Question Support for other joysticks (esp., force feedback)

[danep]

I've got a few Immersion IE2000 force feedback joysticks that would be awesome to get running with Orbiter - initially just providing force feedback based on either pressures on control surfaces or torques on the vehicle, and ultimately providing guidance (to train people to land based on an autopilot, for example).

There are a few modules out there that seem to integrate odd input devices (such as the sixaxis module), but they certainly don't do this, and because all I've found so far are binary DLLs they don't really help me to develop my own module (I really wish Orbiter were more open-source-oriented, but that's another post... )

Can anyone point me in the right direction for help on integrating a new joystick with Orbiter?

FYI, joystick I/O is performed via simple C++ calls, usually through an independent haptic thread looping at 1000hz.

 

[Moach]

first off, i'd advise you to download the SDK...
you'll need a pint of C++ knowledge to get started... but once you get that covered, the SDK is very straightforward

orbiter has a pretty open-ended design, although not fully open-source - try downloading the camshake module - i think it includes sources, then try and find out where the "shaking" is applied and you'll have a nice point to start adapting force feedback

...which leads to the second thing - directinput
you'll need the directx sdk so you can use it, but from what i read, getting FF going is pretty much built-in there


is this any help at all?

 

[danep]

Thanks, looking at the camshake module sources was quite helpful. I'll let you know if I come up with something.

A bigger problem might end up being that all of Orbiter is slaved to run at the graphics loop rate, which doesn't bode well for providing stable and high-fidelity force feedback (1000Hz+ is preferred)- but that's another issue entirely