USB Wheel & Shifter

[shmokes]

Happ shifters that just act like buttons have been covered in the message boards, but I'm hoping someone can give me an idea about how the Act-Labs GPL USB Shifter would work in Mame.
 
http://www.act-labs.com/race10.htm

I'm considering picking up the Force RS Bundle:

http://www.act-labs.com/race_combo1.htm

I know that the Force Feedback won't work in Mame (yet), but it'll work in other Windows based games and I'm hoping that the other components (wheel, shifter, pedals) will work fine in Mame for 270 degree games and I'll just have to use a spinner for 360 games.  Has anyone had experience with this or similar equipment.  Should the Act-Labs shifter work the same as a Happ Shifter (mimicking button presses)?  

[u_rebelscum]

[snipped]
Happ shifters that just act like buttons have been covered in the message boards, but I'm hoping someone can give me an idea about how the Act-Labs GPL USB Shifter would work in Mame.
 
I'm hoping that the other components (wheel, shifter, pedals) will work fine in Mame for 270 degree games and I'll just have to use a spinner for 360 games.  Should the Act-Labs shifter work the same as a Happ Shifter (mimicking button presses)?  

I think it'll work fine in mame after you remap the inputs (hint: use ctrlr/ini files so you won't have to remap every time a new new version of mame comes out).

Here's a clip from the actlabs gpl software utility help file (italics by me):

NOTE: There are NO drivers needed for the GPL USB Shifter. The product will simply be displayed in the Game Controllers panel under Controller ID#2 as an 8-button gaming device with the description "ACT LABS GPL USB Shifter".

Mame handles switches great.  You don't even need the GPL utility for, as it remaps the switches, which you can do in mame.

[SirPoonga]

I know that the Force Feedback won't work in Mame (yet)

Sorry to say it will probably not get implemented into mame.  I've asked around.  Devs don't seem like it is neccessary.

[shmokes]

That's too bad that if force feedback won't be implemented into Mame any times soon.  As I understand it (from a conversation in the chat room, I think with you) it would be simple to implement if Mame used DirectX 7 for input instead of DirectX 5.  I don't know very much about programming or APIs, but would it be a major overhaul to change mame to DirectX 7 or higher?  It's easy for me to say since I have no programming skills and will never be able to contribute to Mame development  .

[u_rebelscum]

That's too bad that if force feedback won't be implemented into Mame any times soon.  As I understand it (from a conversation in the chat room, I think with you) it would be simple to implement if Mame used DirectX 7 for input instead of DirectX 5.  I don't know very much about programming or APIs, but would it be a major overhaul to change mame to DirectX 7 or higher?  It's easy for me to say since I have no programming skills and will never be able to contribute to Mame development  .

The problem is that mame is (tries be be) a cross platform program, and force feedback is windows specific.  For mame to support it in the same spirt as the other parts of games, mame would need to add: non-OS specific force feedback support in the core, OS specific FF support that translates the mame FF to the OS FF (directX), and edit the games to use the core FF.  All this would need to be done so all (as many games as possible) games with FF would feel like the original.  In the lines of adding support for a bunch of new CPUs not emu'ed before, fixing the games that used those CPUs, plus adding OS specific code.  Not easy.