Reaktor Joystick

vytear · Joined: Jan 31, 2005 Posts: 14 Location: philadelphia

Has anyone here ever tried to use one of those fancy
USB flight simulator joysticks to control Reaktor?

diskonext · Joined: Aug 26, 2004 Posts: 306 Location: London, UK

Well,

I tried, the program I used (VMidiJoy) to convert joystick->MIDI was a bit buggy though.

Which program do you plan on using?

-diskonext

vytear · Joined: Jan 31, 2005 Posts: 14 Location: philadelphia

I plan I using reaktor......

vytear · Joined: Jan 31, 2005 Posts: 14 Location: philadelphia

I guess you mean what kind of conversion utility / app.

I guess I could find or make an object in MAX/msp to see
what kind of numbers the thing is spitting out.....

any suggestions?

zynthetix · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:27 pm Post subject:

Well, these links don't quite hit the nail on the head since they deal with different hardware converters, but they're on topic:

This is a joystick port to MIDI conversion cable (not USB):
http://www.portlandmusiccompany.com/joystickcable.html

Instructions to make hardware converter and software MIDI code translator from a Playstation (PSX) controller:
http://kaele.com/~kashima/games/bmconv/index-e.html

As I'm sure you are aware, reaktor accepts incoming OSC and MIDI data from specified ports. If you want to use a USB joystick, your answer probably lies in a peice of software that will convert the joystick signals into MIDI or OSC code based on your specifications, since this would provide much more adaption for a variety of joystick brands and schemes....although I'm not sure what could do that for you. MAX/MSP could probably do it, but you'd be looking at building a lot of the translation part yourself.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but please keep this discussion going as things evolve. I am now interested in using a PSX controller for reaktor (since they have 2 analog control sticks)... once this hardware issue has a reasonable solution, some neat instruments could be built.

play · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:49 pm Post subject:

I built a NES-controller to MIDI that used the parallel port and a little java app. It was pretty easy because people have been reverse engineering NES systems for a long time and there is a lot of information out there. (One of these days I'll get the info for it back up on the web). The hard part about doing these mods is figuring out the clock cycle for the controller. As far as USB goes, I have no idea but it's probably no harder to program for the USB port than the parallel port.

It might be easier to do some tricky programming and use DirectX to poll the controller and convert button presses/etc. to midi. This could make for a more lasting bit of conversion software too.

diskonext · Joined: Aug 26, 2004 Posts: 306 Location: London, UK

Well,

VMidiJoy might still be your thing, it can at least pick up data from the USB joystick I had. If memory serves I was able to assign at least 3 axis and 6 buttons.

I'll try and see if I can attach the program (have to search for it on my harddrives, though)

-diskonext