vJoy for Euro Truck Simulator 2: When It Helps — and When It Does Not

Start with the plain fact, because too many guides skip it: Euro Truck Simulator 2 has native mouse steering, and vJoy is not required to use it. You can open ETS2, choose mouse steering in the game, and steer with the mouse without installing any virtual joystick driver at all. If that is all you want, stop here and enjoy the simpler setup. Nothing in this guide will pretend otherwise.

So when does vJoy actually help in ETS2? It enters through setups the native option does not cover. A common one is using a phone as a steering wheel, where an app or script reports the phone’s tilt and a feeder such as FreePIE turns that into a virtual steering axis. Another is a FreePIE virtual-steering setup built around mouse movement, keys or a DIY controller, where the script’s output needs a standard joystick device for the game to read. A third is extra axes: a builder with a DIY handbrake, a separate analogue control or a button box project may want those signals presented to ETS2 as one ordinary DirectInput device. In each case vJoy is the virtual device, and a feeder application writes the data. vJoy alone does nothing.

What you need

• For native mouse steering only: nothing extra. Use the in-game option and skip this guide’s setup steps entirely.
• For a phone-wheel, FreePIE or DIY setup: vJoy from our download page — BrunnerInnovation 2.2.2.0 first on Windows 10 and Windows 11, 2.1.9.1 as the fallback if a feeder misbehaves on 2.2.x.
• FreePIE as the scripted feeder — see our mouse-to-joystick guide with FreePIE for how mouse-driven virtual steering is structured.
• A written note of which virtual axis will steer, which will handle throttle and brake if you are mapping them virtually, and which buttons you actually need while driving.

Setup for a FreePIE or phone-wheel build

1. Install vJoy and create one device in Configure vJoy with the axes your script will write. A simple virtual steering build may need only X for steering, but leave room if throttle or brake will also be virtual.
2. Install FreePIE and load or write the script for your input source — phone tilt, mouse movement or a DIY control. Keep the first script minimal: steering only, with a centre you can return to reliably.
3. Run the script and open joy.cpl. Move your input source and confirm the vJoy steering axis moves smoothly and centres where you expect. Fix scaling and centre problems here, not inside the game.
4. In ETS2, open Options, then Controls, and select the vJoy device for steering. Bind steering to the virtual axis, then set throttle and brake either on your keyboard, pedals or the virtual axes you planned — but do not bind the same function twice.
5. Adjust steering sensitivity and non-linearity in ETS2 in small steps. Scripted and phone inputs often need different settings from a physical wheel, and large changes at once make it impossible to tell what helped.
6. Drive a short, forgiving route. Check low-speed manoeuvring in a depot, steady motorway tracking, and whether the wheel returns to centre predictably when you release input.
7. Save your FreePIE script, your vJoy configuration notes and your ETS2 profile together. These three pieces are one setup; losing any one of them makes the others hard to reconstruct.

Binding tips

Keep the keyboard in the setup. Even with virtual steering, ETS2 driving uses many occasional functions — indicators, lights, retarder, trailer attach, camera views — and a sensible keyboard layout beside the virtual wheel beats an overloaded button map. If you use a button box later, move the most frequent functions first. Also test with the engine brake and retarder you actually use on long descents, because a steering setup that feels fine on a flat test route can feel frantic on a mountain road if the axis range is too short.

Limitations, honestly

A phone or mouse-driven virtual wheel will not feel like a force-feedback wheel. There is no resistance, no self-centring torque and no road feel through the axis. That is the trade you accept for a free or DIY setup, and it is why the honest comparison below exists. Latency and smoothness also depend on your script and input source, not on vJoy itself. If steering feels steppy, the feeder script’s update behaviour is the first place to look.

Do not overlook the middle path many ETS2 drivers settle on happily: native mouse steering for the wheel work, plus vJoy only for the extras. A driver can steer with the game own mouse option while a small DIY analogue control or a script-fed axis arrives through vJoy for a function the standard setup handles poorly. Keeping the two systems in their own lanes — built-in steering where the game already excels, virtual device where you genuinely need a custom axis — gives you the simplest reliable version of both, and it is the configuration we recommend most readers try before building an all-virtual cockpit.

See the vJoy setup guides by game hub for all game guides, and read the companion vJoy for American Truck Simulator setup — the honest mouse-steering picture there is the same, with a FreePIE focus.