Improvement for Force Feedback GUI

[aitte2]

I am using a Playstation 2 Dual Shock controller with X360CE, and during the process of learning how to make vibration work, I found the following things that could be improved in X360CE:

1. Add a text label/note/hover-description/anything somewhere on the Force Feedback page, explaining this fact: The real Xbox 360 controller has two motors (strong and weak). Most 3rd party controllers only have 1 motor. And by default, X360CE maps the STRONG motor to the controller. The problem with that? Most games use the WEAK motor for general rumble. For example, GTA 5 PC uses the weak motor. So for most games, you should try enabling "Swap Motor" to map the WEAK motor to the motor in your controller. That was required for me to get vibration in GTA5 with a PS2 controller. I am clever and it still took me hours to figure that out, when I suddenly thought "what if GTA just uses the weak motor?". So there needs to be a description somewhere, suggesting that people try "swap motor" if vibration isn't working in their game.
2. Perhaps default the weak motor as the primary one if a controller has a single motor... So that most general vibration will work out of the box.
3. Perhaps code a new feature which "merge motors", which maps the two Xbox motors to a single motor. For example, weak motor values 0-100% could be mapped to output range 0-60%, and strong motor values 0-100% could be mapped to output range 30-100%. With configurable crossover Points. This would be great, because right now, I get general vibration via the weak motor "swap" remapping I did. But huge crashes give no effect at all since the strong motor is now the "missing" one instead. Merging the two motor mappings to a single motor would solve that.
4. And lastly, a weirdness in the Force Feedback setup GUI: When "Swap Motors" is enabled, the two different test sliders switch functionality, so now right test slider ("weak motor") tests the single motor in my PS2 controller. But the GUI strength sliders stay the same. So I have to run the test with the right slider and adjust its strength with the left slider. In other words, the test of my motor is done with the right test slider, and its strength is set with the left strength slider...

[aitte2]

Also, I notice a lot of people saying they cannot get vibration to work.

Here is a checklist for how to get it to work:

1. Make sure your controller has working force feedback drivers in Windows itself. Most cheap Playstation 2 adapters will use a generic windows driver without force feedback. And most of them have a "Hardware ID" of "VID_0810&PID_0001". To get force feedback on Windows 10 I spent half a day hunting until I found a driver for that device ID, with force feedback: http://noten.in/97-chinese-dual-twin-usb-gamepad-joystick-review-driver. Many sites recommended a "USB Network Game Driver" or something like that, which worked well in old windows, but it just kept crashing on Win10, or not getting installed.
2. After a force feedback driver is installed, test the force feedback driver via X360CE GUI to see if it is working. Use the strength and test sliders to do that. It must rumble during this test otherwise it is not working.
3. Play with the vibration "period" length. For me, 60ms worked best for a PS2 dual shock controller. Longer than that caused jittery vibration.
4. Finish the X360CE setup by being sure that "Enable Force Feedback" is enabled. The mode in my case is set to Constant, and the Directions are both set to NoDirection. (Also, a warning: Do NOT enable "Force feedback pass through" on the advanced page unless you have a real Xbox controller; that option disables X360CE's force feedback emulation!)
5. Be sure the game itself has vibration support and that it is enabled in the game.
6. Lastly, try "Swap Motor" if there is still no vibration, since the game (like Grand Theft Auto 5 PC), may be using the weak motor primarily.

[aitte2]

If the noten.in website dies in the future, I have mirrored the Force Feedback driver for PS2-controller-to-USB adapters here: https://github.com/aitte2/dualshock_driver/blob/master/VID_0810%26PID_0001%20Twin%20USB%20Gamepad%2064Bit%20Setup.rar

[EJocys]

Thank you very much for the input. I've updated force feedback on 4.0 Alpha release. Swap motor feature is still not implemented in Alpha. I will try to implement your suggested improvements and restrictions (like "Force feedback pass through" option on non-XBox controllers) so people won't have to go trough steps manually with new releases. I will kepp this issue open for progress tracking.

[aitte2]

Hi man, that's awesome. I am happy these suggestions helped, and happy to see that things will be improving. You rock. :)

[Shoaib0597]

Also, I notice a lot of people saying they cannot get vibration to work.

Here is a checklist for how to get it to work:

1. Make sure your controller has working force feedback drivers in Windows itself. Most cheap Playstation 2 adapters will use a generic windows driver without force feedback. And most of them have a "Hardware ID" of "VID_0810&PID_0001". To get force feedback on Windows 10 I spent half a day hunting until I found a driver for that device ID, with force feedback: http://noten.in/97-chinese-dual-twin-usb-gamepad-joystick-review-driver. Many sites recommended a "USB Network Game Driver" or something like that, which worked well in old windows, but it just kept crashing on Win10, or not getting installed.

2. After a force feedback driver is installed, test the force feedback driver via X360CE GUI to see if it is working. Use the strength and test sliders to do that. It must rumble during this test otherwise it is not working.

3. Play with the vibration "period" length. For me, 60ms worked best for a PS2 dual shock controller. Longer than that caused jittery vibration.

4. Finish the X360CE setup by being sure that "Enable Force Feedback" is enabled. The mode in my case is set to Constant, and the Directions are both set to NoDirection. (Also, a warning: Do NOT enable "Force feedback pass through" on the advanced page unless you have a real Xbox controller; that option disables X360CE's force feedback emulation!)

5. Be sure the game itself has vibration support and that it is enabled in the game.

6. Lastly, try "Swap Motor" if there is still no vibration, since the game (like Grand Theft Auto 5 PC), may be using the weak motor primarily.

Hi @aitte2,

I am also using Sony PS2 DualShock controller via a USB Adapter on PC. With the help of the drivers you linked, I was able to enable vibration in x360ce. However, after installation of the driver, any game that I run such as FIFA crashes to desktop after a few minutes without any error (vibration works though). Moreover, the Effects Page available under Gamepad Setup in Windows also crashes when the left trigger is moved to check vibration.

I am using Windows 10 Pro x64 v1903. Have you faced this? Can this be fixed?

Thanks!

[F4RHaD]

hi,
same problem here;
force feedback works fine with the mentioned driver in x360ce,
bu crashes in games.
i think something is wrong with 64-bit FF library

[smcolby]

Similar problem here. Force feedback on a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick working in x360ce using "test" sliders. In Battlefield 5, the emulator works for controls, but no vibrations come through, despite being enabled in game.

Is there something I'm missing?

[nyakze]

Same issue Logitech Rumblepad 2. Tried "swap" motors, did no effect. Vibration works inside x360ce, but not in games.

Edit: I've managed to get it to work. Setting Effects type to Constant2, and hiding gamepad using hidguardian. Did the testing here https://html5gamepad.com/

[alien2000a]

Same here. Using alpha release 4.10.0.0 Using Logitech Wingman Cordless Rumblepad. Had no force feedback until I installed original Logitech Gaming Software which installs force feedback drivers. Now I have rumble in x360ce config during tests but nothing in games. Constant, Constant2 or Swap Motors did not work. :(

[FaySmash]

Just to leave this here: I was able to force usage of Force Feedback using XInputPlus (just open it, choose your game exe, hit "Apply" and test it)