u/GanJJ_

MAFIA 1 Sim Driving FFB mod is live!

Finally, version 2.0 is released, so the OG Mafia 1 is actually totally enjoyable now and feels like a modern driving game with your latest hardware. Such a classic game indeed it is.
Download from GitHub, free and open source (tested on GOG v1.3, and by reports Steam should work too): https://github.com/ALXGtech/alxgtech-mafia1-mods

From 1:31 of the video I briefly show the H-shifter, the force feedback and first-person driving in action (I didn't get around to a proper mod release video yet, maybe later):
https://youtu.be/NGSV-0-Ubzw?t=91
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is my #1 childhood game, and these days I drive a Simagic Alpha EVO (12 Nm) with a clutch pedal, an ODDOR H-shifter and a handbrake. And Mafia was literally a simulator back in 2002: a unique engine where everything bends, breaks and crumples, a mind-blowing driving model, and even its own force feedback. But modern direct drive bases like my Simagic don't hook into that native feedback at all: it simply wouldn't start, and when I dug into the code and somehow connected it, it was unnaturally strong and very rigid. So what do you do?

Back in mid-July I thought "Well, if not me, who else?", rolled up my sleeves, got an AI agent subscription and started tinkering. Long story short, here's what I made:

1. An H-shifter (Mafia only ever had sequential shifting up and down, so when my H-pattern stick suddenly started to work in my favorite game - it felt amazing),

H-Shifter is usable now!

2. a first-person cockpit view instead of the hood view (the original game never had one, and in the 2023 mod Tommy's own cap or hat got in the way), so mine is made from scratch and nothing blocks the view,
   plus, my own 16:9 interface fix while driving, to keep the mod standalone (imperfect, but it does the job),

Proper 1st person driving camera mod is developed as well

3. the Direct Drive Force Feedback mod itself (everything works and feels super cool :) ),
   and VR, which is still a work in progress and not ready for release yet (I just got greedy in the process).
   At the last moment I rewrote 70% of the force feedback physics from scratch, based on a Mafia 1 speedrunner's comments (thanks for the feedback!).

v 2.0 Modern Force Feedback for DD bases is here too!

What's so special about 2.0 is that, finally, there is this honest centering feeling. When having a long turn, it puts you back, and you feel the wheel is getting stronger and stronger, resisting you from turning until it completely slips and loses its grip. The car starts slipping, and the wheel becomes light. It lets you drive by feeling the turns, and you actually feel the grip, which is awesome.
Also, when you jump at high speed and all four wheels leave the ground for a second, you now feel it in the wheel too: it goes light, so you realize you're airborne and should be careful with your inputs. This is exactly what's released in version 2.0, which basically fixes the driving and makes it as realistic as I wanted it to be for Mafia.
As for the game's own feedback, on old gear-driven wheels like the Logitech G27 it does work (I've seen the videos), and there it may even feel more honest than mine (I can't compare unfortunately). Why it fails on a direct drive I can't say for sure; my assumption is that the game updates its forces only about three times a second, sometimes jumping across the whole range at once: a geared wheel smoothed that out, while a direct drive plays every jump literally (if you know the real reason, let me know!). Either way, mine is much more granular and customizable, with way more attention to the collisions, so on a modern direct drive, even a 2-3 Nm one, I'm 100% sure of my mod :)

These are the things you can customize: everything on the Force Feedback tab works live, 100% is the feel I tuned, and every slider goes up to 400%, so you can tune it for any base and any effect you want.

My Simagic EVO 12nm profile for your reference (6.6 nm, 600 degrees rotation)

My recommended settings: set the mod's rotation range to match your base (I tuned everything at 600 degrees). For reference, my SIMAGIC runs at 55% (6.6 Nm) with its own mechanical effects almost off, since the mod puts in the weight and damping itself.

Known issues:

• at high speed there can be occasional jerks,
• and a car ramming you from behind is barely felt.
• You can feel being shot at with the Gunfire slider, but it also kicks in when your teammates in the same car start shooting, so I keep it off.
• And our hardware is varied: I tried to cover different shifters and bases, even a shifter plugged into the base or straight into the PC, but I could test it only on my hardware at home.

I'm also thinking about Mafia 2: I love it and how the cars are there, but there is no direct drive feedback, and it just kills me. Maybe I'll look into it later on.

This is my first modding experience, and looking back, I outdid myself by 300%, so I'm happy with the result :)

And I'll be glad if you actually test it on your sim rigs and tell me: how you find it, how it works, which settings work for you the most, and what problems you face (here in the comments or as an issue on GitHub, and I'll try to fix it).

And if you record any footage, show it off and spread the word, because I just want all the Mafia fans to enjoy their favorite game in a new light with all the latest toys they have

Steam Controller TRACKPAD video guide is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BQEg3puMsc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BQEg3puMsc

Recently I've made a post https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1sy3sne/why_steam_controller_2026_has_no_competition_at/ and you guys gave me A LOT of good and actionable feedback, whether it was "Oh, Steam Controller is the best thing in the world" or "who needs this garbage, I got my xbox/dualsense/8bit do already". Thank you for that.

That lengthy discussion made it clear for me, that the majority of gamers (especially those on Consoles only) have almost no idea on how much the input system you are used to defines: How and What you actually are going to play.

So today I'm coming here with a very detailed guide and a showcase, on what Steam Controller Trackapds trully are. How to get the most out of it? What trackpads are good for? How to set them up?

- Windows and Linux desktop control from your couch

- Mouse & keyboard-only games

- Improved aiming for hybrid shooters and actions (FPS / TPS) with better precision

- Improving even native CONSOLE games with Steam Input

Also I'll debunk couple "myths":

- "Steam Controller only works with Steam, I can't play 3rd party games"

- “Steam Controller for $99 is overpriced"

UPD: "Community layouts for 3rd party non-steam games"

1. Rename the non-steam game not with the "original title", but with the APP ID from SteamDB for that game: https://steamdb.info/app/482400/ 482400 as a name for System Shock for example. And you'll see community layouts popping up. Choose the one you actually like, test it out, and then rename again to "System Shock" for good library look.

2. Create 3-5 main templates for all genres: FPS M&K layout, FPS gamepad layout, strategy mouse region, RPG mouse region etc. And soon you'll see that it's faster to quickly adapt your own template to the new game, than actually relearn someone else's community layout for that title.

3. If you've already created a profile for a 3rd party game - save it as your own template so it'll be backed up in cloud and you could always apply it for any other title.

The goal is simple: I want to show all the gamers new ways to enjoy all the games and genres you might’ve been missing.

in case you seek more mouse focused gameplay/features, here's a whole list of Steam Controller customization for M&K games, including "on the go recoil compensation", "stratagem macro" etc. for you:

- RPG, RTS, Top Down MOUSE CURSOR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0jEadhrfF0&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&pp=sAgC

- GENERAL FPS LAYOUT with recoil compensation: https://youtu.be/_Lzs60Kj9ag?list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&t=2257

- FPS with trackpad menu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI-zP6Vtsmc&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=5

- TPS (Helldivers 2) stratagems macro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQH_OsnDRLs&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=9

- FPS with macro sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQH_OsnDRLs&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=9

- FPS my oldest and most popular guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAIVVRSkBKQ&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=3

- SpeedHack speedup gameplay: https://youtu.be/vwBQwyL_Aes?list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV

- CONSOLE GAME guide (zelda totk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpRHDgYigCg&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=15&pp=iAQBsAgC

Let me know if it was useful, or I'm wasting your time here yet again 😄 Thank you once again, all the feedback is highly appreciated.

P.S. feel free to repost it to other relevant communities. I'm pretty new here so I'm not sure how it works with each subreddit having its own unclear rules.

"OVERPRICED" Steam Controller TRACKPAD video guide is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BQEg3puMsc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BQEg3puMsc

Recently I've made a post www.reddit.com/r/SteamController/comments/1sy3vv4/why_steam_controller_2026_has_no_competition_at and you guys gave me A LOT of good and actionable feedback, whether it was "Oh, Steam Controller is the best thing in the world" or "who needs this garbage, I got my xbox/dualsense/8bit do already". Thank you for that.

That lengthy discussion made it clear for me, that the majority of gamers (especially those on Consoles only) have almost no idea on how much the input system you are used to defines: How and What you actually are going to play.

So today I'm coming here with a very detailed guide and a showcase, on what Steam Controller Trackapds trully are. How to get the most out of it? What trackpads are good for? How to set them up?

- Windows and Linux desktop control from your couch

- Mouse & keyboard-only games

- Improved aiming for hybrid shooters and actions (FPS / TPS) with better precision

- Improving even native CONSOLE games with Steam Input

Also I'll debunk couple "myths":

- "Steam Controller only works with Steam, I can't play 3rd party games"

- “Steam Controller for $99 is overpriced"

UPD: "Community layouts for 3rd party non-steam games"

1. Rename the non-steam game not with the "original title", but with the APP ID from SteamDB for that game: https://steamdb.info/app/482400/ 482400 as a name for System Shock for example. And you'll see community layouts popping up. Choose the one you actually like, test it out, and then rename again to "System Shock" for good library look.

2. Create 3-5 main templates for all genres: FPS M&K layout, FPS gamepad layout, strategy mouse region, RPG mouse region etc. And soon you'll see that it's faster to quickly adapt your own template to the new game, than actually relearn someone else's community layout for that title.

3. If you've already created a profile for a 3rd party game - save it as your own template so it'll be backed up in cloud and you could always apply it for any other title.

The goal is simple: I want to show all the gamers new ways to enjoy all the games and genres you might’ve been missing.

in case you seek more mouse focused gameplay/features, here's a whole list of Steam Controller customization for M&K games, including "on the go recoil compensation", "stratagem macro" etc. for you:

- RPG, RTS, Top Down MOUSE CURSOR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0jEadhrfF0&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&pp=sAgC

- GENERAL FPS LAYOUT with recoil compensation: https://youtu.be/_Lzs60Kj9ag?list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&t=2257

- FPS with trackpad menu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI-zP6Vtsmc&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=5

- TPS (Helldivers 2) stratagems macro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQH_OsnDRLs&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=9

- FPS with macro sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQH_OsnDRLs&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=9

- FPS my oldest and most popular guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAIVVRSkBKQ&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=3

- SpeedHack speedup gameplay: https://youtu.be/vwBQwyL_Aes?list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV

- CONSOLE GAME guide (zelda totk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpRHDgYigCg&list=PLb2HrafQlTcfLOHUQXWMIb3MgOIb-RIWV&index=15&pp=iAQBsAgC

Let me know if it was useful, or I'm wasting your time here yet again 😄 Thank you once again, all the feedback is highly appreciated.

P.S. feel free to repost it to other relevant communities. I'm pretty new here so I'm not sure how it works with each subreddit having its own unclear rules.

Video version is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esYbaG81Yog

https://preview.redd.it/vdpong7f3yxg1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=0d4432e9ddd76823fbc9b57158a662987cf3e866

New Steam Controller is almost here! Is it too expensive for ~$99 though? Let me tell you why Steam Controller blows any competition (PS5 Dualsense, Xbox, popular brands like 8bitdo, Flydigi, GameSir - you name it) out of the water even with this price:

1. Full screen "mouse region" setting - a game changer, which I will mention separately since main media outlets aren't really aware of it. But now you know :)
2. Amazing trackpads which make ANY PC game "controller-able" on your living room TV, including RTS and CRPG titles, which are almost never represented on consoles at all. But also all the FPS, TPS and point& click titles.

 

PS5 Dualsense's trackpad is decent, but its placement makes it way less usable than it could've been. 

3. Which controllers offers both 4 back buttons and native gyro recognition by steam input at the same time? Xbox elite would have 4 buttons but no gyro; PS5 controller with back paddles would be up to 150-200 USD.
   UPD. since recently some 8bitdo and Flydigi Vader are natively suported by Steam Input: https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4397053/view/545611272206420771 (thanks for your comments!). They still don't have trackpads though.

Other brands often don't even have 4 back buttons, but when they do - you have to use them in Switch Pro mode for decent gyro (also losing analogue triggers input), or resorting to a 3rd party remapping tools like REWASD (which means you lose access to all steam input profiles built by community in the last 10+ years). 

And it's the power of steam input profiles which makes even Star Citizen fully playable on a single controller (no M&K or HOTAS needed). 

4. Native "wake" function, so you could wake up your living room TV+PC setup directly from your couch without extra setup. UPD: TBC, refer to https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1sy3sne/comment/oisyvh9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button for more details.

5. New "nice to have" bindable controller grips (unique usability feature).

 

And SteamController gives you everything:

- 4 back buttons,

- native steam input support,

- native gyro support ,

- awesome trackpads for anything you need (including emulating keyboard and high precision mouse input)

And from now on - even the "click to wake" function, which wasn't a thing on PC before (UPD. check link above for clarification).  

So, there's no competition here really for this price. 

I can see though how bigger channels don't really notice these advantages since the controller requirements of the games they play are simple enough to be fully covered by traditional XINPUT (not using gyro for aiming or mouse emulation, playing with face buttons only, ignoring traditionally "PC-only" genres). 

Then yeah, the advantage isn't that obvious, and so it's up to #Valve #Marketing Team to explain that, I guess :)