Steering wheel disconnects during online races

With 2 different computers -- my old i7/4070 based system and my new 9800x3d/5080 system, same thing. Wheel just gets disconnected during the race. It's still got power. Everything is working as far as the wheelbase is concerned, but the game no longer sees it. This has happened in several races and ended the race for me right there and then. I don't have this problem in any other sim, and I do lots of online racing in IRacing, Le Mans Ultimate etc

It's to the point where I Just don't want to race AMS2 online anymore, and that's a very very depressing thought. I just can't rely on it. I've read that this is a problem with the Madness game engine, and I never really can find anything from Reiza indicating that controller connectivity and stability is an area of focus. I love the new content and other things they do, but fundamentally, no new tracks or enhanced physics helps you when the sim just stops responding to controls mid-session.

I've read all the stuff about recognizing a wheel at startup etc...but that isn't what we're talking about here. We're talking about mid-race wheel disconnects.

Have I missed something here?

 

Sure. I'm using a Logitech G Pro wheelbase and Logitech Pro pedals as the wheel, with a Simagic GT Neo rim using the Logitech QR adapter (it has its own usb connection to the pc).

The wheelbase never shuts down. This logitech does not overheat. I use it almost every day for hours. I do 24 hour live swap events in Le Mans Ultimate and iRacing with it with no issues. I think we can rule out overheating.

The PC is brand new and runs these quite well. It's an Andromeda PC with the RTX 5080 and AMD 9800x3d. I had similar issues with AMS2 disconnecting on my i7-13700kf + RTX 4070 PC that I have used. (I kind of hoped it would go away with a shiny new PC).

Windows drivers are all update and the system is pretty pristine.

I have turned off power saving on all USB ports.

The other peripherals connected are a USB-powered hub that is certified by many sim racers as being very reliable and also adds its own power, but I've experimented with plugging directly into the PC and removing the hub from the picture. Only other peripherals are an HF8 Pro haptic seat with its own power, and a simple usb mouse and keyboard. Nothing else.

If I were getting disconnects in any other sim -- and again, I have a lot of them. I might think yeah something going on here with my peripherals, usb settings, or whatever, but it's ONLY AMS2. Nothing else ever disconnects or suddenly fails to read the wheel.

I do sometimes come into AMS2 and it doesn't see the wheel, and its fixed by deleting the automobilista .sav file and starting over because nothing else will make it see the wheelbase at that point, so nuking the .sav lets it re-read things properly. Maybe Ids are changing or something..I don't know. It's just so very fragile. It's not the worst thing in the world for single player racing, but it's a dealbreaker for online racing, and every time I think the problem is licked it comes back.

 

Note: If there's any way automobilista 2 is logging when these things happen, I'd be happy to send logs or any other information to help.

 

I can continue to experiment with combinations, but I'm not that optimistic right now. Is it true you guys are dealing with directx IDs in such a way that if they change -- AMS2 doesn't see that they moved and that is why I have to nuke my .sav file? Is it possible for an id to change during actual play for any other reason? --eg. not a true disconnect but rather the thing AMS2 was talking to suddenly was changed by the PC somehow and an id-based system gets screwed whereas another sim might be fine? Not an expert on this -- I'm just struggling to understand WHY this is only an ams2 issue and hasn't happened in 1000's of hours on the other sims. Not PMR, LMU, iRacing, AC Evo ,etc. ONLY AMS2.

 

I'll go see i what I have for the log.

 

It's all online messages and doesn't show anything with regards to controller. After I slammed into the wall with dead steering in the F-USA 2023 car, I powered off and on the wheel. It did come up and re-detect, but the suspension damage and time loss were so bad at that point, I just returned to pits and retired.

I wish there was a way that AMS2 could log a loss of controller input like that so we could get to the bottom of this.

 

I suspect that there is a way the dedicated
server or p2p host takes or grants inputs.
Had similar issues when joining a full lobby (aka likely stressed, perhaps cheap) server.

It just didnt take my brake/throttle inputs in this ocassion, therefore not auto starting the engine when i was trying to leave my pits.

Weirdly enough if i went into the settings and re-mappped both inputs, it would work but only until i returned to the pits or advanved to the next session.

Never had it in a controlled environment, like a league race or league practice server, only in public random servers which had perhaps very bad ping anyhow.

But there were no disconnect sounds and the name of the input mapped was the same before and after.

Not sure if it helps reiza figuring this out.

 

this is in league races.

 

I think a giveaway here would be if the steering wheel still turns on screen, it should continue to do so if the issue is that the vehicle's engine is not running. Although I suppose that requires that the player has the steering wheel set to render

 

No this happened while driving. Not in a pitstop. Halfway around hockenheim the wheel suddenly shows centered on screen and everything is non responsive and I plow into a wall. I have to power cycle the wheel and it starts working again . (Too late for me though.)

 

well, to be clear I powered it OFF and back on. it never powered off. But I will try the command line options.... I know I sound like a broken record here when I say "only AMS2". That's the part that is the toughest, why is AMS2 the fragile one ?