[Java]

Pretty much the same thing I posted at pc-gamers.us

For those that never had the Logitech F310 gamepad, and looking to buy one, it is more or less the updated version of the dual action pad. They have added the Xinput mode for like the xbox guide button and 2 analog levers for gas and brakes, these two same sliders in direct input mode are standard buttons. In direct input mode both stick's sensitivity are adjustable. I recommend Xinput because it is smooth controls no lag. You don't have to lose as much speed as with dinput mode. It functions pretty much like the Xbox 360 for windows. I have used it on rFactor and does a decent job. i have not yet tried it on NFS games. you can switch between dinput and xinput beneath the F310. It's a toggle switch with X and D marked on it.

In dinput mode it is detected as Dual Action (F310).. In Xinput mode it is detected as Xbox Controller for Windows.

XP Users: The package mentions what you need is Vista, 7 or 8. they forgot to mention XP. It will work on XP as mine is working on XP. Please be sure to have all updates for XP installed to be sure.

I bought mine at Best Buy for half price. Retail is $24.95 USD.

I recommend it to game pad users who need a smooth and accurate controller. Albeit the null zone is a lil wider than some would like but I know Logitech did this keeping race car games in mind. That being to help keeping from over steering the car with small light inputs.

that's all I have on this topic. any comments are always welcome!

[EAO Nathalie]

Thanks for the review and recommendation, Java. Looks like a great price too. If I ever go back to gaming on my PC, I'll keep that in mind.

Java, on 03 November 2013 - 08:12 PM, said:

Pretty much the same thing I posted at pc-gamers.us

For those that never had the Logitech F310 gamepad, and looking to buy one, it is more or less the updated version of the dual action pad. They have added the Xinput mode for like the xbox guide button and 2 analog levers for gas and brakes, these two same sliders in direct input mode are standard buttons. In direct input mode both stick's sensitivity are adjustable. I recommend Xinput because it is smooth controls no lag. You don't have to lose as much speed as with dinput mode. It functions pretty much like the Xbox 360 for windows. I have used it on rFactor and does a decent job. i have not yet tried it on NFS games. you can switch between dinput and xinput beneath the F310. It's a toggle switch with X and D marked on it.

In dinput mode it is detected as Dual Action (F310).. In Xinput mode it is detected as Xbox Controller for Windows.

XP Users: The package mentions what you need is Vista, 7 or 8. they forgot to mention XP. It will work on XP as mine is working on XP. Please be sure to have all updates for XP installed to be sure.

I bought mine at Best Buy for half price. Retail is $24.95 USD.

I recommend it to game pad users who need a smooth and accurate controller. Albeit the null zone is a lil wider than some would like but I know Logitech did this keeping race car games in mind. That being to help keeping from over steering the car with small light inputs.

that's all I have on this topic. any comments are always welcome!

[EAO Robbie]

ATM there are more than 10 of these available on ebay for $14.99 delivered.

[Geezr]

Howdy folks,
I bought the F 310 about 6 months ago. Normally I don't use game pads. My brain is hard wired to steer with right hand. ALL game pads are set up for left hand steering. I read a few reviews and thought the button set up might allow me to get around this. I should have read more reviews.

This game pad has definite dead zone problems. Yes, you can run this pad in different modes but it won't help much at least while running NFS High Stakes. There is a supposed fix and I tried it. Don't work worth a hoot. Went to Logitech forums and Found many complaints. Seems Logitech at one time intended to address this problem but instead decided to move on and make money on newer controllers. I did practice with it using slow cars and used the experience to tell where the game pads have an advantage over my normal controller a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick. I did learn a few things and will keep the pad in the event I some day pay a non driving game again.
Check out the Logitech F 310 game pad forum if you all would like to see details of the complaints.

This post has been edited by Geezr: 09 November 2013 - 01:00 AM

[EAO Robbie]

Thanks for letting us know the game pad is left had steering. I was about to get one until you said that. My left hand is way to stupid to drive a car with it.

[Java]

The pad is small. If u have large hands then it wont work for you. My dead zones are fine. I do alright with high stakes on it. Far as I am concerned alot of them forum members at logitech just like to troll them.

[Geezr]

Glad it works for you Java.
The Logitech forums had 11 pages of discussion in one section alone. The F 310 was discussed more at length in other sections. Logitech officials admitted the problem and attempted a fix. It failed and Logitech apologized. They came close to promising a good fix. That never happened. Apparently the problem was not software related and workarounds all failed except for one guy.?? Some semblance of decent function can be seen using the analog setting but this is not where the major advantage is when playing High Stakes. It's when using digital!
Under or over steering will almost always occur in digital. Might be more effective when using cars faster than AAA. Never tried that.
Having read much and talked with many, the Logitech older Rumble pads seem to work well. E bay is where folks are picking up this old favorite now.

[Java]

Geezr, on 13 November 2013 - 05:49 PM, said:

Glad it works for you Java.
The Logitech forums had 11 pages of discussion in one section alone. The F 310 was discussed more at length in other sections. Logitech officials admitted the problem and attempted a fix. It failed and Logitech apologized. They came close to promising a good fix. That never happened. Apparently the problem was not software related and workarounds all failed except for one guy.?? Some semblance of decent function can be seen using the analog setting but this is not where the major advantage is when playing High Stakes. It's when using digital!
Under or over steering will almost always occur in digital. Might be more effective when using cars faster than AAA. Never tried that.
Having read much and talked with many, the Logitech older Rumble pads seem to work well. E bay is where folks are picking up this old favorite now.

\


WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT! HOLD THE SHOW! Those posts about the F310 is GUESS what! NOT RACING! First Person Shooters. I see nadda wrong with the controller. Those 11 pages are of people who have nothing better to do than moan and groan. Logitech did well. I think you should not be so hasty based on 11 pages on 1 stickin forum. I got good control in racing. Thats all I do is racing. Who cares about the killing games anyway? Them kind of gamers squeal louder than the rest!!

[EAO Robbie]

Java, on 13 November 2013 - 05:06 PM, said:

\


WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT! HOLD THE SHOW! Those posts about the F310 is GUESS what! NOT RACING! First Person Shooters. I see nadda wrong with the controller. Those 11 pages are of people who have nothing better to do than moan and groan. Logitech did well. I think you should not be so hasty based on 11 pages on 1 stickin forum. I got good control in racing. Thats all I do is racing. Who cares about the killing games anyway? Them kind of gamers squeal louder than the rest!!

He IS talking about racing: "Some semblance of decent function can be seen using the analog setting but this is not where the major advantage is when playing High Stakes. It's when using digital!
Under or over steering will almost always occur in digital. Might be more effective when using cars faster than AAA"

[Java]

EAO Robbie, on 13 November 2013 - 09:52 PM, said:

He IS talking about racing: "Some semblance of decent function can be seen using the analog setting but this is not where the major advantage is when playing High Stakes. It's when using digital!
Under or over steering will almost always occur in digital. Might be more effective when using cars faster than AAA"

Just High Stakes? I tried analog on High Stakes. I have no problem with it. Give the F310 a chance. If you never owned it why knock it? I saw the reviews myself before I bought my F310. 11 pages of people not liking it does not have enough convincing power for me to not buy it. I was doubtful but hey take the plunge. Go to Best Buy and spend the $25.00 if you do not like it take it back for a refund. Best Buy seems to have the better stock of things gaming anyway.

[EAO Robbie]

Java, on 13 November 2013 - 11:38 PM, said:

Just High Stakes? I tried analog on High Stakes. I have no problem with it. Give the F310 a chance. If you never owned it why knock it? I saw the reviews myself before I bought my F310. 11 pages of people not liking it does not have enough convincing power for me to not buy it. I was doubtful but hey take the plunge. Go to Best Buy and spend the $25.00 if you do not like it take it back for a refund. Best Buy seems to have the better stock of things gaming anyway.

No thanks, left hand steering is not for me. I take reviews with a grain of salt but when I see tons of refurbs for sale, that steers me away a bit more.

[Java]

was not a refurb it was to push them off their shelf. Left and Right handed. Someone fed you some bologna that was bad. right stick can be used for steering.

[Geezr]

I continue this friendly discussion.
The Logitech forum that includes 11 pages concerning the F 310 was only a source of confirmation of a problem that I was unable to fix after several days and many hours of play. If anyone thinks this thread contains trolls or folks just complaining I ask you to judge for yourselves. The first post is from someone looking for HELP! Link is coming, hold on. Looking at the first page, my impression is of replies with some critical analysis. The thread lasts from 2010 to 2013. Logitech administrators reply twice in the thread. In addition to this forum I have found the exact same problems posted in multiple places on the net. I have also seen this dead zone problem in action in my own replays as well as on you tube review videos.

The F 310 can not effectively steer a car in High Stakes using either one or both sticks!!! Right handed steering? No way! Far more than the "11 page thread" has been written concerning this problem. I strongly believe that no racer can be competitive in High Stakes using the F 310. I welcome anyone to prove me wrong. No hard feelings if the F 310 controller can win. I seriously doubt that controller could even come close to a victory. Lets rock n roll at the IP Lounge.

Now, here is the link to the 11 page thread. Click HERE.

[EAO Robbie]

Geezr, did you say the car can't be steered with the right stick?
There seems to be two opinions on this and I'm not buying one until I know for sure.
Is there any way to find out for sure?

[Java]

High Stakes is a older game. It may not see the stick on the right come to think of it. the F310 I used on PU and HS..I was looking for ease of driving with it and found it is. Now we all know im not a pro driver from the get go but I enjoy racing. The F310 has worked for newer titles like rFactor, NFS World. I have an optimistic opinion because I own one and it is now my regular controller. you don't have to buy it. It does sell like hot cakes. Whatever you want. I wont accept a challenge. Im not gonna rage over this.

The Logitech Team Member did say in this quote which I knew they had car racing in mind:

Quote

I'll chime in here, as I didn't see this thread till now:



We didn't reduce the quality of the thumbsticks, as far as my knowledge goes. What I can confirm was that in usability testing we found that many games that use XInput are tuned to the behavior of the Microsoft gamepad, and when it came to XInput mode, games felt wrong when we attempted to make the inputs sharper. So, to make games behave properly, we followed the deadzone behavior of the Xbox 360's gamepad as closely as we could, and in our testing, this improved the feedback we were getting from the customer usability teams.



Think of it like a car. Extremely simplfied; you can lower a car to improve handling, but if you lower it too much, you run the risk of ripping the bumper off. We adjusted this "car" to be the most "drivable" with how the games were designed. I was there for that decision and I can verify it was done to smooth out the performance of the controller and nothing more. And yeah, it should prevent any off-centering with age as well, so in theory the gamepads should live longer too.



Tamed - Try rotating the thumbstick in several complete circles at the edge of movement, and that should bring both thumbsticks closer in sync. Though, again like the aforementioned mimicking of behavior from the Xbox 360 gamepads, since the thumbstick holes are round, you can't get to the corners in the Game Controller properties (To get to corners would require the gamepad to falsify movement, and this reduced accuracy in our testing). If that doesn't resolve the situation, test on another computer, and if it persists, contact support.



alenson- Actually, in my testing here with a retail F710 and a retail Cordless Rumblepad 2 with DIView, the F-series gamepad is more accurate. The Rumblepad gives ~500 value changes in the thumbsticks, and the F710 gives ~300 value changes. The same is with a corded rumblepad and a F510. So yes, while the deadzone is greater to maximize compatibility with games designed with the microsoft gamepad in mind, it's significantly more accurate than the old gamepads past the deadzone.

I like using Xinput so I can have the analogue paddles. That helps me from over speeding into a over steer running off the road in a turn to quickly. I say that F310 is not best for first person shooters but it does well in NFS titles. rFactor it is do able. The people at Logitech Forums are mostly wanting the cornering so they need to switch it to Dinput. Xinput you get full left and right range as well as Dinput. Dinput gives you the corners. Xinput is a circle. We dont need a circle for steering. All we need is full left and right range in which both modes do this. I fully understand way Logitech did this as a new concept. For life of the controller. Once you break it in it probably will get better.

It is awefully hard to sell something like this when people already have what they like to begin with and wont be swayed very easily. What they are used to is what they expect from newer things. Ebay and Amazon for the same controller you have is probably your best choice.

I wanted new because I was tired of buying second hand stuff that would give out. Unknowing how much the device whatever may be went thru it ened up being a dud from wear and tear.

Let me remind everyone. Most first person shooter games if you ever watched them played on youtube or played one yourself you know that deadzone needs to be closer to center. Have you noticed the fast paced action when they go through the map? They want a faster response the deadzone wont give it to them. Racing dont need that.

This post was only meant to give an idea. Not to say its the best for anyone. I personally love it!

This post has been edited by Java: 15 November 2013 - 02:55 PM