NOTE: For those that may not be active in ED forums and using an Xbox360 or PS4 when travelling or as an intermediate setup.
To all those that may be interested,
I have been forced to failback to PS4 controller (Using DS4windows so it is recognised as XInput device) as my Warthog stick is out of comission, and whilst I look for a suitable replacement, this may be my main mode of operation. Now funnily enough, the experience is not bad at all when combined with the Warthog throttle and dedicated rudder pedals. I mostly tinker with warbirds and F-14. Precise control over pitch and roll is achievable with slight curvature tuning. Very happy with it, indeed.
Now, as I’ll be using this for a while I started looking at ways of leveraging game’s FFB shake effects with the rumble motors present int the controller so as to experience any effects that the module may produce, such as AOA buffet etc. After some research, I came across a Japanese developer that has produced DirectInput force feedback driver for XInput (see link below, scanned for viruses - all clear).
Once installed, I enabled Force Feedback in DCS and fired up the F-14 (ensuring ‘Use FFB Trim Implementation’ is UNCHECKED in the module’s special tab). The results…OMG, I love it! The rumble is introduced with varying levels of intensity dependent on the AOA and at least appears to perfectly match the cockpit’s visual and aural shaking effects. You must try it. Obviously this has led me to start looking into proper FFB stick products out there :-).
There are some caveats though. I have tested this with warbirds as well. The AOA buffet effects are experienced in Bf109, Spitfire, Thunderbolt, Mustang. HOWEVER - it seems that elevator trim function is only possible in the Bf109 (maybe due to the way trim is implemented in that module). In all other modules mentioned above, trim wheel turns but has no effect whatsoever. It would be great if these modules could implement Heatblur’s method of having FFB trim optional when Force Feedback is selected, so that we can at least experience effects (unless there is an undocumented workaround).
The link for the driver is below - give it a shot. I used xi.win7.x64.en.msi for Windows 10.
http://lavendy.net/special/driver/xi/index.html
HAVE FUN!!!