RedVonHammer

Yeah I undershot, not bad for a one-man operation though. By the time this sim is released people hopefully have cheaper and faster alternatives. Around winter is when you'll have more time for sims anyway 🙂

Now that the sleazy FFB patent ran out, and having seen Brunner & VPForce actually selling a lot of units (I believe VPForce has shipped over a thousand Rhino's now, on top of many DIY kits), there's a lot of established sim-controller companies racing to build something priced in our atmosphere. Winwing and Virpil are working on it, but they'll be bourgois priced. I believe Thrustmaster have plans too, pricing is speculated to come in at somewhere in between MSFFB2 and VPForce MSRP, they're not the cheapest around but I'd guess around 400-500 bucks? I honestly wouldn't pay anything less than that for a new product. Wouldn't be surprised if Logitech, who have lots of experience with atmospheric pricing on FFB products, also got to work on it. She absolutely does, which is why I didn't spend hard earned cash lightly. In Flying Circus multiplayer (I figure it's ok to say the name of the sim seeing as we can thank Jason for it's inception in the first place) I'm fighting opponents that get on every day, and they're not just very good, they have a routine going on. Taking off just to get slaughtered is no fun, to be competitive online, you need consistent playtime, I can only muster that for a few months out of the year, FFB has given me the muscle memory where I can probably jump on right now, do a few warmups and hold my own. MSFFB2's Achilles heel, long sessions, is another reason I upgraded, because the MSFFB2 ramps down so as not to overheat, even with 40-50% FFB setting I've managed to overheat it completely, so it shuts down entirely. The Rhino has a fan for this purpose, and the software also has a trim feature which when activated I can set the trim and let the stick go during formation climbing. You'll like the story how I afforded it much better, you have to pay when your ticket# is up, I was planning a computer upgrade until I found the Rhino, then I calculated the avg amount of Rhino's completed every day and timed it to my tax returns, nailed it within 4 days 🤣 FFB is on the rise now, and we've all seen photo's and vlog's from the RoF/IL-2 studio over the years, when did they not have an MSFFB2 connected to the testrig? And what did they do when the Jetseat FFB pad come out years ago? They almost immediately implemented support for it, Jason is very quick on picking up trends ☺️ I wouldn't be too worried mate! @Boo I hope you get your Rhino soon, once you get the hang of it you'll never go back. Since I posted here last I did since experience a crash with the Rhino in IL2. But that was after a year of faultfree use, and was with the software and the dial on the FFB base both cranked up all the way to 100% while loading a WW2 mission, so when the FFB parameters reset from the WW1 mission I was in prior to that, it threw the stick all the way forward and to the left, skipped a tooth on the belt and threw the calibration. I.e sorta like what a lot of sims can do sometimes with MSFFB2 when you have your hand on the stick while loading. That's to do with the way games does FFB, not the FFB hardware itself. So the workaround I do is not to go more than 60-70% force in the software. The Rhino also comes with a dial on the base, so usually what I do is crank it down to 0% in the software, and dial all the way down on the base, once I'm on the runway in mission I crank the dial and software up to where I want it. From there on I don't touch it for the remainder of the session. Not much different from TrackIR deciding not to work, or controllers not showing up in general, sims are fiddly creations, ask anyone, gotta expect to have to develop a routine and do a few workarounds, that's just the way it is.

I've since moved over to the VPForce Rhino, but I still keep the MSFFB2 in reserve and for my retro PC's. Hope they can make FFB sticks in that price-class again, for what you get with 100-150 bucks, the equivalent of TrackIR, the two combined with a bit of practice and most expert virtual pilots will think twice before taking you on fair'n square.

Never had an issue with FFB in IL-2, important not to let Windows screw with USB devices in the power plan and individual USB devices entries in device manager though.

I've used the MSFFB2 in every sim that has FFB. Likewise I've used my VPForce Rhino FFB in every sim that has FFB. Both has sensors to register movement like any other stick, and both has driverboards & motors to receive and effectuate FFB, it's all up to the game to send the FFB telemetry to the stick 🙂 Really it comes down to if Combat Pilot plans to implement FFB, so that's the biggest question really.

Knew Jason was up to something when he bid farewell with RoF/IL-2. Can't wait for this, immediately registered as soon as I learned the news via a friend.