Well I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there is absolutely, positively no point in tricking a DI device into showing up as a XI device as it pertains to mame.
Directinput offers the exact same functionality is Xinput to the end user. The only difference is that xinput is easier for programmers to code for. Since mame already supports direct input, there is no reason to force the device to show up as xinput. You do understand that xinput devices can show up as xi for some programs and di for others right?
It sounds to me as if your wheel is working just fine. It shows up as xinput for pcsx2, which is just fine, but it is really a directinput device. That is fine too as mame supports directinput devices... you just need to set it up in mame's input settings.
Howard you are correct, my wheel DOES work just fine as a direct input device. But you are also wrong in saying that there is no way to manipulate a device and turn it from a DInput device to an Xinput one. The reason why I was interested in having MAME acknowledge it as an xinput device is this: Bare with me here.....
I have a force feedback steering wheel and love racing games. The wheel is an ECCI 7000 FFB wheel.
The problem is, my wheel rotates 900 degrees. As a result, playing games that do not support force feedback makes my wheel feel sloppy and without any resistance what so ever.
So...to resolve this, a friend of mine, known as "Racer_S"(a ---smurfing--- talented WIZARD in my eyes) from the x360ce boards wrote a custom dll file for me, that allows me to apply any amount of resistance to my steering wheel as I want, so that it feels like there's a virtual spring inside, giving it that old school arcade "Pole Position" feel. It may not be ffb, but it gets the job done with those games that do not support FFB or do not feature the ability to adjust a center spring effect on wheels.
So... this little xinput dll file comes in VERY handy with most of those programs. But there is a catch....the dll file Racer_S wrote uses the xinput code, and therefore turns my wheel into, you can say, an "Xbox 360" analog device. Any program that supports Xinput right out the box, supports this dll file and thus triggers my wheel as xinput, complete with centering spring effects and all. I can adjust spring tension, intertia, and a host of other things that I could not otherwise do in MAME itself, or even Windows Control Panel for that matter.
If MAME supported xinput, I would be able to use my wheel and apply the necessary spring-like effects to give it just the right amount of tension via my dll file.
Hence the reason I was asking anyone if they know of any version of MAME that supports xinput. Or perhaps a utility that allows any version of MAME to acknowledge and be compatible with xinput. Like I said it's not FFB but it's at least something.
On another possibly interesting note, Howard I noticed you mention in one of your other posts the program called Fedit. I too, am familiar with this program, as it allows me to tweak ffb effects such spring tension, etc for my steering wheel. This gentlemen Racer_S
also wrote a custom DirectInput dll file for Fedit, and what it does is allows me to run Fedit in the background while using any other program. So for example, lets say I am in the middle of testing a certain ffb effect in fedit like say, center spring effect.... while this spring effect is activated in my wheel, I can actually click away from the fedit window, start a game, and continue to play the game
WITH the spring effect from fedit still activated in my wheel! So any game that doesn't support ffb or contains a center spring strength option, would be no problem since I just run fedit along with my custom made dll and still have the spring effect active.
I was hoping I'd be able to do this with MAME but alas, the effects in fedit goes away upon entering a game in mame. Very very frustrating. Therefore Howard, I was wondering if you can tell me why this is? Why do my effects in fedit stop being felt in my wheel once I start a game in MAME, but works in EVERY other game or emulator I use? I mean, if MAME has support for all things DirectInput, why do the effects in fedit go away? If you know the answer please shed some light on this.