Support for any USB wheel on all gran turismo games

[Mike1985]

So, I have a feature suggestion, or more of a question for the community.

Why would Sony/Polyphony Digital not just allow all USB wheels to work on all Gran Turismo games ? That way gamers wouldn't have to consult lists of supported wheels, which are also incomplete, because some wheels work even though they are not on the official list.

Also there is extra cost involved, If you want to play GT3,4,5,6,Sport And 7, you would need more than one wheel probably, because I dont think there is one wheel that would work on all, except maybe Logitech G25/27/29 ?

On PC racing simulators there are no restrictions, and the player can plug in any DirectX compatible USB wheel, its the players homework to research which wheels are actualy good for gaming.

Are these Gran Turismo restrictions for safety reasons (as Sony like to say), like some kind of encryption, or just purely business, so that only some brand of wheel is allowed. Or are they curating the list of wheels so they choose only the "quality" ones, so not to spoil the games image ? I think all these reasons are just excuses.

Should Sony/Polyphony Digital be sued for this (artificial market manipulation, restricting the gamers choice of wheels).

What are your opinions on this ?

Please move this topic to the appropriate place on these forums, if this is not the right place.

Thank you all for your discusion.

 

[pez2k]

Why would Sony/Polyphony Digital not just allow all USB wheels to work on all Gran Turismo games ?
...
On PC racing simulators there are no restrictions, and the player can plug in any DirectX compatible USB wheel

A wheel needs specific software drivers in order to work properly. On PC, if you wanted to use, say, a Logitech G29, you need to install Logitech's drivers for it to fully function. These are installed system-wide, so they're game-independent. On a console, there is no such option, as users can't modify any part of the operating system of the console. This means that each game historically has to ship its own wheel drivers to be compatible with different hardware.

Availability of drivers is the main restriction on which wheels each game supports. The manufacturer needs to be able to write their own drivers for each console, have them signed off by the platform owner, and distribute them to game developers along with enough documentation to integrate them into a game. There is also some amount of time and money that the game developers need to spend on testing that each wheel works with their game and making any changes needed to support it, such as model-specific configuration menus.

Wheel manufacturers often make an effort to have some level of backward compatibility with new wheels and old drivers, so a G29 may work on console games with drivers that were written to handle a G27 or earlier, but at the same time those same drivers will never work properly for a Thrustmaster wheel, for example. Fanatec were unable to develop their own console drivers for a long time, requiring them to add extra hardware to their console-compatible wheels to emulate a Logitech device, which is why only certain expensive models worked with PS3 games.

This problem isn't limited to driving wheels either, it affects any external hardware integration. GT4 had a gimmick where the player could send a picture from photo mode directly to a printer, but this required 200MB of disc space to be dedicated to over 100 driver files, just to support a small selection of then-current Epson printers. Similarly, the Eye Toy integration to scan special Nike clothing only worked with Sony's camera, and not a generic webcam.

 

[Mike1985]

Thank you for your answer. I would then suggest to maybe make some kind of industry standard. Like a standardized driver for all wheels, so then any USB wheel could work. I know this is easier said than done. Thank you for your accurate technical answer.