Why do game pad stick behave different from joysticks?

Due to a previous problem I posted with my joystick I have switched to a game pad. However its unusable since the game pad stick steering input is not reflected in the game. Stick position in independant of truck wheel steering if you use a game pad. Is there a way to make game pads work like joystick or wheel steering?

I'm not sure I'm fully understanding the issue that you're seeing, could you help me understand it, please?

When you steer with a joystick the wheel instantly moves to where you have positioned the stick. Like a real vehicle the stick feels connected to the truck.

With a game pad (xbox one & steam controller) when you steer the steering has a fixed speed and lags behind the input. It makes it very inprecise. It feels more like you are just telling the driver to turn left or right and something else some place else is actually doing the steering. I do not feel connected to the truck and it makes it very difficult operate with any speed at all.

Its very easy to see what I'm talking about if you set up a joystick and a game pad (at least the ones I tested) at the same time then switch back and forth in the game trying one then trying the other and looking at the wheels as you steer.

Just to clear that up: If you use a Joystick (or a Gamepad that doesn't use XInput, or I think actually any DirectInput device) you have to configure it as a wheel device. For wheel devices it makes sense to have a direct steering because it is logical that the steering wheel position always relates to the actual wheel position. That's why you get direct steering with your Joystick, because the game just treats it as a wheel.

Gamepads often use a different form of steering, where you more or less control the steering speed, but it will always go to full lock, just slower or faster. In racing games you usually have options to influence these parameters or can just select direct steering.

Sadly for MudRunenr the XInput (Gamepad) configuration is hardcoded and you can't change it. And for some reason the steering type is coupled to the type (XInput or DirectInput) of the input device.

I am not sure if there is any workaround to get the game to let you configure an XInput device as DirectInput, but even then you wouldn't be able to configure some other stuff like camera options for the gamepad.

After all the game lacks many options when it comes to controls with gamepads, like configurable buttons, manual/sequential shifting, ...

Playing also with Xbox game-pad on PC and it took some time before I realized that analog stick steering is in fact digital, I mean there is only full right/left and neutral positions. For myself it causes some problems only when speeding fast on tarmac, going from one side of road to other. Game-pad analog throttle is still a huge improvement comparing on playing with KB + mouse, also crane operation with game-pad is really easy.