rec.autos.simulators

Directx now allows you to move controllers around under the advanced tab.
(i.e. move them to 1st, 2nd or more controller)

Many titles (GPL, Rally 2000 etc.) will let you select primary or secondary
controllers so you don't need to worry about moving the wheel to the primary
controller etc.

Tony

I got my switchbox at a local computer show.  I would recommned getting a
mechanical one.  I found that the electronic ones which supposedly switch
"automatically", don't.

If you're trying to use 2 controllers at the same time, I found that it only
works with GPL.  Yes, it's true that RC2000 lets you use a controller at ID 2,
but I've found that you cannot use 2 controllers simultaneously with RC2000.  If
I'm wrong on this, someone please explain to me how it's done.

In the Windows Game Controllers panel I configured the LWFF as controller ID
1 with split axis pedals. I configured the CH Pedals with a joystick as
controller ID 2 using the CH Flightstick Pro driver and set the switch on
the pedals to Car mode.

Add the line mergejoy=1 to the file ral.cfg which need to be in the rc\var
directory

In RC 2000 I configured the controller for player 1 to use the LWFF and
configure the controller for player 2 to use the joystick and CH Pedals.

In single player mode you will now find that either set of controls can be
used to drive the car which means you can use the LWFF wheel and CH Pedals
together.  Tonight I'm going to experiment with using the joystick as a
handbrake.

Hope this helps.  Let me now if you have any problems.

Cheers

Phil

--
http://www.youpies.co.uk

MS Gamepad
Yamaha MIDI keyboard (Yes, even the MIDI works thru the switchbox)
Wingman Extreme Digital Joystick
TSW Wheel (non FF)

I have an LWFF wheel connected thru my serial port as well, to rounf this all
out.

If MIDI works thru the switchbox, I would guess that FF also does, but I can't
really be sure.  Since the LWFF doesn't hook up thru the gameport, I can't try
it out for you.

I'm actually running Mobil 1 Rally Championship (the US version of RC2000), and
it does not have a ral.cfg file in the rc\var directory (or anywhere else).  I
tried creating one using Windows Notepad, and entered the mergejoy=1 line into
it.  But it didn't work.  Does anything else need to be in the ral.cfg file?

Also, please be specific as to how your 2 controllers are configured within
RC2000, specifically the split-axis settings.  Even when setting it up to run
only with my LWFF, I found these settings confusing, but finally got them to
work right.

Finally, does the LWFF absolutely have to be on ID1?  To get me set-up to work
with GPL, I found that the LWFF had to be in ID2 with the TSW pedals on ID1.
I'd like to avoid having to switch these back and forth all the time.

Thanks for your help!

I'm using the UK version of RC with the latest patch (4) to take it to
version 5.27.1.  The file ral.cfg which I referred to is NOT created during
the installation.  It is a configuration file used by MF to change varous
setting in the game.

The file needs to be created in the var directory.  On my PC, RC is
installed in the C:\Games\Rc directory so the ral.cfg file need to be in the
C:\Games\Rc\Var directory.  My ral.cfg file contains the following lines:

framecounter=1
sensiblesaving=1
mergejoy=1
nofmv=1

framecounter adds a framecounter at the top of the screen.  sensiblesaving
allows saving at the end of each stage.  mergejoy allows controls from
players 1 and 2 to be used in single player mode and nofmv switches off the
intro movie.

In Windows I set controller 1 to be my LWFF with split axis pedals.  I set
controller 2 to be my CH Pedals and a joystick set up as a CH Flightstick
Pro with rudder pedals enabled. I made sure that the switch on the CH Pedals
was set to Car and that I callibrated both controllers.

In RC, I configured player 1 to use controller 1 which I set to be a 3 axis
wheel with pedals. I set all the controls using the LWFF.  I set the upper
deadzone so that it was slightly less than maximum and the lower deadzone to
its minimum setting.  This is important.  With split axis pedals there is a
bug which locks the brakes on if the upper deadzone is set to maximum (no
grey).  This can be seen when you change to the chase cam which will show
the brake lights are always on.  Its amazing how much your times improve
when you don't brake all the time!  Once I'd set all these, I saved the
settings and configured player 2.

I configured player 2 to use controller 2 which I also set to be a 3 axis
wheel with pedals. I set all the controls using the joystick and my CH
Pedals and saved the settings.

I then went to drive in single player mode and was able to use any of the
controllers the control the car.

I've tested this with the LWFF as controller 2 and couldn't get it to work.
Maybe that's your problem.  The other possibility is that the US version of
the game doesn't support ral.cfg.  Try my file settings and see if you get a
framecounter.  If you don't, remove all lines except the framecounter and
try again.  If you still don't get a framecounter, your luck may be out.  I
suppose you could download patch 4 from www.rallychampionship.co.uk to get
it to work.  Alternatively, try the High Gear forum.  They are a helpful
bunch their and the forum has a good search facility.  It's where I found
the solution to this problem.  The URL for it is:

http://forums.simracingnews.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topic...
=Rally+Championship&number=3&DaysPrune=30&LastLogin=

You mention that you had to have the LWFF as controller 2 for GPL.  I use
this configuration in GPL with no problems.  I set steering to be axis zero,
the accelerator to be axis 6 and the brakes to axis 7.  When you were
callibrating the controls in GPL did you click on the gold arrow at the
bottom left of the callibration window to allow you callibrate axes 4 to 7?
If you missed this, you may be able to set the LWFF to controller 1 and your
pedals to controller 2.  A lot of people, myself included, have found that
the LWFF produces more force as controller 1.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Phil

--
http://www.youpies.co.uk