OK, here's the deal, i got a game, X3 - The Reunion, for Xmass. It's a space fighter sim. Anyways, i have a Microsoft Force Feedback 2 joystick. The joystick is in perfect order, and works fine for all other games.

However, as with X2 (the previous X game) this new X3 game somehow disables the joystick's "return to center" (spring back tension) function. This makes the joystick loosey goosey and wobbly to the point that it's virtually useless. you pull it back (or any direction) and let it go and it just stays there, there's no tension.

Anyways, here's what i'm after. A while back, when i played X2, i came across a software program (i can't remember the name, who made it, or where i got it, or what such a program would be reffered to as) that you could install and load prior to launching a game. The program would run in the background and control the joystick's functions rather than the game. That would allow the joystick to retain it's tension and all it's functions during the game.

So like i said, does anyone know of such a program? Or where i could find it? Or what such a program would even be called so i could google it? Please i'm desprate here, PLEASE HELP!

bump

What the heck? I'm not going to be of any help to you, but I have to post here. I'm way to curious. Are you telling me that you pull up and the stick just stays there until you PHYSICALLY move it back? I thought joysticks just had a spring and unless it was broken, the joystick would always return to centre. Are you telling me that this "tension" is software-controlled and that in all other games you play, the stick springs back to the centre position? I just can't see any joystick being so sophisticated that the drivers/software control an electric device in the joystick itself that controls a spring.

Am I just behind the times?

A 'normal' joystick has springs that automatically center it. A 'force feedback' joystick has servos controlled by software to give you feedback in your hand. That way when the missle explodes just outside your cockpit, the stick jerks.

No comment. 8)

Mike.