Does a standard controller with force feedback even exist?

[mickael28]

Hi guys,

I'm quite new in the gaming scene so after playing a few racing games with my force feedback wheel and then with a standard xbox 360-type controller I noticed that it's a lot more difficult to handle with the controller for me as the analog stick in the controller is too easy to move, it just moves too quick.

I was wondering, has any company created a normal controller but with some kind of force feedback support in the analog sticks, ie, to make them more hard to move when the feature is enabled for example, which would help handling cars...

If you know of any, could you pls let me know brand/model to have a look? or if they don't exist, is there a reason for it? wouldn't they be useful?

[ark_ader]

Hi guys,

I'm quite new in the gaming scene so after playing a few racing games with my force feedback wheel and then with a standard xbox 360-type controller I noticed that it's a lot more difficult to handle with the controller for me as the analog stick in the controller is too easy to move, it just moves too quick.

I was wondering, has any company created a normal controller but with some kind of force feedback support in the analog sticks, ie, to make them more hard to move when the feature is enabled for example, which would help handling cars...

If you know of any, could you pls let me know brand/model to have a look? or if they don't exist, is there a reason for it? wouldn't they be useful?

My 360 Wheel has force feedback and it feels like a proper wheel now when playing racing games.  I had to mod mine as I bought it from a thrift store and there was no movement from the wheel, so you could replace the plastic bearing in the controller to make the wheel that more realistic.  You could change to a pot in the unit, but it is too much hassle.  Also the mod fixed the dead zone issue.  This is the video I followed to mod my wheel.  Hope it helps.  I haven't seen any decent wheels come out that is authentic, but there is a racing and driving forum here you might want to check out.

[mickael28]

Sorry, I might have explained my doubt wrongly. I've seen the wheels with force feedback feature and they seem to work fine (I've got the Logitech Driving GT), and I've seen the standard xbox-360 style controllers with vibracion feedback (this kind of controllers  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_controller#/media/File:Xbox-360-S-Controller.png), but in those handheld controllers the analog sticks are always really soft, so it's difficult to control a car in racing games.

I was wondering is there's any kind of feature (not sure if it's called force feedback?), for those handheld controllers where the device knows you're turning and makes it harder to press those analog sticks?

[BadMouth]

I've never seen it for PC.  (there are ffb flight sticks, but that's a separate beast)

There was a peripheral for the PS1 called a JogCon that had a little wheel in the center of the controller with ffb.
There is not a way for the ffb to work with normal PC games or other emulators though.

What are you playing with the controller?

When using the xbox controller, saturation should be at 100% and maybe sensitivity should be turned down.

The opposite is true when using a wheel on a game designed for joysticks.  You have to turn the saturation or wheel rotation way down so you can change directions faster.
It's just not physically possible to rotate a wheel 900 degrees (or even 270) as fast as a thumbstick changes direction.

[mickael28]

I've never seen it for PC.  (there are ffb flight sticks, but that's a separate beast)

There was a peripheral for the PS1 called a JogCon that had a little wheel in the center of the controller with ffb.
There is not a way for the ffb to work with normal PC games or other emulators though.

What are you playing with the controller?

When using the xbox controller, saturation should be at 100% and maybe sensitivity should be turned down.

The opposite is true when using a wheel on a game designed for joysticks.  You have to turn the saturation or wheel rotation way down so you can change directions faster.
It's just not physically possible to rotate a wheel 900 degrees (or even 270) as fast as a thumbstick changes direction.

Thanks, a lot of useful information here mate. A few doubts (D) please...

Interesting the JogCon device, pitty that there's not a workaround or anything to make it work with PCs or emulators. I just bought my first wheel recently, so I don't understand much about the subject yet, when we say for example that the JogCon had FFB,
D1- what does it mean? ie, is it like in a normal wheel, where you feel it harder whilst you turn and the wheel can push back to the center if configured that way?

For now, I'm mainly playing Outrun 2006. I've got the wheel, but I want to play doubles at times and need to use a controller as well.
For the xbox-360 type controller, do you know where I can configure those settings about saturation and sensitivity? In Outrun in particular, it seems the sensitivity is on the menu (but even there it needs to be configured at maximum for me, or the car won't turn quick enough).
D2- But in other games, if they don't have a setting in-game, is there another way to configure it?

D3- And what does sensitivity mean in a wheel?
I've not seen it in the logitech profile, but Outrun has an option and up until know I thought it mean 'turn quicker', so I had it configured at maximum but in some corners, if I was going full speed and turn the wheel maximum I was crashing agains the wall anyway. Now I've tried with it set to minimum, and it turns out that the car stays on the road? ie, it seems kind of opposite to what I was expecting... :S

[BadMouth]

when we say for example that the JogCon had FFB,
D1- what does it mean? ie, is it like in a normal wheel, where you feel it harder whilst you turn and the wheel can push back to the center if configured that way?

Force Feedback = directional force feedback where the wheel pushes against you or rotates back and forth violently when you crash.

Rumble = only vibration or a shaker motor

That's my definition anyway.  Not everyone subscribes to it.

For now, I'm mainly playing Outrun 2006. I've got the wheel, but I want to play doubles at times and need to use a controller as well.
For the xbox-360 type controller, do you know where I can configure those settings about saturation and sensitivity? In Outrun in particular, it seems the sensitivity is on the menu (but even there it needs to be configured at maximum for me, or the car won't turn quick enough).
D2- But in other games, if they don't have a setting in-game, is there another way to configure it?

Those are MAME settings.   You never said what games you were playing, so I assumed it was MAME.

For using the wheel with outrun 2006, the best you can probably do is set up the game itself to work well with the xbox controllers, then use Logitech profiler to tweak the wheel behavior to work better.  That way only the wheel is affected.  The wheel rotation in Logitech profiler should be reduced to 180 degrees or less to enable you to turn quicker.  I do not know of a way to configure the xbox360 controllers on the fly.

D3- And what does sensitivity mean in a wheel?
I've not seen it in the logitech profile, but Outrun has an option and up until know I thought it mean 'turn quicker', so I had it configured at maximum but in some corners, if I was going full speed and turn the wheel maximum I was crashing agains the wall anyway. Now I've tried with it set to minimum, and it turns out that the car stays on the road? ie, it seems kind of opposite to what I was expecting... :S

Well, if you turn too quick in a corner while going too fast the car slides out of the turn and crashes.   
Knowing how much to slow down for turns used to be a thing in arcade driving games before they became kiddie rides.