VirtuaTilt Wiki › Adjusting Shaker Motor Strength (rumble-driven profiles)

Adjusting Shaker Motor Strength (rumble-driven profiles)

The shaker motor on your Wireless VirtuaTilt provides cabinet-wide vibration feedback during gameplay (bumpers, slingshots, etc.). In the rumble-driven profiles the shaker follows the game's rumble signal, and you can cap how strong it ever gets by editing one value in the profile.

This applies to every profile whose shaker follows the game's rumble: all Bluetooth profiles except the two DOF ones, and the USB profiles STEAM-XInput, Pinball FX, Zaccaria Pinball, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, iOS-Android and VR Classics / Star Wars VR. In the DOF / DOFLinx profiles (the USB ones, and the Bluetooth VTConfig-BT-VPX-FuturePinball-DOF and VTConfig-BT-STEAM-DOFLinx) the shaker is driven by DOF / DOFLinx instead, so adjust it there.

What to change in the profile¶

Open the profile in GUIConfigTool's Configuration editor, search (Ctrl+F) for xboxrumble and find the Shaker Motor entry. In the Steam and VPX / Future Pinball Bluetooth profiles its line reads:

source: "kickstart(if(xboxrumble(1, 153), clip(xboxrumble(1, 153), 70, 153), 0), 50)",

• The cap is the number 153 (60% of full strength). It appears three times: change all three to the same value, from 70 to 255. Changing only the last one, in clip(), does not raise the power: xboxrumble(1, 153) has already scaled the rumble down to 153 at most. In USB profiles the cap is the 255 at the end of clip(…, 70, 255).
• Leave 70 (the lowest level at which the motor keeps turning) and 50 (the short start-up kick) as they are.
• To silence the shaker in that profile, replace the whole line with source: "0",

Examples:

Steam and VPX / Future Pinball Bluetooth (all three 153s)	USB profiles (the 255 in clip)	Effect
255	255 (as shipped)	Full power.
200	200	About 80%: a gentler cabinet.
153 (as shipped)	153	60%: the Bluetooth default.
120	120	About 47%: soft, e.g. for late-night play.

Then click Program Pico and test in your game. Recommended starting point: 153; change it in steps of about 30: lower it if a full-strength shake is too aggressive (or if you get tilts — see below), raise it if you want a stronger shake.

NOTE: The Zaccaria Pinball profiles use a longer formula that also drives the Bumpers/Slingshots solenoid. In the Bluetooth one the cap 153 appears three times (xboxrumble(1, 153), xboxrumble(2, 153) and clip(…, 70, 153)): change all three. See Zaccaria Pinball: Tuning the Feedback.

⚠ 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). If that is not enough, try the low-pass filter in GUIConfigTool's Nudge window (see Accelerometer Tuning).

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.
• Change the cap as described above: the three 153s in the Steam, VPX / Future Pinball and Zaccaria Bluetooth profiles; the final cap in clip() in the USB profiles.
• 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 profile has its own cap, 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: 2026-10-28

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