Logitech Speed Force (Wii) Compatibility Hack

[boonle]

Dear fellow dolphin-forum members,

I'm new to this forum, so...hello . I've posted a similar thread on another forum to realize that the community is dead, or there is little to no interaction occurring on a day to day basis. This community seems more active, so I've come here for help.

I recently stumbled upon a Logitech Speed Force Wireless Wheel; a friend of mine was moving out from his dorm and because his Wii was already broken he told me I could have his wheel or else it was going in the garbage. I thought it would be a nice addition and thought it was PC compatible, and hastily accepted his offer.

To my surprise, I found that this wheel is obsolete, even according to Logitech, but there is one thing I found on the WiiBrew wiki that lead me to search these forums and finally make a post after many hours of Googling. According to the Speed Force link on the WiiBrew Wiki, there was a Linux solution that was made to allow the wheels buttons to function. For Windows, however, there wasn't much of a solution, or a follow up, as the page hasn't been updated for over three years. I'm assuming here that the whole project has been scrapped.

Currently, I'm running Windows 8.1 Pro and have the device plugged in. The usb dongle is detected and the wheel is also detected as a HID-compliant game controller in the device manager, and in Control Panel as Wii Cordless Wheel. As the wiki page says that in Windows it is recognized with 11 buttons and 3 axis, I thought it would work. When I try to calibrate the device, the buttons aren't providing feedback or recognition, which makes me come back to the wiki article where some communication with the device via libusb is required in order to get the actual device to start functioning; This is possible in linux with a kernel that is provided but not for Windows. In the event that the dongle is activated on Linux and then linked back on Windows, the wheel will have "corrupted axis" because the HID descriptor is corrupted. The only solution would be a driver, according to the wiki page.

Because I am not a programmer/coder/homebrewer/whatever-you-call-it, I was wondering if someone could either provide me, as well as the community, with a solution OR even redirect me to a page or another place where I could find a solution, OR help me complete the steps mentioned in the wiki - even if the axis are corrupted. I don't know how to setup or use LibUsb-win32 to execute commands nor do I have the capibilities of making my own driver for this device.

Any help is appreciated, and thanks for taking the time to read this post!

Also, I've tried the wheel on Dolphin to see if it would start working, but even on NFS Most Wanted (the only official supported game for this wheel) it failed to work. When I tried to configure the device, it showed up as a DInput or SDL device but when I tried either of them the options remained greyed out and the wheel turning did nothing. It's the same issue...even by emulating the Wii and running the game, the command to get the wheel to start functioning isn't going through...I don't know if I'm out of options but I don't know any other solutions :/

Link to Wiki: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Logitech_USB_steering_wheel#Testing.2FHacking

[ulao]

Trying it in Dolphin is pointless if it does not work in the windows test area. Trying to make this work in win 8 is only complicating the matter. Also "the only official supported game for this wheel" the game supports the GC wheel not the pc wheel? And yes the GC and many PC wheels work fine in dolphin. Your only hope is to find someone that can write a driver.

[boonle]

(01-28-2014, 10:34 PM)ulao Wrote: Also "the only official supported game for this wheel" the game supports the GC wheel not the pc wheel?

Well my wheel is the one that was released for the Wii. It isn't the GC one but the official wireless Wii one that was released but was dropped because either lack of game dev support or Logitech's support. Windows recognizes the GC wheel, but I believe according to this thread the members there, including yourself, reversed engineered the wheel in order to get it to work. I don't have the hardware and software to reverse engineer it, but the only knowledge I can access in regards to fixing the problem is that which is on the Wiki page.

I was thinking of booting from a LiveUSB into Linux to link the device, but again that's too problematic and in many ways risky for me.

Anyway, is there anyone in this community that has the ability to write a driver? I mean it's not only Windows 8 that is the issue, it's with all versions of windows, AFAIK.

Thanks for the response BTW. I appreciate it

[ulao]

"reversed engineered the wheel in order to get it to work" yes no, but close enough. I did make my GC adapter work with the wheel and then talk to Dolphin with normal DX.

I didnt know that about the wii, thx for sharing. That explains why its a pain in the butt. I have never written a driver before but I still feel that is your only hope. As much as I appreciate all the hard work the Dolphin team does, this is not the best place to ask. You would be much better off on a driver forum. Since its a HID, you may get away with a simple hack for the pid/pin of that device as HID's don't inherently need drivers ( sort of the entire point of HID ). If I come across anything ill let you know.

I think the author to this may be of great help.
http://www.redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html

He basically took a mangled USB HID device ( xbox controller ) and turned it in to a working HID for the windows os. I think contacting him is difficult.

[boonle]

(01-29-2014, 04:06 AM)ulao Wrote: If I come across anything ill let you know.

I think the author to this may be of great help.
http://www.redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html

He basically took a mangled USB HID device ( xbox controller ) and turned it in to a working HID for the windows os. I think contacting him is difficult.

I understand the Dolphin team has their own priorities. It is quite often that the internet takes devs for granted.

Thanks a bunch! You've helped me a ton ! I'll see if I'm able to contact the author of that link you mentioned.

Hopefully, if this goes forward, people with this paper weight of a wheel can finally use it!

EDIT: The homepage link is broken... I don't know where else to find his contact info.

EDIT 2: Nevermind I went to the old version of the homepage: http://www.redcl0ud.com/ and found that there is another message board. I'll see what I can find.

EDIT 3: It seems that the author of XBCD now runs a forum, http://vba-m.com/ and his username is Squall Leonhart. He seems active on the forum, he had logged in recently, so I've PM'd him...hopefully this might go somewhere!!!

[skid]

The information in the driver is embedded into the Wii games that support this wheel. The game has to be inspected to check what commands are being sent via USB to the wheel and to resend those commands via Windows.

Dolphin does have USB HID support in the latest version (4.0 or newer). You could try downloading zadig and installing the WinUSB driver into the wheel, then start up the game and hopefully the wheel will start working.

https://github.com/pbatard/libwdi/wiki/Zadig

This wheel is rare. I am interested in adding emulation of it in Dolphin. Keep in touch.

[ulao]

Interesting info Skid... Did you read thw wiki about a "corrupt" descriptor? Possible that was a misinformed idea and was not corrupt but rather incomplete ( as you said the game handles it ). What is still interesting is that the wii supports a HID. I suspect their reason for this is to add force feed back. So they use a loose HID ( call it corrupt if you must ) to tell the game to add FFB support.

[boonle]

(01-29-2014, 08:07 AM)skid Wrote: The information in the driver is embedded into the Wii games that support this wheel. The game has to be inspected to check what commands are being sent via USB to the wheel and to resend those commands via Windows.

Dolphin does have USB HID support in the latest version (4.0 or newer). You could try downloading zadig and installing the WinUSB driver into the wheel, then start up the game and hopefully the wheel will start working.

https://github.com/pbatard/libwdi/wiki/Zadig

This wheel is rare. I am interested in adding emulation of it in Dolphin. Keep in touch.

Sweet, trying this out right now. I'll edit in the results.

I didn't know this wheel was rare...but it would make sense that it became discontinued. Will keep in touch for sure, it would be nice to see this device working, if it isn't too much of a hassle to do.

Thanks for the help

EDIT/RESULTS: I ran Version 2.0.1 (Build 162) if it matters, and I had no options. I had to go in options and "List All Devices" to get the wheel to show.

If it matters this is what I found:
HidUsb (v6.3.9600.16384)
USB ID 046D C29C
WCID X

I also have the log saved, so if you want, I can attach it here. For now, I've installed the driver, I'm going to test it and edit this post shortly.

EDIT 2: I might have to reinstall the previous driver...in control panel the 11 buttons and 3 axis aren't even detected now and on Dolphin the device doesn't even show up.

I've attached images to show what I mean.

Let me know how else I can help.

[skid]

The controller won't be seen by Windows anymore as LibUSB has taken control of it. However, when you start to play a Wii game that supports the wheel via Dolphin, the wheel should automatically start to work.

Have you got a screenshot of the zadig configuration with the wheel selected?

[boonle]

(01-29-2014, 03:17 PM)skid Wrote: The controller won't be seen by Windows anymore as LibUSB has taken control of it. However, when you start to play a Wii game that supports the wheel via Dolphin, the wheel should automatically start to work.

Have you got a screenshot of the zadig configuration with the wheel selected?

Yup, the wheel started working, and I even felt some FFB. I just have to configure the settings to get more than 16 FPS though.

EDIT: Got it to 25 FPS without causing graphical issues...still not playable but the wheel definitely works.

And by zadig configuration, I'm assuming here you meant a screenshot of the app?

EDIT: The author of XBCD replied to my PM, and he said that if the Xbox doesn't detect the device than XBCD won't work...I think he mis-understood my long PM, so I thanked him and that's that...I mean I didn't know what else to do. Plus, Skid is already helping me in this thread, so I don't want to have the same thing going on on two different sites.

UPDATE: The wheel is confirmed working for NFS Undercover (horrible fps and a green box in the left corner - graphical glitch) and F1 2009 (which is runs better without glitches but lags when beginning races) and for both games sound is horrible.