Controller rumble support on the PC

[DjVortex]

I started on the PS5 and played for a couple of months before I moved to PC (when console support was dropped). I am using an Xbox One controller on the PC side.

One of the most prominent features from the consoles that I miss the most on the PC side is controller rumble. I don't really understand why the PC version doesn't have it, as I assume it's a very trivial thing to implement. It's implemented in the console versions of the game, so why not on the PC side?

The rumble is a small thing, but it just add that extra level of immersion to the game. For example when the ship touches down, you can really feel it when the controller rumbles accordingly.

It's such a small and simple feature, yet would add so much to the game.

 

[metatheurgist]

On PC devices are run by drivers, shockingly the PC drivers for PS products aren't exactly comprehensive. Frontier could I think directly control the device but that's extra work for them.

 

[DjVortex]

I'm using an Xbox One controller, which I believe is extraordinarily well supported by Windows natively. Adding rumble control shouldn't be any sort of problem.

 

[GroG79]

It is a typical console thing to have. It is not typical at all for PCs.

 

[varonica]

I'm using an Xbox One controller, which I believe is extraordinarily well supported by Windows natively. Adding rumble control shouldn't be any sort of problem.

It used to be in the old days if you had a sound card it had to be natively supported by the game itself, you could select it in the options and if your sound card wasn't listed it simply wouldn't work. These days no-one is going to build support into the game for a particular controller, if they put rumble in for the Xbox what about other controllers? Steering wheels that support rumble for instance? No, no game maker is going to start building support into the game for a controller these days, if it works then it needs to work with the windows drivers.

 

[DjVortex]

These days no-one is going to build support into the game for a particular controller

You do realize that the game already supports game controllers? I'm not asking for support for the Xbox One controller. That support is already there. I'm simply asking for the game to use the exact same DirectX API to use the rumble motor in the same way it does on the consoles. Pretty much every other Windows game (that has controller support) supports the rumble motor, why not ED?

What's with this backlash? It's not like I'm asking for something preposterous, or something that would require an enormous amount of work from the developers. The controller support is already there, and the rumble logic also is already there because it's used in the console version of the game. I would find it extraordinarily surprising if it would require an enormous amount of work to just add the support in the Windows version. Sounds to me like a dev could spend 10 minutes switching on the support. I'm quite certain that the exact same API that provides controller support in Windows also provides rumble motor support, just like it does on the Xbox One.

So why all this opposition? I don't get it.

 

[varonica]

You do realize that the game already supports game controllers? I'm not asking for support for the Xbox One controller. That support is already there. I'm simply asking for the game to use the exact same DirectX API to use the rumble motor in the same way it does on the consoles. Pretty much every other Windows game (that has controller support) supports the rumble motor, why not ED?

The game controllers have to be supported and detected by windows, this is how it works, with unsupported game controllers you install the "windows" drivers (or windows downloads and installs them itself, same thing), the game uses these drivers to use the controller, the game doesn't have built in support for these controllers, it relies on the windows API for controller support. This is why you can use many different types of joystick, you don't really think the game has built in support for every type of joystick out there do you? If you don't install the windows drivers for your joystick it then uses "generic" drivers that don't necessarily support all the features of the joystick.

 

[DjVortex]

The game controllers have to be supported and detected by windows, this is how it works, with unsupported game controllers you install the "windows" drivers (or windows downloads and installs them itself, same thing), the game uses these drivers to use the controller, the game doesn't have built in support for these controllers, it relies on the windows API for controller support. This is why you can use many different types of joystick, you don't really think the game has built in support for every type of joystick out there do you? If you don't install the windows drivers for your joystick it then uses "generic" drivers that don't necessarily support all the features of the joystick.

I don't even understand what's going on here anymore. How are you reading my original post as "please add support for this particular obscure third-party controller"?

I am using an Xbox One controller. Windows has direct native support for it. ED has direct support for it. I am currently, at this very moment, playing with said controller. Every single Windows game in existence that supports controllers support this controller, because it's supported by Windows natively.

Where are you getting all this "unsupported game controllers" thing? Nobody has said anything at all about "unsupported game controllers". I am not asking to support a particular controller. I am asking for an existing controller rumble motor functionality to be added to the Windows version of the game, the same functionality which exists, for the exact same controller, in the Xbox One console, and which is directly supported by Windows.