Hi Everyone,

I have been playing LFS for a while now, but I hated using the mouse for steering. So as a solution, I created an app for android that allows users to use their phones/tablets as a wireless steering wheel for any racing game that supports joysticks/wheels.

Here is the link to the app on Google Play: Virtual Wheel

Currently, it only works on 32bit windows, but I am going to create 64 bit in the coming week. All of the requirements and installation instructions are in the app description.

Once everything is setup, the controller should show up in LFS as VMulti HID, and you can set it up just as any real joystick or steering wheel. The max turning angle for the app is left/right 90 degrees.

I would love suggestions and criticisms for future improvements.

Thank You

looks like a copy of this mungo http://www.mungoscott.com/index.html
no offence ya

To be honest it does look very similar
I think for your sake that you didn't copy anything from it.. Maybe you have never even seen the other app but you don't want to get into the legal side for copyright infringement with a company.. Trust me I've been there

Not saying you did or did not copy anything but I'd be careful

Yes, I've actually used that app before. I liked it very much, but ever since I upgraded to an Android phone, I've missed that app. As of right now, I don't think I am copying that app (other than tilting the phone to control the steering, but of course, that is more of a general concept that exists in every mobile racing game). The layout is similar probably because I remember the MungoGamer app. I liked the control scheme. However, I will be implementing customizable control layout in the near future. For example, right now, I have the throttle mapped to to gear up and + mapped to gear down. I am using a "ghetto setup" that has a keyboard on the floor acting as pedals for gas and brake (if you arer curious, space bar is brake and down arrow key is gas; I pried off the up, left, and right keys to prevent unintention changes to brake balance and etc).

Also, since many laptops and even desktops nowadays have bluetooth, I will create bluetooth communication ASAP, which will allow users to play racing games on the go without wifi networks around.

Just wondering. How's the response time?

The response time should be very low. I haven't tested the ping time from my app to the computer, but I will imagine it to be around 10-20ms from my past experiences with UDP communication through wifi.

The only sort of delay will be the low pass filter I am using to smooth out the accelerometer data. However, I've tuned so that the control is both very responsive and smooth. Unless you are constantly going from full left to full right and vice versa 2-3 times per second (from experimental testing), you will not notice the delay of the low pass filter.

Compared to an actual wheel like a g27 or dfgt, there is a delay. But that delay is so small that it has no effect on control performance and response.

I have installed this app on both my systems.

I can configure the buttons, but not the accelerometer. However, the app shows a bar on my phone wich does work when I tilt phone to left or right.

Phone is a Xperia Arc S

Quote from Takumi_lfs :

I have installed this app on both my systems.

I can configure the buttons, but not the accelerometer. However, the app shows a bar on my phone wich does work when I tilt phone to left or right.

Phone is a Xperia Arc S

Are you saying that in LFS, you can configure the buttons, but you can't configure the steering axis?

If yes, can you check by going to "Set up USB game controllers" (search for it in the start menu), and then go to properties for VMulti HID. If the X axis moves when you tilt your phone, then the app and pc client should be working fine.

After that, you can go into LFS -> options -> Controls -> Axes/FF
Then proceed to set the steer axis by clicking on the grayed out "none" or "axis" depending on how your game is setup.

Maybe this video can help you if you are having trouble setting up the steering: here

Thanks for downloading.

It won't tilt on that windows controller tab either. Also tried a Xperia S, still not working. The buttons do flash when I press them though.

Quote from Takumi_lfs :

It won't tilt on that windows controller tab either. Also tried a Xperia S, still not working. The buttons do flash when I press them though.

Does the PC client show connected? And also, are you saying the buttons flash on the phone or on the computer?

It is connected, the buttons flash on de computer. On lfs, I can use the buttons but there is no axis listed which my phone uses.

hmm, that's strange. what operating system are you running?

you can try uninstalling virtual wheel on your computer and reinstalling it so the driver gets reinstalled. it baffles me that your buttons work but the axis doesn't work

I use windows 7 32 bits, I can try to reinstall the drivers later today but I doubt it will change anything.

OK, try that and see if anything changes. Can you post a screenshot of what the set up USB game controller window(the one that shows the buttons and the axis) shows when you are running the PC client with your phone connected?

Tried running this on my Win8 and subsequnetly on a (virtual) 32 bit XP - neither works.

On win8 the app crashes either immediately or after I try to connect the phone

Quote from hyntty :

Tried running this on my Win8 and subsequnetly on a (virtual) 32 bit XP - neither works.

On win8 the app crashes either immediately or after I try to connect the phone

unfortunately, I am not able to test windows 8 capabilities yet. however, it should work on xp, it may be because that you are running on virtual machine.

can you check what the device manager shows for human input devices in windows 8?

Quote from tincanman :

can you check what the device manager shows for human input devices in windows 8?

I can't because the thing crashes immediately when trying to run.

I highly doubt the problems are caused by virtualization. Surely you aren't going that low down to machine code... are you?

Incidentally, the error details give a hint

hmm that's strange with the Dll not found.
also, the driver is currently not compiled for windows 8. I will do that, but I have to pickup a copy of windows 8 first.
that's my next goal after I release the update for 64 bit support and deadzone support this weekend.

Can you just get a screen shot of HID devices in the device manager in Windows 8? Without the app running. I just want to see if the driver installed properly. I am guessing that the driver most likely did not install properly, which is causing the crash.

Just published a new update.
Added steering angle adjustments and deadzone.
Also added 64-bit support (might not be the best implementation. Ii am still learning Windows driver development)

hi il test it on my pc win 7 64bit , i had replied to you on xda forum but will post feedback here if its best for you

ive had a chance to test it and its working.

good app and ingame its easy to use(steer ect),if you could make an option for adjusting the sensitivity that would be even better(sorry if there already is but i couldnt find)

overall id say a job well done, thankyou

also i wouldnt be be concerned about any copyright to mungogamer, to start of the only real similartys is the pictures(icons) like + - ..ect which is a layout and not technologys so i couldnt see any problems and apart from that they are quite different but i understand where david is coming from in principal

The axis finally worked for me, but still have a problem. When I hold my phone straight is will turn to right. I can seem to steer to the left normally but to the right is shifts quickly over to full lock. I have tried to calibrate it via gamecontroller tab and via lfs still same problem.

Quote from Takumi_lfs :

The axis finally worked for me, but still have a problem. When I hold my phone straight is will turn to right. I can seem to steer to the left normally but to the right is shifts quickly over to full lock. I have tried to calibrate it via gamecontroller tab and via lfs still same problem.

Hmm, I think it has to do how LFS is setup. When initially setting up the axis, I think you have to unlock the axes and center the one that corresponds to virtualwheel. then after that, you lock the axis again. I can't explain what is going on there, but I think that should fix your problem.

EDIT: Actually, this might also be a problem with the app. When you hold your phone straight, what does the top colored bar show (does it also show that you are turning to the right)? Also, what device are you using?

I wanted to try this out on Windows 7 X64 and it's not working.

I installed the program on the PC, connected to it using the phone but in Game Controllers on Windows I don't see any controllers connected and no controller is detected in LFS.

I tried uninstall the program on the PC and I get an error. The log file shows: http://pastebin.com/PVi2wFJd