The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Driving & Racing Cabinets => Topic started by: codeena on December 03, 2021, 02:54:48 pm
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Hi arcade racing fans. Does anyone use a fan(s) to simulate air/wind when playing your racing games? I believe that there's software in which you can map your pedals to use variable speed fans but I would like to use these types of fans with skiing games like MAME''s Alpine Racer, M2's Sega Ski Super G, Supermodel's Ski Champ, etc. but these games don't use an accelerator. Does anyone know if something like this exists or would it have to be programmed like Boomslang's awesome FFB Plugin? I'm assuming it's wishful thinking but I thought to ask anyway. TIA
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*** Disclaimer: I haven't tried hooking up these outputs -- this is just theory. ***
The first thing I thought of when I read your post was that Prop Cycle has a blower fan so I put "github MAME propcycl" into a search engine. (propcycl is the ROMname for Prop Cycle)
That led to the namcos22.cpp (https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/f87b40460ca46922b0932c6848ac9cf097d4c66c/src/mame/drivers/namcos22.cpp) driver source code.
Search through the driver's MAME source in your browser by using CTRL-F, "fan" (or other keyword), then find previous/find next to step through all nine instances where "fan" appears in the file.
- This process confirmed on lines 64, 974, 2587, and 2682 that Prop Cycle has a fan output.
- It also confirmed on lines 975 and 2655 that Aqua Jet also has a fan output.
If a game doesn't have an output, you still might be able to use a LUA script to read a speed-related value from the game's memory and turn that into a fan output.
- Alpine Racer would be an excellent candidate for this approach because your current speed is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen during gameplay. (7:25-9:04) ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQicdlFgu7U
Scott
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hey Scott thanks for the reply. You just reminded me that I was going to try to hook up my Game Bike (exercise bike for the PSX/PS2) to my PC and try it on Prop Cycle, although the Game Bike only has left-right x-axis steering. But yes, that game would make sense to have blowing air too.
I never owned a blower fan for gameplay but I thought it was a cool (literally) effect with Raw Thrills' Super Alpine Racer. I recently purchased a deluxe Alpine Racer 2 and it does not have fans but I did see a photo from another cab that had them facing the player. Perhaps they were just regular fans.
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There was a set of usb fans and lights that worked with various PC games a decade ago but I can’t remember the name,.
Good luck?
:dunno
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There is definately software out there to do this, I believe when I was involved a little with motion simulator scene on xsimulator they had some projects setup to blow air and sometimes even direction of fans etc
Getting the info out of the game wouldn't really be that difficult once you have a working setup
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Thanks for the replies all. These are encouraging comments and may lead to a possible add-on to pursue in the future, adding some fun to a good number of racing games!
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I.m not sure if this will help you, but Arctic Thunder (and Ultimate) use "face wind" with a fan. The fan turns on when you jump into the air. Both of the arcades are PC based, so you may be able to figure it out.
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If it doesn't exist yet it should be quite easy (in theory) as all you'd need is to map the voltage regulator going to the fan to watch the input of the accelerator. Granted this would be easier in driving games as its a linear curve and I'm sure I've seen it implemented previously but the logic behind it is sound.
Another lateral way of approaching it would be to get one of those sound activated LED light strips, disconnect it from the bulbs and rig its output to the fan instead. For optimal tweaking you could mod the code (probably best running it all from a RPi at this point) to respond to certain frequency ranges with different bursts of voltage just like it would to colour shift the LEDs.
First you'd need to be able to code. Latter you could whip up a proof of concept version in an afternoon as the LEDs already have the tech in the controller.
Good luck and have fun.
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Googling “simhub fans” brought up a bunch of stuff.
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“Wind simulator.” Google that.
There’s some defunct device called a Vortx 4D that’s reminiscent of what I remember. What a recall was like two PC fans with LED lights and it was long before 2018 but a similar idea.