Logitech Force 3D Pro Joystick causes Stutter

[Kuky]

hey ManDay, I can't sy for certain for I think sometimes in the past I've read/heard someone saying force feedback has an issue with lockon. I was guessing it had to be some USB "thing" causing this, and I said it's probably just the joystick. And by the looks of it that's the case.

 

I don't know where and if you can find some other drivers for your joystick... probably not, but if there are my bet would be to contact joystick manufacturer and ask them... they might have some old drivers... if they don't... well interget searching might help. Other than that, maybe FF is not so much required for flying so if this remains unresolved you might as well fly without FF.

 

At least you get to play LockOn without the stutters and that's a big plus.

 

at last thought, if you use USB port to connect to modem, I'd try different firware/USB driver for that as well, of course, if some USB driver is required (although I doubt it). Just try different firmware... you never know, it could be modem/joystick driver conflict ...since you say it's during online play only.

[ManDay]

Hey. Regarding 1. (Lomac + FF) But isn't it strange that it all works fine in Singleplayer? I contaced Logitech already several times - but it's really hard to get supported there. They say I shall ask ED, ED says I shall ask them (kinda exaggerated - just to show what I mean). It's hard to find the actual problem if each one only knows one half of the issue.

 

Yes, of course I will rather fly without FF than not at all - just FF is something I really esteem. And furthermore it turns out to be a bigger problem if I play other games with FF, too - then I'll have to remove and add the drivers each time I want to play with FF again.

 

I tried everything I can with regards to my network. I changed from USB-WLAN to Ethernet etc. Didn't change. Thus I think it doesnt have to do with the networking itsself (among this - i can play other games with joystick online without problems). rather with lockon's netcode and the WOW46-drivers.

 

as I said, the main problem is that ED only knows their half of the deal - meanwhile logitech only knows their half - no overlapping at all.

 

 

Just to finish this up to now - I'll quote what I just wrote a logitech supporter:

 

Dear ....,

thank you for beeing willing to help me. I cannot remember my case-ID, if you wish I can re-submit a support-request. But meanwhile let me describe my problem, as I achieved some progress with it since then, too.

 

My specs:

Joystick: Logitech Force 3D Pro (PID: AA000A0, P/N: 000000-0000)

Operating System: Windows XP x64

Chipset: NVidia NForce 4 Ultra

 

The problem:

You know there are always two different drivers for x64 operating systems: One is the recomment x64 driver located in the system32 directory (which doesnt make sense, but the naming is not my problem). The other is the x32 compatible driver located in the "compatibility-systemfolder" SysWOW64.

In my case the x64 driver for Force-Feedback is called "WmJoyFrc" while the other one is the same as a default x32b OS driver called "WmJoyF32" (under 32b OS it's called "WmJoyFrc" of course and therefore located in the system32-dir).

 

Without those drivers installed/available force-feedback is not working but the joystick can be used because windows uses its default (HID-)drivers. Those default-drivers are produced and signed by microsoft.

Installing the Logitech-Suite for the joystick and its drivers surprisingly changed nothing with the default-drivers - these are just left the same.

The only thing changing is that the WmJoyFxx.dll's are getting added to the list of used drivers. Force feeback works then but in the game called "Lock On" (lockon.ru), which is a 32b application, the multiplayer games are starting to kinda "stutter".

 

I traced this problem down to a thread responsible for networking-operation which is part of the lockon.exe module. This thread is also making use of wow64-drivers for compatibility. Breaking this thread in Lock On will break the connection to the server and stop the stuttering.

 

So finally there are two ways to stop this stuttering:

 

1.) Kill the thread in lockon.exe => Connection to server splits

2.) Delete the "WmJoyF32.dll" in the WOW-System => Force Feedback stops working

 

I conclude that the 32b-WOW-Driver is causing those stutters in conjuction with the netcode-thread of lock-on. As I had reports of people who used the same joystick on 32b-Systems I think, it's a problem with your 32b-Driver.

 

[.,.]