MouseDrive (Rust) — v0.5.0

MouseDrive is a Windows application that converts mouse and keyboard input into virtual joystick signals via vJoy, designed for racing simulators.

Old C++ version

Download

Download latest release

Or browse all versions at Releases.

Extract the .zip, place vJoyInterface.dll next to mousedrive.exe, and run.

Features

• Steering — Mouse X movement mapped to vJoy X axis with 4 modes (linear, expo*, filtered*, self-centering)
• Throttle — Left mouse button with graphical rise/fall envelope curves
• Brake — Right mouse button with full state machine (press, hold, progressive trail-off, release)
• Graphical curve editors — Drag-point envelope editors (2–8 points, linear or smooth/monotone-cubic) for throttle rise/fall, brake apply, and brake post-hold drop, with presets and a live marker
• Gear buttons — W/S keys mapped to vJoy buttons 1/2
• Live dashboard — Colour-coded vertical gauges (throttle green / brake red) and a bidirectional steering bar; real-time status and input indicator pills
• Tabbed settings panel — Collapsible side panel with per-category tuning
• Config persistence — TOML-based config with load/save/reset
• Auto-update — Background check against GitHub releases with one-click self-update (download → SHA-256 verify → replace → restart)
• Raw input capture — Works even when the window is not focused (F8 toggle)
• Lock-free architecture — Atomic globals between raw input thread and GUI thread
• Language support — Turkish and English UI (switchable in Settings > General)

*Experimental

Input / Output mapping

Input	vJoy Output	Control
Mouse X movement	X Axis	Steering
Left mouse button (held)	Y Axis	Throttle
Right mouse button (held)	Rz Axis	Brake
W key	Button 1	Gear up
S key	Button 2	Gear down
Middle click	—	Reset steering
F8	—	Toggle input capture

Quick start

1. Install vJoy and create a device with X / Y / Rz axes and 2 buttons enabled (Device 1).
2. vJoyInterface.dll is searched automatically (exe directory → Program Files → PATH).
3. Run Executable MouseDrive.
4. Bind your game to the vJoy device axes.

How it works

• Raw input thread — Dedicated thread with a hidden window that receives WM_INPUT messages for mouse deltas and button states.
• Atomic communication — AtomicI64, AtomicBool, AtomicU64 + Mutex<Snapshot> for zero-lock data transfer between threads.
• Control thread — Dedicated THREAD_PRIORITY_HIGHEST 250 Hz loop (control.rs) that owns the vJoy handle. The axis feed never stalls on window minimize or repaint lag.
• GUI thread — eframe/egui loop that reads the shared snapshot for gauges/indicators and publishes config changes; repaint-lazy (~60 Hz focused, ~4 Hz backgrounded).

Requirements

• Windows 10/11
• Executable MouseDrive
• vJoy Driver** installed and enabled
• vJoyInterface.dll available (next to exe, Program Files, or in PATH)

** Tested with V2.2.2.0

Build

cargo build

cargo build --release

Configuration

Settings are stored in TOML format. The config file is loaded from:

1. <exe_directory>/config.toml (portable mode)
2. %APPDATA%\MouseDrive\config.toml (standard)

Use the Save / Load / Default buttons in the settings panel, or edit the file manually.

Project layout

MouseDrive/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs          # App struct, entry point, vJoy connection
│   ├── config.rs        # Config struct, TOML load/save, path resolution
│   ├── input.rs         # Raw input thread, atomic globals, key helpers
│   ├── logic.rs         # Steering/throttle/brake state machine & math
│   ├── curve.rs         # Envelope curve model (PCHIP eval/inverse, presets)
│   ├── curve_editor.rs  # Interactive drag-point egui curve widget
│   ├── ui.rs            # egui UI (side panel, tabs, dashboard)
│   ├── update.rs        # GitHub update check + one-click self-update
│   ├── lang.rs          # TR/EN localization strings
│   └── vjoy.rs          # vJoy FFI (runtime DLL loading, axis/button API)
├── Cargo.toml
├── LICENSE
├── CHANGELOG.md
└── README.md

Release history in CHANGELOG.md.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
"vJoyInterface.dll not found"	Place the DLL next to the exe, in Program Files\Shaul\vJoy\x64, or add its folder to PATH
"vJoy not enabled"	Check that vJoy driver is installed and the service is running
"vJoy device busy"	Another application is using Device 1 — close it or use a different device
Mouse not captured	Press F8 to toggle input capture
Settings not saving	Check write permissions in %APPDATA%\MouseDrive\

License

Copyright (c) 2025-2026 Toxpox. This project is licensed under the MIT License.