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Possible to run 2 or more cabs from single PC?

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Afterburner:

My thinking to get past the input problems would be to have each cab as it's own user in XP.  I was thinking that might be a way to segregate the inputs.

But I suppose that means I'd probably have to set up a specific hardware profile for each "user" account to lock out controls from one cab to another.

Not quite sure how all that would work out though.  Keep the thoughts coming though....I'm looking for a showstopper and I'm sure there are things I haven't considered.  The input problem might very well be the big one.

Afterburner:


--- Quote from: FhM on January 24, 2008, 01:07:21 pm ---Not arcade related but heres a computer that supports 6 monitors and keyboards so its along the same sort of principles that your on about:

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LGNET/124/smith.html

--- End quote ---

Yep, I knew this was possible in Linux....that's what I run on my desktop.  Been a linux user since about 1992 and have always run it as my full-time OS.

But I was hoping to keep things simple with XP...I really don't want to try and run a really intense driving sim game for windows on wine.

Daniel B.:

I would think it would be possible with a simple kvm switch if you weren't trying to play them all at the same time. I have a sweet 10 port belkin one that does dvi/vga/usb/ps2. I would look into them if I were you.

SavannahLion:

NVM

u_rebelscum:

AFAIK, keyboards and mice aren't any more difficult to see separately than joysticks & gamepads (in mame; about 0% of other apps use RawInput which make it possible in mame).  Mame currently supports multiple mice & keyboards, and can tell them apart (disabled by default, though; options -multimouse & -multikeyboard).  "Just" map mame1 to use joy,mouse&keyboard 1, and mame2 to joy,mouse,key 2 (but see next PP).

The biggest problem is sharing the video, inputs, and especially sound outputs between two applications.  DirectX (video, sound, joysticks) and RawInput (mice & keyboards) aren't really designed for two apps to be actively running at the same time.  And you'd need two sound cards to keep the sound outputs separate as (AFAIK) all sound cards are designed for Personal Computers with one speaker system.  Heck, windows is designed for a PC, so there's the "active window" thing to get around.


A FWIW, some mameDev are thinking about complete getting mame able to run multiple instances of itself at the same time (mostly for emulating linked cabs).  I've heard it's already "pretty far along the way in current mame" over at mameworld.info forums.  Don't hold your breath though, I'm guessing it'll be in the twenty teens before done.

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