Gameport vs USB gamepad sample rate?

[BlueWeasel]

I've had a MS Sidewinder gamepad for about 7 years now, and it's the old version that has the gameport attachment. I've been thinking about getting a new USB gamepad and I wonder if switching to a USB gamepad would provide better response because of the higher sample rate of USB.

Does the USB sample rate of 125 samples per second apply only to mice, or would it be the same for gampads/joysticks? How would that compare to the sample rate and responsiveness of a gamepad connected thru the gameport?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just know that the "feel" of the newer USB MS Sidewinder gamepads isn't as good as the older gameport-based ones, especially the way the diagonals and circular motions work.

As far as interface efficiencies.. it's probably kind of a wash. The gameport sidewinders support two interface modes, and at least one of them, I think, uses the pins normally used for a MIDI interface on most older sound cards. It functions basically like a serial port. The USB interface, in hardware at least, is probably more efficient, but has to go through more software layers. However, with the gameport sidewinders, at least in Windows', your application's input response time is dependent on the polling frequence of the gameport sidewinder driver, and I'm not aware of what that actually is.

There are some other issues too, with compatibility. The 15-pin analog gameport/MIDI port is going away. My current mobo, an MSI KT400 board, has onboard sound but lacks a gameport connector, not even a header on the mobo for attaching one. I was kind of disappointed to find that out, personally, since I still have a pair of gameport sidewinders myself, and love them for use in emulators.

Some sound cards only suport 3.3v to the game port, which, given the proper reading circuitry, will function with standard analog gameport joysticks, but the digital-protocol-based gameport sidewinders will fail to operate on those.

On the software side, MS has made various conflicting statements on whether gameport-based joysticks or gameport sidewinders will even be supported any more.

Sorry, I think that I strayed from your original question by a wide margin, are you asking if you will get better performance response from switching? I really doubt it, and it depends on how often your app, and the system drivers, read the inputs. I use a PSX-to-USB adaptor with a Sony dual-shock PS1 pad to play UT with, and I don't notice any significant control lag with it, as compared to when I used to use my gameport sidewinders instead. Although, since this mobo's USB ports appear to be CPU-driven, I do sometimes encounter glitchy mouse/joystick inputs when the system is heavily loaded.

 

[Auric]

The maximum report rate for USB meeces is lower than PS/2 (125 vs 200). However there are other factors involved such as resolution and acceleration.

With USB versus serial gameport the primary difference is the former's dependence upon the CPU. On my ol' 1.5 GHz, performance was significantly lower in-game when using the same gameport controller with its included USB adapter and that was without any other USB devices which would certainly be worse. So without further proof to the contrary, I would stick with a dedicated gameport.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Thanks guys.

I actually thought the USB gamepads would be better as far as the polling rate goes, but it sounds like they can suffer from more overhead compared to a gameport.

I :heart: my Sidewinder.