rec.autos.simulators

My Act-Labs wheel/Thrustmaster pedal combo (2 separate controllers) is
recognized, but the damn brake is reversed and nothing I try seems to
fix it.

For a sim targeted at high-end users, they better cobble a patch
together.  Sounds like a lot of people w TSW/ECCI gear have the same
problem.

Kendt

AD

What's the deal with all these so-called high-end controllers?  Do they not
have proper Direct X driver support for split axis pedals?  The only games
they seem to support are Papyrus games which use a proprietry controller
routine.  It's the same old story with every game release.  Game developers
have to fudge their controller routines just so that they work with the
outdated drivers for these things.  Sorry if I sound like I'm moaning but
I'm getting really sick of this every time a game is released.  :-\

1. Their physics engine.
2. Their controller algorithms.
3. Their replay routine & UI.

But noooooooooooooooooo............

Not these days...

..which are non-standard and are basically the main cause of the current
mess.

yes, definitely.

  Exactly.

There are no controller standards.  Papy's calibration routines have always
been bulletproof.

I forgot 4. Their multiplayer code.  Still the best, IMO.

RBR beats it in all departments (except maybe aero)  GTR beats it in some
departments (the ones that matter for mine)

Er...DirectInput?  Windows joystick control panel calibration? (designed so
that you shouldn't need to calibrate your controller in every game)

Totally irrelevant but yes, I agree.

Agree - Games should not need to include their own Calibration routines -
this should be handled by the Game Controller's Control Panel
implementation. Microsoft do state that only Control Panel type applications
should request or manipulate raw joystick inputs ie. in the DirectX
DirectInput API doco.

To be fair to Papy, this doco was probably not available or unclear back in
the DirectX 4/5 days when GPL was written. To Papy's credit they did provide
support for both DirectInput and Direct Gameport access in their games.

Fact: No other sim that relies purely on the DirectX routines (RT,
CMx, F1 200x) has worked with the DirectX routines out of the
box. Even in F1C I needed to copy over some tweaked player profile
from F1 2002 in order to get it to work. GT Racing demo works, so does
LFS, so did Racer and netkar last I tried.

Ergo: DirectInput sucks dead bunnies through a garden hose. Might have
changed with 9.0x, but who am I to judge, not doing any windows based
programming.

Why should a gameport device need its own drivers? Those ports have
been standardized since when, 1980? ;-) Developers simply should take
a bit more care, that's all.

Cheers,

uwe

--
mail replies to Uwe at schuerkamp dot de ( yahoo address is spambox)
Uwe Schuerkamp //////////////////////////// http://www.schuerkamp.de/
Herford, Germany \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (52.0N/8.5E)
GPG Fingerprint:  2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F  67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

Come on devs - this isn't rocket science!  My controller reports a
full range of motion, I just need to reverse the damn thing!

Kendt