Alternate Yoke construction ideas/plans... Opinions?

[Warborg]

Ok, I know someone must have come up with this before and the idea was trashed for one reason or another, but I'd like to find out for sure and if so why it was disregarded...

Ok, I know some of us have thought about either buying and hacking or building a yoke for games like Paperboy, Star Wars, Road Blasters, etc...  All the ideas I see are centered around using potentiometers and gear drives to get the axises to work properly.

Now why can't one be built using optics instead, kinda like a home-built spinner or trackball?  I know that the games can be played with a mouse, as that's how I've done it in the past (although playing Paperboy like that bites).  Now I realize that the movement of the pots would be absolute while the optics are relative to the pointer on the screen, but when the games start they zero it out anyway, or at least that's how it appears.  So if you were to keep the yoke centered while starting the game, I don't see why this wouldn't be a do-able idea...

Any thoughts or experiences on this type of idea?

[OSCAR]

Mouse acceleration is the problem.  Since the controller (yoke) has a fixed range of motion, the controller would lose calibration the first time you moved quickly right, then slowly left.  This behavior isn't noticeable on controls without a fixed range of motion like spinners, trackballs, and 360deg wheels since you automatically compensate for the control because the range isn't fixed.

Move your desktop mouse very slowly two inches left on your mouse pad, and then move it very quickly right two inches on your mouse pad.  You will see that the cursor doesn't end up in the same place you started.  This is the lost calibration I mean.

I played with this idea before, and even if the Windows mouse acceleration is turned off, the control still lost calibration after a very short time.

[Minwah]

I was a little unclear on this myself - now I understand Oscar...

But how about RoadBlasters?  This originally used an optic device although with limited travel.  I just played it with my spinner, and it *seems* to keep calibration OK (the white arrow on my spinner knob remained at 12 o'clock when the car was pointing forward).  That said I only played it once, and didn't actually 'spin' the spinner, just kept my hand on it and steered.  Does it play OK as MAME knows the input as 'dial' as opposed to eg '270wheel'?  Or was I just lucky?

The reason I'm interested in this is that I'm soon to become the owner of a RoadBlasters controller.  I was hoping to give the original optics a go using a mouse hack...Do you think it'll work OK??

[eightbit]

Didn't games that used optics like this have a special mark on the encoder wheel that told the game when the wheel was centered thus continously calibrating itself?

[Tiger-Heli]

Didn't games that used optics like this have a special mark on the encoder wheel that told the game when the wheel was centered thus continously calibrating itself?

Eight-Bit:  I know 720 degrees used a second encoder wheel for calibration, not sure about any of the other game.

Warborg:  I talked with JoeyH about his SW yoke.  He originally used optics, but didn't like the results and either rebuilt it or said he would go with pots if he built another one.  I can't remember what the problems were with it, and I lost the original E-mail when my HD died :-(

[u_rebelscum]

Mouse acceleration is the problem.  

I have found with most drivers, mouse acceleration don't affect directX (thus mame -mouse) mouse input.  However, mame -lightgun mouse is always affected and so you do see the acceleration.  Tested on winMe, directX 5 through dX 8.1.

Oh, windows mouse acceleration seems to always affect dmame mouse inputs when played from windows console box.

I played with this idea before, and even if the Windows mouse acceleration is turned off, the control still lost calibration after a very short time.

Yes, even without the acceleration, I still get the lost calibration.  I wonder how roadblasters stayed calibrated?

[OSCAR]

I noticed on games that use smooth & easy movements, like some driving games, that the control seems to stay calibrated for quite a while.  On games with aggressive play, like Star Wars, the control lost calibration very quickly.  Thus I assumed it was mouse acceleration causing this, however that appears to not be the case based on your info.  But something causes it to lose calibration the faster the mouse is moved, and if it isn't acceleration, then I don't know what it is...  

[Minwah]

It sounds like I was just lucky when I played RoadBlasters, maybe my RoadBlasters controller > mouse hack might not be such a good idea...oh well, I'll try it anyway since I have a hacked mouse already.

If it doesn't work very well then perhaps I could convert it somehow to use a pot.  No doubt I'll post my findings when I get the controller