Using MIDI control surfaces?

Deefa · #1 08-22-2011, 12:56 AM

Hi all - I'm new here.

I have just purchased this sim (even knowing its issues after reading this and many other forums!).
I have made a USB adapter for my old MS Sidewinder 3D pro joystick, and have facetrack working (kind of) for some view control.

Noting how many inputs are required for correct CEM (and overall aircraft) control, I have been investigating the most effective ways of inputing multiple axis & buttons.

I have seen mention of the BU0836 based controllers (and will likely make a small, portable setup based on this controller), but my main question is, has anybody heard of some software that can convert MIDI control messages to a HID 'axis' that can be assigned as a joystick axis?

The reason I ask is I have MIDI control hardware with multiple sliders (used for music making), and each slider maps to 128 values - which would be fine for anything that isn't stick/rudder/trim but needs multiple values (mixture, boost, throttle, brakes etc).
Also, many smartphones can act as MIDI controllers wirelessly and offer up to 10 sliders on screen - would be great to be able to assign these to controls in game.

This has extra significance for me as my gaming platform is a 2011 macbook pro 8.1 (2.3 SNB i7, 8GB DDR3 1333, AMD 6750m 1GB, inbuilt webcam for facetrack, bootcamp'ed win7 64bit), and I need to be able to transport my controllers with me.
Before I worry to much about this I had better learn to fly again, last air combat sim I played was MS Air Combat! See you on a server somewhere (in a few months)

Vengeanze · #2 08-22-2011, 04:17 AM

Great to see another mac gamer in here.

You actually already using iSight camera or just thinking about it?
I had this plan to as I read about a program that can turn up the recorded frames from 15 to 30.
Please tell me more.

Deefa · #3 08-22-2011, 04:27 AM

The new MBP's have the high resolution facetime HD camera, which doesn't work 'very' well with the facetrack API that facetrack noIR uses - the FPS into the facetracker drops and stablises ~12-14fps, at any resolution (which I will put up with, as I don't want to carry around a PS3eye). CPU use is quite low.
It does track fairly well if you can put up with the up to 80ms input lag (ouch!).
I haven't even run CoD yet - downloaded it last night, but the facetrack software works ok in other games, hoping for similar results with CoD.
What software did you find to 'speed up' the webcam?

On a different note, I have found ATI Tray tools allows the AMD 6750m GPU to be overclocked to an easy 700/900MHz (20% more performance), but I'm assuming that the 1GB VRAM will be the limiting factor with CoD.

Vengeanze · #4 08-22-2011, 04:53 AM

Thanks. The latency is too big for me unfortunately but understand your need for mobility.
I'll have a look for that program later on (need to feed the kid).

Sokol1 · #5 08-22-2011, 02:27 PM

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22463

Sokol1

Deefa · #6 08-24-2011, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sokol1

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22463

Sokol1

Thanks for that, I must have limited my searches to the Controls Threads sub forum. Guess I'll have to run PPjoy driver in win7 test mode, which I'm not sure I wanted to do.
Longer term I may investigate working on a direct software solution using the standard HID driver.