GameEx & Steering Wheel (Logitech Driving Force)?

[RIP-Felix]

Anyone had trouble with GameEx using steering wheels?

I am trying to reuse an old Logitech Driving Force steering wheel I bought for my Playstation 2. I downloaded the "Logitech Gaming Software" from here: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support/driving-force-gt?crid=411&osid=14&bit=64#section=downloads

I went through the setup and calibrated it. It works fine with the default logitech assignments in the controller properties window. However, in GameEx it will only recognise the POV (D-pad) and all other functions are assigned to down. So if I press any other button it causes the down key to be held down. Also, it seems to disable my X-Arcade tanksticks assignments. So I can't use them while it is plugged in.

I tried messing with some input settings in the wizard, but when I press any other button than one of the POVs (D-Pad), it recognises it as down? It does this for each button. I lastly tried opening the logitech profiler, created a new profile called "GameEx" and assigned keystrokes to the buttons. I made them the same as the button assignments my X-arcade uses, to no avail. GameEx still recognises them as down and my x-arcade still does not function at the same time.

Oh, I thought I should add that gameex recognized it and was working ok, before the software install. It just did not recognise the peddals (maybe more, I didn't test it much before installing the logitech drivers). So that indicates to me that gameex knew what it was even before the computer did! That might also mean that gameex if fighting with logitech's driver.

I was wondering if this is a known issue and what the solution is? I tried searching but did not see anything. Sorry if this has been covered already.

[Draco1962]

You may want to check out this thread regarding. Likely you are encountering the same issues. The OP was having the problem running games with the wheel outside of GameEx. I don't believe that there was a solution to be found.

[RIP-Felix]

Yep, That is the same issue alright. I had the looping issue too when loop list was enabled. As long as the thing is not touched it does not do it, then as soon as you press a button or the wheel it holds the down btn.

That OP mentioned that he tried uninstalling the drivers and that did not fix the issue. However when I first plugged it in GameEx recognized it and it worked fine, except that I could only use the wheel and not the pedals (which is why I installed the logitech driver). Even in Crus'n World I was able to set it up (actually the defaults in mame worked, except the pedals). I will try uninstalling the driver to see if it will reset back to the way it was before. The issue sounds like an option needs to be turned off or GameEx needs to be patched for these devices. I'll try every option I can in the logitech software first, to rule settings out. Then uninstall the driver. I imagine that these wheels are fairly common, and something many users would try to use with GameEx, if for nothing else than to save themselves the money of buying a new one (assuming they work any better).

I'll update this when I know more. Thanks for the link...

***EDIT***

Ok, so I tried every option I could try in the Logitech Gaming Software I could and nothing helped. The problem may lie with the way GameEx (and Mame for that matter) interperit the controls. Windows and even PC games (except MAME) seem to understand just fine...Weird. The keboard assignments I mentioned before work fine, when I opened word. I think that might mean that gameEx needs an update for this. But since MAME has the same issue, the benifit of updating would be for mainly PC racing games and not mame. I tried all of the setting in the input section of the wizzard to see if anything was interferring and nothing seems to change the way the controller functions are interperited by GameEx (Down).

I uninstalled the software and the drivers are still burried in windows, dang it! I tried uninstallung them in device manager but when I re plug the controller it installs the same drivers, aparently it just removes the device not the actual driver. I had this problem with a blutooth driver once, very annoying. I suppose I could dig into windows 32 looking for the driver and manually delete it, but first I will try a reset point. That ushally works, and without the damaging effects that removing drivers manually might have. That fixed the blutooth issue, maybe it will this one as well.

***EDIT***

Nope. The system for some reason will not let me complete a system restore. Every time it says "system restore incomplete" no matter how far I go back. I tried removing the drivers myself and it did not work. I just restored them back from the trash. So now I'm stuck. Unless I want to try a fresh install of windows, which would take about 2 days to get back to where I'm at now. All just to see if I can get this thing to work like it did before I ever installed thoes ******* logitech drivers. Now I'm pissed.

[Draco1962]

I saw something the other day you may want to explore. It could be that you need something to translate the Xinput calls to DirectInput calls. The application is x360ce.I have not had need to try it as of yet, but you may be able to get it to work with your wheel.

[RIP-Felix]

Thanks, hopefully it wont come to that. I discovered something interesting while testing this on my other computer (win 7 x64). It works, drivers and all! Well mostly. It worked like it did before I installed the drivers the first time in my xp machine. I calibrated it and what not, and it is recognized in mame just fine....Oh snap...I figured it out!

While I was writing this I wen't back into gameEx and realized why this is happening. The use custom gamepad option is turned off in my win 7 machine and it is on for the XP (Arcade). The reason I did that was to customize the gameex controlls but it would only recognize the down movement, except for the POV (D-Pad). It was the fact that I set the D-Pad functions to up and downthat I didn't realize what is happening. The Gas pedal is set to the y-axis!!! That means that it is the up and down movement on a joystick. However, the issue is that the zero point is in the middle of the depression against the spring. So when it is not in that postion it is regestered as a down press. That is why both myself and the other OP were having it hold the down button and loop the list. If I hold the gas pedal down half way I can navigate with the D-pad and select a game.

Ok, so now that the problem has been identified, how can I re-assign the gas pedal to,say the z-axis instead of the y-axis?

***EDIT***

Ok, Ifigured it out. There is an option in the configuration and calibration that says"combine gas and break pedal". That reassigns the gas pedal away from the y-axis and removes the problem. I'm still working out the kinks but it works better now. The only problem now is that GameEx doesn't recognise the pedal presses anymore. I don't know if they are on an axis that gameEx doesn't look at or what. That is not a big deal though.

[Draco1962]

GameEx is not going to look at Z-axis X-Axis for horizontal scrolling and Y-Axis for vertical scrolling.

[bkenobi]

You might want to look into XPadder. With that, you can convert the steering wheel controls to keypad actions which might make navigation in GameEx acceptable. I used a combination of AutoHotKey scripts, XPadder, Custom GameEx inputs, Batch files, etc to get the controls to work the way I wanted them in my main and driving cabs.

[RIP-Felix]

Actually it's working fine in GameEx now. For somew reason it doesn't want to respond in MAME. Although I think it is working, at least when I run the in-game diagonostics. It just doesn't want to work when actual game is ran. I will get back to you when I have a chance to look into it a little more. The problem right now is that my machine is a little weak to handle the racing games I've tested. Til then...

[Cret]

Hi guys - just a quick note that I have the EXACT same problem and wheel/pedal set!

It's the PS2 control set but I had to guess which software to get from logitech as there isn't any search result for the PS2 wheel.

I've found that setting the controls in windows joypad settings (run joy.cpl) to 'combined' mode makes it work best in Mame/GameEx, but it doesn't seem to work as well as it ought to in PC driving games. I think unfortunately whatever way you set it there will be a compromise somewhere in the equation.

If you figure out a 'perfect solution' by all means let me know, and vice versa.

Speaking of driving games, I upgraded my arcade pc first from a P4 3ghz to a core2duo E6600, and now to an i7 2600K and it STILL won't play GT4 on the PCSX2 emulator. It drops to 30-40fps as soon as the race is about to begin which is ridiculous. I know people get this game to run ok, and it's not even really taxing the CPU so any ideas on what the problem might be?

I wasn't going to all this processing expense originally, but after a while I figured that my arcade that already had wheel & pedals would be the perfect thing for playing drivers on, so why not get it up to speed for installing PC driver games and PS2 ones etc.

[Tempest]

Video Card?

[Draco1962]

The best way to avoid a global compromise with controller settings is to use a 3rd party application. I recommend Xpadder (in conjunction with Adultery's Xpadder plugin) as you can set things up per game category or even down to the per game level. Xpadder is only $10 US so for what you get out of it, it is a steal. The Xpadder plugin is free and included with GameEx.

[Cret]

Video Card?

It's possible I suppose, but the stuff I've read about this emulator suggests that the Video card is of minor importance and the work is mainly done by the CPU. I might be wrong but that's what I'd read about PCSX2, and certainly when I was using the E6600 I'd see the CPU maxed out at 100% in task manager when trying some PS2 games like Tekken4 and GT4.

The card I've got is an Msi N210 for what it's worth - it's pretty cheap but I've never had need for anything more (so far).

The best way to avoid a global compromise with controller settings is to use a 3rd party application. I recommend Xpadder (in conjunction with Adultery's Xpadder plugin) as you can set things up per game category or even down to the per game level. Xpadder is only $10 US so for what you get out of it, it is a steal. The Xpadder plugin is free and included with GameEx.

Thanks - I've seen a lot written about Xpadder, but not tried it myself as I haven't been sure if it's anything I actually need as such. Might be worth a try.

I presume it effectively does the same as the Logitech software that lets you set up profiles per game, but allowing inputs for any control rather than just the logitech ones?

It sounds very versatile.

[u-man]

i would also say, it is the video card. the ps2 emu has even special drivers and shaders for the emu. i would also try smaller resoultions, in fact the "real" ps2 has a resolution of 320x240, maybe that helps.

i tried Supermodel for example, and this emu is really GPU hungry. i tried a GTX 8800 and can not get more than 30-40 frames... but i need 60...

so try to lower your settings and look if it gets better.

[Cret]

Ahh ok - guess I'm just plain wrong about that then, thanks for clarifying!

Never realised the resolution was really so low on the PS2!!! I'll definitely decrease settings and try it in view of that.

Is there even a benefit to higher resolution settings if the actual source pixels (so to speak) don't even exist anyway?

Aside from resolution, what sort of graphics related settings would benefit a low power card like the N210 I've got?

I'm afraid while I do know about computers in general I know nothing really about graphics/cards/settings for them as my gaming has always been console based and not on the PC.

Apologies if this is a thread hijack by the way - it's not my intention!!

[Tempest]

If you have the option to lower the frame rate, that would help.

Some emulators offer different pixel shaders which may help as well. Maybe some pixel shaders use the GPU while others use the CPU?

IDK...