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.

Manufacturer	Device names	VID	PID	Support	Driver	Proton compatibility
Asetek	Invicta	2433	f300
Asetek	Forte	2433	f301
Asetek	La Prima	2433	f303
Asetek	Tony Kannan	2433	f306
Cammus	C5	3416	0301	Silver1	hid-pidff2	Works3
Cammus	C12	3416	0302	Silver1	hid-pidff2	Works3
Fanatec	CSL Elite	0eb7	0e03	Gold	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	CSL Elite (PS4)	0eb7	0005	Gold	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	DD	0eb7	0020	Gold	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	DD Pro	0eb7	0020	Gold	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	Clubsport DD	0eb7	0020	Gold	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	ClubSport Wheel Base V2	0eb7	0001	Silver	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	ClubSport Wheel Base V2.5	0eb7	0004	Silver	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	Podium DD1	0eb7	0006	Silver	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	Podium DD2	0eb7	0007	Silver	hid-fanatecff4
Fanatec	CSR Elite	0eb7	0011	Silver	hid-fanatecff4
Logitech	MOMO Wheel	046d	c295	Platinum	hid-logitech5	Works
Logitech	DFP	046d	c298	Platinum	hid-logitech5	Works
Logitech	DFGT	046d	c29a	Platinum	hid-logitech5	Works
Logitech	G25	046d	c29b	Platinum	hid-logitech5	Works
Logitech	G27	046d	c29b	Platinum	hid-logitech5	Works
Logitech	G29	046d	c24f	Platinum	hid-logitech5	Works
Logitech	G920	046d	c262	Silver	hid-logitech-hidpp6	Works
Logitech	G923 (Xbox edition)	046d	c26d	Silver	hid-logitech-hidpp6	Works
Logitech	G923 (PS edition)	046d	c267	Platinum	hid-logitech7	Works
Logitech	G Pro	046d	c272	Bronze	hid-logitech-hidpp8	Works3
Moza	R3	346e	0005	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works9
Moza	R5	346e	0004	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works9
Moza	R9	346e	0002	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works9
Moza	R9v2	346e	0002	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works9
Moza	R12	346e	0006	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works9
Moza	R16	346e	0000	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works9
Moza	R21	346e	0000	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works9
OpenFFBoard		1209	ffb0	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works
PXN
Simagic	M10	0483	0522	Silver1	hid-pidff2	Works
Simagic	Alpha Mini	0483	0522	Silver1/Broken10 ⚠️	hid-pidff11	Works
Simagic	Alpha	0483	0522	Silver1/Broken10 ⚠️	hid-pidff11	Works
Simagic	Alpha Ultimate	0483	0522	Silver1/Broken10 ⚠️	hid-pidff11	Works
Simucube	Simucube 1	16d0	0d5a	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works12
Simucube	Simucube 2 Sport	16d0	0d61	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works12
Simucube	Simucube 2 Pro	16d0	0d60	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works12
Simucube	Simucube 2 Ultimate	16d0	0d5f	Silver1	hid-pidff	Works12
SimXperience	AccuForce Pro	1fc9	804c	Silver1	hid-pidff
Thrustmaster	Nascar Pro FF2	044f	b605		hid-tmff
Thrustmaster	FGT Rumble Force	044f	b651		hid-tmff
Thrustmaster	RGT FF CLUTCH	044f	b653		hid-tmff
Thrustmaster	FGT Force Feedback	044f	b654		hid-tmff
Thrustmaster	F430 Force Feedback	044f	b65a		hid-tmff
Thrustmaster	T248	044f	b696	Gold	hid-tmff213
Thrustmaster	T300RS (PS3 mode)	044f	b66e	Gold	hid-tmff213
Thrustmaster	T300RS (PS3 advanced mode)	044f	b66f	Gold	hid-tmff213
Thrustmaster	T300RS (PS4 mode)	044f	b66d	Gold	hid-tmff213
Thrustmaster	TX	044f	b669	Gold	hid-tmff213
Thrustmaster	TS-XV	044f		Gold	hid-tmff213
Turtle Beach
VRS	DirectForce Pro	0483	a355	Silver	hid-pidff	Works4

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%

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.

DISCLAIMER

THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Footnotes

1. No FFB out of the box due to duration issue. See hid-pidff section for workarounds. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

2. HID PID without a7 descriptor. Use patched driver. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. See section on joystick detection. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Not supported by default driver. Use patched driver. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

5. Default driver lacks most effects. Use patched driver. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

6. Full USB command queue errors. Using ffbwrap can help in some situations. ↩ ↩²

7. Not supported by default driver. Use patched driver. ↩

8. Not supported by default driver. Use patched driver. ↩

9. Not supported by default driver. Use patched driver. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

10. Only works with firmware versions up to v159. ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. HID PID with caveats. Use patched driver. ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. Read here about how to setup Simucube base. And a Success case. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

13. Custom module hid-tmff2. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶