Linux steering wheels FFB support

Ranks

Ranks are based on user testing and results may vary due to differences in the hardware.

Platinum

Works fully with the recommended driver with extensive testing. Most common FFB effects implemented.

Gold

Works fully but it's less tested and there might be some minor issues. Most common FFB effects implemented.

Silver

Works almost fully. Some FFB effects might be missing or some other significant issues which might be important in some cases. Workarounds might be available.

Bronze

Major bugs or missing FFB effects which limit its use. It might be enough in some cases but it's far from fully working.

Broken

The device might be recognized as a gamepad/joystick but there's no FFB.

(empty)

Device not tested at all. May be working, may be not. Contributions welcome!

Table of compatibility

Read also related sections for each driver below for more information.

[^1]: Not supported by default driver. Use patched driver. [^2]: Default driver lacks most effects. Use patched driver. [^3]: Not supported by default driver. Use patched driver. [^3]: Not supported by default driver. Use patched driver. [^5]: HID PID with caveats. Use patched driver. [^6]: Only works with firmware versions up to v159. [^7]: Custom module hid-fanatecff [^8]: Full USB command queue errors. Using [ffbwrap]() can help in some situations. [^9]: Custom module hid-tmff2. [^10]: See section on joystick detection. [^11]: Read here about how to setup Simucube base. And a Success case. [^12]: No FFB out of the box due to duration issue. See hid-pidff section for workarounds, or use custom driver[^1]. [^13]: Only Wheel mode was tested by user.

hid-pidff

The kernel module hid-pidff implements the HID PID specification. HID PID is a standard for USB devices which includes FFB. Although this standard is several years old, most older and low end wheels don't implement it, but most high and some middle end wheels do.

Duration issue

The driver doesn't play any FFB effect out of the box due to a flaw in its API.

Although undocumented, Linux drivers and applications (including Wine) have always used value 0x0 for an infinite effect length, but the hid-pidff driver uses value 0xFFFF instead. When an effect with length 0x0 is uploaded, it plays no effect. The HID PID specification defines an infinite length effect with value 0xFFFF but this specification is for the hardware and isn't tied to Linux in any way.

Paul Dino has sent a patch to the Linux mailing list to fix the issue which is waiting approval.

To work around the issue without custom drivers you could use ffbwrap tool. For example, launch games with command: ffbwrap --duration-fix /dev/input/by-id/usb-Your-Wheel-event-joystick %command%

This issue is fixed in patched universal-pidff driver[^1].

a7 descriptor issue

Descriptor 0xa7 (effect delay) is not required for Windows HID PID implementation. Some manufacturers (including Simucube at first, later Simagic and Cammus) didn't implement that parameter in their firmware. But in Linux HID PID implementation 0xa7 descriptor is mandatory, and device without it can't be initialized with hid-pidff driver. Simucube fixed it in latest firmware (1.0.49).

Some devices will require a patched hid-pidff driver which removes 0xa7 descriptor requirement and enables FFB.

hid-logitech-hidpp

This module implements HID++, Logitech's own specification for FFB. It's used in wheel models compatible with XBox. This models do almost everything in hardware, while models using hid-logitech need assistance from the driver.

Queue full errors

In some games, when using this driver the FFB can lag behind so much that it's unbearable.

This driver sends commands to the wheel at the same rate they're sent by the game. When the game is sending FFB commands at a very fast rate the command queue fills and a warning message appears in dmesg about the full queue. As a consequence the FFB starts lagging behind and looses some FFB commands.

In some games, the rate at which the FFB commands are sent is tied to the frame rate, thus it may work well at lower frame rates but fill the queue at higher frame rates.

Some games allow to configure the rate at which FFB commands are sent. Lowering that value can help and even fix the issue.

ffbwrap can be used to work around it when the application can't be configured to send commands at a lower rate. Needs testing.

SDL

SDL tries to heuristically guess which devices are gamepads and ignores everything that doesn't look like one. This means wheels and pedals might be ignored by SDL. This has been partially fixed by adding a whitelist of wheels. This list has to be updated continuously with new models being tested.

Recent updates to SDL created SDL Hint variable to dynamically extend wheel devices list[^15]. You need to just export SDL_JOYSTICK_WHEEL_DEVICES=0x<VID>/0x<PID>,0x<VID2>/0x<PID2> before you launching something.

Wine/Proton caveats

Joystick detection

Even if the device is ranked well, there may be some small issues regarding SDL wheel detection in Steam.

Also, for devices not present in whitelist, Steam uses sandboxed SDL1.2 to detect devices. It has one small rule to detect all kinds of joysticks, function EV_IsJoystick(). And basically, for the device to be classed as a joystick, it must have either X and Y axes or a X and Y hat, and must have a trigger, A button, or 1 button. On some devices Y axis not exists (Logitech G Pro), and therefore, for SDL, that device is not a joystick and no need to forward it to the game. Native apps will work perfectly, Wine apps too, but not Steam+Proton games. We could fix it by changing descriptor axis, something like rename Rz to Y, and wheel will work in Proton now

The environment variable SDL_JOYSTICK_WHEEL_DEVICES can be used to fix it.

Link to the Proton issue

Steam settings for ~all devices and ~all games

1. Turn Steam Input off in game settings

2. Use recent Proton version for non-native games. 7 version known for having issues with HID devices detection.

3. If game does not detect your device, try setting SDL Hint environment variable in game launch command like so:

   SDL_JOYSTICK_WHEEL_DEVICES=0x<VID>/0x<PID> %command%

   This is only relevant for devices which are, for various reasons, not in a SDL whitelist[^14] (yet), or for older Steam runtime versions which does not have updated SDL library.

4. If none of that worked, create an issue, where members of the community will try to help you with your specific game

Links

• Logitech FFb Protocol v1.6.
• hid-logitech-hidpp kernel module.
• hid-pidff kernel module
• OpenFFBoard.

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