New problem with force feedback joystick.

[dacuda]

Its a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2. Its always worked and tests out fine. IL2 has always had a few glitches with it but I just pause the game and enable and disable and it smooths right out. 

This time when I went to play the stick is really stiff as if its not using my settings and when I paused the game to enable and disable the option wasn't even there anymore. So I dropped the game to the main menu and it was there but had an asterisk by it and said I had to restart the game (never made me do that before). So I did that twice disabling and enabling but the joystick is still stiff and does not change when you change feedback strength. 

I'm not really good at troubleshooting joysticks, any ideas? I only installed one game since, Gates of Hell, which does not use the Joystick. 

I am lost how to proceed. Any help appreciated. 

[1./KG4_OXO123]

Myself and a couple of squad mates in the same boat , looking for some kind of answer , but until the dreaded shake starts in a game we are a bit stuck...

 

mine was shaking in flight so same as you i came right out , reset and set with re boots and all ok , but a bit long winded,

 

time will provide an answer

 

atb pete

 

[Jeroen83]

I had multiple issues with the ffb2 in the past, but they all went away after I followed the advice of someone in this forum to connect the stick to a powered usb hub. I have no problems with it, also with the new patch.

[dacuda]

I purchased a powered USB hub but no change. For me this happened right after the last update. 

Before I would get the shakes but no big deal, hop out and turn off FF and turn it back on and right back in the game I was playing. Kind of irritating but I could live with it. Maybe this hub would fix that but since the last update things have changed. 

Now the option to disable and enable FF requires a reboot which would be annoying enough but in my case that does not fix anything. My FF stick is just stuck on full strength and unresponsive to any changes. The stick itself still works but the reason I use this is I have it on 30% strength when I am flying fighters like the P51. I am use to very little resistance. I actually cant fly anymore. I feel like I am in a bomber with a broken stick. 

Maybe it wasn't the update if others are flying with the same stick and FF is working fine. What else could it be? Is there a driver or something I am not thinking about? I am usually good at troubleshooting but I dont know much about game controllers and joysticks. 

Common sense would dictate if the MSFF2 is still working for some, its my PC somehow. 

Maybe I could throw a fresh OS install on another drive and see. 

[1./KG4_OXO123]

hey Dacuda 

 

my squad mates and myself who use this stick still find it works fine , just the mess around if it stats the shake ..

 

check your start up folder , it should look like this  for FFB

 

[KEY = force_feedback]
    amplitude = 1.00000
    enabled = 1
    force = 1.00000
    update_freq = 10.000000
[END]
 

just in case anything has changed ?

 

[dacuda]

Ill check the file but have kind of given up on this one once I saw many others had the same problem and heard the dev team for this game have about a zero percent chance of helping. 

Its not the shake, that was the old problem. Something changed in the last update. nothing works anymore for FF. Its stuck on 100% stiff and unresponsive to all changes. The option to enable or disable is missing in mission and when you back out of the game there is now an asterisk saying it requires a reboot to enable or disable FF.

Whatever they did the only solution to fly WWII for me has been to start getting into DCS instead. I just wrote off the $100 I have in this game but check the forums for answers and will try each new update that comes out but otherwise there seems to be nothing I can do, just out the money. 

Just glad it was in time to avoid paying for Normandy.

Devs must consider it unfixable. 

Also, I cannot find any startup folder, not in documents or in the main programs install. It does get mentioned a lot but no posts where its located so it does not do me any good. 

I will try researching more, I figure someone knows where it actually is. Until then its a good idea though. 

Edited June 30, 2022 by dacuda

[DD_FT-]

12 minutes ago, dacuda said:

(...)
Also, I cannot find any startup folder, not in documents or in the main programs install. It does get mentioned a lot but no posts where its located so it does not do me any good. 

(...)

 

It's a file, called Startup.cfg, in the Data folder.

No issues with Microsoft FFB2 over here, it works fine.

[IckyATLAS]

It's a pity we do not have the Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog in a force feedback configuration for the joystick.

[dacuda]

Just reinstalled with no change.

So may I ask you guys a few questions?

1) While flying a quick mission, if you esc to menu without quitting the mission and go into the input menu is there an option to disable and re-enable FF? In my game there used to be, now there is not. 

2) Without being in mission, main menu, go to input menu again. Now the option for FF enable and re-enable should be there. Does it have an asterisk notifying you that you need to restart for changes? In my game you never had to do this, now you do. 

So my game changed on me. If it did not change for you guys then something changed on my PC that affected the games behavior. 

My issue isn't the dreaded "shake". I had that as well but always went into the menu and just disabled and re-enabled FF which solved the problem. 

My problem was the stick was 100% stiff, I went into the menu to reset like I always do and the option was not even there. I backed out to the main menu and it wants me to restart which does not do anything. It lets me adjust strength but the setting does not seem to do anything. 

The game menus are different, is this the case with you guys? Does the game work despite the changes or is it just my machine that changed. 

That would be very useful to know. 









 

[DD_FT-]

2 hours ago, dacuda said:

1) While flying a quick mission, if you esc to menu without quitting the mission and go into the input menu is there an option to disable and re-enable FF? In my game there used to be, now there is not. 

2) Without being in mission, main menu, go to input menu again. Now the option for FF enable and re-enable should be there. Does it have an asterisk notifying you that you need to restart for changes? In my game you never had to do this, now you do. 
 

1 and 2 both confirmed, same here!

 

So, somehow they've removed the one way you had to fix the the issues you had with the stick   

 

I had not noticed the change, as I have not ran into the issue, well, not in a long time anyways, as I cannot remember. I do know of squad mates that have the issue every now and then, and use the disable/enable fix mid mission.

 

You state you have a powered usb hub, I have one too - is yours connected to a USB 2 port? If it is in a USB-3 port, you may want to try and switch it to a usb-2 port ...

 

[dacuda]

 

1 hour ago, DD_FT- said:

1 and 2 both confirmed, same here!

 

So, somehow they've removed the one way you had to fix the the issues you had with the stick   

 

I had not noticed the change, as I have not ran into the issue, well, not in a long time anyways, as I cannot remember. I do know of squad mates that have the issue every now and then, and use the disable/enable fix mid mission.

 

You state you have a powered usb hub, I have one too - is yours connected to a USB 2 port? If it is in a USB-3 port, you may want to try and switch it to a usb-2 port ...

 

Got it! I think.... Your post had me thinking more and more about the USB since its working for you. Also the feedback the menu is the same as mine. Thank you!!!

So I checked again, its a powered USB2 hub but was actually in a USB3.1Gen1 port!!!

So the fix was indeed a USB2 powered hub if this holds. 

$20 fix I can live with. 

Turns out my PC only has the two USB2 ports that I usually have the mouse and keyboard stuck into. 

Have to do some testing but the stick was soft in the P51. 

I am so happy now. 

Edited June 30, 2022 by dacuda

[DD_FT-]

Good show!