rec.autos.simulators

    I recently took my ACM game card out of my system when I installed a
new AWE64 Soundblaster.  I was told that that is the joystick port I
should use from now on.  Then a friend of mine suggested that I use the
AWE64 for my Windows port and the ACM for DOS games.  Does this sound
right?  Could I leave the ACM card in there and just have it disabled in
Windows, or what?  Wouldn't they conflict in DOS or something?
    Also......assuming I can just disable the AWE64's port by unchecking
the Original Configuration box or something in Device
Manager........Does anyone think that the ACM would be a better port to
have in here?  I use a Logitech Wingman Extreme, Suncomm F-15, and
Thrustmaster GP steering wheel.
    Any help is very much appreciated.

Well, ya got a couple of options here. I used my joystick port on the
soundcard, and left my gamecard out. I did this by downloading and
installing Thrustmaster's Propanel utility, solves the speed differential
problem in running through the sound card's port. Your other option is to
install the gamecard, disable your joystick port in win95 device manager,
by removing the check from the "use original cofiguration" box. Then add
the acm gamecard under "add new hardware", do not let windows search for
your hardware, scroll down to "other devices" and add the acm card. This
seems to work well on the original win95 release, but is more finicky on
their oem service release 2, which is what came with my Dell. To make
things simple, I removed my gamecard and installed Propanel, works real
well. You can download ProPanel from thrustmaster's website. Hope this
helps,
--
Don Burnette

I'm not sure how it does it, but I'm fairly certain it does somehow. When I
got my new Dell 233 mmx, I tried running Nascar 2 through the gameport on
the integrated sb card built onto the system. I had big problems trying to
calibrate and race, car would drift and react erratically. I then added the
ch products gamecard 3, once I got through the pain of adding it in win95,
it worked very smoothly. Once I started hearing about propanel, curiousity
got the best of me. I removed my gamecard's hardware and software,
downloaded and installed the propanel utility, and calibrated my T2. It
works very smooth now, nothing like it did the first time I tried this
without the utility. I have left the gamecard out, haven't needed to put it
back in.
--
Don Burnette

snip snip

% >Well, ya got a couple of options here. I used my joystick port on the
% >soundcard, and left my gamecard out. I did this by downloading and
% >installing Thrustmaster's Propanel utility, solves the speed differential
% >problem in running through the sound card's port...

% Are you sure?
% How does it do it?

% I might believe CL has written something to do this using PNP on the
% AWE64, but I doubt the Propanel utility can somehow cause lower loop
% counts for the A/D conversion coming in thru the game port.

Thrustmaster does use a different method of polling the joystick port to
enable better calibration of their products which use the 250k ohm
pots.  It should be possible to achieve calibration using the ProPanel
over the default joystick applet with Win95.  I have yet to install
DirectX 5.0, so I can't comment on its "game controller".

% Now maybe with the AWE64 there is less need for a speed adjustable
% game card due to the hardware requirements (min=Intel P90) vs the wide
% range of systems that the typical SB16 is designed for (486 or
% higher).

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

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How does this effect calibration in DOS?