PC Buyer's Guide recommends: feel the force!
Product: CH Products ForceFX joystick
From: CH Products
Version tested: CH: 1.03
Price: about US$80 (street)
Pros: Improved realism. Joystick is said to be identical to the kind used in a real jet fighter. "Dead man's grip" sensor in handle makes force effects stop when stick is released.
Cons: Limited "Force FX" games support, although a generic LoadFX patch can add "recoil" and other effects to any game when a joystick button is pressed.
Summary: A growing number of games, such as Descent II, JetFighter III, Time Commando, Tomb Raider, Microsoft Flight Simulator 98, CART Precision Racing, and EA's Need For Speed II include support for a new type of joystick that contains small motors that allow the joystick to provide force feedback, say, when you press the fire button or crash your ship. In this Technology Preview, we look at two of these new devices, the CH Products ForceFX and the Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback joystick.
The ForceFX uses the Immersion Corporation "I-Force" force feedback system to provide its effects. As usual, Microsoft came up with its own system. It is important to note that just because a game supports one type of Force Feedback stick does not necessarily mean it will support another brand.
In some cases, you must manually add a driver or patch to the game; in other cases, the games automatically recognize the device. For example, the I-Force driver is automatically copied to the Need For Speed II directory during that game's installation. Future force-feedback devices
which use the "I-Force" driver should also be supported, although the game developers obviously have no way of
guaranteeing compatibility with future controllers.
In NFSII, we simply ensured that our joystick was configured properly under Windows 95, all joystick cables were
properly attached, and ran the game. From the main menu, we selected OPTIONS, then CONTROLS, and
then FORCE FEEDBACK. A message saying "Auto detecting" appeared as the game looked
for our force feedback joystick. (The message "Device not found" appears if the joystick is
not detected - double-check your joystick configuration in Windows 95 is correct and try
again.)
Fortunately, it detected the joystick on our system. A force-feedback sensitivity menu appeared. We used our mouse
to select the desired force level (maximum force is exerted when the bar is all the way
to the right, and all forces are disabled when the bar is all the way to the left. This allows you to select
this level if you want to use your force feedback controller as a normal analog joystick without any forces.
When you change the settings of a Force Feedback joystick in a supported game, you will notice some resistance on the joystick as you change the effects level. As soon as you begin playing, you should notice the effects immediately. If
you do not, double-check your settings and effects level.
Product: SideWinder Force Feedback
From: Microsoft.
Version tested: 2.0
Price: about US$100 (street)
Pros: Motorized joystick "pushes back" for improved realism. Does not require serial port (although an optional serial adapter is available for those without MIDI control capabilities.). Very good software features loading and saving of FX profiles for various games. Cessna- and Lear Jet-specific effects for Flight Simulator 98. Better "Dead man's grip" than CH stick.
Cons: Extremely noisy fan. (Can be disconnected by following instructions available at http://w3.one.net/~mszabo/forceone/.)
Control not as good as CH stick. Did not work with Terratec EWS64XL unless drive-bay MIDI interface module was detached.
On Feb. 3, Microsoft and Immersion, developers of the I-Force standard use in the ForceFX stick and several other non-Microsoft "force feedback" products, announced that they were abandoning their proprietary strategies and would work together on building support for a single standard for force feedback support into Microsoft's DirectX 6.0. Details at CGO.
At the NAMM music show, an interesting application of force feedback was shown at the Digital Audio Labs booth, where the company's V8 system was demonstrated with surround panning controlled by the Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback motorized joystick, which pushes back at you as you move off-center. Cool!
For Further Reading
Flight Simulators - The Ultimate Flight Hardware Set-Ups To Make Your Desktop Soar
Games Controllers - Pedals to the Metal. A review of advanced game control devices
Send comments, disagreements, or your own picks and pans to gben...@istar.ca.
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