-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Good day to all,
I've got a general question about the Windows subsystem I'm a bit interested of and considering spending some time trying to implement it. What I'm talking about is "new" input handling API MS positions as the DirectInput successor: XInput 1.x. Looks like currently Wine includes general stubs for older version of XInput dlls ("legacy stipped down" XInput9_1_0, and later versions ranging from 1.1 up to 1.3; XInput 1.4 which is documented to be the core component of upcoming Windows 8 isn't implemented yet). Stubs are pretty much what they are: general placeholders so APPs would be able to link to these DLLs and get semi-correct return codes from procs.
What I'm interested in (and that's is the reason I'm posting to devlist) is what are the plans on real implementation of MS XInput API? Are there anybody working on topic? Were there any preliminary patches floating around aimed at implementing this API in Wine?
I'm asking this question because I had recently tried to use force-feedback capable gamepad by Thrustmaster under Wine and found it to be working pretty well through DirectInput[8] API, but not being accessible through XInput API and thus failing to properly work with force-feedback enabled applications. Reading the docs on MSDN made me believe that force-feedback on GamePads can't be properly handled through DirectInput API - it was MS design decision to deprecate DI in favor of XInput and no to extend DI effects support with "rumble" effect. Thus to get proper behavior for GamePads force-feedback under Wine it is required to implement XInput API.
General investigation on topic shows that this isn't as easy as it might seem at a first glance. Just looking at code sniplet by MS that accomplishes task of filtering out XInput-capable devices from DirectInput enumerated device list shows that MS is just the old-bad MS: relying on third-party low-level system API (WMI) to enumerate all the available PnP devices of a certain class and then filter them out based on VID/PID and a part of PNPID substring isn't a good programming practice IMO. In any case it is a thing that should be somehow dealt with in Wine since current and future games might be already using this technique and are certainly using both DirectInput and XInput to handle various types of "game input devices".
That being said, and in case there no one out there is working on the topic, what considerations should I stick with if I would proceed with trying to implement XInput API in Wine? Thanks in advance for answers and insights.
- -- Best regards, Alexey Loukianov mailto:mooroon2@mail.ru System Engineer, Mob.:+7(926)218-1320 *nix Specialist