I will go mad with this.
Microsoft is certainly doing everything they can to piss-off the wheel users beyond any level imaginable and it lasts for 7 consecutive years now.
First, there is no way to use wheel and controller in the same time in any game. For some crazy reason they obviously do not want to allow to have controller signed-in as Guest (through ID_2 for example) and allow us to have almost basic functionality of the games during wheel-play.
PREFACE: If you do on-the-fly change between wheel/controller (turn off the wheel, turn on the controller) you will loose either FFB or proper 900-support once you turn the wheel back on. In order to return to normal wheel-play after you've used controller, you have to reboot the game from the start. Same procedure (reboot to play) have to be done if you want to do on-the-fly switch from controller to wheel. During the years I was owner of the Microsoft Force Feedback Wireless wheel, Fanatec GT2 and now Fanatec CSR Eilte. All wheels share the same issues described here.
Where the current *wheel support* fails:
- PhotoMode (Project Gotham Racing 3&4, flagship first-party title, Microsoft Games as publisher, X360 launch game and first game that officially supported Microsoft's own Force Feedback wheel - PGR3 even come bundled with the wheel - I have both versions of the game - with FFB support patched in) - you can't use PhotoMode with the wheel
- driving (Project Gotham Racing 4, flagship title, first-party title, Microsoft Games as publisher) - there were bikes and cars and you had to do constant switching between wheel/controller with game rebooting
- PhotoMode (Forza games, flagship titles, first-party titles, Microsoft Games as publisher) - same as PGR
- Livery Editor - main game-feature (Forza games, flagship titles, first-party titles, Microsoft Games as publisher) - you can't normally use Livery Editor with the wheel
- Cockpit views (PGR & Forza games, flagship titles, first-party titles, Microsoft Games as publisher) - while controller players have the option to rotate the view inside the cockpit, wheel users can't do so. Even worse, when you play with the wheel, you can't have in-car interior shown when you look left/right - it shows only full-screen)
- Map Zooming in Forza Horizon is now my current favourite. And when we're already speaking about the Horizon, why can't we have left/right view in the game? Or on-the-fly HUD-off switch?
Imagine the constant need to switch between wheel/controller, to have to constantly reboot the game after the switch, to not be able to enjoy PhotoMode during normal playing sessions, to have to reboot everytime you want to use the Livery Editor, to not be able to enjoy the interiors of the vehicles as all you should, etc, etc, etc.. And all of that could be solved if Microsoft would just allow to use the controller on the 2nd port as Guest during those modes (and if someone actually thought for a second about wheel players and mapped left/right views to use existing interior position of the cameras).
Important Fact: In order to get Xinput-licensing, wheel devices for X360 has to have exact number of buttons/functionality/axis-devices or license will not be issued by Microsoft. Because of theat you can't add some small thumbs on the wheel, because you can't have two inputs assigned to X-axis for instance. Madness
WHY ARE YOU PUNISHING ALL THE WHEEL PLAYERS WHO INVESTED SERIOUS MONEY TO PLAY YOUR GAMES AND THEY CAN'T PLAY IT IN THEIR FULL SCOPE WITHOUT LOADS&LOADS OF FRUSTRATION?
/rant over.
