FFB Arcade Plugin

[Super-Becker]

There is something wrong with San Francisco Rush's FFB (Extreme Racing and The Rock), as it is not the same as what we find in the arcade. In MAME we can feel discomfort in FFB, a kind of "sandy" or "grainy" effect, which does not exist in the original arcade. Is it possible to correct or cancel this effect? Boomslangnz, I hope you see this message and can respond, I will be very grateful.

[Boomslang]

explain better please

also, i cant seem to steer in latest mame on any of the sfrush games? it works fine in menu choosing car and track etc but once ingame car doesn't respond at all??

I thought it was MAME doing something dumb but then i tried rave racer and that worked fine

[Super-Becker]

In fact I always suspected that this "sandy" effect shouldn't be there, but I could only be sure now that I have an original arcade. In the track selection menu everything works well but during the race, with the car moving, we can clearly feel this "sandy" effect especially in movements close to the steering wheel centering. Leave the maximum FFB strength at 100% to better highlight this effect.

Speaking of Rave Racer, strangely the FFB in this game tends to throw the force outwards, making it difficult to center the steering wheel even when we set the optional "Centering Force" to maximum. I'm not sure if it's like that in the arcade.

EDIT: In the most recent MAME (0.260) I only had problems with California Speed, which has no FFB. I make it clear that I have a small collection of games with FFB support, but I will post feedback on the ones I have, as long as it is not a hassle. I would like to once again congratulate you and thank you for this incredible work and for always interacting with us and responding to us. Thank you to you and your team.

[Boomslang]

there's nothing i can do, im simply recieving the values as game sends them, i would say the "sandy" effect you call it, is modern wheel picking up the small details that older hardware would not have recieved the same

Ive heard this before saying like SFRush 2049 works way better, and yet they use the same exact code at my end

[Boomslang]

https://mega.nz/file/AQ8EiBYY#qbkmzh04k_gwPj39p9HlJfqOOOy9k6uyfclN1Gc2arM

any MAME, Supermodel or Flycast FFB Plugin users? Ive made some tweaks for a few games here and just looking to ensure it works for all etc

FFB should be a little more accurate now on these games as it performs effects only when game sends it, previously i took the last state it sent, but if they stopped sending value then wheel would continue performing effect based on last value it recieved

anyway i didn't move all game code for now but it should work for some

[buttersoft]

Argh, i would test, but in the middle of kitchen renos so my setup is buried in boxes and furniture right now

[Super-Becker]

there's nothing i can do, im simply recieving the values as game sends them, i would say the "sandy" effect you call it, is modern wheel picking up the small details that older hardware would not have recieved the same

Ive heard this before saying like SFRush 2049 works way better, and yet they use the same exact code at my end

I keep thinking there is something wrong, due to the huge difference. Maybe it's a problem with the emulation, because although the game runs much better in MAME than in the arcade itself, some things are different, such as the lighting of the tunnel on the second track, the calibration of the steering wheel when starting the game (for me, it never is completed effectively in both the T300 and the G29), etc. Perhaps some information is being sent incorrectly to the FFB plugin. Thank you very much for the answer, Boomslang.

[Super-Becker]

https://mega.nz/file/AQ8EiBYY#qbkmzh04k_gwPj39p9HlJfqOOOy9k6uyfclN1Gc2arM

any MAME, Supermodel or Flycast FFB Plugin users? Ive made some tweaks for a few games here and just looking to ensure it works for all etc

FFB should be a little more accurate now on these games as it performs effects only when game sends it, previously i took the last state it sent, but if they stopped sending value then wheel would continue performing effect based on last value it recieved

anyway i didn't move all game code for now but it should work for some

Is this plugin the same as version 2.0.0.37, another version or is it exclusive? I don't use Flycast, but MAME and Supermodel do. In which games do you want the test to be carried out? I know that Supermodel does not send the correct information to the plugin, as Scud Race's FFB is incomplete in relation to what is native to Supermodel (we have already commented on this here).

[jorgenjl2]

In fact I always suspected that this "sandy" effect shouldn't be there, but I could only be sure now that I have an original arcade. In the track selection menu everything works well but during the race, with the car moving, we can clearly feel this "sandy" effect especially in movements close to the steering wheel centering. Leave the maximum FFB strength at 100% to better highlight this effect.

Speaking of Rave Racer, strangely the FFB in this game tends to throw the force outwards, making it difficult to center the steering wheel even when we set the optional "Centering Force" to maximum. I'm not sure if it's like that in the arcade.

EDIT: In the most recent MAME (0.260) I only had problems with California Speed, which has no FFB. I make it clear that I have a small collection of games with FFB support, but I will post feedback on the ones I have, as long as it is not a hassle. I would like to once again congratulate you and thank you for this incredible work and for always interacting with us and responding to us. Thank you to you and your team.

I am glad I am not the only one who notices this. Something about SF Rush and the Rush the Rock ffb is off. I had to turn it off unfortunately it makes the game not very enjoyable. This video shows how the middle of the wheel has a loud clanking sound when starting one direction and moving the other. The arcade does not have that. I waited until I have a 2nd wheel in case it was faulty but I have three racing cabinets and they all do that so not just that one wheel. Rush 2049 is perfection for ffb so it is odd. I wonder if the new ffb version helps it though.

https://youtu.be/ZKrMgSz3Hw4?feature=shared

[jorgenjl2]

@super-becker - does your edit mean that Rush ffb works in the latest version of Mame or are you referring to Rave Racer? California Speed ffb works great for me.

[Super-Becker]

FFB from SFRush and Rave Racer work on MAME 0.260. The last time California Speed's FFB worked for me was in MAME0.257. If it works for you, something must be outdated for me, but I don't know what it is.

[Super-Becker]

https://mega.nz/file/AQ8EiBYY#qbkmzh04k_gwPj39p9HlJfqOOOy9k6uyfclN1Gc2arM

any MAME, Supermodel or Flycast FFB Plugin users? Ive made some tweaks for a few games here and just looking to ensure it works for all etc

FFB should be a little more accurate now on these games as it performs effects only when game sends it, previously i took the last state it sent, but if they stopped sending value then wheel would continue performing effect based on last value it recieved

anyway i didn't move all game code for now but it should work for some

As for this plugin:
 
California Speed - The FFB worked in MAME 0.260 and 0.261 on the T300 and G29 flywheels.

Scud Race (Supermodel) - I thought it would look like the Supermodel's native FFB but it didn't. I also tested with the T300 and G29.

SFRush - On the T300 steering wheel, the FFB is corrected and working perfectly, in MAME 0.261, without "sandy" effects, including with maximum strength of 100% (it's the closest thing to the original arcade).
In G29 the sandy effects eased but unfortunately they are still bad.

I tested only with these games. I don't think I would know how to differentiate the others because I hardly play them. Congratulations on the work, Boomslang. Thank you very much. I would be happy to give back in some way.

[Boomslang]

yes because the MAME devs changed the name of FFB output for some reason on California Speed

I corrected it for that test release

[jorgenjl2]

I tried Rush and the Rock with the latest Mame (.261), latest game, and latest ffb plugin but it is still the same even with 35% max ffb. If there was a way to remove the left and right 15 degrees center it would maybe be fine. So like Boomslang said it must be something the g29 picks up on that the arcade does not. Very odd that Rush 2049 and Cali Speed (and every other game) work perfectly. So it is what it is. Everything else is great.

Actually I guess the only one outstanding I need to try is Crusn USA/World. Does anyone have that working? If you crash into another car head on or another racer does it have ffb? I don’t recall seeing ffb in the arcade but mine. For Crusn World a couple years ago I remember I had to enable a setting to feel the ffb (max force or something) but it didn’t seem to work correctly but if someone can confirm it works now I will have to give it another shot.

[Drakkorcia]

Recommended settings anyone? Still getting used to this plugin and the wheel settings themselves.

[buttersoft]

Err, was this the post asking about flycast through Retroarch and you've edited it to nothing? I seem to remember that there is some sort of permissions issue with Flycast and the FFB plugin. First, make sure everything is set to run-as-admin. If thta fails, try turning things back to normal user one at a time.

If that fails, try launching flycast different way or adding another layer. So, if retroarch is launching a shortcut, have it launch a batfile that launches the shortcut. And run everything as admin if in doubt.

[Darklight]

Hello!
First off, this is amazing! I have San Fransisco Rush 2049 Special Edition running through mame with this and it is almost flawless!

So the feedback is good except every 2 seconds or so the power seems to cut out for a split second. It almost feels like hitting a rock in the road. You can feel it on longer turns and in the menu.
Any idea how to fix this?

[Darklight]

Just an update on this particular problem

I re downloaded both mame and FFB plugin. Then changed the mame.ini file to say Windows instead of auto. And everything is PERFECT!

[scoodidabop]

Before I comb the entire thread is there any examples of MAME crashing with this plugin?

When I open FFB GUI and select no input in the dropdown menu MAME runs fine. If I select my wheel in the dropdown then MAME crashes. Event viewer says it's a pid.dll error. Mame also works if the dinput8.dll isn't copied into the directory, so I'm getting the idea this is some kind of hardware ID issue?  Tried with MAME 262 and 254.

The plugin works fine with Teknoparrot so I know it's working with my wheel.

edit;
I'm having the same problem as @johndough247 back on page 21. MAME crashes when hooked and the test program crashes after about 8 tests. I tried older FFB plugins on older MAME versions (1.8ffb on 229mame) and the same problem occurs. I also tried renaming the dinput8.dll to the other cheeky things suggested in the "spring effect" update on github (opengl32, xinput1_3, dinput) and that didn't improve the situation.  Like johndough I have a direct drive wheel and the plugin is working great with Demul, M2, TP etc...  Really strange! I added the dinput file and my mame folder to virus exception as well, in case windows was blocking it. pid.dll error is still showing up in event viewer, if I launch via command line I get this:

Exception at EIP=00007ff8aec8266e (register_frame_ctor+0xa5817fee): ACCESS VIOLATION
While attempting to read memory at 000000281b010010
-----------------------------------------------------
RAX=000000281b00ffd8 RBX=00000000ffffffff RCX=000000001b33f7d0 RDX=0000000000000000
RSI=000000001b33f7d0 RDI=000000001b010000 RBP=0000000011dbee40 RSP=0000000011dbedf0
 R8=0000000000000000  R9=0000000040000000 R10=0000000000000000 R11=0000000000000000
R12=0000000000000001 R13=00000000000f0034 R14=00000000000003ff R15=0000000040000000
-----------------------------------------------------
Stack crawl:
  0000000011dbee70: 00007ff8aec8266e (DllCanUnloadNow+0x0d8e)
  0000000011dbef00: 00007ff8aec840b2 (DllCanUnloadNow+0x27d2)
  0000000011dbf080: 00007ff8aec84a9c (DllCanUnloadNow+0x31bc)
  0000000011dbf0e0: 00007ff88c9242c5 (GetdfDIJoystick+0xa105)
  0000000011dbf120: 00007ff88c9291ef (DllGetClassObject+0x3ebf)
  0000000011dbf150: 00007ff88c928a89 (DllGetClassObject+0x3759)
  0000000011dbf1a0: 00007ff88c9202e0 (GetdfDIJoystick+0x6120)
  0000000011dbf200: 000000006c834f50 (SDL_DYNAPI_entry+0xd5130)
  0000000011dbf250: 000000006c8359cb (SDL_DYNAPI_entry+0xd5bab)
  0000000011dbf2a0: 000000006c76788f (SDL_DYNAPI_entry+0x7a6f)
  0000000011dbfc90: 00007ff897bc7495 (GetdfDIJoystick+0x1405)
  0000000011dbff20: 00007ff897bc642b (GetdfDIJoystick+0x039b)
  0000000011dbff50: 00007ff8c1747614 (BaseThreadInitThunk+0x0014)
  0000000011dbffd0: 00007ff8c29a26f1 (RtlUserThreadStart+0x0021)

last edit;
Similar to MAME, Flycast crashes as well with the plugin installed and wheel selected in the GUI.

[scoodidabop]

Through googling I came across some wild man over on steam playing Dirt with FFB issues and a dll error. He moved immpid.dll (not exactly my pid.dll issue, but oh well) from syswow64 to system32. This seemed to help his situation. Moving the pid.dll from the 64 bit to the 32 bit location did not help my situation. I did notice that the pid.dll error showing up in event viewer is from the system32 folder though, NOT the syswow64 folder. I have 64bit mame installed with the respective 64bit ffb.

Everyhing's working with:
Demul, Model 2, all Tekno games

It's not working with:
Supermodel3 (that's ok, the native FFB works fine), Flycast, and MAME

Other attempted shenanigans included installing the 32bit version of the plugin in MAME, then swapping just the mame64.dll into the folder, then combinations of these things with different pid.dll copies in different folders. At this point I have to throw my hands up. It's odd that it works so well with some things and not at all with others, hoping Boomslang comes to the rescue so I can finally play Virtua Racing properly!

[scoodidabop]

So I found an older copy of 32 MAME, ver 216 (which was the newest 32bit version I could find) and the 32bit MAME FFB plugin works great there!  So the last thing I'm trying to fix is flycast and from the looks of it it's using the mame64 plugin so I guess I need to wait on a solution there.

edit; well, everything in MAME works in 32bit except Virtua Racing. You can feel the centering soften when Virtua Racing loads (in my experience this indicates that force feedback has hooked and should work) but nothing happens in game. Changed to UPRIGHT as indicated in the readme. Also tried other things in the service menu like other regions and screen types and cabinet types. Still nada. Updated the roms as well, still nothing. Although maybe I should try other roms again, if the comm board rom or whatever was updated at some point then maybe it wouldn't communicate with the plugin appropriately?

[MotownC]

For Virtua Racing, I believe you need to go in service menu and change to 'Upright Cabinet'.

[scoodidabop]

Read my full post, I did indeed try that.

I do have an update though since I got it working. Perhaps using the newest version of the FFB plugin was letting me down with the older MAME in Virtua Racing.  I did a little more digging and found that there's a fella still compiling new versions of mame for 32bit, you can find them here: https://www.progettosnaps.net/mameui/

Updated to a newer version of mame32 (I think I grabbed .252) and along with the most current version of the MAME32 FFB Plugin Virtua Racing is working!  So, not the most direct solution but hey it all works now.  The last piece of the puzzle for me is Flycast, but if it's using only mame64 I don't think there's much hope for getting that going on my setup.

[teeboz]

will this plugin work with gun4ir?

[MotownC]

For those following the ffb plugin, there has been a fork to Boom's great plugin by a user MightyMike. His recent releases include ffb for Fast 'n Furious, FnF Drift, FnF Supercars.

https://github.com/mightymikem/FFBArcadePlugin

[Drakkorcia]

I have been adding pc racers as of late; redout 2, smurfs, horizon chase, etc and using the joytokey or antimicro x apps to map the games keyboard controls to wheel. And it works brilliantly. Except ffb does not work. Ever. On any of these games. For unsupported games I use the 64 bit spring effect from Boomslangz pack and have copied the files over and setup the guid but no ffb applies. I don't understand why. Does anyone have any ideas?

[MotownC]

So, if I'm understanding, the games don't have native wheel support and therefore don't have ffb. But, using the apps, you are able to get the steering wheel to work. Do those games support xbox controllers and rumble? If so, you can use 'wheel2xinput' which allows you to map your steering wheel as an xinput device. And it will provide ffb as long as the game provides native rumble to the controller. And this rumble can be adjusted within the wheel2xinput to provide a pretty satisfying ffb effect.

[Drakkorcia]

I never thought of using wheel2xinput for pc games but that is certainly a consideration. It wouldn't be any trouble at all to test it.

[Super-Becker]

For those following the ffb plugin, there has been a fork to Boom's great plugin by a user MightyMike. His recent releases include ffb for Fast 'n Furious, FnF Drift, FnF Supercars.

https://github.com/mightymikem/FFBArcadePlugin

Why is the "MAME 64bit Outputs" folder missing files?

Why did Boomslang releases stop at version 2.0.0.37?

[Super-Becker]

Last week I went to play California Speed (using the latest versions of MAME and FFB), I noticed that FFB gave some "hiccups" even when the cart wasn't touching anything. Doing some tests I saw that this problem originates in the FFB plugin version 2.0.0.34. I concluded that the last best combination for Cal Speed is MAME 0.257 and FFB 2.0.0.33. I think it's possible that this problem could also be present in some other game, but I'm not sure. I hope this information can help someone.

EDIT: In this test I used the Logitech G29 steering wheel. I will soon test the Thrustmaster T300.

[Super-Becker]

Just an update on this particular problem

I re downloaded both mame and FFB plugin. Then changed the mame.ini file to say Windows instead of auto. And everything is PERFECT!

I hadn't seen your post. I believe we are talking about the same problem. Specifically what did you change from auto to windows in mame.ini? I didn't understand.

[PL1]

Specifically what did you change from auto to windows in mame.ini?

Change this . . .

Code: [Select]

#
# OSD OUTPUT OPTIONS
#
output                    auto

. . . to this.

Code: [Select]

#
# OSD OUTPUT OPTIONS
#
output                    windows


Scott

[Super-Becker]

Specifically what did you change from auto to windows in mame.ini?

Change this . . .

Code: [Select]

#
# OSD OUTPUT OPTIONS
#
output                    auto

. . . to this.

Code: [Select]

#
# OSD OUTPUT OPTIONS
#
output                    windows


Scott

Mine is already like this. From what I know, if it's different, ffb doesn't work. That's why I thought it was another command.

[Super-Becker]

Last week I went to play California Speed (using the latest versions of MAME and FFB), I noticed that FFB gave some "hiccups" even when the cart wasn't touching anything. Doing some tests I saw that this problem originates in the FFB plugin version 2.0.0.34. I concluded that the last best combination for Cal Speed is MAME 0.257 and FFB 2.0.0.33. I think it's possible that this problem could also be present in some other game, but I'm not sure. I hope this information can help someone.

EDIT: In this test I used the Logitech G29 steering wheel. I will soon test the Thrustmaster T300.

Today I did the test with the Thrustmaster T300 steering wheel and the "hiccup" was present. This time the games tested were: Ace Driver, Ace Driver Victory Lap, Cal Speed and SFRush 2049 SE. They all had the same problem (very discreetly in both Ace Driver's). I decided to roll back to MAME 0.257 and FFB 2.0.0.33.

[isamu]

Has anyone been successful in getting FFBPlugin to work with Flycast? I finally got Initial D Export to run, and I have the FFBPlugin files in the same folder as the Flycast.exe file but no FFB what so ever. Emulator recognizes my wheel and I can map left stick to steer left and right, but no ffb. Am I doing something wrong?

[LightningBolt]

Hey everyone I have few questions/issues about this great plugin:

1) Is it only an interface to feed our wheels information that came from the original game OR did the programmer add new information to provide force feedback where there originally was none? Let me give an example. Say in the arcade, RaceGame1 only had return to center on the wheel. You would never feel anything if you went over a bump or crashed. But now you've installed this plugin. Will it remain only return to center or will it provide rumble effects for crashes, bumps etc?

2) Did Cruis'n USA originally have force feedback (with rumble effects, bumps crashes etc) or just return the wheel to center? That would probably answer my first question.

3) I THINK I've got the plugin working on the normal mame exe. But I can't get it to work with arcade64.exe. Any help please? Thank you.

[buttersoft]

Hey everyone I have few questions/issues about this great plugin:

1) The data all comes from the game, but how that data is interpreted can vary. It's mostly pretty similar, but, for instance, the feedback in Scud Race on Supermodel is different in native mode as opposed to using the FFB plugin.

2) no idea, sorry

3)The plugin is probably only designed to hook the outputs from mame.exe, not from arcade64.exe (whatever that is?)

[sega ages]

hi using ffb on flycast inital d works on x input not on direct input

all other emulators seem ok

[buttersoft]

hi using ffb on flycast inital d works on x input not on direct input

all other emulators seem ok

Which version? Dinput works for me, but i'm on an older version. I do remember that FFB used to fail under some conditions around lauching. Maybe it was dinput specific, IDK

Don’t use a batfile. Weird one, but FFB fails for me that way. Launch by opening flycast and clicking the game. Or, if automating, create a shortcut with the “c:\path\to\flycast\flycast.exe C:\path\to\flycast\roms\initdv3e.zip” line as the target. You can then load the shortcut from a batfile and it works fine. Must be something to do with how the arguments are being passed?

[jorgenjl2]

I may have missed it but has anyone been able to get ffb to work with Cruis’n Blast Teknoparrot? I have the settings for the game to enable ffb in Tekno ui and I have the files from MightMike’s latest zip file form the fork and I went into the ffb gui and added my g29 id and get ffb in the test tool but nothing in game. I see references to it being supported in GitHub I believe it was but in the attached txt it doesn’t have it listed.