Comments and questions for Urebel:
I was planning to switch the pedals to dual axis (actually one of the sites above has a link for doing this with a switch so you can use the pedals either way). I highly recommend using Analog Plus and dual axis so you get working brake lights in OutRun, for example. Comments on this approach?
Having a switch from twopedal/shared axis to dual pedal/duel axis is a
great idea. Most PC retail dual pedals have a software switch like this if they can do separate pedals.
The lastest release Analog+ (v.60.3) added support dual pedals, but I haven't made changes to the drivers yet. So if you want dual pedals now, you need to edit the drivers and compile Analog+ yourself. Or you can wait a little while for the next version (unless mame .61 comes out first, then you might have to wait until Analog+ v.61.2)
Question 2: Most of the sites above tend to show the pedals hooked up to the gameport, however, it would be possible to interface to USB via 1-Up's Dual Strike Hack. I was planning to leave them as a gameport connection, but I was wondering, (other than HotSwappabilty and forward compatibility), is there any advantage to going USB. (I.e. Do USB controls maintain calibration better than the gameport, etc??)
USB vs gameport:
1. USB is newer
2. USB might have less stable drivers because it is newer. Depends on your system, MB, joystick, & OS.
3. Most USB joysticks are "calibrated" each time you plug it in (probably at boot time, too). Not total calibration, but the middle is re-calibrated. Don't know about gameport.
4. USB has better support for multiple & multiple brand joysticks plugged in at same time.
5. USB has no dos support.
I run into #2 so often I can't push USB as the fixall for everyone, but it does look like it will take over the game port at some point. So it depends on your system and how much points #2 - 5 matter to you [shrug]
Hey Rebel since you do this stuff the right way why doesn't Mame Dev. get a clue and incorporate your ideas in to their build? after all aren't they all about faithfully emulating the original? How original is it if it doesn't work?
Four Reasons:
1. Analog+ has some very dirty code, relies on some hacks in some areas (against mame philosophy), increases playing the games more than helping document them, and a lot of the code is OS dependent (mame wants to be portable).
2. Some of the code that is not OS dependent breaks some mame core functions, braking all ports I don't supply fixed code for. It's still changing often, and you see it would brake the ports each time a new version is released if it included the changed Analog+ code.
3. Even if the code is cleaned up, the hacks are changed to true emulation, and mame + mame:Analog+ code is portable as before, changes to the core is like playing with fire. Changes to one driver or OS code only can break that driver or OS.
Changes to the core can break everything if there is some bad code. So mameDev should add core changes carefully.
4. I have not yet submitted very much of the code because of the above points. :-/ I plan to submit as much of the code as possible, but I want it to be working and
don't want #3 to happen. I think I have another part that is almost ready for submitting, but I need to test it a little more.
It's not MameDev's fault. You can "blame", if blame's the word, me. And MameDEV's intelligence.
Anyways keep up the great work. Analog+ rocks!
Thanks!