[fitz]

Hi,


Force feedback support will be implemented in the upcoming SDL 1.3. This is the result of the 2008 Google Summer of Code:

http://lists.libsdl.org/pipermail/sdl-libsdl.org/2008-September/066585.html

Another good thing, few Linux distros were supporting FF so far (kernel has to be compiled with a specific option). The next Ubuntu (jaunty) will support it by default (kernel 2.6.28).

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+source/linux/+bug/246952

I suppose this will trigger a lot of change in the Linux gaming world in general and hopefully for Freespace as well ...

[chief1983]

It should work with Windows with no user side changes then right?  I wouldn't  have the slightest idea how that would work on a Mac though.

[taylor]

It should work with Windows with no user side changes then right?  I wouldn't  have the slightest idea how that would work on a Mac though.

Well it's just SDL, so you only have to support SDL and then the code would work on all platforms for which SDL provides Haptic support (which should at least be Windows, OS X & Linux).  Then we just need to switch FSO to use SDL for Windows and that would just about give us a single code base for all three platforms.

[Darkmage]

I'm not sure if mac osx actually supports force feedback. Linux does because there was extensive work done to get it into the kernel. I haven't seen a similar project for osx. getting SDL 1.3 support into freespace 2 open should be a priority though. Haptics support code is now available from libsdl.org
(update) I have just found a company called immersion who havea force feedback api for mac osx. I assume it includes drivers etc. SDL might have support using a similar method.