Rise of Flight and TrackIR

[WhiskeyBravo]

I don't visit these forums very often and it's a testament to the reliability of the excellent TrackIR series, however, I have recently experienced an issue which I have seen others also experiencing with Rise of Flight.

With WinXP I had TrackIR nicely setup, smooth and just right for me. Since upgrading to Win7 i'm getting the stutters that I've seen mentioned by other users on other forums. It's not the game stuttering as all is smooth when looking in one direction but when panning with TrackIR it's a bit jerky.

I'm using TrackIR Pro 3 with the latest 4.1.037 drivers. I've read that it could be a combined TrackIR/MSFFB joystick issue but I'm loathe to lose my FFB stick.

Hopefully the v5.1 TrackIR s/w will solve the issue.

Can anybody form Naturalpoint shed any light on this issue?


Regards,

WB.

[VincentG]

Do you get the issue, when not running the FFB stick, for testing?

Are you using FFB software?

[WhiskeyBravo]

Hi Vincent, thanks for the reply. It would seem that the issue is indeed FFB related. If I switch FFB off I'm back to my smooth panning Trackir.

Having said that it may also be a Win7 issue. My problem only started after installing Win7. Beforehand with exactly the same hardware on WinXP everything was fine and dandy. Now with Win7 (64bit version) I get the stutters with FFB enabled.

I am not using any FFB software other than whatever Win7 uses for the stick - a MSFFB2.

Is there a release date yet for the 5.1 software for us 3 and 3 Pro users?

Regards,

WB.

[VincentG]

Nope, no release date set for the 5.1 stuff.

[W1ndy]

I can confirm the same thing. Win7 64 , M$ FF2 stick ;

TrackIR stutter with forcefeedback enabled, stutter gone with it un-enabled.

Using the Win 7 input controller software, as the old M$ software needs compatibility changes to run. TBH I haven't tried using the old software in Win 7

[TaipaN_]

I am also experiencing this issue with force feedback and trackir in Rise of Flight.

Many others are, and there are lots of posts on the ROF forum about it. Nobody is close to isolating it other than the combination of force feedback and trackir. Some blame Windows 7 but for me it happened on XP 32 too.

If I turn off trackir, my forcefeedback still on, then no stutters and everything is fine.

As soon as I used trackir, it's back.

The different things I have tried of which none worked:
1. Combinations of in-powered-hub, or on-motherboard USB ports
2. USB controller card
3. Unplug all other USB devices
4. Hat track only, without track-clip
5. Dual-boot Windows XP 32 bit!
6. Different powerpoints for force feedback
7. Onboard sound instead of G35 headset
8. Reducing FFB shake to near zero
9. XP Compatibility mode
10. Administrator mode
11. Med/High/Realtime priority for ROF and Trackir
12. Different CPU affinity for ROF and Trackir
13. No anti-aliasing, No anisotropic filtering, no reflections etc.
14. Locked frame rate with no vsync
15. Hyperthreading on/off.

Sadly, after configuring all 15 of the above, and several combinations thereof, each time I tested quick mission there were stutters.

The only thing I can think of, is FFB and Trackir are conflicting when fighting for interupts on the USB bus.

About 1/4 of the people with this combination in ROF can get it to work, but we don't know how.

It could be the luck of which addresses/interupts are assigned.

Is there a way to test/change what bus/controller/interupt the trackir is on? Is there any settings we could change in the registry to help?

My system:
Trackir 5, with Trackir 5 software (not beta).
Windows 7 64bbit dual boot Windows XP 32bit
Intel i7 2.66Ghz
6GB RAM
VelociRaptor hard drive
Nvidia GTX 295

Many Thanks

[VincentG]

What happens if you turn the FFB shake to 0?

Have you tried disabling the hat controller, for view control?

[TaipaN_]

Hi Vincent,

FFB shake to 0 is not tested, only FFB off. To be honest without the shake there is no point to having FFB since it's the shake that warns of the stall or airplane surface damage.

How do I disable the hat controller? I only know how to switch between trackclip and hat. I have tested both with no difference.

Also some more tests I did today:
1. Precision mode change to standard mode = MUCH worse. Precision was actually smoothing some of the stutters
2. Smoothing to 0 and also tested on max. Still stutters on both settings, however 0 was much worse.
3. Turned off USB power saving feature in Windows 7.
4. Tried different trackir profiles
5. Close Fraps, Closed Logitech G15 LCD app, Closed virus scanner and all other background programs
6. Replaced G15 keyboard with old $15 keyboard.
7. Reset bios defaults

No luck..

If the others could post their hardware maybe we might find some similarities. Since it works for some people, it may be a specific component that is also causing conflict like a motherboard.

My hardware:

Corsair HX-1000 SLI certified power supply
Asus P6T standard motherboard
Intel i7 2.66Ghz (one of the early ones)
Nvidia GTX 295
6GB RAM
Logitech G9 laser mouse
Logitech G15 keyboard
Simped Rudder Pedals
CH Products Throttle Set
30" and 22" Monitor (only one for games though, fullscreen mode)
Trackir 5
MS Sidewinder ForceFeedback 2

[Seth Steiling]

The hat switch for your joystick isn't something that you can adjust within the TrackIR software (like the TrackClip and TrackClip PRO). It's something you'll need to either disable in the joystick configuration software, or un-map in the Rise of Flight software (likely the latter will be a better fix). I haven't explored this, but ROF should have a button mapping or configuration section. Look for the pov switch/hat switch entry and see if it's mapped to "camera view," "point of view," "cockpit view," "yaw/pitch," etc. If you can just disable or remove this mapping, that might address your problem.

What we're thinking is that, it's possible that the hat switch is being slightly activated by the force feedback vibration. If it's vibrated on/off slightly, that could force it to try and take over the view control from TrackIR very rapidly, causing stutters. This isn't a sure thing, but it's a possibility, so it's a good additional test to run.

[TaipaN_]

Hi Seth,

Sounded like a good idea!

I tested it just now, disabled all the POV movements on the input profile, but it's not that unfortunately it still stutters.

Just for good measure I also disabled any other view inputs that aren't on keyboard, i.e. all mouse panning etc.

So trackir is the only thing that pans.

I also tried Vincent's suggestion of Shake at 0, which also doesn't make a difference.

Another thing I've now tried is turning up or down "Maximum Pre-rendered frames" in the nvidia control panel, with no effect.