[Bug 18424] Mac OS X Joystick support doesn't work

[wine-bugs at winehq.org]

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18424

--- Comment #14 from Mr Nobody <limited_choice at hotmail.com> 2010-12-31 05:46:08 CST ---
(In reply to comment #11)
> As I said in the initial bug report, the descent freespace demo also doesn't
> work.
> 
> There are a few things to understand when considering this problem:
> 
> * The joystick support in Wine only works when built for Leopard and above.
> 
> * Last I checked, the popular build of Wine by Mike Kronenberg was built for
> Tiger and thus didn't include the joystick code.  This could have changed by
> now -- it's been quite a while since I looked into this.
> 
> * When I poked through the Wine joystick code it looked like it might only
> support somewhat newer versions of directx (v5 and up maybe?).  IL-2 for one
> example uses an older version of directx.  Not being an expert on this
> codebase, I could be mistaken.
> 
> I wouldn't disqualify IL-2 as a test case.  It works fine with USB sticks in
> Windows and thus it should be supported in Wine.  It might not be the best case
> to *start* with, but it's an extremely popular flight sim and worthy of
> support.

It's not that I'm being dismissive (nor derisive) of IL-2 ; it is indeed a
great flightsim that redefined the genre -- all I'm saying is if the USB HID
isn't being seen in linux, I don't really expect to see it in OSX either with
the same wine tree. Likewise, there can often be disparity between game vendor
releases, the Flatout titles being a good example ; I don't know of anyone
that's managed to get the gog.com release(s) running in OSX ; Steam versions
work fine (and have a different setup GUI with more screenmode support) - it
just throws another variable into the fray...differnt versions may use
different methods...(unlikely, but possible)..

Some apps actually seem to have defined presets built into them, and use the
HID if it happens to be connected -- Rockstar's GTA-3 series tend to do this.
YMMV here depending on controller device VID/PID...

I do concur that most complaints tend to be coming from that sector of older
apps, many of which were coded/existed before USB became mainstream. You
mention Descent/Freespace, I *think* I recall them working with gameport
connected HID but not USB (same caveat applies, must be /dev/js0), and the
MegaRace series and a few other racing sims of that circa fit in here too.

This would be a little OT here and somewhat missing the point, but the
observation must be made that my experience regarding these older app titles,
that were indeed coded for the gameport device, is that they do still seem to
work just fine in wine (linux) with a gameport connected HID appearing at
/dev/js0. Be it a puristic view or whatever, but that would be Wine doing an
outstanding job of accurately running the win32 app/game, 'just as it worked in
Windows back in 199something'...it's just not particularly useful as legacy
gameport support falls to deprecated hardware status (if not already there),
with USB in it's stead. Either way, what we're effectively asking for is that
some win32 app recognize and work with something it was never designed/coded
for. More so the case in OSX obviously...I doubt it'd even have the old
gameport device driver...or am I wrong?

Best I can figure it, the current situation is one of USB HID input actually
working in OSX more or less 'as expected' (Flatout2, Volvo the Game, KartRacer
all seem to work with USB HIDs), but when it comes to older apps/games it could
be the simple case of lacking necessary hardware support. Like I say, if
Windows users can do it, I'd have to suspect 3rd party drivers at work, as
likely there's no gameport present in that case, either. The win32 drivers
might possibly create a virtual gameport device in the normally assigned I/O
range for gameport, and feed/eat the USB data to that virtual device concurrent
with dx-input ; perhaps the Windows driver layer itself facilitates
this..{shrug}...

This....is what I meant by 'confusion' concerning this bug ; it's not really
the case of OSX lacking USB input support ; it is an equally shared situation
with both linux and OSX, in that we can't communicate with older apps/games
coded for the 'traditional' gameport device, with modern USB based HIDs.

It would seem more app specific than it is OS-centric imho ; if there's any
apps/games out there that were coded in 'USB aware' times and USB HID doesn't
work when it should, that would be a bug but only against that app.

Apps/games coded -before- USB awareness and that were never designed (or been
updated/patched) for USB HID support, are a different matter altogether, as
they work fine with the hardware they were coded for (in linux). If one could
recreate the testbed...Mac+emu10k1+gameport_driver+12 year old HID....I'd
probably guess these older apps would work in OSX just like they do in the
linux case (if only it were that easy)...point is, the fact these apps don't
work with USB input is not really a failing/bug on wine's part for mine, nor is
it OSX specific - most of these older games don't see USB HID in linux either.

...I wonder if we should close this bug as being a 'misnomer', and have folks
submit bugs on a per app basis, to better vet the situation...

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