telemetry consent.
• Add an option to allow mouse wheel scroll to change profile settings.
• Reduce True Drive CPU consumption when window is activated.
• Additional color indicator if wireless wheel battery is low.
• Reduced volume of audible notification beeps.

Wheel centering fixes and changes

• Fix wheel centering changing 360 degrees sometimes.
• It is possible to quickly reset steering center for just temporarily again.
• Factory-calibrated center point will be invalid after this update, users must set a new wheel centerpoint upon first use.

Simucube Wireless wheel image management

• By default, wheels/wheelimage.png is loaded.
• If a wireless wheel is connected, a short-named wireless wheel png is loaded from /wheels directory.
• Some default wireless wheel images are supplied with the software.
  • User interface tooltip will say which file is being tried to load.
• Right-clicking the wheel image in True Drive, the Driver is able to map/unmap wheel images to individual wireless wheels.

As previously, the wheel images must be 400x400px transparent PNG files.

• Analog axis invert setting didn't work in original 1.0.12 release.
• Standby mode LED functionality was not working correctly.

• The motor idle beeps have changed. The device will go to automatic standby mode if there is no torque.
  • First idle beep will be after 7 minutes. Second beep will be 1 minute after that. Third long beep will be 1 minute after that which will activate standby mode.
  • User can turn the wheel with fast left-right movement to prevent automatic standby.
  • From standby mode, normal operation will be resumed via cycling the Safe Torque Off button or via a button in True Drive software.
• Bug where the Simucube Wireless Wheel button ordering did not match from wheel model to another as expected is fixed.
  • Note: Users might need to reassign controls when using Simucube Wireless Wheels.

New features

• Telemetry data collection with opt-in to help us create even better product/features

Other fixes and changes

• Resonance issue with some wheels is fixed.
  • Notable wheel that was affected was the Simulaje F1S wheel which resonated sometimes especially when not in High Torque Mode.
  • Nothing wrong with the wheel. We want to thank Augury Simulations for providing a wheel for testing.
• Additional fix where the profile selection dropdown didn't match the visible profile settings in some cases.
• E-stop status is being tracked also before the servo drive is initialized fully. Also more fault information is being shown.
• Using mouse wheel to scroll up/down the profile settings dialog does not change the profile settings unless user clicks the setting first.
• Better filtering of analog inputs in the Accessory port.

• This mode will make setting up initial profile parameters easier for new users.
• Advanced users do have access to all parameters as previously.
• NOTE: Going back to Simple mode from either previously made profile or a new Advanced-mode profile will reset parameters to those in Simple Mode.
• Added profiles templates for Project Cars 1 and 2 - but with quite default parameters, as these titles have so much going on also within 3rd party FFB adjustments.

Fixes

• DirectInput Spring effect now follows the effect's magnitude parameter
• New attempt to reduce very rare communication errors between the servo drive and Simucube interface.
• Adjusted template profile for Truck Simulator titles.
• A few of Simucube 2 Pro units show as Sport units. This firmware (and later versions) fix this for the known serial numbers that this has happened to.
  • Note: reassigning controls in games will be required too, as the USB ID of the device changes.

• The major bug that required Simucube 2 to be restarted after a PC restart is fixed.
• Attempt to reduce very rare communication errors between the servo drive and Simucube interface.
• Fine tuned device internal temperature monitoring.
• Fixed an issue where the first attempt to select another profile in True Drive did not always work.
• Fixed an issue where there might sometimes be a momentary disconnection in True Drive just after adding a new profile.
• Minor UI fixes:
  • Note that Simucube 2 from factory-new, must have E-stop not pressed before the first firmware update.
  • Make all buttons in the UI slightly larger.
• Added template profiles for Truck Simulator titles, Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione (however these are not extensively tested).

• Template profiles and help for games when adding a new profile
• Less CPU consumption in True Drive via slowing down the wheel UI icon updates if the window is not active or if the first tab is not the active tab
• Reduced audible motor noise in all models
• Reduced volume of audible beeps
• Idle beeping now every four minutes (was every two minutes)

Bug fixes

• Bumpstop damping should no longer cause oscillation near endstop boundary
• Fixed Ultra Low Latency implementation issue, scale has changed slightly
• Fixed audible resonance for some Ultimate owners

Known issues

• Temporary wheel center setting is still disabled
• Upon startup wheel angle might jump +-360 degrees, workaround is to re-center wheel in True Drive
• Simucube 2 device requires a separate restart after a reboot in this and every earlier version. Symptom is a hangup of a game or the True Drive software upon their startup.

Notes

• Due to Ultra Low Latency scale change the setting may need to be re-tuned in some configurations
• Safety related beeps are not muted when disabling device sound notifications. Instead some non-safety critical sounds, such as saturation notification and low wheel battery warning gets muted.

• Torque commands created by ISI/gMotor games (rFactor2, RaceRoom, ...) were not filtered at all. Now they are filtered.
• Torque commands made by other than Constant Torque effect were not clearing the "idle torque" flag on servo drive, causing drive beep while driving. Affected ETS2 and maybe some other games.

Known issues

• Bumpstop effect damping does not work or might produce unexpected effect. The effect is disabled as default.
• Temporary wheel center setting did not work correctly after some last minute safety fixes. Therefore, it is impossible to set a temporary wheel centerpoint in this version. Setting wheel centerpoint permanently does work.
• Simucube 2 device requires a separate restart after a reboot in this and every earlier version. Symptom is a hangup of a game or the True Drive software upon their startup.

Known issues

• Bumpstop effect damping does not work or might produce unexpected effect. The effect is disabled as default.
• Temporary wheel center setting did not work correctly after some last minute safety fixes. Therefore, it is impossible to set a temporary wheel centerpoint in this version. Setting wheel centerpoint permanently does work.