Possibility of Xbox Full Compatibility Arriving Soon?
Is there anyone able to share a possible date or timeline for Xbox users to be able to finally achieve full compatibility and functionality of their equipment? We've been waiting an awfully long time, with very little communication and lack of information & updates. Doesn't have to be a definitive answer, even though that would be greatly appreciated. Also, this issue doesn't affect just Fanatec, but I'm not concerned with other brands approaches to solving it. Thank you to all who take the time to read and/or reply.
-Chad (PC & Xbox)
Comments
Who else would like some more clarity on this subject matter? Reply with "Yes" or a comment of your choosing!
I'd love to hear more details on this, but I'm certainly not holding my breath. Both Fanatec and Microsoft have proven, over and over again, that this issue is not a priority for them.
You have two options: wait and wish and wonder, or switch to PC. After years of the former, I finally gave up and chose the latter.
I thought i remember Maurice saying the new open SDK was released, and now was up to the games developers to incorporate it into their games...
So thats not up to Fanatec now.
Darren,
Thank you for your response! Have read Maurice's post and it left me more curious than ever.
Game developers seem to have allowed or at least they are ready for implementation of Fanatec's (amongst other brands) specific SDK/GDKs for other systems. For example, ACC & F1(23) on PS5 having all the bells and whistles. Just from that example alone, one may assume that Microsoft is the culprit.
Greg,
Appreciate you for sharing your thoughts and what you had to do!
Made this post because I have such empathy and sympathy for the ones hard stuck in option #1 without the ability to consider option #2.
I completely understand. It sucks paying the same amount of money (actually more, in some cases) as PC users, but getting a fraction of the functionality just because you've chosen to play on Xbox. I wish the best of luck to everyone who's holding out for parity of features and functionality. I put up with it for several years myself, but when the opportunity came to make the switch to PC, I caved and honestly I'm so much happier now.
Hopefully we'll all get some good news at some point, but well... you'll have to forgive me if I'm not overly optimistic on expecting anything to happen particularly soon.
When I switched to PC, even a lowly Fanatec wheel like my CSR had more functionality than anything I got on XB360 and XB1 (via Drive Hub). It's laughable how long Microsoft let this go on. It's clearly up to Microsoft to fix this. They're not going to. That much is certain.
"It's clearly up to Microsoft to fix this."
- Is it, though? That's been the most frustrating part in all of this: the lack of communication and transparency from both sides, regarding why the problem exists and what exactly needs to happen in order to fix it. Everything has come from bits and pieces of things that random people have cobbled together from different discussion forums, with conflicting stories saying that it's one party's fault or the other's, followed by lots of speculation and wishful thinking from frustrated users, and the cycle goes round and round. All the while, no real answers are revealed and no tangible progress is made for the end user to see, who at the end of the day is still stuck having paid full price for a product that has a fraction of the functionality of that of a PC user.
Could not have said it better myself! Thanks Gregg for holding down the fort!
Summary of Conflicting Statements:
If anybody has anymore examples please share.
But guys, this discussion seems absurd to me. It is precisely the main characteristic of the Consoles to have limitations. The end user turns it on and plays, which is not always possible with a PC. It is a simple and immediate type of experience. To obtain it, the manufacturer builds hardware, which remains the same for years, with all the limitations of the case. It's obvious that you can't have more buttons, custom peripherals, or a certain level of game customization.
In practice, Fanatec peripherals are PC peripherals, "compatible" also with XBox, not "dedicated" for XBox. There is a dedicated wheel for PS5 due to an exclusive agreement with Sony, but everyone is quick to sell it or replace it with a PC wheel.
What you want is basically a PC. However, the majority of console users would not agree to have a complicated gaming experience, just to satisfy a small minority of simracing players. This is why you are not satisfied. If you want a PC experience, go to PC.
I do appreciate your thoughts, but your response is telling a community that YOU ARE part of (regardless of platform) to shut up, quit whining , and get over it or get a PC, which I do have and use regularly. This post is for those that Cannot JUST switch to PC and/or have been holding out for the promises that have been made to the Xbox community.
If it is "precisely the main characteristic of the Consoles to have limitations" then could you please explain how PS Consoles are not limited when it comes to button functionality/mapping... Are you aware a person can play on PS consoles with an Xbox "ready" wheel on the GT DD Pro (PS compatible) wheel base and still have all of the Wheel's functionality as intended for games such as ACC, F1, & GT?
Also, how do you know what "majority" of console users or I want? Do you drive/race on multiple platforms or communicate with the console community regularly, as I have been doing for the past few years or so? I'm assuming not.
I don't see how allowing extra inputs and more functionality from a peripheral device would make things any more complicated for the average user of a Console. Already, the Xbox will support a USB keyboard, for example. I can plug one in and navigate around the interface, type messages to friends, etc. with no problems. A keyboard has many more inputs than a standard Xbox controller. Now, I'm not a programmer, but if the Console can see and interpret inputs from a 3rd party keyboard correctly, surely it should be possible to have our Fanatec wheels and their inputs recognized correctly as well. For people who don't need or want this extra functionality, nothing changes...they can still sit down and play Fortnite or Call of Duty or whatever with no hassle, same as they always could.
This was going to be my next point! Thanks Gregg for being on top of this subject with me. I owe you a beverage!
I didn't actually say that you should shut up, but that you are knocking on the wrong door. Nor that you should get a PC. There are many unpleasant things about playing on a PC, unknown in the console world. Microsoft writes the rules for Xbox, and has already written them, and perhaps this is a limitation. While the rules on PC are all to be written, and sometimes they are not written well, this is certainly a limitation. On consoles the available keys are sufficient for every function provided by the game, that's all you need, while when you play on PC there are never enough keys. But what would be the point of having so many functioning buttons and knobs when the game is limited to the standard joypad buttons? The game developers wouldn't add features anyway, because they would want to sell the games primarily to the many people who use the standard joypad.
Remember the Logitech G920 and G29? Practically the same, but G920 had 5 fewer buttons, no knob and no LED. Here, Fanatec has only left those extra buttons and lights on the Xbox compatible steering wheels. On Xbox they don't work or are duplicates, but they work on PC. Fanatec could put on the market a racing wheel that is 100% compatible with Xbox by simply removing everything that doesn't work on Xbox like Logitech did. But would it make sense? And how many would buy it?
Microsoft added mouse and keyboard support to the Xbox One in an OS update in 2018. The functionality is there for games that support it. So it's not like the console is stuck with this one immutable set of specifications and limitations that can't be altered once it goes to market.
I see this Fanatec wheel situation in a similar light: allow game developers to add support for the peripherals' extra functionality if they so choose. If they feel it's not something worth investing their time in, so be it. But make the tools available, let the devs who choose to support it do so, and let the market decide.
Also, in early August Microsoft added Keyboard Mapping for Xbox Controls. Although, This is limited to the Elite Series 2 and Adaptive controllers, but this may be a step in the right direction. Check this link from the source: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/08/03/keyboard-button-mapping-for-xbox-controllers/
I also share the sentiment about Devs being the ones to add the support. There could be some support already there with some titles on Xbox having the ability to detect the specific steering wheels and sometimes which version.
In an old video, Aris from Kunos says that casual gamers are the main buyers of ACC, and that they pay for everyone else's tickets. These players use the external view, the trajectory line, and the keyboard or joypad as input. For them ACC is not a simulator, but just another car game and they consume it as such. Without this base of buyers, which are almost all of them, Kunos would not be able to continue developing ACC.
Whether you like it or not, the moment we bought the steering wheel and pedals we became Hardcore Gamers. And we are few, very few. Being part of a specific community distorts our perception of reality. We think we are many because we only talk to people who have the same interests as us, but this is not the case. Almost all the people who own a Fanatec steering wheel barely know about the existence of this forum. Otherwise Fanatec would have already gone bankrupt, reading certain comments on its customer service. Have you ever thought that this forum belongs to Fanatec itself, and that they let us write the worst insults towards them, without censorship? Why? Because the people who will read them will be very few, an insignificant percentage of Fanatec customers. And Fanatec customers are themselves an insignificant percentage of all Gamers.
It's one thing to implement a keyboard and mouse to help players chat, but adding features not provided by the standard controller is another thing entirely. Those who don't have a keyboard connected can still play with the standard controller, with full functionality. But imagine what would happen if a software house released a game saying, "The Fanatec wheel is recommended. You can also use the standard controller, but in this case you will not be able to adjust TC, ABS and Bias during the race."
"It's one thing to implement a keyboard and mouse to help players chat, but adding features not provided by the standard controller is another thing entirely."
It really isn't, though. In fact, it's already happening. To directly quote the article Chad linked above,
"Mapping the paddles on your Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 can provide some extra buttons on your controller! By mapping keyboard keys in the game to actions that are not already mapped to an existing button, you can get four extra actions that you can do on the controller that you otherwise could not."
To your point about us being "hardcore gamers" and therefore being in the minority...of course that's true. But if developers were only interested in doing what the majority of players wanted, no one would ever bother implementing wheel support at all, because the majority play with a gamepad.
Also, I don't see your final point becoming reality about controller players becoming disadvantaged and upset because in most games where you're adjusting things like brake bias, differential, etc on the fly, you're able to do so via an on-screen MFD which can be controlled via your directional pad, on either a gamepad or a wheel. Giving wheel users the ability to have dedicated buttons for these functions rather than going through the MFD is not unreasonable and would not be offering access to game features not accessible to a gamepad user. It's about greater ease of use and immersion, which I think is perfectly reasonable to expect when you're paying hundreds of dollars for equipment such as this.
Sorry, but this is 100% not about the characteristics of consoles as a platform whatsoever. The PS5 is a console and I can map pretty much everything on my Formula v2.5x on F1 games, or most other games for that matter. So it is not about the intrinsic simplicity expected from consoles, because this functionality will have absolutely zero impact on anyone who isn't interested in it.
This is 100% an Xbox specific issue and despite endless speculation over many years, I don't believe any of us really knows why this limitation exists, or why it hasn't been sorted.
But the simple fact is, it's not a problem on PlayStation and the PlayStation is a console, therefore it has nothing to do with consoles vs PCs.
Hey guys! Thanks again for ALL the input (warranted or not). I think we have the most complete, clear , and direct post outlining that the full compatibility is achievable for Xbox users. Unfortunately, our research appears to lead to Microsoft being the gatekeeper for this. I'm guessing no company will dare to call them out for fear of losing business and licensing deals, hence all of the silence from respected brands and developers. Anyways... with Forza Motorsport release here, I'm waiting to see if Microsoft will deliver on some of their well worded information regarding full functionality. Not holding my breath but still slightly optimistic something will shake.
Anyone know if the universal hub v2 for xbox and csl dd 8nm has the full compat mode for xbox series X?
Unfortunately, it does not. Suffers the same issue as the rest of the Xbox licensed wheels.
Cheers to forum user @Joe Kelly, who just posted this link in another thread. This specifically states that "Bespoke buttons and digital displays will be activated in an upcoming Fanatec wheel firmware update."
As I mentioned in the other thread, I'm not sure if it's a case of this article being 100% accurate, or if it's dumbing things down so as to not get into the whole GDK/SDK aspect of things. Does seem to hold some weight though, coming directly from Xbox.com.
Just have to continue to wait and see.
Any news from Fanatec ?
Yeah, the merry go round of excuses and conspiracy theories from everyone and anyone does make me laugh. I think this one makes me laugh the most:
If this is true, how do we explain Mouse and Keyboard support on Xbox then??
It’s clear that someone, somewhere doesn't give a damn about the average Xbox sim racer user.
Even PlayStation users get the functionality us Xbox users crave on Fanatec wheels, like the rev/shift light. This is what makes me think it probably is solely an Xbox issue.
And watching the recent Moza R3 reveal video which proudly boasted of Xbox compatibility, it was telling that their shift/rev light on the wheel didnt work either. It merely pulsed on and off, it didnt move with the revs coming from the car in game.
Just to add to this.
Not even all the inputs of the standard Xbox controller are mappable.
For example, the McLaren V2 has dedicated RSB and LSB buttons (1&6 in the documentation) .
Which, as even stated in the documentation, should map to the corresponding analog sticks (pressed down). Just as with the PS controller.
Instead those are hard mapped to right/left bumper, which of course is the same as the shifter paddles.
Afaik those are actually usable, for other inputs besides shifting, on the PS controller.
Interesting 🤔
Exactly. These buttons are not mapped to the buttons as indicated on all the documentation from fanatec.
I have multiple wheels that have LSB & RSB buttons which would be perfect to assign to brake bias etc, but the fanatec firmware incorrectly maps these buttons as duplicate LB & RB buttons, leaving good buttons useless!
Hello,
Do you have some news ?...
Any updates here?