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README FOR DXTWEAK

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SYNOPSIS
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DXTweak allows you change calibration information and
deadzone settings of a DirectInput game controller and
test the effect of the changes directly. It can easily
render your game controller behaviour totally weird. You
have been warned.
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LIMITATIONS
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DXTweak only works correctly under Windows 98, Windows
98SE, and Windows Me. DXTweak will run under Windows2K
and WindowsXP however, the deadzone setting will not
persist. Microsoft has acknowledged that there is no
recognized way of setting a persistant deadzone for
Windows 2K and Windows XP. We are trying to get a fix
for this in the next version of DirectX.
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WHY DO I NEED TO TWEAK THE CALIBRATION/DEADZONE
SETTINGS?
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You want to have an oversensitive wheel while driving in
a racing game. You want to brake your car only a little,
but step fully on the brake pedal. You want to fly a
helicopter and your joystick is too sensitive. In short:
By reducing the overall range of motion of your
controller (undercalibration) you can achieve higher
sensitivity. By extending the range accepted by
DirectInput (overcalibration) you can achieve higher
precision.
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USAGE
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1. Launch DXTweak.
2. Verify that the controller you wish to tweak is
displayed in the box 'Polled device'. If it isn't, click
on 'Next' until you see it. If it never appears, you got
a problem with your installation: go and setup your
device in the 'Game Controllers' control panel correctly
.
3. Select the axis that you wish to modify. If unsure
about the axis, perform some movement on it, and then
see which axis graph is moving.
4. Make the change to the axis. Push the 'Apply' button
to save the setting.
5. Move your game controller to see the values it
generates and how DirectX/DirectInput modifies them.
6. Once you're happy with a configuration, you should
exit DXTweak and start playing your game. Running
DXTweak really imposes a heavy load on your system,
don't run it while playing. If you want to change the
values during the play: be aware that the game could
lose the game controller object...
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SAVING YOUR DXTWEAK SETTINGS
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To save a DXTweak setting, use the following steps.
1. Enter your desired values. If you have multiple
devices, enter values for each device.
2. Go to "Game Settings" and enter a name for your saved
setting.
3. Select "Save". This will automatically save and apply
your changes.
NOTE: All saved settings are stored in this location:
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Logitech\DXTweak\Profiles"
If you wish to manually change the profiles, you may
do so at your own risk. Use the Windows Calculator to
convert from HEX to a signed value.
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LOADING A SAVED DXTWEAK SETTING
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To load a saved DXTweak setting, use the following steps.
1. Go to "Game Settings", select the name of your
setting and push "Load". This will automatically load
and apply that setting.
--or---
1. If you wish to silently launch your setting,
run DXTweak with the name of the setting. For example,
if you had 2 settings: "F12001" and "Defaults"...
C:> "DXTweak2.exe F12001"
- this silently loads and applies the "F1 2001"
setting
C:> "DXTweak2.exe Defaults"
- this silently loads and applies the "Defaults"
setting.
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DELETING A SAVED DXTWEAK SETTING
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To delete a saved DXTweak setting, use the following
steps.
1. Go to "Game Settings", select the name of your
setting and push "Delete".
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HOW DOES THE CALIBRATION TWEAKING WORK? (IMPORTANT)
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A game controller driver usually*1* reports axis
position information as integer values between 0 and
655 to DirectInput. DirectInput linearly scales these
values up to 0 to 65535. If calibration values are
present for an axis (checkbox is checked), DirectInput
assumes that the range of the values received from the
driver are 'Min' to 'Max'. Additionally it expects the
center of a given axis to be at driver value 'Cen'. The
driver doesn't know anything about that. It is just
reporting 0 to 655 all the time. Any value reported that
is lower than 'Min' is treated as 'Min'. Any value
reported higher than 'Max' is treated as 'Max'.
*1*: Some analog devices and some drivers report a
totally different range...don't be surprised. In general
, devices which require calibration (like analog
devices / external rudder/pedals) will have different
ranges.
I think it's time for some illustrations:
No calibration data present:
Driver DirectInput
655 -------------- 65535
|
|
|
328 -------------- 32768
|
|
|
0 ----------------- 0
(full movement on game controller equals full movement
in game)
Calibration data present: (Min = 100, Max = 555,
Cen = 328)
Driver DirectInput
655 /-- 65535
| /----/
555 ----/
|
328 -------------- 32768
|
100 ----\
| \----\
0 \---- 0
(partial movement on game controller equals full
movement in game)
Calibration data present: (Min = 0, Max = 1000,
Cen = 328)
Driver DirectInput
655---\ 65535
| \-----\
| \--- 47868
|
328 -------------- 32768
|
100
|
0 ----------------- 0
(lower part of movement on game controller equals linear
lower movement in game, but higher part of movement
never reaches maximum value in game)
As you will notice, to achieve the overcalibration
effect on the lower end of an axis, you should enter a
negative number as 'Min'.
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HOW CAN I CALIBRATE MY DEVICE USING DXTWEAK?
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If you understood the previous section, then you
may already know the answer to this! Move to one
side of your axis, and look at the raw value. Note
down the raw value. Now move to the other side of
the axis. Note down the second value. Set the calibration
minimum to the smaller value and the calibration maximum
to the larger value. You can use the same method to
get the center value or calculate it using the following
formula:
center = min + ((max - min)/2)
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HOW DOES DEADZONE WORK?
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In contrast to the calibration, setting the deadzone for
an axis will result in the deadzone being set on that
axis across ALL devices.
The value is a percentage which is applied against half
the range of the axis. A deadzone of 100% means: report
center position unless a 'Min' or 'Max' is seen. A
deadzone of 50% means: report center unless the the
position enters the first/last quarter of the range.
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I SET THE DEVICE DEFAULT AND NOW I CANT MOVE ALL THE WAY
TO EITHER SIDE OF THE AXIS. WHY?
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For devices that are non-autocalibrated, they require
manual calibration. For Logitech controllers, use the
calibration utility provided in the gaming control panel.
Or see the section above entitled "HOW CAN I CALIBRATE
MY DEVICE USING DXTWEAK?"
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I TWEAKED MY CONTROLLER, BUT THE GAME SEEMS NOT TO SEE
IT!
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1.
The game could use joyGetPos() vs. DirectInput resulting
in different behaviour and different settings to be
applied.
2.
The game could rewrite the calibration information by
itself and/or use some internal calibration.
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LIMITS OF THE VALUES
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Deadzone values can be adjusted between 0 and 100(%).
Calibration values will vary depending on the device and
the operating system. For USB-HID devices, the range is
the logical range of the axis from the HID report. It is
not uncommon for axis to report different range values.
For non USB-HID devices, the range is 0-255 under Win2K
and 0-655 under Win9x.
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FEEDBACK
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Please send any feedback to:
suggestions@wingmanteam.com
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TRADEMARKS
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All names mentioned here and in the program are
trademark of their respective owners.
// end of Readme for DXTweak ///////////////////////////////////////////