Vista - Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel

I have plugged in my old Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel to have some fun
playing car racing games. Unfortunately, the Sidewinder Game Controller
Software 4.0 is made for windows 98 and do not work with Vista.

Vista install the SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel(USB) controller correctly
and the wheel function when I test the controller.

My problem is that the racing games I have installed, do not discover that I
prefer to use the wheel, pedals and buttons on the wheel rather than using
strokes on the keyboard. In w98 the software made it easy to customize the
game controlling buttons and settings, but this is no longer of help,
because the software is not updated to work with Vista.

I would be very happy if someone knows an answer to how I can solve this
problem.

Everyone who has bought this high-kwality wheel has the same problem: no
Vista drivers.
But it is even worse: with this wheel plugged-in some games do not start!

This lack of support is a shame for Mircosoft. I've always defended e.g.
Vista against the anti-Microsoft bashers, but know I am changeing my opinion.

As long as this problem persists I will not buy any product from Microsoft
any more!



"boyd" wrote:

Which games? I have no problem with mine on Server 2008

--

Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375


"DirkM" <DirkM@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5D951794-56BE-496A-9C33-1CE871D6D30B@xxxxxx

=?Utf-8?B?RGlya00=?= <DirkM@xxxxxx> wrote in
news:5D951794-56BE-496A-9C33-1CE871D6D30B@xxxxxx:
Thought mine still worked in Vista, maybe it's 64-bit having problems?

Honestly the wheel is 8+ years old, nowhere on the box does it say
"Supports Windows Vista", why you getting your panties in a bunch?

If you want your Windows XP Sheering wheel to work, why not run Windows
XP and be done with it?

--
Joe

Yes, I'm using Vista64 bit, I will ask my son which game did not start until
the wheel was unplugged.

Even today, you can buy the wheel in online shops ! Without Vista support ,
but yes you are right, it's indicated on the box. Vista did not exist at the
moment of packaging of course.

A decent product support means than the company keeps up with the evolution
of the software.

Due to this issue I'm using XP/Vista in a dual boot config.




"Joe" wrote:

I didn't mention my Server 08 install was x64, so it should work just fine
with Vista x64.

--

Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375


"DirkM" <DirkM@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4E3D9430-937B-4B4A-8C39-BDA712178BC3@xxxxxx

The game is GTA IV, and this wheel is not in the list of supported hardware.
The axis of the wheel are ok in XP but useless in Vista, you cannot always
change that in-game.

"David B." wrote:

Never tried using a wheel with GTA so I can't comment, works on all my
games, Grid, Dirt, Flatout, Flatout II, etc

--

Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375


"DirkM" <DirkM@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:455E3803-B4D6-4674-81F8-BA931D39CDDE@xxxxxx

=?Utf-8?B?RGlya00=?= <DirkM@xxxxxx> wrote in
news:4E3D9430-937B-4B4A-8C39-BDA712178BC3@xxxxxx:
Yeah, coming from game development, I can give you an example of what I
ment about cost/benefit.

Used to support Janes Flight Sims when I worked at EA. AWESOME games, I
mean hands down one of my favorite games to just "mess around" with.

Jane's LAST "DOS Only" games was ATF or Advanced Tactical Fighters. This
game came out when Windows 9x and DirectX games were becoming the defacto
standard because, well DirectX for good or bad, was a really good dev
platform. But I digress. This game came out in DOS, and of the 1000 some
odd copies we sold of the game (tragically, but not too suprising) about
1% of the people wanted a Windows version of the game.

So did EA call in 3-5 developers for 1-2 months to develop a patch for a
game that sold 1000, of which only 1-2% were dissatisified with? Umm,
yeah, not gonna happen.

Sucks when this happens, but hey look at companies like Good Old Games
(Gog.com), they are buying out licenses for old games and selling them
DRM free with Windows Vista compatibility. I bought a copy of Fallout
expecting it to fail to run, but it did, and I thought I'd never play
that game again without running an old dos box. win!

Maybe someone out there can help you write a third party driver for the
wheel. I know you can find drivers to let you using XBox 1 controllers in
Windows Vista, maybe he can help, the driver is called XBCD, I think you
can find it on Google.

--
Joe

Problem description:
==============

Under XP the two pedals are combined and become one axis.


The behaviour of the wheel is different under Vista x64:

the pedals are two seperate axis and there are no tools to change that.


Unfortunately the pedals become useless in FlightSimulators since you cannot
use them as rudder-pedals. Also certain race games require "Combined Axis".


Microsoft please change this, give us an option in control panel to
enable/disable combined axis for the wheel-pedals.


I have the Sindewinder FF 2 joystick and the FF wheel. Both fantastic
products! Now I keep using xp for everything, not using Vista at all, I don't
like to reboot everytime I need my pedals!