[Trekintosh]

Hello.

I've been playing FS2_O but I'm having an issue with force feedback. I looked through the FAQ and Joystick stickies but could not find an answer. I use a Microsoft Sidewinder FFB2, and while the feedback works great if I crash into something or fire weapons, I do not get any centering force whatsoever. This makes it extremely hard to fly stably, as my big floppy joystick dong keeps going wherever gravity or inertia says, and not where my hand says. This rather messes with my enjoyment of the game. Is there a way to manually set up Spring force?

[AdmiralRalwood]

Hello.

I've been playing FS2_O but I'm having an issue with force feedback. I looked through the FAQ and Joystick stickies but could not find an answer. I use a Microsoft Sidewinder FFB2, and while the feedback works great if I crash into something or fire weapons, I do not get any centering force whatsoever. This makes it extremely hard to fly stably, as my big floppy joystick dong keeps going wherever gravity or inertia says, and not where my hand says. This rather messes with my enjoyment of the game. Is there a way to manually set up Spring force?

FSO already generates a spring force; if that is either insufficient or for some reason not working on your joystick, the only other option is to enable it in your joystick settings (if your joystick has that setting, anyway, which mine does, but it's a Logitech Force 3D Pro and may therefore not be comparable).

[Trekintosh]

Hello.

I've been playing FS2_O but I'm having an issue with force feedback. I looked through the FAQ and Joystick stickies but could not find an answer. I use a Microsoft Sidewinder FFB2, and while the feedback works great if I crash into something or fire weapons, I do not get any centering force whatsoever. This makes it extremely hard to fly stably, as my big floppy joystick dong keeps going wherever gravity or inertia says, and not where my hand says. This rather messes with my enjoyment of the game. Is there a way to manually set up Spring force?

FSO already generates a spring force; if that is either insufficient or for some reason not working on your joystick, the only other option is to enable it in your joystick settings (if your joystick has that setting, anyway, which mine does, but it's a Logitech Force 3D Pro and may therefore not be comparable).

The odd thing is the Sidewinder does have a default Spring force that it autmatically applies when it receives no feedback instructions, unless a game overrides it. So as soon as I get into a mission in FS2_O and have any feedback inflicted on the stick, it goes completely limp(except for more Force Feedback.) I don't have any software for this joystick, as it is quite old, as simply works using Windows plug n play. I am able to use forcetest.exe to control the feedback, but that cannot run at the same time as the game.

[deathspeed]

I have the same joystick, and have occasionally had my force feedback quit during a game, but I can never reliably reproduce the issue and it always works if I exit completely and restart the game.  I cannot confirm, but it did not seem to happen when I used release 3.7.4.  I only saw the issue when using nightly builds last fall, but I haven't played in a while or tried a newer build.

[Lykurgos88]

Same Joystick, same problem.

This regression happened when they introduced SDL2 into main code branch.

As of 3.8.0 RC3 it's still not fixed.

[The E]

The problem is that there is currently noone on the SCP staff who is in a position to debug this. As a result this issue won't be resolved for 3.8, and I apologize for that.

[Lykurgos88]

The problem is that there is currently noone on the SCP staff who is in a position to debug this. As a result this issue won't be resolved for 3.8, and I apologize for that.

Well, I could be useful for once and offer my part in debugging. I have lots of free time next weekend, so I can join #SCP IRC channel (or whatever is the direct messaging platform nowadays) to help. Just compile and send me any test builds with joystick haptic changes and I will give comments and debug information in real time.

The way I see it, chief1983 already had a hunch of how to fix this problem:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=93378.msg1845529#msg1845529

I'm ready to provide any help I can since I have been playing FS2 with joystick all the way since 1999 and I really want to continue doing that. 

[AdmiralRalwood]

Anyone experiencing this problem: m!m wrote a potential fix and I've uploaded some test builds. Give them a try and see if they work for you.