Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Time for a change

OK, well, so today is my 38th birthday - traditionally a time for gifts. With this in mind I have decided to release the PPJoy source under the GPL license. This is my gift to you :)

I've just come to realise that my priorities have shifted and I don't have the time to spend improving PPjoy and giving it the attention it deserves. It would be great if somebody picks up where I am leaving off...

I hope to have the source up on SourceForge in a couple of weeks.


56 comments:

  1. Very nice about GPL and sad that it's unsopported now :(

    P.S. Could you say me where can I download the latest binary version?

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  2. Thanks a ton, Deon. Did you ever figure out some way to set up donations?

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  3. Hi. I have a question. I'm using Windows 7 64 bit, Home Premium. When I try to install PPjoy, it won't install the drivers because they are unsigned. I've tried starting up Windows using the "allow unsigned drivers" option, and that doesn't help. I've tried enabling Test mode via the command prompt. That doesn't help either. I heard there are other options to allow unsigned drivers, but I don't think they exist on this version of Windows 7. Can you help me get PPjoy working? Is there a way?

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  4. Happy Birthday!
    I know I'm a bit late but I actually tried to comment on your birthday but I had some problems with my google account.

    Thank you so much for all the work you've put into this gem and thank you for generously sharing your work as open source. I hope some skilled person with some free time picks this up and continues the work.

    As for me. I'm not that person but I'll try to get the code to compile and then see if I can change the Vendor ID so PPJoy winds up on the top of the gamepad list. (My feature request I wrote about in an old post.) Just hoping it isn't too difficult to compile and install the drivers from source.

    Dennis: Are you using the latest version 0.8.4.6?
    It sets the test mode for you and reboots.

    Check out this video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScuYfagMixU

    The video also demos an application "Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider" that among other things easily helps you switch to test mode.

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  5. Honestly, I'm not sure. I think I was using 0.8.4.5 because it didn't automatically reboot.

    However, I activated test mode MYSELF and rebooted into it. Checked that test mode was enabled, and then tried to install PPJOY again. It said Test Mode on the screen at the time, and I gave it any permissions it asked for, but it refused to install the drivers. Just gave me an error message saying they failed to install and told me to install them manually. (I have no idea how to do that!)

    Would it actually make a difference using the newest version? I mean, if enabling Test mode manually doesn't help, does enabling it automatically make any difference?

    Also, the newer versions of PPjoy are detected as trojans. What's going on here? I tried an older version and that did NOT show up as a trojan.

    Do I have something nasty on my system or not?

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  6. It was published? I have understood the interface according to LPT-SWITCH 10,11,12,13,15 output could be used used 1 ', 14', 16 and 17 'as well as output, so you have more buttons (the maximum would be 72) ... I have understood that these last are input / output.

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  7. This is good, the only thing bothering me right now about about ppjoy is the Vendor id. I've wanted to play crimson skies with foot pedals for a long time and it only sees the first joystick installed, if I can change the vendor id to something other than DEAD it would finally work

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  8. So Deon van der Westhuysen was kind enough to send me the source for PPjoy. He had it all ready and GPLed, but he hadn't got the sourceforge account setup yet. I emailed him a couple of days ago asking if I could post a link for the source prior to his setting up the sourceforge, but I haven't heard from him and I have not been able to get it to compile right. So out of frustration and since It's all GPLed already, here's the link
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FP1ILHBY
    You need the Full Visual Studio 2008 (Express 2008 won't work because it does not include the MFC libraries and headers), Microsoft Windows DDK and The Nullsoft installer version 2.45. The setuphelper module is setup to build with VS2005 Express, this will not work, it needs to be converted to VS2008 (VS2008 will do that for you) and the make batch file adjusted accordingly.

    If anyone can figure out how to compile the control panel application on a 32bit winxp platform I will be greatly in your debt as we can finally have a PPjoy with a low VID.

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  9. Where can you download the installer?

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  10. There are a number of links in the comments of previous entries. Or if you want you could build it yourself

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  11. Is PPJOY not compatible with 7 SP1 64Bit? Because every time I install a driver, it errors out with code 50.

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  12. PPJoy is the tool I couldn't afford to dream of but it's just this that makes my situation even more unfortunate. I don't even mention that there's no alternative for PPJoy.
    I need to combine 2 joysticks and 1 pair of pedals and I can't set the POV hats in Joystick remixer, but only axes and buttons. I tried everything.
    I'm too noob with C++ so it's off limits for me, can't stick my nose under the hood.

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  13. PPJoy through the virtual joysticks port can recognize a mouse as joystick right? I wonder if there is any way to make a db9 to ps2(mouse conector) cable to use a joystick of sega genesis through that port?Thanks

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  14. Deon, i noticed you havnt released PPJoy on source forge yet, I am willing to pay you for the source code (I do not wish to release the source code to the public, only in compiled form), you can contact me at:

    http://www.facebook.com/TheToid

    Thankyou,
    Aaron

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  15. Has anyone actually managed to control the POV hat in a virtual joystick? Cause it's impossible.

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  16. Hello,
    I found your info on the free-track.net site. I am a physical therapist in Los Angeles and I am looking for facial recognition software that will allow me to stand in front of 32 inch monitor (or larger) using a simple web cam, and be able to move the cursor on the screen by head movements. Any recommendations?
    Thanks in advance.
    Steven

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    Replies
    1. Google "camera mouse". You'll find a couple of free downloads to help you out.

      Delete
  17. Maybe now we have a chance to see Sega Saturn's joypad drivers on the program, since PPJoy is the only working on Win7 64-bits.

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  18. I`d like to add support for my joystick project too.

    Please take a look at goredaimon.blogspot.com

    Contact me at goredaimon@ig.com.br

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  19. Steven,
    What you are looking for is the program called facetracknoir. It is very similar to freetrack. It can be found here: http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm

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  20. Hi guys,

    I was just made aware of this blog (I'm not really into blogging myself). It sounds interesting indeed. It would be really nice if PPJoy could be combined with FaceTrackNoIR, to support all kinds of games and apps.

    I'll look into the sources...

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  21. Any chance of still releasing a version of the source via source forge? I'd like to test making a few enhancements, and its shame this project has stalled. Really is the only solution for a lot of people.

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    Replies
    1. Deon never setup the sourceforge account.

      He emailed me the source. I'd start the sourceforge but I'm not a developer. The learning curve here is a bit steep for the time I have.

      Delete
  22. Is there any possibility or prevision to fix the bugs with Sega Genesis Controller 6 buttons? I've been waiting for over than 1 year and half. Thanks in advance!

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  23. need a copy for facetrack... megaupload is in the poo... has anybody got a copy?

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  24. Here you can get the following versions (0.83, 0.845, 0.846)

    http://www.4shared.com/archive/9bwBd488/ppjoy.html

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  25. @Goro's Lair: 4Shared is scam download site. Goro is probably a spammer.

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  26. DeonVDW or anyone knowlegeable about PPJoy:

    I have narly gameport joystick that haven't seen any driver updates since the days of Win98. I read that PPJoy doesn't support Gameport or USB (hence the name).

    If my understanding is correct, PPJoy take signals coming into the parrallel port and allows you to Map them as controls. If that is the case, I was thinking of making a gameport to parallel port adapter out of 1 gameport and 1 parallel port extension cables. The idea would be to join the gameport female pins to 15 out of the 25 of the parallel pins (thus routing the gameport joystick's signal to the parallel port).

    My question is as follows: would PPJoy have the ability of recognizing and using the signal that would come out of such unholly union? I'm guessing it should be fine for button but what about for Axis signals?

    I have no clue what voltages/resistance they use in either Gameport and parallel port standard. Any chance that gameport signals being routed into a parallel port can cause damage to my rig?

    Thanks for your help,
    Monkey

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  27. Ok, so I've found a input/outpout diagrams for the pins of both

    LPT and Gameport

    pinouts.ru/Inputs/GameportPC_pinout.shtml

    and

    http://pinouts.ru/ParallelPorts/ParallelPC_pinout.shtml

    I see that a Gameport sends two streams of 5V to each joystick and receives a bunch of data signals from two distinct joysticks. Does LPT have any pins dedicated to sending a continuous voltage to the device? If not, how do you power LTP joysticks?

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  28. @monkeyman

    I didn't know that and I'm not a spammer. I was just trying to help people here, buddy.

    Anyway, thanks for the info about 4shared.

    C ya,
    Goro's Lair

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  29. anyone know if the code was released eventually?

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    Replies
    1. Yes it was
      http://www.4shared.com/zip/xaBqntQI/PPJoyOpenSource084.html

      If you can get the control panel app to build I will be forever in your debt.

      Delete
  30. If there is anyone reading this and knows their way around visual studio, PLEASE can you take up the gauntlet and build a copy of ppjoy from the source and get it working. I have not the time to learn C++ to do this but it would be a great benefit. The source is here:
    http://www.4shared.com/zip/SDK-nJLI/PPJoyOpenSource084_RENAME_.html

    I've been trying to get a build with a VID other than DEAD, but I can't get the control panel applet to work.

    PLEASE help

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    Replies
    1. I've been working on this as a side/hobby project since he released the source code. It has been a few months since I touched it, but as I recall I had successfully compiled the projects in C++. I getting some error the actual driver or installer or something, maybe trying to get it to work on x64, but I can't remember now. I will start looking at it again and post back here once I solve it.

      Delete
    2. I've gotten the control panel app to build, but when it executes, nothing happens (no errors, just nothing pops up). This is probably because of the way control panel applets changed with Windows 7 64 bit. I'm researching how to fix this one or build a new one now.

      Delete
    3. I do not take any credit for this, just something I found on the internet that 1) fixes the control panel (still cannot get the compiled one to run on win 7 x64) and 2) it fixes your VID thing.


      http://www.mediafire.com/?1g2a71cygydq84o

      Delete
  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  32. Is there any live links? Or project is dead?

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    Replies
    1. The link to the source has been published in previous comments. As of right now you need to compile it yourself and either fix the cpl problem or get a cpl file froman older version (there's a link to one that has a low VID in previous comments too).

      It's all GPL so have at it. I may setup a sourceforge account myself in the future for it as well.

      Delete
  33. It is now on github, so that's probably gonna be the best place for future development:

    https://github.com/elitak/PPJoy

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  34. Guys, be very careful with the links to various PPJoy binaries / installers above. I checked them with 42 virus scanners at VirusTotal.com and most of them have viruses and Trojans.

    The cleanest one I found was an older but still quite recent version at http://vt.beckament.net/ . There is a separately downloadable PPJoyJoy utility as well.

    Good luck!

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    Replies
    1. The virustotal scans I've seen so far all point to false positives, these generic trojan etc tend to be like that, none of the major commercial antivirus providers detect anything (sure, viruses are tested against them first but still, none of the detections look like genuine infections, just false positives). Google is showing this site ppjoy.bossstation.dnsalias.org/ as a download location and the file's virustotal result only has 2 false positive detections from versions of free antivirus tools designed to make people buy them.

      TL;DR: They're all probably very safe and the people on this blog have the highest chance of having the actual unmodified releases as they're serious enough to follow the source.

      Delete
  35. how to configure mouse as steering wheel using PPJoy? for the game bus and cable car simulator:San Francisco

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  36. Какой официальный сайт программы PPJoy ?

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  37. I know that it has been over 2 years since you made this post. Wanted to say I have been using your PPJoy package since 2005. I also wanted to say thank you for making such a great package. I did a search on sourceforge today hoping to find the most current sources and couldn't find ppjoy up there. Just wanted to find out if your sources ever did make it to sourceforge or not. Also hope you are doing well.

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  38. I basically installed vJoy device tool(http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/site/),which is an alternative to PPJoy,but unfortunately,it's not compatible with PPJoy so much that PPJoy driver can't never be installed after the moment of vJoy's installation moment!!!
    even avter uninstalling vJoy,and reinstalling PPJoy as well,it can't be installed again,unless i reinstall the whole windows 7 OS!!!(and that's something i can't do)
    I discovered that vJoy is so bad that it requires programming skills to develop a feeder for its Axises,unlike PPJoy that is easily configurable via its build-in tools,and GlovePie.
    Any help is much appreciated,waiting for your replies.
    Thank you.

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  39. IMPORTANT INFO
    =============

    I just wanted to update this thread, as it seems reasonably active and highly ranked in google.

    With the above negative comments about vJoy (http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/), I feel I need to clarify the situation.

    vJoy is semi-compatible with PPJoy at an API level AFAIK, do not expect PPJoy interfaces to work with vJoy.

    However, WE HAVE JUST BOUGHT A DRIVER SIGNING CERTIFICATE FOR VJOY.
    A new, signed version will be out soon. No more test mode.

    Regarding replacing the glovePIE component...

    You can code in many languages to drive vJoy. Many languages (eg C#) are maybe a bit beyond the average user, but there is an AutoHotkey library (http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/87690-using-ahk-to-control-vjoy), and that is very easy to pick up, plus can also send keyboard commands etc very easily.

    If you do not want to code, but just want to adjust joystick functions (invert axes, set deadzones or sensitivity, or other funky stuff like merge two racing pedals into one virtual rudder), you can use my app UJR - Universal Joystick Remapper (http://evilc.com/proj/ujr), which is written using AutoHotkey.

    It is entirely possible that apps like GlovePIE could be gotten to work with vJoy, so this could come in the future.

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  40. GlovePIE needed though then it works cooool

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  41. I'm rather late to the party here but just wanted to say thanks for doing such an amazing job with PPJoy.

    Regarding funding, have you considered just putting up a bitcoin address people can send you some money to, this is exactly what bitcoin is designed for and will take you less than 5 minutes to do.

    If you've not already got one, blockchain.info is a great place to start to grab a wallet, or you can put a wallet on your phone with tapping in www.autofwd.com/bitcoin and then just put your deposit/tip address up there.

    You can exchange bitcoin back to your local currency at many exchanges around the world.

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  42. I am not sure if you are still responding to your messages, but I would like to ask if you could send me your source code of PPjoy, last released version and the last stable release that worked on Win98? I would like to get hosting for its legacy to continue. I ordered me some 9pin serial ports and I wanted to see if I can get anything to work. I already have some ideas. Thank you again for all your years of service.

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  43. Thanks for sharing a great article.
    You are providing wonderful information, it is very useful to us.
    Keep posting like this informative articles.
    Thank you.

    Get to know about facebook

    ReplyDelete
  44. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  45. First of all, thank you very much for your work.
    I am a quadriplegic and have been using ppjoy since 2018 along with the freetrack program, a Wii remote and a cap with 3 LEDs to play various car simulators.
    But today there are already several games that do not allow me to play with Windows in trial mode, and I am worried because soon I will no longer be able to play if this continues.

    Is there no way to buy the certificate to be able to play without trial mode? Because I would be happy to put money.

    I know that I have other possibilities such as opentrack, trackir and some others, but there is none that works like Freetrack, it has a fluidity of up to 100 frames and it is also the only one that works more than one and a half meters

    Please continue with the project? Greetings and thanks

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