Hardware: steering wheel and pedals?

[jdeneux]

jdeneux: Thanks for the information. So you wrote the drivers for the force feedback module that's in the Linux kernel now?

I wrote two of them, but work by other people continued after that.

If/when we do start force feedback support it will have to be through some kind of library, either something we write or another one from somewhere else. Otherwise it will be very difficult to keep Windows and OS X support. edit: I didn't quite finish that though before posting. I was going to ask, do you have any suggestions as to such a force-feedback library that is cross platform?

I don't know of any such library, and I don't think there is any. It would be quite interesting to make one though.
I'm also working on a racing sim for Windows and Linux, and my plans are to write such a library. But I don't expect that to happen soon. I'm completely ignorant when it comes to DirectX programming.

To Nigo:
I know that you can send a complex effect to a dumb device on windows, and there is a layer of software somewhere that does the effect simulation. I don't know what layer does that, but I would expect something just above the driver, e.g. DirectX.

About the availability of drivers: That's unclear at the moment, but Anssi Hannula, another FFB driver developer will set up a wiki page on libff.sf.net, and things will hopefully get clearer.
Regarding wheels, it is my guess that recent Logitech wheels are all supported by usbhid.ko, although maybe not right out of the box (patching as indicated by stenyak may be needed). The older MOMO racing wheel should be supported by iforce.ko. Other smaller brands might also work.
I know of a few microsoft devices that use PID, an open protocol specification for FFB. Strangely, there is no working driver for them yet, but that should be resolved in the future (if only someone will offer to read the specs and implement them).