Fg-Haptic

Force feedback (haptic) support for Flight Gear flight simulator Version 0.1.1 Copyright Lauri Peltonen, 2011

This program is released under GPLv2 or later.

Description

This force feedback support consists of 4 components:

• fg-haptic or fg-haptic.exe
• force-feedback.xml
• force-feedback.nas
• ff-protocol.xml

fg-haptic or fg-haptic.exe is the main program, which supports force feedback devices through SDL 1.3 library.

force-feedback.xml is a configuration utility which resides inside Flight Gear's data directory.

force-feedback.nas is a wrapper between different flight dynamics models etc. and the force feedback effects.

ff-protocol.xml is a generic IO protocol which fg-haptic uses to communicate with flight Gear.

This program has been tested with following devices:

• Saitek Cyborg Evo Force (Linux)

  • Does not support updating effects while running which makes pilot/surface forces feel bad
  • All effects supported
  • Needs special kernel patch (for kernel 3.0.0)

• Gametech "Twin USB Joystick" gamepad with rumble effect (Linux)

  • Supports only stick shaker, if gain & strength are around 1.0
  • Does not have axis (so 1?) but claims to have 2

• Logitech Driving Force GT wheel (Linux)

  • Supports only constant forces
  • Really has 1 axis only, but calims to have 2

• Logitech Wingman Force 3D (Linux)

  • Supports only constant forces

• Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 (Linux)

  • Supports numerous modes including constant force and stick shaker

Building

Required libraries:

• libsdl2-dev
• libsdl2-net-dev

fg-haptic should build by running:

make fg-haptic

For windows, you might need to set EXE=.exe also, i.e.:

make fg-haptic EXE=.exe

Installation

fg-haptic(.exe) can reside anywhere on your system.

force-feedback.xml must be copied into gui/dialogs/ directory inside Flight Gear's data directory.

force-feedback.nas must be copied into Nasal/ directory inside Flight Gear's data directory.

ff-protocol.xml must be copied into Protocol/ directory inside Flight Gear's data directory.

Running

First run fg-haptic(.exe).

Then launch flightgear with at least the following options:

fgfs --telnet=5401 --generic=socket,out,20,localhost,5402,tcp,ff-protocol

If FlightGear's menu is not visible, press F10 to display it. In the Help menu you can find Force feedback options. Tune them to your liking and fly!

To test force feedback effects, run

fg-haptic --test or fg-haptic -t

which tests all effects on all connected joysticks.