You've asked a question that will likely evoke religious fervor. I'll throw
in my $0.02, but try to remain agnostic.
The most important thing is that you have analog controls for steering,
throttle and brake. If you use an on/off device for any of these controls
(e.g. a button or a key), you are, by necessity, relinquishing some control
over the vehicle to the programmer (ahem) that decided how to ramp the input
to the physics model in response to your pressing or releasing the control
(it would be utter nonsense, for example, to simply pass "full throttle",
"no throttle" directly to the physics system).
Next, it is important that you be able to utilize these controls naturally
and effectively. For example, it would be difficult to exercise effective
throttle, brake and steering using just your thumb on a 2-axis analog D-pad.
It's not impossible, but it's definitely not "natural."
Next, it is important that you be able to affect subtle changes to your
control inputs (feather the throttle *slightly*, modulate the brakes to
remain just shy of locking a wheel). For example, using just a joystick
(push forwards for throttle, pull back for brake, push left for steer left,
...) has this advantage over an analog D-pad due to the greater range of
motion of the stick vs. the D-pad.
A wheel and pedals wins on all counts.
A joystick and pedals is pretty good. But a stick, generally, has less
physical travel than a wheel, so it's more difficult to affect subtle
steering corrections. It's also less "natural" to the vast majority of
humans (who, if they have ever driven a car, have only ever driven one with
a steering wheel).
There are also other issues (force feedback, independent throttle and brake,
a pressure sensitive rather than a position sensitive brake pedal, to name a
few).
Randy
> > While I'm continuing my hunt for a copy of GPL, I'm just starting to
wonder.
> > I've never had a wheel, (FF or not) and I was just thinking is it a
> > mandatory piece of hardware in order to stay competitive in online
games,
> > for example.
