Please help get my Bodnar wheel and other devices working with GRID 2!

[isamu 4]

Hello everyone how are you? I could really use your help.

Here's my situation....

 

A long time ago when GRID 2 first came out, I bought the game and I owned an ECCI 7000 FFB wheel, CST pedals and an SST sequential shifter. I was using vJoy to aggregate them into one virtual joystick. I was familiar with the issues surrounding the whole game "not recognizing steering wheels and other devices" and figured out the problem by reading about the whole xml file editing process and the arduous task behind it.

But it's been three years now and things have changed. I now own a Leo Bodnar FFB wheel which has no buttons whatsoever to push, just the wheel itself, so I'm trying to get the game to at least acknowledge it, or any of my other DirectInput USB devices. Unfortunately, it appears something must have changed in a patch or something(?), because now GRID 2 does not recognize ANY buttons I press from ANY of my USB DirectInput devices at the intro screen, and none of them are even showing up under the presets menu within the controller options. NONE of my devices are being recognized by the game in the controller settings menu. I have an app called vJoy installed, which the game *used* to recognize just fine when I played it three years ago, but now it doesn't even acknowledge vJoy(which by the way is the very first "Controller" listed in Windows controller properties). In addition to vJoy, I have the following physical USB devices in the following order according to how Windows 7 lists them:

Xbox 360 wireless controller
Sega Saturn USB gamepad
Derek Speare Designs Race King Button Box
SymProjects JC24(this is a USB plug and play Sequential Shifter from Manu Factory)
Fanatec ClubSport USB Adapter for CSS H-pattern Shifter
Martin Ascher wheel plate button box
HPP PRX SE USB Pedals from Mark Hargett
Leo Bodnar FFB wheel(just a wheel, no buttons, D-pad, pedals, switches, etc)

That makes *9* game controllers and the *ONLY* one that GRID 2 reacts to at the intro screen is my Xbox 360 controller. Like I said above, I am aware that some xml file editing needs to be done, but I cannot remember which xml file I need to edit in order for the game to acknowledge and react to whatever controller I want. I would prefer for it to at least acknowledge a button push from vJoy, since that program has all my physical USB devices aggregated into one virtual Windows joystick.

I looked at the "dinput_default.xml" but I don't recall what I need to change in there in order for the game to acknowledge my device. Can you guys *PLEASE* refresh my memory and tell me step by step what I need to do for the game to acknowledge both my Bodnar wheel and vJoy? Which of the ID's in the "Details" tab under HID-compliant Game Controller Properties menu do I need to copy and then I paste it into which xml file?

Would really appreciate your help guys. I'm at a loss here

[isamu 4]

OK guys I *think* I have discovered what is going on here and what seems to be the crux of the problem. It's not good news unfortunately


In a nutshell,  two things either happened....either something got patched in GRID 2 that completely broke the game(the likely scenario) or there's something going on in my Windows 7 installation that's breaking it. After many many hours of messing around and fiddling with different xml files in the input folder, I have come to the conclusion that the game simply won't read, recognize or acknowledge any, and I mean *ANY* DirectInput devices whatsoever!

Keep in mind, this was NOT an issue when I played GRID 2 during the summer of 2013 when the game was still fairly new and hadn't gone through many patches yet. Back then, I was able to press a button on my ECCI 7000 FFB wheel at the GRID 2 intro screen, and it would trigger the game to proceed into the menus and acknowledge my wheel as the default DirectInput device. That is not happening anymore. The game simply refuses to respond to ANY of my USB DirectInput devices at start up. And yes, all 7 of them work and function perfectly in Windows and in all other games/applications.

Now here's the kicker....I know what you're thinking.....you're wondering if I modified the Default Input.xml and other wheel xml files properly right? Well guess what? I went to my friend's house and picked up an old Logitech steering wheel he was holding for me for years. It's called the Logitech Driving Force EX wheel. This is one of the wheels that GRID 2 **OFFICIALLY** supports in the game! That's right, no changing of xml files needed with this wheel. It's an officially supported wheel. So I return home and plug it in and guess what? The game *STILL* won't respond to ANY button presses of the wheel at all, ANYWHERE! Start button? Nope. Select button? Nope. Buttons 3-12? Nope. It completely ignores the Driving Force EX wheel, and the only way to proceed further into the game's menu is via keyboard key presses.

The *ONLY* other device GRID 2 acknowledges other than a keyboard is an xinput device such as an Xbox 360 controller or a 360 wireless wheel. What the HELL is going on here? Why is GRID 2 behaving this way? What in the world could possibly prevent it from even recognizing ANY DInput devices? Are further xml file modifications still needed at this point or are they completely irrelevant? One thing I noticed in the My Documents>My games>GRID 2>Hardware Settings.xml file, is there is a line that says something like "device type=Auto" or something like that. Could it be that this line needs to be changed to something else? If so, what should I change it to?

Man, talk about a frustrating experience.

 

[Anthony A. 46]

Have you tried uninstalling the game completely and reinstalling a fresh copy?  Keep your hardware/settings file just in case but drag it to desktop to see if the game starts up normally by creating a new profile from scratch.

[isamu 4]

I've done that once already but I'm currently doing it again on this desktop to see what happens.

I do have a hot off the press update though....I just installed the game on my Laptop, which has NEVER had any other game controllers or wheels installed on it before, then installed the Logitech Driving Force EX wheel, and guess what? IT WORKED on there!!!!! The game responded to the DF:EX wheel and listed it in the controller Options as well!  So that tells me *something* is screwing around with the game on my Desktop. But what could it be?

[isamu 4]

Hey how's it going guys?

 

Just wanted to touch base with you guys and provide a quick update. I haven't made any significant progress since my last update but I've managed to get GRID 2 running with my wheel albeit not exactly to my satisfaction. I've got everything mapped to the game and I can get force feedback, but still no H-pattern or Advanced wheel settings in the controller options. I've also learned a few things along the way about this buggy ass game:

You cannot trick the game into unlocking the Advance Wheel and H-pattern sub-menus unless the game thinks there is a supported wheel plugged in, regardless of whether you've modified the xml file or not. Changing the device ID next to where it says "Device type" doesn't appear to do anything in particular(at least not on my end). I've changed the xml file for the Driving Force EX wheel to match the ID# of my Bodnar wheel, and all of a sudden the game stopped responding to any button presses on the Driving Force EX at the GRID 2 intro movie, and doesn't even list it in the options menu. So if anything, it actually eliminates the DF:EX out of the equation.

Now if you think *THAT'S* puzzling, here's something that will really have you scratching your head....I have an app for PC called x360ce. What it does is it emulates an Xbox 360 controller *OR* an Xbox 360 wireless steering wheel regardless of what controller you use. When I run x360ce and set it to "steering wheel" mode, then launch GRID 2, the game thinks there's an Xbox Wireless Racing Wheel plugged in, and all of sudden opens up the Advanced Wheel and H-Pattern settings! But then as soon as I map the X-axis to my Bodnar wheel or to the Logitech DF:Ex wheel, those settings disappear! How bizarre is that??? Why does GRID 2 allow the user access to the Advance Wheel and H-Pattern options when it thinks the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing wheel, a wheel that has *NO* gear shifter whatsoever, is plugged in, but won't deliver those same options when another wheel such as the Logitech Driving Force Ex is detected?

 

I have seen many strange and bizarre things that games do but this has to rank up there among the weirdest!

 

Anyway let me know what you think of all this.