Force effects reference

The force pipeline runs a stack of sub-models in parallel: a base centring spring, two airspeed-loaded constant forces, several sustained aero-drag pushes, and a catalogue of continuous and one-shot rumble / buffet / shudder channels. Everything sums into pitch and roll outputs, scaled by the master gain, gated by the master arm. This page documents each effect: what it simulates, what telemetry drives it, and what you should hear / feel when it fires correctly.

At a glance

Around thirty distinct cues, organised by the same groups you can quick-mute on the Dashboard. Each one is detailed in full further down this page.

1. Centring spring

Telemetry

G-load, airspeed, pitch/roll trim positions, control deflection

Output

Spring coefficient + centre offset, both axes

Key sliders

Base, low-speed floor, G-gain, min clamp, max clamp, deadband

The force pulling your stick toward neutral. Stiffness grows with load factor, matching how a real stick behaves under G. The low-speed floor keeps the stick from going limp during taxi and after simulator disconnects, while still letting profiles soften the spring when airflow is low. Deadband widens at low airspeeds so the stick doesn't feel sticky at dead-centre on the ramp. The centre offset is shifted by elevator and aileron trim so a trimmed aircraft feels neutral when the stick is at the trimmed position.

Trim is a single switch on the Tuning page — Enable trim, under Stick feel. With it off, trim does nothing to the stick. With it on, the centre tracks the trimmed position and the airspeed-loaded forces (effects 2 and 3 below) reference (stick − trim) instead of total surface deflection, so the held force eases off. Net effect: at a trimmed steady state with neutral stick, every force is zero and the stick holds at the trimmed position on release. Trim is elevator-first — one elevator strength control, with aileron strength under an Advanced disclosure.

1a. Control-system feel

Telemetry

None — per-aircraft profile metadata

Output

Modulates the centring spring and airspeed-loaded forces

Key control

Control system selector (Stick feel group)

Not a separate effect — a per-aircraft setting on the Tuning page (saved in the profile) that reshapes how the centring spring and aero-load forces behave, to match the aircraft's flight-control architecture:

• Manual — mechanical / cable-driven controls. The controls load up with airspeed and stiffen under G, the classic direct-linkage feel. Built-in for the C172, TBM 930, and King Air 350i.
• Hydraulic-boosted — gentler, smoother boosted feel. Aerodynamic loading is still present but reduced. Built-in for the 747-8.
• Fly-by-wire — a constant side-stick spring that doesn't load with speed or G, the way an isolated side-stick feels. Engine rumble and the stall stick-shaker are also silenced on the side-stick (a real fly-by-wire side-stick is mechanically isolated and doesn't transmit them) — flight cues like stall buffet and ground / touchdown still come through. Built-in for the A320neo.

2. Airspeed-loaded pitch force

Telemetry

Indicated airspeed, elevator deflection, pitch trim

Output

Constant force on the pitch axis

Key sliders

Pitch gain (trim modulates the input)

Pushing or pulling the stick at cruise should feel like pushing against air. Force scales with airspeed squared. With trim disabled, the input is total elevator deflection. With trim enabled, the input is (elevator − trim) — so a trimmed aircraft with the stick at the trimmed position feels zero force. The control-system feel above scales this force: reduced under Hydraulic-boosted, removed under Fly-by-wire.

3. Airspeed-loaded roll force

Telemetry

Indicated airspeed, aileron deflection

Output

Constant force on the roll axis

Key sliders

Roll gain

Same idea as the pitch force but on the roll axis. Tuned independently because most airframes have asymmetric pitch-vs-roll authority.

4. Rate damping

Telemetry

Body-axis rotation rates (p, q)

Output

Opposing constant force proportional to rate

Key sliders

Rate-damping gain

Subtracts from the commanded pitch and roll forces in proportion to the current angular rate. This is what makes a sharp stick input decay back toward the trim point instead of ringing around it. Think viscous damping.

5. Stick drop

Telemetry

Indicated airspeed

Output

Constant forward bias on the pitch axis at low airspeed

Key sliders

Force, Fade airspeed

In a non-power-assisted aircraft (most GA), the elevator is unloaded when there's no air flowing over it — gravity plus cable rigging pulls the surface down, which pulls the yoke forward. The pilot feels a constant forward pull while parked or taxiing, fading to nothing once airflow loads the elevator. Modeled as a linear fade from the configured Force at 0 kts to zero at the configured Fade airspeed.

Defaults — Force 0.25, Fade airspeed 30 kts — are tuned for a Cessna-class GA feel: the stick rests roughly halfway forward against the default centring spring, and the bias has decayed to nothing well before rotation. Drop the Force toward 0 to silence it on jet or fly-by-wire profiles where the elevator isn't free to droop. Setting Force to zero disables the effect without flipping the parent enable bit, which is convenient for A/B comparison.

6. Autopilot follow cue

Telemetry

Autopilot-on, AP commanded pitch/roll

Output

Low-authority spring centre shift toward AP command

Key sliders

AP authority, AP strength

When enabled, AP follow nudges the centring spring toward the autopilot's flight-director reference so the stick hints at what the AP is asking for. It is intentionally low authority and ships off by default, because stock MSFS treats physical stick motion as pilot input. Use it as a cue, not a servo, unless your cockpit owns the simulator axis through a virtual-device or HID-filter path.

7. Runway rumble

Telemetry

On-ground, ground speed, surface type enum

Output

Continuous periodic force

Key sliders

Rumble gain

Scales with ground speed and the surface-type enum. Grass and gravel are roughly 1.5–1.9× a paved runway; ice is about 0.3–0.5×. Fires only when on-ground is true. An undercarriage-type multiplier set per profile (wheels / skis / floats) further scales the continuous ground-roll rumbles (runway rumble, gear bumps, nosewheel shimmy) — skis run a touch stronger, floats softer.

8. Touchdown thump

Telemetry

On-ground (transition)

Output

Single impulse

Key sliders

Thump gain

A single, firm impulse the moment the on-ground flag flips to true. Tuned so a greaser feels softer than a firm arrival, but not by much — it's a fixed amplitude multiplied by the vertical speed at touchdown.

9. Brake shudder

Telemetry

Brake pedal deflection, on-ground

Output

Continuous low-frequency rumble

Key sliders

Brake-shudder gain

Amplitude scales with brake pedal pressure. Gated on-ground so airborne braking doesn't fire it.

10. Gear bumps

Telemetry

Ground speed, on-ground

Output

Repeated short impulses

Key sliders

Bump gain, frequency

Separate from the continuous runway rumble — these are discrete “taxiway seams and paint” bumps. Tuned to feel natural under 40 kt; above that, the continuous rumble dominates.

10a. Nosewheel shimmy

Telemetry

On-ground, ground speed

Output

Continuous lateral (roll-axis) vibration

Key sliders

Shimmy gain

A rapid side-to-side wobble on the roll axis at and above taxi-rotation speed — the classic nosegear shimmy. Ramps in from a low ground speed and holds. Tuned per profile: strongest on the free-castoring GA nosewheel, weaker on steered and damped airliner gear.

10b. Ground-acceleration pitch cue

Telemetry

On-ground, longitudinal body acceleration

Output

Signed pitch-axis force

Key sliders

Ground-accel gain

On the ground, fore/aft acceleration is felt as a pitch-axis cue: the takeoff surge throws you back (stick aft), braking pushes you forward (stick forward). Scales with the longitudinal acceleration, with a small deadband so taxi jitter doesn't trip it, and never fires airborne. Tuned per profile by mass and braking authority.

11. Aero buffets (stall / stall shaker / overspeed / Mach / spoiler / flap / gear / turbulence)

Telemetry

AoA, stall warning, overspeed warning, Mach, spoiler handle, flap handle, gear handle, airspeed, ambient turbulence, G-load rolling stddev

Output

Periodic force with a randomised envelope

Key sliders

One gain per sub-effect

Several sub-effects share the buffet generator.

• Stall buffet. Builds progressively as AoA crosses a low threshold and saturates at the sim's stall warning.
• Stall stick-shaker. A sharp, fixed-frequency buzz gated directly on the sim's own stall-warning flag, distinct from the AoA-ramped stall buffet — it models the mechanical stick-shaker that airliners and turboprops fire at stall warning. Enabled per profile (off on the C172, which keeps its buffet; on for the turboprop and jet built-ins). Silenced under the Fly-by-wire control-system feel, since an isolated side-stick has no shaker.
• Overspeed buffet. Triggers on the sim's overspeed flag. Sharper frequency than stall.
• Mach buffet. Fires at high Mach on swept-wing aircraft past Mcrit. Silent on GA props.
• Spoiler buffet. Scales with spoiler handle position times airspeed.
• Flap buffet. Sustained low-frequency vibration whenever flaps are extended at speed. This comes from real-world pilot accounts of elevator oscillation with >20° flap extension. Set to 0% on profiles whose POH doesn't note this.
• Gear buffet. Drumming from gear-down drag in the air. Ships at 0% on fixed-gear profiles (C172); the per-effect slider on Tuning lets retractable-gear profiles dial it up.
• Turbulence overlay. Random shake scaled by how much the aircraft is being knocked around. On X-Plane the sim's ambient-turbulence signal feeds in directly; on MSFS the bridge derives it from rolling G-load standard deviation.

12. Engine rumble

Telemetry

Sim per-engine vibration (MSFS ENG VIBRATION, XP12 engine_vibration) when reported; otherwise RPM percent + combustion flag

Output

Continuous periodic force

Key sliders

Engine-rumble gain

Preferred source is the sim's per-engine vibration value, which carries aircraft-specific texture (mag drop on runup, rough engine, turbine spool, prop imbalance) the bridge can't model from RPM alone. When the sim reports it, the bridge uses it as the authoritative magnitude, scaled by the gain slider.

If the sim doesn't report engine vibration (some freeware MSFS models and legacy X-Plane aircraft don't), the bridge falls back to a synthesised RPM ramp + combustion gate. The fallback is smooth-by-construction but lacks the texture of the sim signal.

The gain slider scales the chosen source either way, so dropping it to 0% silences engine rumble regardless of aircraft. Under the Fly-by-wire control-system feel, engine rumble is silenced on the stick automatically — an isolated side-stick doesn't transmit it.

13. Reverse-thrust rumble

Telemetry

Reverse-thrust engaged flag, ground speed

Output

Continuous low-frequency rumble, scaled by ground speed

Key sliders

Reverse-rumble gain

Rollout feel after touchdown with reversers deployed. Tapers off below ~30 kt.

14. Mechanical one-shots

Telemetry

Gear handle position (transitions), flap handle index (transitions)

Output

Single impulse per transition

Key sliders

Gear-deploy gain, flap-step gain

A gear-deploy shudder fires on any gear-handle move. A flap-step shudder fires on any non-zero step — both extension and retraction.

15. Sustained aero-drag pitch forces

Telemetry

Flap handle, spoiler handle, gear handle, engine thrust, airspeed

Output

Sustained backwards pitch bias

Key sliders

Flap drag, Spoiler drag, Gear drag, Propwash pitch

Sustained pitch forces that mirror the trim-out you feel in the real aircraft when configuration changes:

• Flap drag. Backwards pitch force any time flaps are extended at speed.
• Spoiler drag. Same idea for spoilers / speedbrake.
• Gear drag. Same for gear-down drag at speed. Set to 0% for fixed-gear aircraft.
• Propwash pitch. Constant pitch-up bias proportional to engine power — models propwash over the elevator on a prop aircraft.

Safety gate: pause + stale-telemetry watchdog

Not user-tunable but important to know:

• Sim pause is instant. The moment MSFS reports paused (pause menu, Active Pause, frozen frame) or X-Plane reports paused, every dynamic force drops to zero on the same tick. The stick holds a neutral default spring (50% coefficient, 5% deadband) so it stays centred and never goes limp.
• Telemetry stall. If the sim keeps reporting "unpaused" but the values stop changing for ~2 seconds (the frozen-frame watchdog catches MSFS / Proton silent pauses that don't set the pause flag), the bridge enters the same neutral-spring safe state.
• Watchdog fade. If the sim stops sending packets entirely, the user-tunable Tuning → Watchdog sliders control how long before forces fade to zero and over what window. Defaults are conservative — five seconds of silence before fade-out begins, half a second to fade.

Combined output

Every effect sums into two outputs — a pitch force and a roll force — plus the spring parameters. Master gain is applied at the device-output edge to everything the bridge sends, including the spring coefficient; 0% is silent, 100% is the tuned design level. The Dashboard separates the always-present baseline spring from dynamic channels like axis load, engine rumble, ground roll, buffets, sustained aero-drag, and mechanical one-shots, so you can see why the stick feels alive even when the signed pitch / roll force is near zero.

Hardware effects vs software-blended periodics

The bridge has two dispatch modes, switchable from Support page → Advanced hardware:

• Hardware mode (the fresh-install default). Current Windows builds use raw HID/PID output by default on the SideWinder FFB2, with DirectInput kept as a compatibility fallback. The active hardware topology stays compact: one vector constant, one two-axis spring, and a lazy three-slot periodic pool (Sine, Triangle, Triangle). The firmware still drives the periodic waveforms at native rate, but the bridge reuses a few physical slots instead of retaining one hardware effect per logical cue. The dispatcher reuploads spring parameters after pause / quiesce paths and resets the raw HID/PID effect table before rearming after a simulator disconnect, so both axes recover after stutters or an MSFS quit. Crisp, low-latency, and much safer on old pid.dll stacks.
• Software-blended periodics. The bridge keeps only the continuous force / centering hardware path, then synthesises every periodic, one-shot, and buffet in C# at 200 Hz, folding the result into the constant-force outputs. It is the compatibility fallback if a specific Windows driver stack still crashes in hardware mode. Tradeoff: high-frequency effects (engine rumble, gear bumps) feel a touch less crisp because they're rate-limited by the bridge's tick rate.

Either mode is fully tuned — the same effect catalogue, the same sliders, the same Dashboard contribution display. The mode is a dispatch choice, not a feature toggle. Fresh installs prefer hardware mode; software blending is for explicit user choice, failed probe, or classified hardware-effect crash recovery. Restart-required when you flip it because the dispatcher reads the mode at startup. See the Support page's Advanced hardware tab for the toggle.

Install-level pitch / roll polarity

Different force-feedback devices and driver stacks can interpret force polarity differently. The bridge applies an install-level polarity flip at the device-output edge, controlled by the Invert axis polarity toggle on the Support page's Advanced hardware tab. When invert is on, both pitch and roll forces are negated together as the very last step before the device API call. None of the per-effect tuning is involved; the math above stays the same regardless of which way your hardware reads polarity.