Question 49 way integration in control panel.

[mccoy178]

Would it be possible to properly play playstation and Nintendo 64 on a cabinet with 49 ways?

[mccoy178]

bump dat

[Kremmit]

I don't know jack about N64 emulators, but..

Any emulator that will make use of an PC analog stick ought to be able to make use of a 49-way.  The resolution on a 49 way is considerably lower than on a true analog stick, though, so some games will play better than others. 

This is the same in MAME- Star Wars and Road Runner are the easy examples.  Road Runner plays fine with a 49-way, since the sitck controls how fast the bird runs based on how hard you push the stick.  With a 49-way, the bird will only have 3 speeds (4 if you count "stopped" as a speed), but in real gameplay, how many different speeds do you need him to go?  Star Wars, on the other hand, uses the stick (yoke, I know, but an analog stick plays exactly the same as the yoke, it's just shaped differently) to determine where on the screen you aim.  Play Star Wars with a 49-way, and you'll find that there are exactly 49 places on the screen you can shoot, which means that some targets will be in space you cannot aim at.

You'll get the same thing with N64 games- try and use the Sniper Rifle in Goldeneye, and you'll find you can only aim at 49 places on the screen.

[erictrumpet]

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but does that mean then that a 49-way stick divides the whole area of motion of the stick -- not merely the directional input -- into 49 discret data points? If so, then "49-way" is a bit of a misnomer -- it is not like an 8-way, which has 8 directions it can point, but it's 49-way in that there are, as you say, "49 places on the screen you can shoot." Am I correctly understanding this?

Thanks
Eric.

[Kremmit]

Eric, you have nailed it.  A 49-way is a 7x7 grid.  And an analog stick could actually be called a 65536 way, with it's 256x256 grid.

One could argue that the 8-way is the one that's mis-named- it's really a 9-way with it's 3x3 grid.  Interestingly enough, I have seen some optical sticks (the Bubbles / Joust prototype stick, and the original Berzerk stick) referred to as 9-way instead of 8-way.  Why the difference, I dunno.

[mccoy178]

Wouldn't raw 49 be different from progressive 49 way in games like star wars?  From what I understand, 49 progressive offers a finer movement.  I have no idea, just tossing out what I've seen.

[mahuti]

It doesn't offer finer movement. It adjusts the position of the grid, and shape of the grid blocks. They're smaller closer to the stick and larger farther out, or vise versa... soemthing to that affect. It definitely has a different feel... but it's more of a works/don'twork kind of thing.

[u_rebelscum]

And an analog stick could actually be called a 65536 way, with it's 256x256 grid.

Gah!  The old analog game port resolution was 256x256.  The current USB default analog res is 256x256.  However, this is not set in stone, and can be "any" resolution.  Windows directX can do up to 32-bits per axis (4,294,967,295 x 4,294,967,295)!  USB has no problem with that (besides bandwidth), and is set in the device description: no "special drivers" needed.  The 256 limit is NOT true anymore.

Needless to say, about 80% (my estimate) of the analog axes are still true 8-bit (256 levels).  Almost all of the rest (19%) are less than that in accuracy (mostly gamepad analog sticks and analog triggers) even if still 8-bits in precision.  Only the very high end flight sticks (AFAIK) go above 8-bits; I've heard of 10 & 12 bit sticks (1024 & 4096 levels).  There might be some industrial products that use more, but they probably aren't normal joysticks, either.

Wouldn't raw 49 be different from progressive 49 way in games like star wars?  From what I understand, 49 progressive offers a finer movement.  I have no idea, just tossing out what I've seen.

"Progressive" still has 49 spots, but arranged differently.  With Star Wars, the points will look like they focus near the center of the screen (see attached)