Linux force feedback wheel support

[stenyak]

Nice, is the lib going to be independent from vDrift? part of SDL? OIS?

[thelusiv]

Yes, it will be independent from VDrift, probably part of SDL. I contacted WreckedGames about OIS and received no response.

Edit: There's now an invert force feedback option in SVN r1586, and I've added that and the force feedback gain option to the Options -> Controls -> Joystick menu. These are present but disabled by default, only if you have compiled VDrift with force feedback support will these menu items be enabled.

[Kada]

There is something wrong with reading/writing controls assigment in the latest svn version. I have to assign all controls again every time I start vdrift. Force feedback doesn't work, see the end of this log:

Code:

$ vdrift        
BinReloc successfully initialized.
Executable path: /home/kada/.local/share/games/vdrift/bin/vdrift
Data dir: /home/kada/.local/share/games/vdrift/data
Localedir: /home/kada/.local/share/games/vdrift/share/locale
No data_dir found in VDrift.config, using /home/kada/.local/share/games/vdrift/d
ata
Found config file /home/kada/.vdrift/controls.
Found config file /home/kada/.vdrift/VDrift.config.
No data_dir found in VDrift.config, using /home/kada/.local/share/games/vdrift/d
ata
Version of game: 2007-03-06
Skin name not found in config file...
Directory /home/kada/.local/share/games/vdrift/data/skins/.svn/menus does not ex
ist! Skin .svn not loaded.
Directory /home/kada/.local/share/games/vdrift/data/skins/SConscript/menus does
not exist! Skin SConscript not loaded.
Error: option-50 is missing its default value.
Error: option-50 bad or empty values type! this option will not have values.
Force feedback device: /dev/input/event3
Force feedback gain: 2
Force feedback inverted: 0
Run with -verbose for troubleshooting.
Run with -nosound to disable sound.
Run with -benchmark to play a replay and output benchmark data.
1 joystick(s) found:
    0. Logitech Inc. WingMan Formula Force GP
Unknown control type:
Multitexture: Yes
Texture units: 4
Antialiasing: Yes
Anisotropic texture filtering: Yes
Maximum Anisotropy: 8
Multitexture units (4 are required for all effects): 4
Your GPU meets the texture unit requirements.

Note to user:  All error messages will be put in /home/kada/.vdrift/logs/.
Unknown control type:
Force feedback device: /dev/input/event3
Force feedback gain: 2
Force feedback inverted: 0
ERROR: can not open  (No such file or directory) [src/forcefeedback.cpp:19]
Disabled force feedback.

I tried to discover, where the forcefeedback device string disapear (it's empty string, as you can see), but with no success.

[thelusiv]

Can you post your ~/.vdrift/controls file so we can figure out which control it doesn't like? Also the reason it can't read your joystick event device is probably that it is owned by root:root and you're running it as a user. My solution (on my Ubuntu system) was to change the ownership of the file to root:plugdev, since that's how the joystick devices are (just make sure your user is in the plugdev group, you already are if you're on Ubuntu). plugdev is a Debian thing so on other OS's...you're on your own. One bad solution would be running vdrift as root, since that would not use the settings you have in your home directory, instead it would make new ones (that are all owned by root).

[Noneus]

I have the sam problem with the force feedback stuff.

Code:

Force feedback device: /dev/input/event9
Force feedback gain: 2.01092
Force feedback inverted: 1
ERROR: can not open  (No such file or directory) [src/forcefeedback.cpp:19]
Disabled force feedback.

I gave my user the proper rights. I even tried chown myuser:users /dev/input/event9

I can use constant force effect with the gforce tool from http://madfab.free.fr/ff/

[Kada]

thelusiv: The problem is not in reading/writing rights of the device. The device string (as the parameter to the the class constructor) in src/forcefeedback.cpp:19 is empty, that is why "<epmpty>" "(No such file or directory)". I don't have vdrift here at the moment, I'll post my controls file later. I'm not sure, if it helps, because, as I wrote above, my controls are not saved and I have to assign them every time I run vdrift.

[jdeneux]

About assigning rights to /dev/input/event files: There are security issues related to that, since opening access to the /dev/input/event file of the keyboard may allow other users to see what you are typing.

Typically not a problem on a home pc though.

[thelusiv]

I figured out why the string was empty. I had restructured the way ff_ parameters were gotten out of the config file and saved in VAMOSWORLD...I moved the ff_device string into the class itself instead of just a local function variable, but then forgot to remove the local variable declaration, so the value was going into the local variable instead of the class-wide one...oops! :oops: Anyway give it a try now, it should work.

edit: Noneus: thanks for the link to gforce, I hadn't seen that.

[Kada]

Yes it works, It feels much better with ff_invert=1 (I have Logitech Wingman Formula Force GP).

I still have problem, that I have no controls assigned every time I start vdrift. The controls are saved in the controls file, but it seems that vdrift doesn't read them. If I just run vdrift and then exit without doint anythigh, then then the controls file is empty (almost -- comments remain). My ~/.vdrift/controls file:

Code:

#Generated by VDrift, feel free to edit manually

# joystick type:  wheel or joystick, touchiness compensation
joysticktype wheel low

# for a joystick button:
# [function name] joy [joystick number] button [button number] [true for not hel
d down, false for held down] [true to trigger when button is pressed, false to t
rigger when button is released]

# for a joystick axis:
# [function name] joy [joystick number] axis [axis number] [true for positive ax
is, false for negative axis] [deadzone] [exponent] [gain]

# for a keyboard key:
# [fuction name] key [key name as defined in lists/keys] [true for keys that are
n't held down, false for keys that are]  [true to trigger when key is pressed, f
alse to trigger when key is released]

off
disengage_shift_up joy 0 button 1 true true
disengage_shift_down joy 0 button 0 true true
engage joy 0 button 2 true false
gas joy 0 axis 2 positive 0 1 1
brake joy 0 axis 3 negative 0 1 1
steer_left joy 0 axis 0 negative 0 1 1
steer_right joy 0 axis 0 positive 0 1 1
start_engine joy 0 button 5 true true
handbrake joy 0 button 3 false true
pan_left key LEFT false true
pan_right key RIGHT false true
pan_up key UP false true
pan_down key DOWN false true
zoom_in key KP_PLUS false true
zoom_out key KP_MINUS false true
view_next_camera joy 0 button 4 true true

Maybe the "off" at the beginning is wrong?

[thelusiv]

Yes, the line with just "off" needs to go. I've been saying we need to change the controls file over to our "config" format (like VDrift.config, the menus, the options file) for a while...it's much more fail-proof. Anyway for comparison here's my ~/.vdrift/controls:

Code:

#Generated by VDrift, feel free to edit manually

# joystick type:  wheel or joystick, touchiness compensation
joysticktype joystick off

# for a joystick button:
# [function name] joy [joystick number] button [button number] [true for not held down, false for held down] [true to trigger when button is pressed, false to trigger when button is released]

# for a joystick axis:
# [function name] joy [joystick number] axis [axis number] [true for positive axis, false for negative axis] [deadzone] [exponent] [gain]

# for a keyboard key:
# [fuction name] key [key name as defined in lists/keys] [true for keys that aren't held down, false for keys that are]  [true to trigger when key is pressed, false to trigger when key is released]

screen_shot key F12 true true
screen_shot joy 0 button 1 true true
pan_left key KP4 false true
pan_right key KP6 false true
pan_up key KP8 false true
pan_down key KP2 false true
zoom_in key KP_PLUS false true
zoom_out key KP_MINUS false true
view_prev_camera joy 0 button 5 true true
view_next_camera joy 0 button 2 true true
view_hood key F1 true true
view_incar key F2 true true
view_chaserigid key F3 true true
view_chase key F4 true true
view_orbit key F5 true true
view_free key F6 true true
disengage_shift_up joy 0 button 7 true true
disengage_shift_down joy 0 button 6 true true
engage joy 0 button 6 true false
engage joy 0 button 7 true false
pause joy 0 button 8 true true
gas joy 0 axis 4 negative 0 1 1
brake joy 0 axis 4 positive 0.109646 1 1
steer_left joy 0 axis 0 negative 0.05 2.4 1
steer_right joy 0 axis 0 positive 0.05 2.4 1
start_engine joy 0 button 4 true true
handbrake joy 0 button 1 false true
abs_toggle joy 0 button 3 true true
tcs_toggle joy 0 button 0 true true

[jdeneux]

If this post looks like an ad, it's normal, it is an ad

libff is an old project on sourceforge which intended to develop a library providing force feedback over the kernel API. It was never very active, but it has also hosted kernel drivers and ff-utils.

New things happened recently, there is now a Wiki dedicated to force-feedback on Linux, which needs filling up:

http://libff.sf.net

I wrote a first page, but please feel free to add things which I forgot, or write the pages which do not yet exist.

[kyousai]

Is there already a way to get force feedback working on windows?