Flight sim gear - the scourge of many a game

[Yurgon]

So here I am, thinking I can't be all alone with this kind of problem.

 

First time I remember it was in Dead Space, when I thought it was a rather peculiar choice to have the camera rotate around the player all through the intro. And after it. Actually I had to constantly fight the camera movement by applying opposite mouse input. Until I finally realized...

 

Dead Space used input from my rudder pedal toe-brakes to rotate the camera.

(At the time, those were either Saitek Pro Flight pedals or Simpeds F16/C, though I think the actual pedal brand doesn't matter much)

 

Only after unplugging the pedals was I able to play the game.

 

Ever since then, this has happened to me countless times. I mostly blame console-to-PC-ports, but Indy games also tend to seem to take just about any HID and any axis and go like "Hey, an axis, let's apply it!"

 

In some games I can't even control the menu because the toe-brake-axes are hardly ever centered and if the menu "detects" these axes as a controller, it just keeps flying through the options.

 

In other games at least the menu works fine but then in-game the character movement or the camera position are in constant motion.

 

Most recent example: "Mark of the Ninja". Looks to be a fun game, but I thought it was an odd choice to constantly move the camera away so that the player was off-screen more often than not. Well, this game is kinda intelligent. It doesn't use the toe brakes to control the camera, it uses the throttle axes. Unfortunately, this type if behavior seems just about as FUBAR to me because whatever I set the throttles to, the camera is terribly hard to control.

 

So, guys, what's your take...?

• Am I the only one suffering from this?
  
• Do you routinely unplug all your flight sim gear when playing crappy non-PC-optimized "It's an axis, I use it!" games?
  
• Did you hack a little on/off batch script to "hide" the flight sim gear from DirectX before launching any of those "An axis, yeah!" games?
  
• Do you insta-ban any game that is thus badly optimized for PC?
  
• Do you keep an extra PC for anything non flight sim related?
  
• Do you use a console for anything non flight sim related?
  
• "What do you mean, non flight sim related?!" :D
  

 

Besides, are you aware of any "Best practice" guidelines that I could rub in game designers' faces when I feel their terrible (lack of) awareness ruined yet another possibly good PC game for me because I just don't feel like physically unplugging hardware just because they ignore the fact that not every DirectX axis out there belongs to an XBox controller?

[King_Hrothgar]

I haven't had that kind of problem in years, but it has come up. The only solutions I've found is to either unplug the offending device or disable it in control panel. But as said, I really haven't had that come up in a long time.

[fixen]

I always unplug all my flight gear when not in use. The idea is that it will last longer, which is probably bull.

I have most things connected through two usb hubs connected to two front usb slots for easy access. So plugging the things in and out is really easy.

[S-GERAT]

So here I am, thinking I can't be all alone with this kind of problem.

 

First time I remember it was in Dead Space, when I thought it was a rather peculiar choice to have the camera rotate around the player all through the intro. And after it. Actually I had to constantly fight the camera movement by applying opposite mouse input. Until I finally realized...

 

Dead Space used input from my rudder pedal toe-brakes to rotate the camera.

(At the time, those were either Saitek Pro Flight pedals or Simpeds F16/C, though I think the actual pedal brand doesn't matter much)

 

Only after unplugging the pedals was I able to play the game.

 

Ever since then, this has happened to me countless times. I mostly blame console-to-PC-ports, but Indy games also tend to seem to take just about any HID and any axis and go like "Hey, an axis, let's apply it!"

 

In some games I can't even control the menu because the toe-brake-axes are hardly ever centered and if the menu "detects" these axes as a controller, it just keeps flying through the options.

 

In other games at least the menu works fine but then in-game the character movement or the camera position are in constant motion.

 

Most recent example: "Mark of the Ninja". Looks to be a fun game, but I thought it was an odd choice to constantly move the camera away so that the player was off-screen more often than not. Well, this game is kinda intelligent. It doesn't use the toe brakes to control the camera, it uses the throttle axes. Unfortunately, this type if behavior seems just about as FUBAR to me because whatever I set the throttles to, the camera is terribly hard to control.

 

So, guys, what's your take...?

• Am I the only one suffering from this?
  
• Do you routinely unplug all your flight sim gear when playing crappy non-PC-optimized "It's an axis, I use it!" games?
  
• Did you hack a little on/off batch script to "hide" the flight sim gear from DirectX before launching any of those "An axis, yeah!" games?
  
• Do you insta-ban any game that is thus badly optimized for PC?
  
• Do you keep an extra PC for anything non flight sim related?
  
• Do you use a console for anything non flight sim related?
  
• "What do you mean, non flight sim related?!" :D
  

 

Besides, are you aware of any "Best practice" guidelines that I could rub in game designers' faces when I feel their terrible (lack of) awareness ruined yet another possibly good PC game for me because I just don't feel like physically unplugging hardware just because they ignore the fact that not every DirectX axis out there belongs to an XBox controller?

 

You can enter in the periphericals page of windows control panel and disable all the gear in few seconds. Later, if you want them back, only need to use the option of refresh dispositive list or find new hardware..

 

In my case, the only one that need to be physically unpluged and pluged again(or reboot the system)to work after this is the xbox controller, but I never disable this one..

[Nirvi]

I had the same problem with Dead Space, never played the game because of this...

I'm way to lazy to unplug my peripherals :D

Edited October 16, 2015 by Nirvi

[Toxe]

You can enter in the periphericals page of windows control panel and disable all the gear in few seconds. Later, if you want them back, only need to use the option of refresh dispositive list or find new hardware..

 

That's what I did in the past and that worked pretty okay for me (it's Windows we are talking about here, so of course it occasionally ****ed things up, but I can't remember the details).

 

Nowadays I play on consoles which simplifies a lot of things.

 

Did you hack a little on/off batch script to "hide" the flight sim gear from DirectX before launching any of those "An axis, yeah!" games?

Probably my choice in the long run.

 

Or one central USB hub to unplug everything all at once. But again, Windows. I wouldn't be surprised if this won't work on occasion.

[Mtnbiker1998]

Assassin's Creed III REALLY didn't like any of my flight sim gear. But usually I only have slight annoyances that can be solved by disabling it in game or centering my throttle.

 

But I do know your pain! Occasionally at least.

[outlawal2]

I have a 12 port hub that has 2 on off rocker switches on it.. Ports 1-6 are the first switch and 7-12 the secoind one. So I plug all of my sim gear into ports 7-12 and turn them all on or off with one switch... Works great and zero issues

[Yurgon]

Probably my choice in the long run.

 

Or one central USB hub to unplug everything all at once. But again, Windows. I wouldn't be surprised if this won't work on occasion.

 

Oh wow, a bunch of low-tech solutions... :music_whistling: :D

 

Does anyone have something like a batch script at hand so that the process could at least be reduced to a single double-click? That would come in kind of handy. I might even reconsider playing "Valkyria Chronicles" then. :smartass:

[cichlidfan]

My sim gear is plugged into a machine that isn't used for anything that does not involve flight simulation. Hasn't been a problem at all. :smartass:

[outlawal2]

Oh wow, a bunch of low-tech solutions... :music_whistling: :D

 

Does anyone have something like a batch script at hand so that the process could at least be reduced to a single double-click? That would come in kind of handy. I might even reconsider playing "Valkyria Chronicles" then. :smartass:

 

Because switching off one rocker switch is so much more demanding?:cry:

???

[cichlidfan]

Because switching off one rocker switch is so much more demanding?:cry:

???

 

I do have a USB hub with individual port switches (4), on my sim machine. I use it to turn off the trim wheel and the USB portion of the touch screen, when they are not needed. :)

[xaoslaad]

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2095879&postcount=11

 

Had the problem with my pedals in rocksmith. This is how I did it. Disable, start the game, enable the device. It's like DCS in that if it isnt connected when the game atarts it wont affect it.

[lokodehortaleza]

FIFA16 crashes to desktop on startup if i leave the HOTAS Warthog plugged in, and the Saitek pedals will cause the menus to cycle endlessly. It drove me crazy until I figured it out.

[Yurgon]

Because switching off one rocker switch is so much more demanding?:cry:

???

 

Who said I have a USB hub with rocker switches? Because I don't. :doh:

 

And yeah, I tried to combine all the flight sim stuff into one USB hub with the idea that I'd only have to unplug one device then, but unfortunately the rudder pedals started to act strange on said hub so now they're connected to the aft PC connectors which would mean unplugging one USB hub and then crawling behind the PC for the pedals. Call me lazy, but I think that is demanding (in terms of first world problems, obviously). :music_whistling:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2095879&postcount=11

 

Had the problem with my pedals in rocksmith. This is how I did it. Disable, start the game, enable the device. It's like DCS in that if it isnt connected when the game atarts it wont affect it.

 

Woohoo, awesomeness, that's exactly what I was looking for and works like a charm! Rep inbound! :thumbup:

 

Just a tiny addition to that thread: DevCon.exe (Device Console Utility) comes from Microsoft. I don't like to download executables from Mediafire and the like, so I got it from MS following this guide. It's a bit of a hassle but (yes, I know how it sounds...) I place more trust in the source. ;)

[Schnittertm]

What I did to solve that problem is, to buy a USB hub, connect most of my flight sim gear to it and plug the hub only in if I need it into one of my front USB ports. Since they are easily accessible for me that is not a problem. Also, if I need any other controller (e.g. 360 pad or Arcade Stick) I plug them into my front USB as needed and unplug as soon as I'm done.

 

The only thing I had to do, is disable the analog stick on my G13, as I usually use the display in that for temperature and load monitoring, so it needs to stay connected.

 

Still, it is a problem that sadly many developers seem to overlook. Another problem, which prompted me to buy a 360 pad is, that some games refuse to work with any other controller than the 360 pad, unless you get some kind of third party software and even with that it might not fully work.

[Shaman]

So, guys, what's your take...?

• Am I the only one suffering from this?
  
• Do you routinely unplug all your flight sim gear when playing crappy non-PC-optimized "It's an axis, I use it!" games?
  
• Did you hack a little on/off batch script to "hide" the flight sim gear from DirectX before launching any of those "An axis, yeah!" games?
  
• Do you insta-ban any game that is thus badly optimized for PC?
  
• Do you keep an extra PC for anything non flight sim related?
  
• Do you use a console for anything non flight sim related?
  
• "What do you mean, non flight sim related?!" :D
  

 

Besides, are you aware of any "Best practice" guidelines that I could rub in game designers' faces when I feel their terrible (lack of) awareness ruined yet another possibly good PC game for me because I just don't feel like physically unplugging hardware just because they ignore the fact that not every DirectX axis out there belongs to an XBox controller?

 

I have experienced these issues, also with Dead Space. Blame only lazy developers and lazy console ports.

I use dedicated rig for flight simming, so there is no interference from other software. For playing mediocre console ports I use my older PC rig, that runs all games just fine.

[tintifaxl]

FIFA16 crashes to desktop on startup if i leave the HOTAS Warthog plugged in, and the Saitek pedals will cause the menus to cycle endlessly. It drove me crazy until I figured it out.

 

Got that one too. :smilewink:

 

I have all my peripherals on switchable usb ports.

[_Randolph93]

I also had that Dead space camera spinning problem. Stuck keyboard button was my first suspicion then quick google search fixed it for me:D

Never had similar problem with any game since though...

[doveman]

I think the only time I've had problems is when I've gone to play a game that natively uses my Xbox360 controller and I've accidentally left Xpadder running, with it mapping my controller, joystick or pedals to keypresses. That caused some surprising issues as you can imagine! Actually, I do recall some games repeatedly scrolling through the main menu if my joystick isn't centred, even without xpadder.

 

I bought a hub with 3 groups of 3 sockets and a switch on each group, so I can disconnect three things at the press of a button but I haven't had to do that much.