Author Topic: Extremely week force feedback (Read 284 times)

airhog99 · « **on:** May 04, 2007, 08:48:23 PM »

I got my original MS Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro hooked up today to a "new" Soundblaster audio and game port card (£5 on ebay). Forces work fine in MS Flight Sim X, using Win XP's built in drivers.

In AH, however, I get the occasional burst of stick shake if someone hits my plane, but control surface forces are extremely weak (and my own shooting generated no rumble at all). I had to play for hours before I was even certain there was any control surface feedback at all. (The weak forces get largely swamped by a certain "cogginess" in the force feedback mechanism.)

I read somewhere among the many postings on the FF subject that HTC has such as stick? Would be very interested to know if this stick is supposed to work under XP SP2 (built in drivers).

airhog99 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2007, 03:06:30 PM »

Has anyone used AH with FF sucessfully, and if so with what hardware?

Skuzzy · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2007, 06:31:12 PM »

Yes, we have tested the MS FF USB sticks, as well as Saitek sticks. No problems with either. I'll test them again Monday.

airhog99 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 05, 2007, 06:36:03 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
Yes, we have tested the MS FF USB sticks, as well as Saitek sticks. No problems with either. I'll test them again Monday.

Thanks for looking into it!
I saw that AH had some problem last year with FF. Perhaps the same or a similar problem has crept in again.

KrazyIvn · « **Reply #4 on:** May 06, 2007, 12:27:40 AM »

6 months ago when I first started playing AH, I was using the Microsoft Force Feedback 2, and experienced VERY intermitent force feedback.

The stick also rarely centered.

I thought AH just didnt support the stick and I got a x52 pro.

airhog99 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 07, 2007, 02:13:47 PM »

Seems FF works fine if I do not start in Win98/ME compatibility mode!

Running in normal multi threaded mode made FF work.

Instead I got a bunch of "don't move your stick so rapidly" "warnings" followed by AH assisted crashes. (God knows what the point is in blocking all stick input for many seconds.) Adding damping on all stick pot input (incl. rudder) seems to help with that problem. Not sure why AH can't recognize a glitch and ignore it..

I will have to open up the joystick and treat the pots with contact enhancer.

BTW, it's amazing how different it is to fly with FF. I could almost swear the plane stalls sooner now -but I'm sure it's just psycological from the stick shake. And the stick goes very stiff at high speed, which is extremely useful to aid flying.

Denholm · « **Reply #6 on:** May 07, 2007, 03:14:47 PM »

Does the Regular (not pro) Saitek X52 support FF? Doesn't seem to work on my machine.

airhog99 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 07, 2007, 04:00:50 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Denholm
Does the Regular (not pro) Saitek X52 support FF? Doesn't seem to work on my machine.

I don't think either X52's support any FF -which is a shame.
If it doesn't say so explicitly, it sure won't. (And if you don't need an external power supply (apart from USB), it won't for sure.)