PDPI L4 DIGITAL gamecard

All of the reports I've heard about this card are nothing but rave reviews has one, btw). The card reduces the CPU's load by handling the controller polling on it's own hardware, thus allowing more resources available to the CPU to render the graphics and take care of the gameplay. This could be THE fix for your GPL framerate problems!! The regular retail price is $129.99, but their homepage( www.pdpi.net ) has it on special for $99.99... BUT WAIT !!!! I'm working on an EXCLUSIVE deal with PDPI right now just for us GPL'ers, and they have promised me a LOWER PRICE!! (Not finalized yet, but in the $85-$90 US price range). If you were planning on buying one, HOLD OUT FOR ONE MORE WEEK. I will have a special password on my webpage for GPL'ers ONLY who want to purchase the PDPI L4 at the special price. I will post more details as soon as I have them.. but it should be available at the special price sometime next week. Anybody interested? Stay tuned.. *** Anybody out who currently owns a PDPI L4 Digital gamecard? I would appreciate hearing from you on what kind of framerate improvements you are getting since getting the card. What type of controller(s) do you have, what games do you run, why did you buy it, and lastly are you experiencing any problems with it? doktorB http://webhome.idirect.com/~drbryan/gpl For the GPL demo track files(Watkins Glen AND Monza), FAQs,demo help, release date updates, preview pics, GPL box covers and more! new ** GPL System Performace Test ** This weeks Poll-of-the-Week: "Where are you getting your copy of GPL from?" ------

I would also like to hear comparisons of this and some of the so-called digital gameports on the latest PCI sound cards. I, for example, recently got a Diamond Monster Sound MX-200 with a digital port and its calibration is significantly better than on my previous Sound Blaster AWE 32. I tried the Thrustmaster ACM card, and it was crap. With the Monster, I'm not noticing any drift during gameplay, either, which is nice. It was a *** to set up, though - lots of driver reinstalls, for some reason. Thanks for the tip, Doktor!

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>All of the reports I've heard about this card are nothing but rave reviews >has one, btw). The card reduces the CPU's >load by handling the controller polling on it's own hardware, thus allowing >more resources available to the CPU to render the graphics and take care of >the gameplay. This could be THE fix for your GPL framerate problems!! >The regular retail price is $129.99, but their homepage( www.pdpi.net ) has >it on special for $99.99... >BUT WAIT !!!! >I'm working on an EXCLUSIVE deal with PDPI right now just for us GPL'ers, >and they have promised me a LOWER PRICE!! (Not finalized yet, but in the >$85-$90 US price range). >If you were planning on buying one, HOLD OUT FOR ONE MORE WEEK. I will have >a special password on my webpage for GPL'ers ONLY who want to purchase the >PDPI L4 at the special price. >I will post more details as soon as I have them.. but it should be available >at the special price sometime next week. >Anybody interested? >Stay tuned.. >*** >Anybody out who currently owns a PDPI L4 Digital gamecard? >I would appreciate hearing from you on what kind of framerate improvements >you are getting since getting the card. What type of controller(s) do you >have, what games do you run, why did you buy it, and lastly are you >experiencing any problems with it? >doktorB >http://webhome.idirect.com/~drbryan/gpl >For the GPL demo track files(Watkins Glen AND Monza), FAQs,demo help, >release date updates, preview pics, GPL box covers and more! new >** GPL System Performace Test ** >This weeks Poll-of-the-Week: "Where are you getting your copy of GPL from?" >------

says... If you have the MonsterSound PCI card with their digital game port I would forgoe the PDPI Digital. I have (had) the same setup. I sent the PDPI back, because it was no better than the onboard port on the MonsterSound.

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>I would also like to hear comparisons of this and some of the >so-called digital gameports on the latest PCI sound cards. I, for >example, recently got a Diamond Monster Sound MX-200 with a digital >port and its calibration is significantly better than on my previous >Sound Blaster AWE 32. >I tried the Thrustmaster ACM card, and it was crap. With the Monster, >I'm not noticing any drift during gameplay, either, which is nice. It >was a *** to set up, though - lots of driver reinstalls, for some >reason.

I have a Turtle Beach Montego A3D (which uses the same Aureal Vortex chipset as the MX200 I think) and it has a digital / accelerated gameport, and seems to be really smooth, vs. either the previous SB PCI 64V (Ensoniq PCI) or a ACM or CH gamecard that I've tried in my P2-400. From what I've seen, if you have one of the Vortex-based soundcards you can probably forgo the PDPI. Vortex 2 cards are coming soon, so it might be good to wait for them. The new SB Live is reputed to have a good gameport, but it isn't the digital / accelerated type. Ken

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>>I would also like to hear comparisons of this and some of the >>so-called digital gameports on the latest PCI sound cards. I, for >>example, recently got a Diamond Monster Sound MX-200 with a digital >>port and its calibration is significantly better than on my previous >>Sound Blaster AWE 32. >>I tried the Thrustmaster ACM card, and it was crap. With the Monster, >>I'm not noticing any drift during gameplay, either, which is nice. It >>was a *** to set up, though - lots of driver reinstalls, for some >>reason. >I have a Turtle Beach Montego A3D (which uses the same Aureal Vortex chipset >as the MX200 I think) and it has a digital / accelerated gameport, and seems >to be really smooth, vs. either the previous SB PCI 64V (Ensoniq PCI) or a >ACM or CH gamecard that I've tried in my P2-400. >From what I've seen, if you have one of the Vortex-based soundcards you can >probably forgo the PDPI. Vortex 2 cards are coming soon, so it might be >good to wait for them. The new SB Live is reputed to have a good gameport, >but it isn't the digital / accelerated type. >Ken

On the PDPI page, it says the L4 has a Backward Compatible Mode. "The L4 provides full backward compatibility to the standard gameport for hard-coded DOS applications. It is automatically invoked each time a legacy application is executed." Does this mean that DOS based games (NASCAR 2, ICR 2) will still be using the analog gameport on whatever Soundcard is installed ? Is the L4 linked to the existing analog gameport for the DOS mode analog connection or does one need to switch the controller back to the analog gameport everytime ones goes from a Windows to DOS game ? Do the Vortex-based soundcards remain in digital mode even when playing DOS games ? Thanks in advance.

Basically, if an application tries to access the gameport as a normal gameport, the L4 behaves exactly like a normal gameport, transparent to you and the program. If the program however uses the DirectX joystick routines, then that gets joystick access through the PDPI drivers instead and they switch the card into digital mode. So you don't need to tell the card to switch, you don't need to swap your controllers between ports, etc. it just conveniently does what you want:)

> I tried the Thrustmaster ACM card, and it was crap. With the Monster, > I'm not noticing any drift during gameplay, either, which is nice. It > was a *** to set up, though - lots of driver reinstalls, for some > reason. I've been using the Thrustmaster ACM for some time (ICR2, N2, GPL) and it's rock solid...no drift, responsive, accurate. Marty