VirtuaTilt Wiki › Adjusting Shaker Motor Strength (Bluetooth Profiles Only)

Adjusting Shaker Motor Strength (Bluetooth Profiles Only)

The shaker motor on your Wireless VirtuaTilt provides cabinet-wide vibration feedback during gameplay (bumpers, slingshots, etc.). On Bluetooth profiles, the shaker is driven by the host's rumble signal (Xbox-style BLE rumble from Steam, etc.) and you can cap how strong it ever gets by editing one value in the profile JSON.

WARNING: This procedure is for BLUETOOTH profiles only. USB profiles drive the shaker through DOF / DOFLinx pipelines on the PC instead, so adjusting their strength is done in DOF / DOFLinx configuration, not in the Pinscape Pico profile.

What to change in the BT profile JSON¶

Open your BT profile (one of the VTConfig-BT-*-.json files) in GUIConfigTool's Configuration editor, or in any text editor, and locate the xboxrumble output entry.

The "xboxrumble(1)" expression reads the host's Xbox-style rumble channel. By default, that expression has no max-magnitude cap, so the shaker fires at whatever strength the host sends (0–255). To cap it lower, add a second argument to xboxrumble:

source: "xboxrumble(1, 200)", ← capped at 200/255 ≈ 78% of full strength

source: "xboxrumble(1, 153)", ← capped at 153/255 = 60% of full strength (default)

source: "xboxrumble(1, 128)", ← capped at 128/255 = 50% of full strength

source: "xboxrumble(1, 64)", ← capped at 64/255 = 25% of full strength (gentle)

source: "xboxrumble(1, 0)", ← shaker motor silent

Recommended starting point: the default cap is 153 (about 60% strength) — a good balance for most cabinets. Adjust from there in increments of about 30: lower it if a full-strength shake is too aggressive (or if you get tilts — see below), raise it (toward 200) if you want a stronger shake.

⚠ IMPORTANT — shaker strength vs. tilt: A high shaker setting can cause a TILT in Virtual Pinball games. The shaker's vibration travels through the cabinet's wooden box and reaches the accelerometer, which the game reads as a nudge — if the shake is too strong, the game registers it as a tilt. Set a good balance: enough shake for satisfying feedback, but not so much that it trips a tilt. If you get unexpected tilts, lower the shaker cap (and/or reduce the in-game nudge sensitivity — see the Accelerometer Tuning chapter).

Step-by-step in GUIConfigTool¶

• Plug your VirtuaTilt into your PC via USB and open GUIConfigTool.
• In the Configuration tab, click the JSON editor area to enable text editing.
• Search (Ctrl+F) for "xboxrumble". You will land on the relevant output entry.
• Edit the "source" line: replace xboxrumble(1) with xboxrumble(1, <cap>) where <cap> is a number from 0 to 255.
• Click "Program Pico" and confirm. The Pico reboots with the new cap.
• Test in your game — trigger a rumble event (a multiball jackpot, a big hit, etc.) and check the new shake intensity. If it is still too strong / too weak, repeat with a lower / higher cap value.

NOTE: Built-in protective timers prevent the shaker from overheating regardless of the value you pick — even a sustained 255 cap will not damage the motor.

NOTE: If the shaker never fires at all in BT mode, check that your game/host is actually sending rumble events. For Steam games, "Game rumble" must be enabled under Settings → Controller. For Quest games, the headset does NOT send rumble — the only feedback on the Quest VR games is the flippers, so you will not feel any shaker output on Quest, regardless of cabinet settings.

NOTE: Each BT profile has its own xboxrumble argument, so you can use different caps for different games. For example, a softer cap on a profile you play late at night and a stronger cap on a profile for daytime play.

The interactive VirtuaTilt wiki adds a 3D model, a theme gallery and a built-in AI assistant — open the wiki.

Last updated: 2026-08-26

VirtuaTilt is designed and manufactured by 3DPTronics — see the Wireless VirtuaTilt controller. Diagnose your own cabinet with the free VirtuaTilt extension for Claude.