Forums > Game Talk > Experiences with modern PC steering wheel controllers
Daniel Saner (3503) on 6/8/2020 5:44 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
After about 20 years, I'm considering getting a steering wheel controller for PC again. I still quite like racing games, and I think it's one of the few genres where a specialised controller makes a big enough difference to be worth it.
My main problem at the moment is figuring out what compatibility I could expect with PC games. Especially since, of course, I'm also interested in playing older games. The two main manufacturers at the moment are Logitech and Thrustmaster, and both market their wheels as either PlayStation or Xbox controllers, mentioning PC compatibility more or less as a footnote. So official information is kind of difficult to come by unless you're only worried about the very current and popular racing games.
As far as the hardware is concerned, the majority seem to think that Thrustmaster wheels are higher quality, especially if you don't go for the cheapest models (better force feedback mechanisms, less wear, and higher sensor precision). But Thrustmaster is even less forthcoming with information about PC compatibility. They market heavily towards sim racing fans, which makes me even more suspicious whether it will work with older games that weren't specifically optimised for supporting their wheels. Logitech seems to claim more wide-spread compatibility, but I've found confusing compatibility lists online that mention a lot of PC games as completely incompatible with the G29 and G920 wheels. That really surprises me because I would have expected that the wheels would at the very least function as a regular analog game controller through DirectInput, which should mean supporting pretty much everything.
Does anyone in these forums have first-hand experience with one of these wheels on PC, also running it with older and less popular racing games? I'm currently mostly looking at either the Logitech G920 or the Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Leather, but I assume driver-wise the other ones are going to be the same.
How do these wheels register with Windows for games to address them?
The Logitech SDK implies that the wheels work through DirectInput, although additional support is offered through the SDK which games need to specifically implement, and works only if the Logitech Gaming Software is running, too. However, will the wheel still work as a regular DirectInput analog game controller, for mapping to any game manually? Then what about force feedback effects, do those even work without direct support from the game (I'm wondering, for example, if something as ancient as Monster Truck Madness would still be able to address the force feedback feature of these new wheels)? And if adding the stickshift, how are the chances of using that with older games, i.e. can the actions be simply mapped to additional DirectInput buttons?
As for Thrustmaster, I really can't find any trustworthy information. I don't even know if the wheels register through DirectInput or XInput, or if they need specific driver support and direct implementation in the game to work at all. There is some indication that the wheels marketed directly for Xbox consoles work at least in Xbox 360 Controller mode through XInput, but that is such a plain and limited API that I don't think that can be the only option on PC. Especially when adding the stickshift addon (TH8A), which I can't see mapping to XInput at all, unless it appears as a second controller. And what about force feedback, would I be at all able to get ancient racing games with force feedback support to talk to the wheel?
Thanks!
vedder (71102) on 6/8/2020 7:33 PM · Permalink · Report
I don't have much experience with modern PC steering wheel controllers. What I can tell you is that I used to own a Logitech steering wheel between 2004-2010 it worked great on Windows XP and I used it pretty much exclusively to play Richard Burns Rally. However when in 2010 I upgraded to Windows 7 and tried to play Collin McRae: DiRT 2 I found that there were no Windows 7 drivers, and the drivers I tried made the wheel work very peculiar. So in the end I didn't play the game and the wheel was relocated to the basement (where it later died in a flooding).
The point of this story is that I think there's a very finicky relationship between which wheel will work with which games on particular OS versions. So if your intention is to play older games I would advice playing them on a contemporary PC with contemporary controllers. Trying to make it work otherwise might be an expensive and fruitless endeavor. If you also want to play modern games. Then you could still buy a new wheel, and see it as a bonus IF it also happens to work with older games. You could also see if InputMapper can be of any help here. At the very least it should be able to make Windows think your wheel is a generic joystick.
Daniel Saner (3503) on 6/8/2020 10:45 PM · Permalink · Report
Thanks for sharing!
The wheels being recognised as generic joysticks is what I'm hoping for, and what I would've taken for granted, but over time I developed a considerable degree of skepticism about modern peripherals and what I would assume are obvious minimal standards… it's the conflicting information from manufacturers, Amazon reviews etc. that make me too worried to just bank $400 on it, hence why I'm hoping for some first-hand confirmation. I'm disappointed that I couldn't even find real API and compatibility info in the professional reviews I found.
Since I'm also very much interested in current sims and racing games, I do want to get a modern controller with some bells and whistles. It would just be disappointing if it ended up being restricted to a handful of popular games that bothered to implement explicit support. If the wheel could be set up as a generic joystick, I have no doubt that I could get it to run at least on a basic level with pretty much anything, no matter how old. The "deluxe" features like force feedback and stick shift, I'm not putting too much hope in, and would see mostly as a bonus if I could get them to run with older stuff. But if one wheel supports a DirectInput joystick compatibility mode and the other doesn't, that would take care of the decision process for me.
Daniel Saner (3503) on 6/9/2020 3:13 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Here's a few more things I believe I found out after another Google expedition:
- Current Logitech wheels do seem to run on DirectInput – at least the G29 one optimised for PlayStation, the G920 might be XInput – but only after downloading and installing a specific Logitech driver. Even after that, there are very critical voices about DirectInput mapping. Apparently, Logitech drastically gutted their configuration software recently, majorly pissing off PC players. Popular opinion seems to be that the end-of-life G27 was the last true PC wheel, and new ones are just watered-down console accessories with alibi PC compatibility. There are a lot of posts around the web of people having trouble properly mapping the G29 and G920 to work well with older games. Some of these may be down to people not being aware of the configuration options with InputMapper etc., but maybe not all, so I'm a bit worried about that.
- The manuals, if you can even call them that, of both manufacturers are utterly worthless when it comes to technical specifications and installation details on PC.
- The stickshift add-on for Logitech wheels only works with Logitech wheels; it uses a proprietary connector to the wheel. This makes me almost certain that support needs to be directly provided by the game. Games released before the G29 and G920 were a thing probably won't be able to use it.
- The TH8A stickshift by Thrustmaster, on the other hand, is explicitly advertised as a stand-alone peripheral that works in combination with wheels by Thrustmaster and other manufacturers. It is connected directly to the USB port of the PC where, apparently, it shows up as an independent DirectInput controller. This makes me very confident that, with some remapping, it could be used with pretty much any game, even old ones if they provide for the appropriate inputs.
- Force Feedback is still a massive black box. Both manufacturers use FF technology licensed from Immersion Corporation, but there doesn't seem to be a vendor-independent API. Simple "rumble"/vibration effects might be possible with most games, at least for Thrustmaster wheels in joystick compatibility mode. For more advanced, directional feedback effects, the games almost certainly need to support each wheel explicitly. I'd be fine with that. The tinkerer in me would still be curious if I could create some wrapper to translate the FF effects of, for example, the old Monster Truck Madness games that I remember came with my old SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel and impressed me a lot back in the day with its varied effects.
With my current knowledge I'd heavly lean towards a Thrustmaster wheel. They're widespread enough that many modern games support them directly, while giving me more confidence in backwards compatibiltiy. Plus the stand-alone stickshift is a nice move (one possibility would always be to add the Thrustmaster stickshift to a Logitech wheel, but I'm not sure it makes much sense).
Olivier Vandebroucke on 6/27/2020 11:23 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
Good to know that steering wheel controlers have finally become decent... Sure, not from all manufactureres, but that beats having no good steering wheels at all. I mean, the last time I was satisfied with one of these, I was using it to play Midtown Madness 2 on Windows 98! Right now, I'm playing on a laptop, but since I was eyeing this property in Spain https://tranio.com/spain/ as I'll soon be able to work from home, I'll be able to have a dedicated gaming/hobby room and get myself a real, full-blown gaming desktop PC for which it'll be possible to use that kind of big accessories without losing a third of the free space in my flat.
Jack Parkin on 6/30/2020 11:40 AM · Permalink · Report
As far as game controllers go, this is the best choice. You will not be making a mistake.