Controller Limits

Discussion in 'Wish Lists' started by Derek Speare, Nov 5, 2011.

  1. Derek Speare

    Derek Speare Registered

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    Hi gang,

    Some of you who know me know that I make a few components for sim racing fans. Many of my customers are rFactor enthusiasts. Some have reported to me that there is a limitation on input controllers for this title, and that limit is three input devices. To overcome this limit, I recommend to my customers a program which remaps button inputs to keyboard keys, Xpadder being the one I endorse.

    I'm writing specifically to suggest that rFactor2 be free of this limitation and allow as many input controllers to the sim as connected. It's not uncommon for an rFactor driver to have a wheel, pedals, shifter, SLI board and two of my USB devices connected to his rig. In some titles, it's not an issue. I am certain in rFactor2, it will be just as easy.

    Thank you,

    Derek Speare
     
  2. ADSTA

    ADSTA Registered

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    I'm surprised there have been no replies to this.
    I'm not really surprised who started the thread though, Mr Gadget himself. Hi Derek.

    I must admit the limitations on controllers in rF1 is starting to wear thin.
    Especially not being able to assign controllers in a rational order in Windows.
    Not much use having deadzone and sensitivity settings for a button box or shifter. Stupid Windows. :mad:

    As Derek mentioned though, rF2 should, hopefully, overcome this.

    Has anyone heard of any official comments on this subject? Search function didn't seem to help much.

    Looking forward to rF2 but no whinging from me as to when release will be.
    Plenty of other things in life to keep me busy. :cool:
     
  3. superbike81

    superbike81 Registered

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    I ran into this problem the other day with rFactor, and didn't know about Xpadder.

    I've got a button box from Derek, SLI-Pro, Thrustmaster shifter, Fanatec CSR (soon to be CSW), and I've had nothing but difficulty mapping the buttons to the game properly. Hopefully rFactor 2 doesn't have this limitation.
     
  4. ADSTA

    ADSTA Registered

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    I find it strange that almost no one seems interested in this.

    I haven't refined my telepathic senses enough to control a car yet, maybe I'm just behind the times. :confused:

    Just a simple official "yes, unlimited controllers will be supported" is all I'm after.

    Thank you.
     
  5. MarcG

    MarcG Registered

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    I seem to remember this being discussed somewhere before but cant find anything using Search, probably buried in an unrelated thread or one of the Q&A ones. Best bet is to simply wait for the Beta and see for yourself :)
     
  6. Timpreza

    Timpreza Registered

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    Yeah, I've been wondering about that too.
    My SST H-Shifter puts itself in front of my BRD pedals as controller 2 & 3. In rF you can only finetune the first 2 controllers, disabling me to adjust my pedal sensitivity and deadzones.
     
  7. PLAYLIFE

    PLAYLIFE Registered

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    I started thread along the same lines, logitech g13 gameboard support (wanted to know how many inputs or types would be supported). It's in the same page as this ones, maybe 10 threads down.
     
  8. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Bit late for this, but rFactor contains gizmos for a 3rd controller but they're not included in the standard GUI - adding a third tab and the controls isn't difficult once you get your head around the .OSC file. Obviously still not much good for 4th, 5th, 6th, ... :)
     
  9. isamu

    isamu Registered

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    Just wanna say thanks to Derek for starting this thread and making a great suggestion. I too, have suffered from this dilema on not just rFactor but in other games as well. Hopefully Tim Weatley reads and passes this idea onto the devs. It would make things a lot better for those of us with several USB devices connected.
     
  10. ADSTA

    ADSTA Registered

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  11. Marek Lesniak

    Marek Lesniak Car Team Staff Member

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    Yep, even though 4 controllers might be enough for most of rF community, rF 2 still should support more of them (like at least 8 or so) to provide enough room for all the guys with more racing USB stuff connected to their PCs.

    An example, how much can it be:
    - a wheel
    - pedals
    - a H shifter
    - a sequential shifter
    - a device like SLI-M module
    - a dashboard with some additional buttons
    There you go, 6 devices... and I didn't have to think too long about that list. For sure, there are guys with more devices wanting to use them in rF 2.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 22, 2011
  12. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Once the beta gets here and the guys have some time to read the forum (and answer questions) it might be worth asking whether the maximum of 4 is an enumeration thing or more of a GUI limitation; it doesn't seem too unlikely, especially in light of LesiU's example, that a few people could be affected by this.

    Of course I'm sure those people could get by to a large extent by mapping various buttons/controls to keys, and getting them into rF2 that way, but direct support would be much better.
     
  13. ADSTA

    ADSTA Registered

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    If you read the OP by Derek you may have noticed he says "In some titles, it's not an issue."
    He is talking about iRacing were controller limits is no problem.
    I know that's true from personal experience.

    It doesn't bother me that the release of rF2, be it open beta or final release, has been delayed.
    It does annoy me that I have to find this information from another site when this thread has been going since the start of November.
    /end rant.

    Edit: I just found the the Q&A that I saw at Race Department in the 'ISI in the news' Forum.
    Apologies.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 22, 2011
  14. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    I wasn't questioning whether it's a system thing, I was questioning whether something rF2 does by design imposes a limit, rather than just the GUI itself being an issue. Personally I think it's something they would look at 'fixing', but I could understand if it's not at the top of the list right now.
     
  15. Derek Speare

    Derek Speare Registered

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    Well - I learned this information by reading about it on RD. At least I can say we've had this thread for almost two months. Windows doesn't care how many gaming devices are connected to it, so why should a game running in it care? Anyhow, I won't complain, but it's not uncommon to run over 4 controllers, and many of my customers do regularly. I am looking forward to an eventual rF2, and I will continue to recommend XPadder to my customers who are rF/rF2 fans.

    Derek Speare

    EDIT to add:

    I can envision this:

    1 - wheel
    2 - pedals
    3 - shifter
    4 - button box
    5 - Leo SLI Device
    6 - Symprojects device
    7 - Handbrake
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 22, 2011
  16. CdnRacer

    CdnRacer Banned

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    Should ISI spend X amount of time catering to 20% of it's users? Either way I couldn't care any less. I've got a button box, wheel, pedals and keyboard. For me that is more than enough.
     
  17. Derek Speare

    Derek Speare Registered

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    Sure - if it sells 100k copies of the game, then indeed. Would you turn your nose up at 20,000 customers? I wouldn't do it to one.
     
    Ho3n3r likes this.
  18. CdnRacer

    CdnRacer Banned

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    Your opinion I suppose. Like I said I couldn't care any less. Someone who is going to be pissed off because 4 controllers isn't enough for them is probably next to impossible to please anyways. That's just my opinion though.

    Don't you think you're being a little over the top with the "turn your nose up" comment? Are you implying that ISI is turning their nose up at people who use 7 controllers? There might be certain restrictions with the software? Don't know shrug.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 22, 2011
  19. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Yeah, that's the thing. We know windows itself can handle pretty much unlimited devices, so the fact rF2 has a stated maximum (and rF1 has issues recognising inputs from more than 2/3, for that matter) suggests something in the way it's been made imposes an artificial limit. Maybe at some point in the development process someone picked a number for whatever reason, and it's never been revisited with everything else that's been worked on. Maybe there's some technical reason a greater number of controllers can't be supported with their code - though that does seem unlikely.

    Either way, I'm sure we'll get answers at some point.

    Oh, and I also think it's a bit of a shame we learnt the limit from the RD Q&A... although apparently some people didn't think it contained any news ;)
     
  20. Marek Lesniak

    Marek Lesniak Car Team Staff Member

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    If that's not an issue for you, then what are you doing here, in this thread?
    For some people, that limitation will force them to not use some of their simracing stuff. We are not talking here about support for casual racing game like TDU or NFS, where most people play on gamepads or keyboards (as steering wheels are pretty much useless). rF 2 is a sim, so it's obvious it should provide sufficent support for simracing hardware (at least for the most important - and various controllers are of that kind for sure).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 22, 2011

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