MS Sidewinder FF Wheel preset [MOD]

[Case]

**EDIT: SEE MY COMMENT BELOW - DOING THIS APPARENTLY DOESN'T ALLOW YOU TO PLAY ONLINE AS THE GAME PROBABLY DETECTS THE MODIFICATION OF THE FILE AND THINKS YOU'RE CHEATING!**

So, I was quickly becoming annoyed of the fact that every single time I start the game, I have to go to the Controls config and redo the configuration for my wheel pretty much from the start, as the game resets its controller config based on what controller you use to enter the game. Additionally, when using the wheel with the default Direct Input controller preset, some menu functions become unavailable, as the wheel does not have the buttons the profile seems to expect - so you can't for example change the car livery or access the perks menu (not even using the keyboard).

Seeing as there are obviously some kind of presets available to choose from, but no way to save your settings as one, I decided to poke around a bit and hopefully add a custom preset for my wheel.

Turned out this was rather easy to do, even if it requires a tiny modification of one game file (and adding a second one not currently present).

So for those currently stuck with this pretty old, but still quite functional wheel, like I am, here's what you need to do.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT AFFECT IN-GAME FFB IN ANY WAY!

First, download this tiny ZIP file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/om7xwy1txcytgxo/mswheel_dr.zip?dl=0

Inside the ZIP, you'll find two files - paths.xml and ms_sidewinder_ff.xml. What you need to do with these is pretty simple. You just need to copy both of those files to the /input dir of your game install - for example (depending on where you have your Steam installed) to "C:\Games\Steam\Steamapps\common\DiRT Rally\input". The file paths.xml is already there - I suggest you make a backup first, just in case.

And that's really it. When you start the game now with your wheel connected, you can see the new preset available in the controller preset selection screen. It doesn't have a nice name (I couldn't find where to define the menu item for the new preset), it's just there as <LNG_MSFFB_DEFAULT>:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-q2S4-Ld6nXE/VWZOhv1F1qI/AAAAAAAA8ec/NagJq3KhZnA/w1596-h998-no/drt_2015_05_27_23_44_38_211.png

Don't worry about it, just select it anyway.

The preset pretty much sets everything up (according to my preference, that is - but it's pretty easy to customize if you take a look into that ms_sidewinder_ff.xml file).

Steering, brake and throttle are set at 0 % deadzone, 100 % saturation. Steering linearity is not part of the preset, so you can set it to your liking (I like setting it to -2).

In-game controls are set as follows:

A - Handbrake
B - Instant replay
C - Recover car
X - Pause menu
Y - Look back
Z - Switch view
Right paddle shifter - Gear up
Left paddle shifter - Gear down

Menus can be navigated by turning the wheel and pressing the pedals - brake is down, throttle is up, wheel is left and right. The game prompts tell you the rest. For accessing the previously unavailable functions, you use paddle shifters (game identifies them as buttons 7 and 8):

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Iapsa-oAads/VWZQNf7_nXI/AAAAAAAA8e8/Z8KZRb-X82s/w1596-h998-no/drt_2015_05_28_00_16_53_580.png

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kzgKfKJAO_I/VWZOjlx8y6I/AAAAAAAA8ew/VKFVj2eb-Eo/w1596-h998-no/drt_2015_05_28_00_17_36_493.png

And the added bonus - I've added the mapping of Z button as "Start" button. Which means that if you start the game and it asks you to "Press Start or Enter", you can just press Z and you're instantly good to go, as the game doesn't reset the controller config when you do this instead of pressing Enter on keyboard.

I fully expect that this will eventually become unnecessary, but until then, this will certainly help me from going crazy. Maybe it'll help someone else as well (I've seen some people mentioning the Sidewinder FFB Wheel in the "What wheel do you use" thread here).

[Mangostain]

I used to have this wheel (very late) from 2009-2012, played Dirt 2 and D3 with this, it's amazing, just wow! Long live to the king Sidewinder FFB Wheel

[Case]

Can't really complain, had this thing since something like 1999 and it's still as dependable as ever. It never ceases to amaze me. If only it had 900 degree support, was less noisy and was still properly supported by Microsoft.

[Zakalwe]

Nice one! It's a brilliant FFB wheel. I use a T300 mostly, but the Sidewinder FFB wheel and joystick are still incredibly good devices. Tough to get the wheel to work on a modern game at times, but always worth it. So powerful!

[Case]

Yep, it can be a hassle sometimes. I was actually surprised to find that it works more or less fine in Dirt Rally, apart from those issues I've mentioned, which are more or less minor and can be worked around.

In some other games it can be a pain.

[Case]

OK, so...beware.

Modyfing the paths.xml files obviously triggers some kind of anti-cheating detection and if you do that, the game won't let you play online until you reverse the change :(

So if you want to play online, you can't use this modded profile and therefore still need to configure the wheel at every startup while not having some of the menu functions available.

I do kinda understand why that is, but...♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this sucks :(

[Zakalwe]

Good, because I really enjoy the sub-game of trying to select the Y calibration axis as it scrolls past at light speed in settings...every time.

Not ;-)

[Case]

What do you mean? I don't recall doing anything like that.

[Zakalwe]

Really? In Grid Autosport and Dirt Rally, my SWFFB constantly scrolls through the menus. I'm not the only one either! The only way you can fix it is to re-assign each wheel switch and axis in turn. No Easy thing when the menus are zooming past. You can just about control the scrolling by half pressing the accelerator, but makes it tough to assign the break pedal to anything other than the....accelerator.

[Case]

Can't speak for Autosport, but no such thing happens to me in DR.

[blazngun]

Case, you can copy and paste the text from your sidewinder xml into one of the other wheel files and game will save!!!! Had to do this for my accuforce and csp v2's, so I could finally start a career. Big thanks to Richard M. for stumbling upon this. I used the logi momo xml as a donor. be sure to change your paths.xml back and delete the sidewinder xml after your done.

[Case]

Yeah, I thought about trying that, but I didn't have time to try that, I'm currently awfully busy. I've already spent more time than I should yesterday veryfying that the online problem is indeed caused by this. Will try as soon as I can (which will be sometimes next week at best).

But thanks for the tip.

[Henser]

It worked for me but now i am trying to use it but it does not work

[Case]

You're replying to a thread that's almost year and a half old. The game is in a very different state right now, so it's really not that surprising that such an old mod no longer works.