Basic setup questions

ElectricFrog

First off, a big hello to everyone here! I'm new to Eudaimonia, but I'm not new to E-Stim or AI. Just didn't knew they existed together before! I will most likely subscribe in the near future, I see a lot of potential here. Both the site/app as is today, but also given the very active development I see going on!

I wanted to get the basics in place before subscribing, so I've briefly played around with the free session, but I have some things that didn't appear fully clear to me. I'm using the "Stereo" mode btw (to an ET-312).

Chanel A and B, "genitals" and "ass". This mean bi-polar? One bi-polar for ass, and one bi-polar for genitals (head and base)? I think so, but it's not explicitly stated anywhere. And I also see thriphase files around, so how does that work. I mean, I know how triphase works, but how do the program know to use bi-polar or triphase files, that's different HW setup. I know of course everything is "personal", and you can mix whatever setup you like. I often find myself using alternative wiring compared to the author recommended setup. But I still would like to know the author intention, as a starting point.

Coming to calibration. Can anyone explain the "Level of the pain calibration stim: (30% intensity)" setting? According to help text, it has no effect, and one should not be connected. Hu? I don’t get it...

Then we have "Global Volume" vs "Global Pain Volume". I thought I understood, but then, no... If I increase the normal setting to 2, Pain stays at default 0. This means that Pain volume is now lower than pleasure volume. If so, one should always, manually, increase Pain to be same or higher than the normal volume. That would make sense, until I see that normal volume go to 10, but Pain only goes to 7. There you lost me. I would have understood the opposite, Pain maximum 10 and normal maximum 7, Pain always same or higher. But it's not, so what am I missing here?

Then comes "Pain threshold". This is, from my understanding, a safety limit, in dB (since it's negative values). Above this level, it will cap the signal. Fine, that's a nice feature, but... When I feel that Pain signals are too low, I should increase... What? I should increase Pain VOLUME, or Pain THRESHOLD? How do I know if I have hit the Threshold safety limit, or if I have the Pain volume to low? And why can't I adjust the Pain VOLUME when I'm in the actual session? There only normal volume and Threshold exist. Again, the opposite would have made sense, the Threshold, safety limit, is set once (quite high), but the actual volume is fine tuned during session.

KairosJS

ElectricFrog Hello,

First, welcome!

I'll try to help you as much as I can. If you only intend to play the "Eudaimonia / Normal Mode" (the middle card), then you don't have to subscribe (unless you want to support me, which is greatly appreciated!). The subscription is mostly needed to play the EstimAI mode.

Bipolar / Triphase

Yes, this means bipolar. Nothing has been developed with triphase in mind, but when you create a stim, you can tag it as "Triphase" if you've built it for that purpose. Natively, there is no support for triphase, only bipolar electrodes. In Normal Mode, this is limited to A = genitals, B = ass.
In EstimAI, you can still use this A+B system, but (and this is recommended) you can create your own setup. You create different areas linked to the channel of a device. For example:

Stereo A = genitals / Stereo B = ass / Coyote 3 A = left inner thighs (pain only) / Coyote 3 B = right inner thighs (pain only).

The AI will then use the appropriate channels according to the narration.

Triphase: If you want to enjoy triphase, you will have to create and edit your own stims.

I shouldn't say this, but normally, if everything goes right and all nine planets align, I'm releasing a better version of the stereo stims in the next update, which should allow you to create better stims for your box

Calibration

The "30% intensity" is the slider to set the intensity level of the calibration stim. This has no effect in-game, it is only intended for calibration, to test the pain signals. You start low at 30%, then you can increase it to test higher-intensity pain signals.

Settings

Global Volume is the volume for pleasant stims. When you increase this value, it increases the volume of all pleasant signals. If you think the overall volume is too low, increase it.
Global Pain Volume is the same thing, but for pain stims.

Pain and pleasant stims are two different categories.

Let me give some examples:
A pleasant stim will usually range around −20/−15 dB. Increasing the Global Volume will automatically increase the stims by the set amount.
A painful stim is usually set around −5 dB. But if you set the max pain threshold to −10 dB, then no pain stim will ever go above −10 dB. A 100% intensity stim will be −10 dB, but this is without counting the Global Pain Volume. The Global Pain Volume is an underlying value that increases the volume of all pain stims.

This means that if you want more pain, first you increase the max pain threshold. But if at −5 dB you still think it's too low, you can then increase the Global Pain Volume.

As a safety remark, I wouldn't recommend −5 dB max pain threshold + +7 dB global pain signal, this is likely to saturate.

I hope I've answered your questions!

ElectricFrog

Thank you! This was a very good explanation! Perhaps you could even add parts of it to the FAQ or the built-in help texts, to guide future users.

It would be a nice future feature if in debug mode it was possible to see the present dB level, or at least have some indication, like a red dot, a log file, or something, to see if the threshold cap has been hit. Then a user would have more data to know which setting to adjust. But the explanation as such goes a long way! I will dial down my pain volume now, I started by increasing that, and then due to lack of effect I increased threshold as well. So right now I have both settings turned up, I should get the volume setting back to default to start with.

But another reflection/question here. If I understand correct what you just explained. At default values, pain volume 0 and threshold -12 (was it -12 as default? I don't remember), it is the threshold that is limiting, it's caping the signal by default. This would mean you do not have the full dynamics!? Any stim file, pain or pleasure, is not just a constant max, it's a delicate waveform crafted with intention by its author, highs and lows, ramps and slopes. Caping it destroys part of this. Shouldn't the goal be to never cap a signal? And at least the default setting should be tuned to this. I'm coming back to my original thinking here, that pain should be set by the Volume, alone. The Threshold should just be a safety cap, a ceiling. But you should normally not hit that ceiling, you should not destroy the waveform.

My "goal" is to use the AI mode. But I wanted to test in free (Normal) mode first, to get a feeling for the technology, verify compatibility with my equipment, and learn the basics first.

KairosJS

ElectricFrog You can also leave the value at -12dB and increase the global pain value, you will also gain in
intensity for pain stims as both are not fighting each other but complementing. But it's more logical to me to increase the threshold first.
To be even more clear: the threshold is unlinked from the global pain value. The global pain value adds +x dB to the audio channel, independently from everything else. Which means that with the threshold at -10dB, a 100% pain stim at 3 global pain volume is actually played at -7dB.

Let's say you set the threshold to -12dB and the global pain volume to 3: a 100% intensity pain stim will be equal to -12dB + 3dB = -9dB.
But the dynamic is preserved, all values are calculated relatively, especially for pleasant stims.

@picofarad Both channels are separate, so yes, you can set different values for each, pleasure and pain. I'd
recommend setting different values per channel depending on the body area / electrode used, to match
what you can take and what feels comfortable.

And yes, when I say more pain / intensity, I mean higher volume values.

I'd recommend not going beyond what you can handle, and it also depends on the intensity you've set
on your device. A -5dB threshold with +3dB global pain volume is already a very high volume, and I think that's plenty.
If you want more, increase the intensity on your device itself, but that will also increase the pleasant stims, so you'll have to lower the global volume this time (which only affects pleasant stims).

I agree this is a bit confusing, I'll try to make it clearer in the next update

picofarad

I am still confused on your pain settings. My pain settings are the same for both channels (but should I set them separately as I do for the Global Volume?):
Global Pain Volume = 0
Max volume pain Threshold = -10

_A painful stim is usually set around −5 dB. (what is set at this global pain volume or Max volume pain Threshold?) But if you set the max pain threshold to −10 dB, then no pain stim will ever go above −10 dB. A 100% intensity stim will be −10 dB, but this is without counting the Global Pain Volume (what does this mean?). The Global Pain Volume is an underlying value that increases the volume of all pain stims. (with regards to what? are these settings absolute and un-related to each other or are they dependent?)

This means that if you want more pain, first you increase the max pain threshold. But if at −5 dB you still think it's too low, you can then increase the Global Pain Volume. (could you elaborate? When you say more pain to you mean the highest Max volume pain Threshold?)

As a safety remark, I wouldn't recommend −5 dB max pain threshold + +7 dB global pain signal, this is likely to saturate. _ (What would you recommend?)

**I love this program, but I do get loss in all the settings**

ElectricFrog

KairosJS Aha, NOW I get it! It was the word "threshold" that confused me the most. I interpreted this word as a ceiling. As long as you are below the ceiling, you can jump as high as you want, but jump to high, and your head hit the ceiling, dead stop, caping the signal. I understand now this mental picture of mine was wrong!

Honestly, this could have created a bit of a safety issue. Because with my wrong mental image, I was about to just crank Threshold up to the max, to ensure this capping didn't interfere with trying to find the best Volume setting. Now luckily I'm very careful, so I never trust anything new, files, settings or even my own thinking, I take it step by step slowly anyway. That approach have saved me many times in life, not just in E-Stim...

You could then just have ONE pain setting. Since they are complementary. Threshold has a (recommended) dynamic of -12 to -5, that's 7 steps. Pain volume has a dynamic of 0 to 7, that's 7 steps as well. So, if you skip the Threshold setting, just hard code it to -12 and hide it from the user, and then have Pain Volume adjustable from 0 to 14. It would create the same outcome, but easier to understand.

If I may ramble away a bit, and do take this as 110% constructive feedback, not anything else! You have made very detailed and technically excellent configurations. But have you reflected on the target audience for this site/app, how you like to grow? Compare to Unix, and Windows. Unix is technically superior, you can tweak, control and set what ever you like, you have full control. But it's tricky for the average lazy user to learn and use. Windows is easy, but a Unix user hate it, it's too restrictive and hides to much details from the user.

I consider myself an experienced amateur. I have never created any E-Stim files, but I have played E-Stim teases from Milovana for 10+ years. Yet, I failed to understand basic settings here. You are "Unix", you have deep technical knowledge. I am "Windows", I just want plug and play. Many teases on Milovana have ONE setting, Pain Boost. Expressed as a number, only. It may be equal to dB, but user don't need to know. The rest you can set with your equipment, general level is the sound from computer/display (where ever you plug the audio cable), channel A/B ratio on the device. At least all commercial devices I know of have two knobs, A and B, and I guess most DYI as well.

Your volume configuration page has TEN settings, compared to ONE on Milovana. Again, don't get me wrong, I’m not criticizing, I love your work and I just 110% want to give you constructive feedback! Just my advice for you to reflect, if your goal is to create "Unix", or "Windows". Both are correct, just ensure you understand the consequences of your choices, and which target audience you want to grow this site with going forward. I will be here regardless, I love what you have done so far, good job!!!

MalteP

Wait so global volume does not effect pain at all? I always thought it would be global volume --> global pain volume.
What I dont really get why there is a need for two pain sliders. Your example could have also be solved by being able to make the pain threshold even higher directly in the slider or not ?

KairosJS

More responses:

MalteP Yes the global volume doesn't affect pain stims. But the two pain sliders still have an intereset that I still haven't fully explained:
The volume for pain stim is calculated from the following formula:

vol = -20 - (percent*(-20 - (Threshold - 0.1))/100) + Global pain volume

This has been done to ensure smoother distribution of value from 0% to 100% pain stim.

ElectricFrog
In my opinion most of the issues you raise are mostly due to my very bad wording and naming. I will try to clarify all of this for the upcoming update.

I won't merge both pain sliders as I believe it allows better customisation, and that is something I'm attached to in eudaimonia. But I can improve the wording and UX.
And regarding both sliders I would say:

"the max is too much, everything else is fine" -> lower the threshold
"everything is too weak or too strong, evenly" -> Global Pain Volume
"the difference between a light and a hard stim is too subtle" -> raise the threshold

Regarding the unix vs windows, you're right I'm working on making the onboarding easier. The upcoming update has few changes in this direction.

I will check about the missing sliders, and the popup that says "do not connect the electrodes".

BobRoss235

Please keep the two separate sliders.
If a future feature is added that lets the AI gradually raise the "current limit" up to the "global limit", I’d prefer having independent sliders for pain and pleasure.