Achievement hunting and technical questions

[thatguy]

Hello, I've recently found out about the Viking Macro Controller and it looks like something that would be a enormous help for some tedious grinding achievements.
However I have some unanswered questions:

1. I know the controller was made for short combos. But what exactly are it's technical limitations?
Is the following example possible: Press A, X, wait 20 minutes, press dpad down, B, repeat infinite

2. How accurate are the timings and the analogue recording?
Is it for example possible to record a full 2 minute lap in Forza 4 and get exactly the same lap time on playback?

3. Would it be possible with the used hardware to retrieve and execute commands on-the-fly while conntected to a computer?
This would allow a crazy amount of new possibilities - imagine remote controlling your Xbox while at work via browser or smartphone.
I'm confident that I can write the software to accomplish that (I'm experienced in .net development).

I know I expect a lot from the Viking, but on the other hand it would cost me well over 400$ (including shipping and customs) to buy one, which is an absolute insane amount of money.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

[Nightwolf]

From what I have read any macros over 10 second can send the software a bit loopy, there is only 1mb memory in the controller, which is enough for most small things, but for a 20 minute recording, I dont even know if thats possible?

 

[MJ23KB24]

A 30 second macro is probably the longest stable time you can record for. 1 minutes is really pushing the limits. However you can make to seperate macros and execute one then wait 20 minutes and execute the other. I dont think it would be possible to control your controller from a web browser however you can give it a shot. I just dont know how you would send the signal back and fourth to the controller without it be hooked up to the controller. I understand the 400$ is alot however I think they are so worth it. THe only Xbox controller you will ever need.

 

[garnet2k11]

I've personally been using my macro (before the LED lights failed)...for just exactly that sort of thing you mention, about a time trial type of project with a game. About 8 individual seperate macros no longer than 1.5 second each.

I never tried to test any speed multipler settings other than 0.60, but every individual line actually matches up to 1 frame in the game, so 60 lines, or 0.60 is exactly 1 second. It truly works, and im very very happy. but...

But the problem is that it's completely purely random that it'll mess up though. I was feeling afraid that if i kept stressing the controller by plugging it into the computer, edit a macro, unplug and go test again, with a different speed, trying to stop the "random" hit or misses hundreds and hundreds of times ..that it will wear out the controller faster. So i never bothered to try any other speeds....but controller eventually just half-failed anyways.
I was being as careful as i possibly could.

 

[odingalt]

Hello, I've recently found out about the Viking Macro Controller and it looks like something that would be a enormous help for some tedious grinding achievements.
However I have some unanswered questions:

1. I know the controller was made for short combos. But what exactly are it's technical limitations?
Is the following example possible: Press A, X, wait 20 minutes, press dpad down, B, repeat infinite

The controller is spot-on when it comes to "digital" button presses.

2. How accurate are the timings and the analogue recording?
Is it for example possible to record a full 2 minute lap in Forza 4 and get exactly the same lap time on playback?

Analog isn't accurate enough for Forza recording :-(

3. Would it be possible with the used hardware to retrieve and execute commands on-the-fly while conntected to a computer?
This would allow a crazy amount of new possibilities - imagine remote controlling your Xbox while at work via browser or smartphone.
I'm confident that I can write the software to accomplish that (I'm experienced in .net development).

No, this was on our original list of capabilities (well not remote browser control, but we wanted to have a plug-in for the macro software that would allow you to interact with the controller when connected to the PC) but we never reached the sales needed to pay the dev team to take the product to the next level.

I know I expect a lot from the Viking, but on the other hand it would cost me well over 400$ (including shipping and customs) to buy one, which is an absolute insane amount of money.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

[thatguy]

Thanks everybody for your answers.
Looks like it's not enough for my intended use.
Maybe there's a second revision (or even a firmware update) to support 3. sometime in the future