Where is native gamepad support already?

dave k.dave k.
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
RANT ON



Why isn't there any native Mac OS X gamepad drivers? Mac OS X is over TWO years old and we still don't have any native gamepad drivers. What gives? This is ridiculous already.



I should not have to buy a third-party utility to get something as simple as a gamepad to work on a "next generation" OS should I?



Boy it appears that Mac OS X is really flopping in the peripheral area.



RANT OFF

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    My MacAlly iShock works just fine in OSX, thank you very much.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    [quote]Originally posted by Brad:

    <strong>My MacAlly iShock works just fine in OSX, thank you very much. </strong><hr></blockquote>



    How does that work? MacAlly's site doesn't mention anything about Mac OS X native drivers. Are you using GamePad Companion?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    the watchful babblerthe watchful babbler Posts: 12member
    The problem is that the death of InputSprockets and its subsequent replacement with HID Manager has delayed support of gamepad, joystick, and spaceball peripherals within games. I haven't found any third-party libraries that effectively encapsulate peripherals (though HID Wizard is coming along, and hopefully SDL will add MOSX support to its joystick API at some point).



    AFAIK, you still have to roll your own HID support on a per-application basis for gamepads and joysticks, which is a nontrivial task. All HID Manager gives you is device state, so you're also responsible for handling device normalization and the like. (As an example, take a Saitek joystick and map its axes to mouse movement in Gamepad Companion; the cursor will immediately start sliding all over the screen. It's stuff like that which a higher-level API would help manage for you.)



    The HID Manager sample code I've looked over at developer.apple is right up there with SVR4 device drivers in terms of management and error-handling problems, so I'm staying as far away from it as possible until someone wraps it in an Objective-C binding. Right now, the idea of developing joystick support for an environment as complex as, say, Falcon 4 just makes my brain hurt.



    (Addendum: Hey, I didn't know moki posted 'round here! If anyone is fit to comment on HIDMgr issues, it'd be him.)



    [ 10-14-2002: Message edited by: The Watchful Babbler ]</p>
  • Reply 4 of 5
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    This is an interesting topic.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    code mastercode master Posts: 344member
    My MacAlly iShock doesn't work at all without GameCompanion.... though the power LED lights up~
Sign In or Register to comment.