G29 FFB Broken in 1.8 update

About ~1min off my usual on a 10min stage.

One positive I did notice though is that I can really feel the wheel loosen up when suspension unloads or flying through the air, which is nice but I don't know if that's new or something that was hidden by the previous setup.

There's definitely times when on the ground in a turn where there's zero force where there should be, countersteering in some cases has become difficult, I spun out several times for the first time since 1.0 on my main practice stage which I'm pretty consistent at.

Really kinda feels like a lot of the time that there's a huge deadzone w/FFB; previously, it felt more than it should've been but it's more now/different; again, definitely feels like a contributing component is missing suddenly - and again, self-centering for menus/etc totally dead.

Currently attempting to go back to last public release [build 13829309 from 04/04/24, called 1.6 IIRC, don't think we ever got a "1.7" publicly] so I can A|B test this.

Edit: That's actually v1.7; I didn't realize we got a v1.7 since it never showed up in Steam posts like the others have.

Hating that it's not like 3 clicks in Steam to do this; loving that it's at least possible without having to resort to a torrent.

Will update further once it's done downloading and I can do some testing. Cool to see so many test builds going out regularly though; always nice to see that it's being worked on, even if it's frustrating to encounter issues that are game-breaking (again, dev here).

Aside, `-NOVR` definitely kills VR mode which is good - seems like lots have had issues even launching it since VR update, I did post using `-NOVR` in one thread as a suggestion for those users as IMHO that's likely the issue causing it not to launch for them.

Edit: Got 1.7 running, was a bit of a pain in the butt especially when I launched it offline pre-downgrade then tried again and it was like "uhh steam needs to be online" but I managed to prevent it updating.. Of course though, my save/profile is incompatible, so either I have to hope the saved backup of it is or start a fresh one for testing; won't even let me in the game as is, either "retry" or "cancel" which boots you to the main screen, LOL, should be an option to wipe/make new profile - especially if a luser (Less-experienced-USER) had save corruption, they'd be stuck

Edit: Note to self: Save your saves before any update.

So maybe I'm remembering incorrectly but maybe it doesn't center in menus..? FFB still doesn't seem to be active in race countdown either though I was pretty sure that was a thing.

Testing more on my end; did one race on 1.7 on my usual test track but since my save wasn't compatible I couldn't use my builder and tune, so I'll have to A|B on a stock car or something, it seemed like it felt better in 1.7 but possibly still a bit off, I haven't A|B back to back quickly yet, want to test a few things w/1.7 still to rule out any possible issues on my end with Logitech's crap software/drivers/etc

(seriously been considering DD wheel lately but the setup I want is like $2700 or something and also been considering a few other goodies (new cpu/gpu, VR, etc) but like don't wanna spend so much at once lmao)

ugh.. not even fully sure about anything now.. felt about the same in 1.7 when going back, haven't tried 1.8 again yet, will in a sec (since steam is requiring update now after a few runs, ugh) but also the downgrade method only overwrote the files from 1.8, otherwise I may have to go through every depot to ensure no files are missed (since only updated files show up in each depot, eg. diff mode) so it's possible the downgrade didn't overwrite something affecting it.

it maybe felt a bit better on 1.7 but I may be fooling myself; I hate how this stuff is partially subjective especially without some ability to fully datalog the FFB input channels, FFB output and axis inputs..

one other thing I did notice though, I usually had 'tire slip' around 60-75%, previously this resulted in no shaking/vibration on slips, now it's definitely vibrating/shaking on slips where I had to turn it down, g29 doesn't have much dynamic range and is slow thus I generally null any vibrating/shaking type effects like engine, collision, suspension, previously tire slip never generated any effect like that (when tuning originally (and now) several times I've individually tested each FFB setting with the rest set to 0 to fully confirm their effects) and now it does, previously it seemed like tire slip higher increased the looseness when unloading suspension or flying or tires slipping a lot with maybe a touch of vibe when spinning/sliding but never was enough to be noticeable at 60-75% especially since I'm so sensitive to those effects on this (bleep)ty wheel..

will try 1.8 see if it feels same as 1.7 just did and if I still really can't drive on 1.8 then I'll see about doing a non-overwrite downgrade for comparison but that'll be a pain, just downgrading alone has been a pain and already steam wants to upgrade and setting steam offline doesn't really work well.. again I wish steam just had a simple downgrade option, but bleh

note that 1.7 did properly center the wheel after resetting to track tough, but nothing in menus or pre-race start where I'm pretty sure previously it at least felt like it does when not running a game with centering spring enabled in logi drivers (but again, while not 100% sure about everything especially semi-subjective/feels things, for that I'm 100% sure that wasn't affecting FFB during race)

I just want my FEELS back! :'( lol

Welp, can't correlate anything now.

Right as I was testing if any Logi driver crap was having any effects (not that I changed anything there) I let G HUB update which at first gave a 2022 driver under 'Human Interface Devices' then after a replug gave a 2021 driver under 'Logitech Virtual Devices'.. Went to test, Steam wanted to do another update, figured it was because of my messin' around but then it turns out 1.8.1 just dropped.

Uninstalled new LG hub while it was updating and re-installed my saved version (EXACTLY why downgrading-ablity is good, not that I should HAVE to save installers or game copies or anything) and launched the game.

Feels better, more like it used to. I notice the suspension unloading/flying through the air looseness a little less (like it was before, though, I didn't mind that one aspect) and otherwise seems like it used to be mostly - so I can't confirm whether it's at all driver or game related now without spending many more hours testing thoroughly.

One thing that definitely is STILL different though, is the Tire Slip setting, it's still more vibey unlike previously and I had to turn it down from my previous settings.

Also, I lost my livery on my builder car, super annoyed about that, spent a while on it - at least my main save is fine, but WTF losing livery? where are those even stored then? :'(