FSForce with Microsoft Sidewinder 2 force feedback joystick compatibility issues

[Deltaair1212 53]

I need help from the sim community. I purchased FSForce for my sidewinder 2 joystick about two weeks ago. I was looking for a program that alters the forces in FS to make them more realistic and I found that program. Anyways, long story short, I was loosing forces whenever I would takeoff, and most of the time, whenever I would start a flight, my forces would not be correct as to what I had set in the program... or just not be there at all. I wrote to the author of the program, Dirk, and explained my situation. After some back and fourth over some emails, he finally tells me that some MSFF2 joysticks experience the issue of lost forces. He tells me it comes and goes and there are some that have reported this issue, but nobody with this issue has came forward and said if it has been fixed on their end. So I am asking if ANYONE with a MSFF2 joystick has had any issues with forces with the program FSForce, to please come forward and let me know if you are still experiencing loss of forces and if not how did you get your joystick to work properly with the program. Thank you in advance for your help guys! 

[vortex681 806]

 

On the rare occasions that I've lost the forces in FSX, I found that going into the FS Force menu and restarting FS Force restored them immediately. It's worth persevering with FS Force because it makes the forces so much more realistic than the default forces which are, frankly, rubbish. I don't think that it's specifically a problem with FS Force as the forces sometimes (again, very rarely) disappear briefly with other sims/games as well - not often enough to make me even consider not using the FFB2 joystick, though!

As an afterthought, are you connecting your joystick directly or through a hub? Do you have any other hardware connected for FSX?

[Deltaair1212 53]

What exactly is a hub? And I guess my joystick is just plug and play it's not connected through anything. I deleted FSUIPC4 to see if that helps but still loosing forces during gameplay often. I'm at my wits end. I want it to work because the program is so expensive but it's so buggy. 

[vortex681 806]

Sorry, I was editing my original post whe you posted your reply. A hub is a small box which contains a number of extra USB ports and plugs into a single  USB port on your computer.

As I said above, in the bit I edited, I don't think that it's specifically a problem with FS Force as the forces sometimes (again, very rarely) disappear briefly for me with other sims/games as well. I definitely wouldn't call FS Force buggy. What version of Windows are you using? Have you tried plugging your joystick into a different USB port?

Out of interest, did the FS Force demo work OK for you?

[Deltaair1212 53]

I am using windows 10, and the demo worked fine, I just have a problem with loosing forces once I leave the ground. I also loose forces periodically after loading a flight. It's just not a consistent program for me. I contacted the author and he at first flat out told me my joystick was inop. Then I grabbed a friends sidewinder 2 and tested his out on my computer and I STILL had the same issues. I emailed Dirk again and told him this and that's when he comes out and says "oh well, there has been a known issue with some sidewinders and FSForce". Okay well why didn't you tell me this before??? So I have spent about a week trying to fix this issue with no help from the author and I'm not sure what else to do. This program is over 50% more expensive than what I even paid for FSX so I want it to work properly. I emailed him about a refund and he refuses all because I stated in one of my emails that when I reset FSForce my forces come back on the ground but when I take off they are still not present at times. 

[Muklum 28]

This is probably a silly suggestion, but I assume you know that the forces disappear if there is nothing interrupting the beam at the front of the joystick handle, i.e. if you remove your hand from the joystick?

[Deltaair1212 53]

Hahahaha yeah I know this. It wasn't a stupid question, I'm dealing with a stupid situation so anything is worth mentioning. Whenever I have my hand on the yoke and I rotate off of the ground, my yoke goes limp. I go from my yoke having a good Force feel to it, to no forces at all. The green light is still bright solid on my stick. 

[vortex681 806]

Did you try it in another USB port?

It sounds as if it shouldn't be related but on another forum someone solved this problem by installing the latest drivers for his graphics card - got to be worth a try (use the clean install option).

[Deltaair1212 53]

Yeah. Even tried a regular one and a 2.0 one

[Deltaair1212 53]

And yeah I'll do a clean install of my latest graphics driver. I usually try to update them frequently anyways. I think the last NVIDIA driver gave me not so good frame rates though. 

[warning23 1]

Same problem here with two different sticks.

I also contacted the autor and the same result, useless.

 

 

Truth is his code is just not very good and when other addons that use simconnect are in play the program has problems.

 

Overall i wouldn´t reccomend this program and it also cannot reproduce stab trim like in a 737 so it is only usefull if you fly light planes.

[vortex681 806]

19 minutes ago, warning23 said:

Truth is his code is just not very good and when other addons that use simconnect are in play the program has problems.

A lot of users, including me, would disagree with you. FS Force has worked flawlessly for me since I bought it a couple of years ago. I'm sorry that it doesn't work for you but the fact that it works well for so many others would tend to point to something else on your system interfering with it rather than any problem with the software itself.

Have you checked your CPU load when flying?

[Deltaair1212 53]

Well I know it’s been a while but still no luck on my situation. I have since moved to P3Dv4.1, and I have changed my GPU since also. I went from a EVGA GTX960SSC to a MSI GTX1060 Gaming X. I actually loose forces more frequently now than ever before so it has not gotten any better. The author, Dirk, still denies that his program is faulty and will not help try to resolve the issue. I even found an (expensive) never used MSFFB2 joystick still in its original packaging and everything on eBay. Hooked her up and still the same blotchy forces. I actually did some digging g and I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to DirectX itself. I think this is where the problems lay....