SimHub Profiles

Use the drop down to select different SimHub motion profiles

·         Profiles Manager – opens the Profile Manager window (see below)

·         Edit profile – edits the Profile Properties which includes the Game, Vehicle models, name and description.

·         Clone profile - will copy the profile allowing you to edit the game, vehicle models, name and description.

·         New profile – opens the New Profile window (see below)

Profiles Manager

·         Use the ^ button to expand the game selected and view all associated profiles

·         Edit – edits the Profile Properties which includes the Game, Vehicle models, name and description.

·         Clone – will copy the profile allowing you to edit the game, vehicle models, name and description.

·         Delete – deletes the profile from the Profile Managers

·         Automatic Profile Switching:

o   Disabled – Will disable automatic switching of the profile to new games or vehicles

o   Last selected profile, per game - Restores the last profile used for the active game (independently of the game being set in the profile)

o   Automatic – Activate automatically the best matching profile (game and vehicle)

New Profile
To create a new profile, select the game from the drop-down list. Vehicle models (optional) will only show vehicles that have been loaded into the game when SimHub is running. A custom name and detailed description can also be added to the profile.

Import Profile
Will allow you to import a *.shmotionprofile file

Export Profile
Allows you to export a motion profile as a *.shmotionprofile file

Tools
  

Open profile compact view – opens a compact view of the tuning window:

Open effective orientation view – opens a window representing orientation of the platform in real time.

·         Global, Pitch, and Roll overflow - how much you are exceeding the platform’s motion capacity (all effects combined)

·         Note: Exceeding 0.0% occasionally indicates you are using the platform motion to its full capacity; however, if overflow is always above 0%, then your gain settings are too high.

Overall Motion and Overall Haptics Sliders

The Motion slider will set the overall motion/gain of the platform considering all other settings. If set to 100%, the platform will use 100% of its possible motion output, set to 75% it will only move 75% of its possible motion output, set to 50% it will only move 50% of its possible motion output, etc.

Select the “v” to open the drop-down Global Motion Smoothing menu:

Global Motion Smoothing - This adds a uniform extra layer of smoothing on top of all motion effects — useful for quickly taming a profile that feels too sharp or aggressive. Start low (10-20%) to soften things slightly without losing detail. You can always increase if needed.

Gains sliders will limit the overall possible motion output for each part of your platform. This allows you to fine tune each part of your platform independently.

The Haptics slider will set the overall motion/gain for haptic effects.

Quick Legend

·         Effect Disabled / Effect Enabled

·         Focus: Temporarily disables all other effects to help you tune the one in isolation

·         Use the chart to easily visualize input and output data of each effect

·         Use the effect tuner to visualize past sessions and tune an effect

·         Click on the information marks to get help about configuration

Platform Effects

Click to expand or collapse the sections available for your platform

Collapsed:

Expanded:

Click  to expand each effect

The top-bar contains the Effect Name, Smoothing Slider, Gain Slider, Target button, and Effect On/Off button. It will also display the current Motion scaling under the Smoothing Slider and Soft limiter (S.Limit) setting under the Target button.

The sub-bar contains the More effects options, Separate window, Effect tuner, Copy, Paste, and Reset buttons.

Select More effects options to enable additional effect filters.

This will open a new window to enable Washout, Noise filter, and Response curve. Click on the button to enable or disable the filters (green is active).

Selecting Separate window will break that specific effect out into a separate window and allow you to move it to a different location on your desktop

The Separate window option shows the Input/Output Game Telemetry data and Generated Platform Motion (0.0 > 0.0) in the lower left corner for the effect. You can cycle through the different effects by pressing F2 for the Next effect and F1 for the Previous effect.

Effect tuner will open a new window showing Motion telemetry records. These records are recorded telemetry data each time SimHub received motion telemetry from a sim. SimHub records the data into separate records for each session that can be recalled to easily tune the effect when the game is no longer active.

The record will display the Profile Name, DT identifier # used by SimHub, and the date and time of the recording. You can mark specific recordings as a favorite by selecting the star icon in front of each recording.

Select the Load record to open the Analyzer window to view the data.

Copy will copy the effects settings to allow it to be pasted in a different effect

Paste will paste the copied effect settings into the selected effect

Reset will reset the effect settings to defaults. A confirmation window will open confirming the reset to defaults as the operation can’t be reverted.

Click on the Options icons to view additional tuning options for each effect

 Pitch effect with all effect filters and options activated:

Signal Filtering

Smoothing

Smoothing helps to reduce the unwanted spikes/overactivity coming from the game telemetry. This is a balance between responsiveness and comfort.

When using a high smoothing (>50%) the maximum values will be lowered (particularly true on accelerations) and turning down the maximum input value can be required to reflect it.

If your axis is too slow despite a low smoothing, make sure to check your settings (speed/angular limiter setting) as well as your controller integrated smoothing and spike limiter setting. If one of those is limiting the platform speed, reducing the smoothing will be ineffective.

Smoothing controls how clean or raw the motion feels:

• Lower smoothing = fast, detailed, potentially jittery

• Higher smoothing = soft, clean, but may feel lazy

Start with moderate values and adjust based on the effect type:

• Pitch/Roll: usually benefit from some smoothing

• Heave/Road vibration: better with less smoothing

Washout (return to center)

Washout controls how quickly sustained motion (like tilt or long acceleration) is gradually cancelled out to bring the platform back towards center.

This setting balances returning fast enough to reset before the next motion builds up, and slow enough that the return movement isn’t distracting.

At stronger settings, it acts like a high-pass filter, extracting sharp directional changes and removing slower motion trends.

Washout mode:

Soft - Smooth and gradual. Allows cancellation only of the slowest, most sustained motion. Best for aircraft, gentle effects, or when return movement must remain imperceptible.

Strong - Faster decay of motion. Cancels up to mid-frequency movement, making it ideal for aggressive effects like yaw, sway, or quick direction changes where rapid re-centering is essential.

Extreme – Maximal filtering. Expands the cancellation range up to high-frequency motion, allowing only the sharpest, fastest directional changes to pass through (high -pass behavior)

Steady or gradual inputs can be filtered out entirely, depending on signal and settings. Baseline washout (%) adjusts the strength of this return. Higher values return faster but can feel unnatural. Lower values are smoother but may not reset in time.

The optimal value depends on your driving or flying style – aggressive or bumpy environments usually need faster washout to avoid axis saturation.

Enable adaptive washout

Gradually increases the washout strength when the signal moves far from center.

Helps to reduce motion overflow or reversals by pulling back more aggressively as needed, while keeping normal motion soft and natural.

The Maximum washout (%) defines the highest correction level applied when the signal deviation reaches the full input range (e.g., your defined telemetry limits). Smaller deviations apply proportionally less, starting from your Baseline washout (%).

Noise Filter

When motion changes direction, the Noise Filter briefly holds position to determine whether it’s a real movement or just vibration.

Noise Filter strength controls how slowly the motion is released. Higher values equal strong hold and more aggressive damping.

Target Frequency controls how long the filter waits before deciding the motion won’t reverse again. Higher values equal more aggressive filtering, targeting slower oscillations.

Motion Scaling

Uniform scaling

Separate front and back pitch - allows front and back pitch effects to be scaled independently (Only available for pitch)

The most important step in tuning. Motion scaling defines how game data is turned into movement. An example would be: Take up to this much from the game → give up to that much on the platform.

Motion Scaling includes:

• Input Limit: how much data it expects from the game

• Motion Range: how far the platform can move for that effect

Input Limit – Responsiveness (Tuning input is a balance between reactivity and saturation risk.)

• Lower input → more responsive (max motion reached quickly)

• Higher input → less responsive (requires more signal for full movement)

Motion Range – Motion Contribution (This defines how strong the effect feels, not how quickly it reacts.)

• Higher range = more physical movement

• Lower range = smaller effect presence (more room for others to mix)

The Rule of 3: A Practical Example

Let’s say the car reaches ±6° pitch while braking:

• Set Input Limit = 6

• Set Motion Range = 2 or 3

That gives realistic motion, avoids saturation, and leaves headroom for other effects like surge or heave.

Pose-Based Effects (Pitch & Roll)

For Pitch and Roll, game values represent a physical pose and your simulator mirrors that. Keep Input Limit ≥ Motion Range. You're not boosting the pose, just reproducing it. This prevents exaggerated motion and keeps the experience grounded.

Pitch, Roll, Rear Traction Loss to Roll, Traction Loss and Yaw– Input limit is based on angular degrees (ie. 30 ° of bank angle)

Pitch Rate and Roll Rate – Input limit is based on degrees per second (ie. 60° per second)

Surge to Pitch, Sway to Roll, Heave, Surge and Sway – Input limit is based on meters per second (ie. 12 meters per second

Soft Limiter

A correctly scaled effect can still hit the limit from time to time (intentionally or due to in game events). When available, you can use the soft limiter option to prevent a hard stop when reaching the limit.

Our simulators do not have an illimited range, while soft limiter will prevent a hard stop when overflowing, details and contracts when out of range will be muted.

We can still reduce the scale to fit at “anytime” the input values, but this approach would tame down significantly the reactivity.

Dynamic range compression will dynamically reduce the input scale (raise the maximum input value) to keep in range and get back some details lost otherwise.

As an extra benefit, the game input value lowering will be felt sooner instead of having to wait to go back in range.

When the input value goes back into your definite range, the original input scale will be restored.

This filter is meant to quickly raise the input value if needed and reduce it slower. This way, you keep in control of your “base” scale but can still feel temporary overflow details

Response Curve

Output shaping allows to change the linearity of an output. The result and preview relate to the effect working range as defined by the maximum input value. When output shaping is set to none the output is unmodified. When output shaping is set to gamma curve it allows to change the output shape.

The typical applications are:

·         Traction loss or surge to mute the neutral area (using dead zone)

·         Suspensions where only the changes matter to amplify the movement between speed from up and down (using > 1 gamma).

Gamma Factor
Gamma Factor allows to change the reactivity of small motions instructions, either amplify or dampen them:

Changing the gamma implies some velocity changes during the motion activity, it is recommended to keep close to 1 and not use exaggerated values. Every nonlinear response curve can be significantly felt.

·         Set to 1 the output is unmodified

·         Set to a value lower than 1 the effect will react slower to small motion

·         Set to a value higher than one the effect will react faster to small motion

Dead zone
It allows to suppress small motion values then use a linear response.
Warning: a dead zone implies some unnatural motion velocity changes.

Dead Zone Exit Smoothing
Dead zone implies a “fast acceleration” between the range where the motion is cancelled by the dead zone to the active zone. Dead zone exit smoothing allows to reduce this transition effect. If smoothing is disabled, the transition from the dead zone to the normal motion will be aggressive and felt as “spike”.

·         With smoothing the transition will be smoothed to be less aggressive: the higher the value, the longer and smoother will be the transition change

Dead Zone Exit Kick

In the opposite the dead zone exit kick allows to exaggerate this spike feeling when exiting the dead zone. Use very low values, exaggerating such behavior can be uncomfortable.

Pose-Based Effects (Pitch & Roll)

For Pitch and Roll, game values represent a physical pose and your simulator mirrors that.

Keep Input Limit ≥ Motion Range. You're not boosting the pose, just reproducing it.

This prevents exaggerated motion and keeps the experience grounded.

Soft Limiter (Per-Effect)

The Soft Limiter applies to each effect individually.

It fades out motion smoothly when an effect reaches its limit, avoiding harsh clipping.

When to Use:

• Rare overflow? → Set a lower range (10–15%) for gentle damping

• Frequent overflow? → Use a higher range (up to 50%) for smooth cushioning

Use this to clean up individual effects. Not for total platform protection.

Flight Sim Tip:

Especially helpful for Pitch and Roll in flight sims without washout — allows continuous attitude motion without hitting a hard stop.

Repeat – Add Effects One by One

Enable your next effect and isolate it for tuning:

• Use "Isolate this effect" while tuning

• Repeat: scale → smooth → test in mix

Un-isolate when ready and see how it blends with existing effects.

Rebalance if one effect dominates or disappears in the mix.

Final Balance

Once all effects are active:

• If everything feels too strong, reduce the Global Motion Gain

• Avoid pushing each effect to 100% travel

• Use Soft Limiters to soften individual saturation

• Let Pose Overflow / IK handle global motion limits

Flight Sim Specific : Washout Resetting Pose Safely

In flight simulators, aircraft can stay pitched or rolled for long periods. Without a reset mechanism, the simulator can eventually run out of travel. That’s where Washout comes in.

Washout is available on eligible effects and provides a way to gradually return the platform to center — even if the game is still in a pitched or rolled state.

Think of it as a slow recentering force that works behind the scenes, invisible to the pilot.

How It Works

• The effect continues to respond as usual

• But over time, the platform recenters gradually when motion is sustained

• The washout speed determines how fast this return happens

Tuning Washout

Washout must be fast enough to prevent platform overflows… But slow enough to be invisible — you should never feel the platform "pulling back."

Typical tuning advice:

• Use on Pitch, Roll, and Yaw in flight sims

• Tune for a gentle return (slow smoothing) to keep realism

Washout can be added in "More effects option"

Noise Filter

Game-to-Game Portability

Good news: if you've followed this tuning method, your effects are already based on real-world motion scales, not arbitrary values.

That means switching to a different game of the same category (e.g. racing sim to racing sim) won’t require starting from scratch.

🛠 What to Adjust:

• Input Limits may need light tweaking depending on how each game outputs data.

• Smoothing might be worth adjusting if the new game is noisier or more stable.

⚠️ Switching between very different game types (e.g. car sims vs flight sims) will likely require more than a light touch, especially due to sustained motion, lack of washout, or fundamentally different effect types.

As long as you're within the same simulation domain and the game provides meaningful telemetry, most of your tuning should carry over cleanly with just a quick adjustment pass.

Understanding Gains and Global Controls

Once your tuning is solid, it's useful to understand how gain controls work across the system.

Gains Are Multiplicative

The final output of any effect is the result of multiple gain layers multiplied together. Understanding this helps avoid confusion when motion feels stronger or weaker than expected.

Gains are organized by hardware category:

• Motion Gain (Global) → Affects all motion platform output

• Haptics Gain → Affects tactile output (vibration, rumble, etc.)

• Belt Gain → For specific belt tensioner systems (if present)

Each category then has its own sub-gains. For example:

• Motion Per platform component (e.g. surge platform vs traction loss platform) Recommended: keep these at 100% for clarity, and do your tuning via effect scaling or the global gain.

• Effect Gain Found on each effect block : Allows you to rebalance one effect's presence after scaling is tuned

Bonus Tips

• Use Live Charts to visualize how effects behave in real-time

• Test in multiple driving scenarios (braking, curbs, slopes)

• A great profile is not about size — it’s about clarity, blend, and control

Motion effects reference

SimHub automatically filters out any motion effects not supported by your hardware. Only compatible and usable effects are shown — so what you see is exactly what your platform can handle.

Haptics effects are bound to the hardware capabilities to reproduce short high frequency movements. This characteristic can't be known and effects won't be filtered based on such hardware limits

The effect name always describes the input source. When converted to a different platform motion, it uses a "to" name (e.g. Surge to Pitch means using surge input and converting it to pitch movement).

Some effects are only visible in flight simulators, like pitch/roll rate, because they’re not meaningful in racing sims. Don’t worry if you don’t see them in every profile.

Pitch

Tilt forward/backward based on the vehicle or aircraft's pose, not acceleration.

• Racing: car body tilt when braking or cresting a hill.

• Flight: aircraft nose-up or nose-down orientation.

Roll / pitch is the absolute angle I've the car is tilted at x°, pitch rate roll rate is on the same axis, but a an angle change speed. 

Roll rate and pitch rate are interesting on flight sims to handle very large possible rotations angles to get the sense of rotation speed 

"Wotever - Overall on an h3, or even a corner setup it's on the same capacity range, my personal preference goes to large pitch roll inputs (IE 40,50°) with a strong smoothing, and a strong soft limiter (30%) I will give the sense of rotation without being violent. And I add on top some rate to give the details."

Pitch rate

Pitch (top one) is the static direction of your plane during climbing or descending. Pitch rate (bottom one) is for the speed at which you move between your current static direction and your next. So, pull back quickly on the stick, pitch rate will be high. Pull back slowly, and pitch rate will be low. When you return the stick to center, you will be at your new pitch 

Roll

Tilt left/right from the vehicle or aircraft’s pose.

• Racing: car leaning into corners.

• Flight: bank angle during turns.

Surge

Forward/backward movement from acceleration or braking forces, not orientation. Simulates the push or pull you feel when speeding up or slowing down.

Surge to Pitch

Converts surge (acceleration/braking forces) into pitch angle. Useful when the platform can’t move linearly but can tilt.

Sway

Side-to-side movement from lateral forces : cornering, side wind, or skidding. Represents the feeling of being pushed sideways in your seat.

Sway to Roll

Converts sway forces into roll tilt. A workaround for platforms without direct sway capability.

Heave

Vertical movement. Simulates bumps, road texture, turbulence, and elevation changes.

Yaw

Rotation around the vertical axis.

• Racing: oversteer, traction loss, or rapid changes in heading.

• Flight: rudder input and coordinated turns.

💡 Washout is always required for yaw to prevent the platform from drifting off-center over time, since yaw can be sustained in both racing and flight.

Rear Traction Loss to Yaw

Uses slip angle (difference between travel direction and heading) to simulate rear-end sliding as yaw rotation.

💡 In flight sims it will trigger during aggressive yawing using rudder pedals.

Rear Traction Loss to Roll

Same slip angle cue as above, but expressed as a sideways tilt instead of rotation.

Activate More effects options

Prerequisite: Start from a Clean Baseline

Before tuning, reset all gains to remove hidden scaling:

• Set Global Motion Gain to 100%

• Set Effect Gain for each motion effect to 100%

This ensures you see the true response of your input tuning without amplification or damping. You'll reintroduce gain if needed later, but start clean.

Basic Effect Tuning

Adjust the Motion Scaling

The most important step in tuning.

Motion scaling defines how game data is turned into movement.

"Take up to this much from the game → give up to that much on the platform."

Each effect has:

• Input Limit: how much data it expects from the game

• Motion Range: how far the platform can move for that effect

🡐 Input Limit – Responsiveness

• Lower input → more responsive (max motion reached quickly)

• Higher input → less responsive (requires more signal for full movement)

Tuning input is a balance between reactivity and saturation risk.

🡒 Motion Range – Motion Contribution

• Higher range = more physical movement

• Lower range = smaller effect presence (more room for others to mix)

This defines how strong the effect feels, not how quickly it reacts.

The Rule of 3 : A Practical Example

Let’s say the car reaches ±6° pitch while braking:

• Set Input Limit = 6

• Set Motion Range = 2 or 3

That gives realistic motion, avoids saturation, and leaves headroom for other effects like surge or heave.

Pose-Based Effects (Pitch & Roll)

For Pitch and Roll, game values represent a physical pose and your simulator mirrors that.

Keep Input Limit ≥ Motion Range. You're not boosting the pose, just reproducing it.

This prevents exaggerated motion and keeps the experience grounded.

Tune the Smoothing

Smoothing controls how clean or raw the motion feels:

• Lower smoothing = fast, detailed, potentially jittery

• Higher smoothing = soft, clean, but may feel lazy

Start with moderate values and adjust based on the effect type:

• Pitch/Roll: usually benefit from some smoothing

• Heave/Road vibration: better with less smoothing

Soft Limiter (Per-Effect)

The Soft Limiter applies to each effect individually.

It fades out motion smoothly when an effect reaches its limit, avoiding harsh clipping.

Game-to-Game Portability

Good news: if you've followed this tuning method, your effects are already based on real-world motion scales, not arbitrary values.

That means switching to a different game of the same category (e.g. racing sim to racing sim) won’t require starting from scratch.

🛠 What to Adjust:

• Input Limits may need light tweaking depending on how each game outputs data.

• Smoothing might be worth adjusting if the new game is noisier or more stable.

⚠️ Switching between very different game types (e.g. car sims vs flight sims) will likely require more than a light touch, especially due to sustained motion, lack of washout, or fundamentally different effect types.

As long as you're within the same simulation domain and the game provides meaningful telemetry, most of your tuning should carry over cleanly with just a quick adjustment pass.

Understanding Gains and Global Controls

Once your tuning is solid, it's useful to understand how gain controls work across the system.

Gains Are Multiplicative

The final output of any effect is the result of multiple gain layers multiplied together. Understanding this helps avoid confusion when motion feels stronger or weaker than expected.

Gains are organized by hardware category:

• Motion Gain (Global) → Affects all motion platform output

• Haptics Gain → Affects tactile output (vibration, rumble, etc.)

• Belt Gain → For specific belt tensioner systems (if present)

Each category then has its own sub-gains. For example:

• Motion Per platform component (e.g. surge platform vs traction loss platform) Recommended: keep these at 100% for clarity, and do your tuning via effect scaling or the global gain.

• Effect Gain Found on each effect block : Allows you to rebalance one effect's presence after scaling is tuned

Global Motion Smoothing

Above all effects, there’s also a Global Motion Smoothing setting. This adds a uniform extra layer of smoothing on top of all motion effects — useful for quickly taming a profile that feels too sharp or aggressive.

Start low (10-20%) to soften things slightly without losing detail. You can always increase if needed.

Bonus Tips

• Use Live Charts to visualize how effects behave in real-time

• Test in multiple driving scenarios (braking, curbs, slopes)

• A great profile is not about size — it’s about clarity, blend, and control

Motion effects reference

SimHub automatically filters out any motion effects not supported by your hardware. Only compatible and usable effects are shown — so what you see is exactly what your platform can handle.

Haptics effects are bound to the hardware capabilities to reproduce short high frequency movements. This characteristic can't be known and effects won't be filtered based on such hardware limits

The effect name always describes the input source. When converted to a different platform motion, it uses a "to" name (e.g. Surge to Pitch means using surge input and converting it to pitch movement).

Some effects are only visible in flight simulators, like pitch/roll rate, because they’re not meaningful in racing sims. Don’t worry if you don’t see them in every profile.

Pitch

Tilt forward/backward based on the vehicle or aircraft's pose, not acceleration.

• Racing: car body tilt when braking or cresting a hill.

• Flight: aircraft nose-up or nose-down orientation.

Roll / pitch is the absolute angle I've the car is tilted at x°, pitch rate roll rate is on the same axis, but a an angle change speed. 

Roll rate and pitch rate are interesting on flight sims to handle very large possible rotations angles to get the sense of rotation speed 

"Wotever - Overall on an h3, or even a corner setup it's on the same capacity range, my personal preference goes to large pitch roll inputs (IE 40,50°) with a strong smoothing, and a strong soft limiter (30%) I will give the sense of rotation without being violent. And I add on top some rate to give the details."

Pitch rate

Pitch (top one) is the static direction of your plane during climbing or descending. Pitch rate (bottom one) is for the speed at which you move between your current static direction and your next. So, pull back quickly on the stick, pitch rate will be high. Pull back slowly, and pitch rate will be low. When you return the stick to center, you will be at your new pitch 

Roll

Tilt left/right from the vehicle or aircraft’s pose.

• Racing: car leaning into corners.

• Flight: bank angle during turns.

Surge

Forward/backward movement from acceleration or braking forces, not orientation. Simulates the push or pull you feel when speeding up or slowing down.

Surge to Pitch

Converts surge (acceleration/braking forces) into pitch angle. Useful when the platform can’t move linearly but can tilt.

Sway

Side-to-side movement from lateral forces : cornering, side wind, or skidding. Represents the feeling of being pushed sideways in your seat.

Sway to Roll

Converts sway forces into roll tilt. A workaround for platforms without direct sway capability.

Heave

Vertical movement. Simulates bumps, road texture, turbulence, and elevation changes.

Yaw

Rotation around the vertical axis.

• Racing: oversteer, traction loss, or rapid changes in heading.

• Flight: rudder input and coordinated turns.

💡 Washout is always required for yaw to prevent the platform from drifting off-center over time, since yaw can be sustained in both racing and flight.

Rear Traction Loss to Yaw

Uses slip angle (difference between travel direction and heading) to simulate rear-end sliding as yaw rotation.

💡 In flight sims it will trigger during aggressive yawing using rudder pedals.

Rear Traction Loss to Roll

Same slip angle cue as above, but expressed as a sideways tilt instead of rotation.