Force Feedback drops out constantly

[deanco]

Hi everyone.

Although I am greatly enjoying GTL, I am having a huge problem with force feedback effects dropping out, changing force, or just plain dissapearing at all times, under all conditions. I'm talking 5 or 6 times in a 5 lap race. I have a MS Sidewinder wheel, and my other racing games have never exhibited this behavior. I see that the devs included ALT-F in the patch to correct this, but even hitting ALT-F (not easy at 200km/h) is not always fixing it, and it will usually go out a few minutes later. It seems to be random, but usually because of bumping another car, or running over bumps, or skidding out, and sometimes it just decides to go out for no reason.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any solutions? Thanks,

DeanCo--

[David Wright]

Its a bug with the Sidewinder and ISI force feedback I'm afraid. From the rFactor readme file

Setting Force Feedback Effects to anything higher than Low on a Microsoft wheel may result in a loss of forces after going over curbs.

I must admit even when FF effects are set to low in GTL I still sometimes lost FF. My solution was to replace the Sidewinder. The work-around is the one you are using but you might be able to assign ALT-F to a wheel button using the sidewinder software perhaps.

[deanco]

Thanks for the reply, David. I'll look into reassigning ALT-F.

DeanCo--

[Hakker]

I never had this problem with my Sidewinder wheel. Maybe that is because I use Sidewinder software 4.0? Its not needed for XP but solved another problem I had in a different game.

[Ralph_B]

Also had no problems with my old MSFFB alle the years and even not in GTL since it was out. I used the 4.0 software, too. As Hakker said, it's theoretically not needed for XP and the profiler even doesn't work - but maybe worth a try.
The only thing to complain also was mentioned above: the MSFFB is eating up FPS, specially if you have set FFB-effects to max.
However, have swithched to a G25 now.:D

[Roger]

However, have swithched to a G25 now.:D

Me too Ralphy :D - nice eh? :up:

[deanco]

I'm not buying a new wheel to fix a bug, that's for sure. I'm not really a racing guy, I just happen to like this game, the older cars. However, I think I may have fixed it, by selecting 'wheel' instead of 'sidewinder' in the options, I haven't had a dropout yet.

Thanks again for the replies.

DeanCo--

[deanco]

A final word, the dropouts are back, but they are less frequent and more manageable with a generic wheel selected in the options.

I paid budget price for this game, so I'm not too put off, but if I had paid full price with a bug like this, I'm pretty sure it would have gone back to the store.

DeanCo--

[Kevboy]

Have the same with my MSFF, thought it was because its an old game port version and not USB. What is yours?

Kevboy.:p

[Kongo]

Serial Port would jus make data exchange slower. By slower I mean the delay is milliseconds rather than USB's nano seconds :D still VERY fast jus not...VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY fast!:roflmao:

[psyfungi]

A tip for any Momo owners out there...

I've had the FF drop out on the Momo (right hand LED goes off).

As a matter of habit I always calibrate the wheel every time I start the game (only takes 20 seconds) and in the Options --> Controls screen as you move the wheel around the right-LED blinks off.

Here's the tip: go to the 3rd "page" of the Controls section where you have the "Reverse Force Feedback" check box. Untick it and the FF-LED comes back on. Then tick it again (Momo, for whatever reason does need reversed FF!?) and then FF will stay on.

Sounds convoluted, but as I said, takes all of 20 seconds and guarantees correct wheel operation for the rest of the session.

My two cents.

[deanco]

Kevboy: It's a USB wheel.

I'm in the Class C final cup challenge, and with 22 other cars, the dropouts are worse than before. It's too bad, because on Ameteur, the game hits my sweet spot in terms of difficulty, a fair amount of practice and a good qualifying run will usually net me a mid spot in the grill and a podium finish, and that's another thing I like about it. I just can't believe that a FF bug in a racing game was never fixed. (Other than the Alt-F kludge.)

DeanCo--

[David Wright]

I just can't believe that a FF bug in a racing game was never fixed. (Other than the Alt-F kludge.)

DeanCo--

Its hard to believe Microsoft dropped all support for the wheel as well (or then again perhaps its not that hard to believe :))

I do sympathise as I decided to replace my Sidewinder mainly because of this problem, when it worked fine with earlier games. But FWIW ISI haven't been able to truely fix the problem either.