rec.autos.simulators

I am having an immensely irritating and seemingly unsolvable problem with my
PC and its controllers.  This is so serious that I am very disheartened and
sad (no, really - I am close to crying as I write this) that I cannot use
any of my driving simulators on my computer without having to manually
compensate for this problem.

I am forced to hold the steering wheel at about 10o to the left, or I will
go right in an arc roughly close to Curva Grande at Monza.  This is not due
to the individual game's car or controller setup.  This happens in all
driving and racing games on my PC (which all run under Windows 98 OEM).  Let
me give you guys some background, in numbered steps below, so you can see
how I went about narrowing this down.

1.    ThrustMaster Grand Prix 1 and CH GameStick working fine with Grand
Prix 2 and Wing
       Commander IV, going through a Sound Blaster 16 PnP gameport.
2.    I upgraded my computer from a 133MHz 586 to a 266MHz K6 MMX, and RAM
from 16
       to 32MB 100MHz SDRAM.
3.    Installed a clean Windows 98 OEM, and my applications.
4.    CH stick working fine, but the wheel seems to be sluggish in left-hand
turns (I would
       have to turn the wheel full lock to get around a given turn, but only
75% of right-hand
       lock when driving it backwards).  After calibrating dozens of times
with no results, I
       downloaded and installed ThrustMaster's ProPanel.  The wheel would
calibrate fine,
       and showed centered perfectly in the graph, and centered in games'
calibration, but
       when playing, the problem appeared.  The joystick, however, is dead
center in all
       games (including racing), even to this day.
5.    Passing it off as an old wheel on its way out, I purchased a
ThrustMaster NASCAR Pro
       wheel and pedal set.  This also seemed to have the problem, only now
the car would
       turn to the right if I didn't hold the wheel somewhat off-center.
6.    After reading some things on the Internet, and reading a few
magazines, I went back
       to the store to buy a ThrustMaster ACM Game Card.  I installed it,
disabled my previous
       gameport in the Device Manager, and went to play.  The problem
persisted, even after
       adjusting the dial with TMScope, turning it back to "1," up to "10,"
and disconnecting
       the dial altogether.  Again, the joystick works fine, even after the
purchase of Wing
       Commander Prophecy (I know, I'm a WC freak) - a Windows-native
program.  I also
       uninstalled and reinstalled Direct X, and also installed Direct X 6.0
Core, thinking it
       was the game controller drivers.  I still had the problem.  In fact,
even calibrating the
       wheel with the "center" about 10o to the right solved the centering
problem, but the
       wheel response was erratic when from 0-10o to either side.  I removed
the card and
       re-enabled the Sound Blaster's game port, but the problem still
occured.
7.    I contacted ThrustMaster Customer Support, and was advised to exchange
the wheel
       and may need to send it and the game card in for inspection.  They
did not have much
       of a solution for me.
8.    I returned the NASCAR wheel for exhange.  The store was sold out, so I
decided to try
       the new NASCAR Sprint wheel.  Needless to say, the problem occurs in
this as well.  I
       tried the paddles and the pedals, and with or without the game card;
still the problem
       persists.

That is about it.  I am now at my wit's end, and will not be forced into
driving with the joystick when I have two perfectly good steering wheels in
front of me.    My system specifications follow.

AMD 266MHz K6 MMX
32MB 100MHz SDRAM
540MB and 2.1GB Hard Drives
24x CD-ROM
Matrox Mystique 220 with 4MB
Diamond Monster 3D II with 8MB
Creative Sound Blaster 16 PnP with Onboard Game Controller
ThrustMaster ACM Game Card
ThrustMaster Grand Prix 1 Racing Wheel
ThrustMaster NASCAR Sprint Racing Wheel
CH GameStick
Windows 98 OEM on a clean install (no upgrade)
Direct X 6.0 Core (for Windows 98 Only)

And now my list of affected games.

Sierra's Grand Prix Legends
EA's Need for Speed III
Microsoft's CART Precision Racing (patched)
Sierra's NASCAR Racing II (patched)
MicroProse's World Circuit: Grand Prix 2
3DO's TOCA Touring Car Championship (patched)
Sierra's IndyCar Racing II (patched)
ABC Sports' Indy Racing: Road to the Indianapolis 500

I thank you infinitely for any assistace you can give that may lead to a
solution - a solution that will let me drive straight and the car drive
straight.  I will check the newsgroup periodically, but PLEASE email me with
any suggestions.

Thank you again, in advance.

- John P. Wilson :|:
- Downshift http://www.racesimcentral.net/
- Ten Cylinders, Six Gears, Four Wheels, Two Wings, and One Brave Heart

Recalibrate your wheel but be sure that when you enter the Calibration
screen, your wheel is COMPLETELY centered.  This is VERY important.   If it
isn't, it won't calibrate fully to one side or the other.  It will be very
lop-sided in other words.  Then turn the wheel slowly right all the way,
the left all the way.  Then calibrate your pedals, if you have them.

It sounds like a stupid thing but I think that GPL uses the initial setting
as the "center" when you come into the screen.  My T1 is very loose and
doesn't always snap back to full center and I discovered this same problem.
When I centered the wheel, it fixed the problem.

Good luck.

Give it a try and let me know if this fixes the problem.

J.

I found it at www.thrustmaster.com  in their files section.

Good luck.

Jeff

I've recently made the exact same type of upgrade (from a 586-133 to a
K6-266), and I experience some joystick "drift" problems, but nothing
this extreme.  I'm using my 16-bit sound card's joystick port, and
I've found that the wheel calibration works fine for a few minutes
after turning the machine on and calibrating the controller, but as my
system warms up, the calibration actually DOES drift.  I'd heard of
this happening,  but never experienced it until now.  It helps if I
let my system "warm up" for a while in the pits before calibrating and
driving.  It doesn't sound like this is the problem you're having,
though, but I thought this tidbit might help someone else out.  Good
luck with your problem.

-- John Bodin
   http://irlinsider.adnetweb.com/