PC Gaming

[Socob]

Hello everyone,

I own a Logitech Dual Action and have recently bought a F310 Gamepad. While testing the latter one, I noticed that its analog sticks felt somewhat different from the exact precision I was used to from the Dual Action Gamepad. With the Dual Action, I sometimes set a dead zone manually in the Logitech Profiler because the sticks picked up nearly everything. Now, with the F310, even if I turn off the dead zone completely, I need to push the stick pretty far to have the input register. This has the effect that I have trouble especially with slight diagonal movements as the stick is pushed far enough to register horizontal input (for example), but is still in the dead zone for vertical input, so I only get horizontal movement instead of diagonal.

Now, I realize that this will probably become less of a problem if I get used to it, but it bothers me that I have this "dead square" of movement on the sticks. Is there some way to disable this inherent dead zone, or is the controller just built that way?

[alenson]

Same here with F510. I doubt that it is possible to get used to it, because those deadzones completely ruin gameplay for me. Any precision aiming or delicate driving is impossible with gamepads from F series. I'm still playing on my few years old Rumblepad 2 and do not use F510 at all...

I've contacted Logitech Technical Support and I got answer that there will be firmware update (around Christmas 2010) to fix the issue - so Logitech knows about the problem.

I've made short video for TS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM00pVNSvXc to explain that this is not a software (or my games) problem and this deadzone is in the hardware itself.

[Socob]

Hi alension,

First of all, thank you very much for your reply. So I am not the only one with the issue - I suspected as much. A firmware update sounds very nice; in fact, it's more than I expected to get. The only problem is, though, that Christmas 2010 is already over. I hope we will actually get said update.

As for the video, your experiences are pretty much the same as mine. There's a pretty big dead zone in any direction on the sticks, and once you pass that, the controller suddenly registers rather strong input in whatever direction you're pushing, skipping the area where you would be able to achieve precise movement.

[alenson]

Hi!

You are welcome and I know few other F-series owners with the same problem. For some people, that kind of deadzone is not a big problem (because default Xbox360 controller has quite similar), but for plenty of us, it is. What is important, Xbox controllers in general have problem with analog centering so bigger deadzone is a MS workaround to fix this. When we bought Logitech controllers, we excepted quality and precision similar to Rumblepad 2 - and we got something much worse for higher price actually .

I understand that "around" Christmas 2010 may be few weeks after, so all we can do is wait.

It would be great if someone from Logitech could put some light on the update release date.

[Doctor Impossib]

I have also noticed this "dead square" and this is a large source of frustration for me, having paid for a product that doesn't work as intended.

This problem in part is caused by the horizontal and vertical axis deadzones being calculated seperately.

For example

if abs(x)<deadzone

   x = 0

else

  x = x-deadzone

end

if abs(y)<deadzone

   y = 0

else

  y = y-deadzone

end

Where in truth this should be done as a radius of deadspace from the center position.  Or r = sqrt(x^2 + y^2)

So a more appropriate way to find deadzone would be this:

r = sqrt(x^2 + y^2)

ang = atan(y/a)

if r<deadzone

   x = 0

   y = 0

else

   r = r-deadzone

   x = r*cos(ang)

   y = r*sin(ang)

end

At any rate, we need a firmware patch for this ASAP

[Socob]

@ Doctor Impossib:

True, that's a big part of the problem. The other part is that the dead zone is just too large - even with a proper calculation, it still wouldn't be acceptable. I'm not even sure whether the Dual Action calculates its dead zone in such a manner (seeing that the space around its analog stick, if you know what I mean, is actually a square instead of a circle) or in the way you suggested. However, it's mostly irrelevant because the Dual Action's default dead zone is so small that you wouldn't even think it has one at all.

So, of course, a proper algorithm would be desirable, but my main concern at the moment is the size of the dead zone, or rather, the inability to turn it off.

[Doctor Impossib]

I agree.  I'm going to write a proper email to logitech support later, when I can get my S/N and such.  I do hope they're working on this, or that they actually even read these forums.

[alenson]

The best part is that Logitech Tech Support just sent me this link:

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/PC-Gaming/G940-quot-reversal-bug-quot-is-it-a-hardware-or-software-pro...

With explanation, that it says about F-series problems too. There is one line actually:

The team lead on this project is actually an engineer I worked very closely on to resolve firmware issues with the F series gamepads, so I'm quite confident we'll get something figured out.

I have not got any other explanation and one single line from one forum topic about different hardware is not enough. I hope that firmware on our gamepads is replaceable because right now, it sounds like issue has been resolved and new devices will have latest firmware.

From what I read, Logitech tend to not read its own forum.

[Bogey62]

I currently have an Xbox 360 for PC controller, but moronic M$ doesn't include any software to set dead zones and analog stick sensitivity. This lack of software makes the controller virtually useless in racing games becasue it is too hyper-sensitive.

Do any of of the Logitech game pads for the PC come with software that is capable of setting both dead zones and stick sensitivity for the PC? If so, does it work under Windows XP?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

[alenson]

Hi Bogey62,

Short answer: No, there is no software to do this .

Long answer: Models I have do not have this problem therefore do not need dead zone settings. Gamepads always get back to center without steering left or right and are not too sensitive, delicate touch wont turn your car (at least, for Dual Action and Rumblepad 2).

F-series gamepads, I guess, could work just as good, but as you can read, we have problem with too big dead zone...

As for Xbox controller, I'm using 3-party software to change deadzone settings, although, I prefer to play on Logitech Rumblepad 2 without any dead zone at all.