APOLOGIES FOR THE ABRUPT END TO THIS PROJECT

I will happily accept pull requests and such for anyone who gets it working, but my Windows machine finally died, so I have no reason to work on it anymore. This coincides with my discovery that Mechwarrior 5 runs perfectly on my ARM Mac under CrossOver.

I might try to do something similar over there, as WINE is so good it duplicates Windows perfectly and the joystick exhibits the exact same problem. (lol)

But WINE is a heck of a lot easier to hack on. So we'll see.

Sideblinder

Connect a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick to Windows 11 as if it were a modern device — including full force-feedback support — without any mapping files or middleware.

---

What is this?

This is a from-scratch virtual joystick driver for Windows 11. It reads the physical Sidewinder FFB2 via its original USB HID protocol, translates the input to a standard virtual joystick that every game can see in Game Controllers (joy.cpl), and routes force-feedback output from the game back to the physical stick's motor.

---

Requirements

• Windows 11 (test-signing mode must be enabled — see installation below)
• Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick (USB)
• PowerShell 5+ (comes with Windows)
• No other joystick mapping software required

---

Installation

1. Enable test-signing mode

The UMDF2 driver is currently test-signed. Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

bcdedit /set testsigning on

Restart Windows.

Why? The driver is not yet submitted to Microsoft for WHQL certification. Test-signing mode allows unsigned drivers to load. This is safe as long as you trust the driver binary.

2. Install the driver

After restarting, open PowerShell as Administrator in the repo directory and run:

.\scripts\install.ps1

Restart Windows again to load the driver.

3. Plug in the joystick

Connect the Sidewinder FFB2 to any USB port. Windows should recognise it automatically as an HID device.

4. Start the app

Run sideblinder-app.exe (or use the start menu shortcut if you created one). A tray icon appears in the system tray indicating connection status:

Icon state	Meaning
Connected	Joystick found, virtual device active
Disconnected	Joystick not found — waiting for reconnect

---

Verifying it works

1. Open Game Controllers: press Win + R, type joy.cpl, press Enter.
2. You should see a "Sidewinder FFB2 Virtual" device listed.
3. Select it and click Properties to see live axis and button input.
4. Move the stick — the axes should respond in real time.

---

Calibration

For best accuracy, run the calibration wizard once after installation:

sideblinder-diag calibrate

Follow the on-screen instructions to move the stick to its limits. Calibration values are saved to the config file automatically.

You can also calibrate from the GUI: Settings → Calibrate (once the GUI is available in a future release).

---

Configuration

The app reads a TOML config file. To generate a documented copy with all defaults:

sideblinder-app config --generate

The config file is at %APPDATA%\Sideblinder\config.toml. Changes take effect immediately after saving — no restart needed.

For the full reference of every setting, see docs/config.md.

---

Getting help

Diagnostics: If something isn't working, run:

sideblinder-diag diagnose

This produces a full report of device state, driver state, and active config.

Troubleshooting guide: See docs/troubleshooting.md for solutions to common problems.

Bug reports: Open an issue and include the output of sideblinder-diag diagnose.

---

Reference materials

Hardware specification

docs/hw-spec.md documents the empirically verified USB HID wire format of the Sidewinder FF2, derived from the original Microsoft driver CD:

• USB identity: VID 0x045E, PID 0x001B
• Input report byte layout (axes, buttons, POV hat)
• FFB output report format and supported effects
• Driver architecture notes

The spec was extracted by decompiling GcKernel_win2k.sys (the original Microsoft kernel filter driver from the 2002 SideWinder Force Feedback 2 CD) using Ghidra. To regenerate the decompilation for your own reference:

# Requires Ghidra 12+ and Java 21+
JAVA_HOME=/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@21 \
  /path/to/ghidra/support/analyzeHeadless \
  /tmp/ghidra_project MyProject \
  -import /path/to/GcKernel_win2k.sys \
  -postScript ExportC /tmp/gckernel_decompiled.c \
  -deleteProject

The decompiled C is not included in this repository as it is a derivative of Microsoft's copyrighted code.

Reference repositories

• Joystick Gremlin
• MW5_FFB
• vJoy