I'm excited to see this, despite never having played a game on my mac at all. Hoping the experience at least matches that of the xbox version.
On a related note - anyone with experience using Steering Wheels on a mac? Any recommendations?
I have experience with racing wheels on Mac. I developed the Game "
Auto Sport Driving" for OSX (Sorry for the plug but it needs all the help it can get!). You can find all of this same information on my games official site in the
Support section. Hope this reply sheds some light on this subject for you. I have been a sim racer since the early 90's and have been using Macs since then also. That is what prompted me to develop my own racing sim for Mac. Also Feral Interactive is, BY FAR, my favorite Mac game developer and port company. They make games VERY Mac friendly and always go the extra mile to make sure the game is fit for Mac players. Just try Dirt 2. They did a fantastic job getting that to play very well on OSX and is just as much fun as the PC version. I think you will find that F1 2012, when finished, will be everything a Mac racer could hope for.
STEERING WHEELS IN OSX
On to steering wheels in OSX. First, a note about Lion and Mountain Lion. Apple omitted the Logitech FFB kext in 10.7 and 10.8 for some unknown reason thus rendering the only wheels capable of real FFB in OSX a bit handicapped. The good news is that it can be re-installed into Lion or Mountain Lion. I will explain later how to do this.
OK, now on to the wheels themselves.....
1.
Logitech Momo Racing - Works perfectly out of the box. FFB is good but remember, if you are running 10.7 or 10.8 you need to install the Logitech FFB kext. Shifter works and all 6 buttons on the wheel work correctly.
2.
Logitech Driving Force Pro - Works great, but some of the features do not work. FFB is good but remember, if you are running 10.7 or 10.8 you need to install the Logitech FFB kext. Shifter works along with most of the buttons. Some of the PS3 GT features do not work.
3.
Logitech G25/27 - Best wheel for Mac in my opinion. FFB is great but remember, if you are running 10.7 or 10.8 you need to install the Logitech FFB kext. Paddle shifters work fine, but the Gated (H) Shifter does not work. The 6 buttons on the wheel itself are a little strange. All 3 left-side buttons work as 1 button while all 3 right side buttons work as 1 button. So on the wheel, you can only map 2 buttons.
4.
Thrustmaster F430 Wheel - Wheel works well, but since it is not a Logitech wheel, it does not have FFB which is a huge limitation. But the wheel does work along with most of the buttons. The paddle shifters work also.
5.
Thrustmaster Wireless F430 Cockpit - Wheel works well, but no FFB which is a huge limitation. But the wheel does work along with most of the buttons. The paddle shifters work also. Works about as well as the standalone F430 USB wheel listed above.
6.
Fanatec CSW - Wheel works, but since it is not a Logitech wheel, it does not have FFB which is a huge limitation. But the wheel does work along with most of the buttons. The paddle shifters work also. Has centering tension when FFB is turned on.
FFB IN OSX (10.7 and 10.8)
Now on to how to get FFB with Logitech wheels in OSX. Remember, only Logitech wheels will have usable FFB and in order to use it you need to install this kext if you are running 10.7 or 10.8. If you are still using 10.6, the kext is already in the OS.
These Logitech wheels are successful in providing FFB in OSX;
Logitech Momo Racing
Logitech Driving Force Pro
Logitech G25
Logitech G27
Instructions
1. First you need a kext installer. Email me autosportdriving at siniscope dot com for one.
2. Take a copy of the Logitech FFB kext (LogitechForceFeedback.kext) from 10.6 (
or get it here) and copy it to your desktop in Lion.
3. Open the kext utility and drag the logitech ffb kext into it, type your password and install.
4. You may get a message saying that it looks like it installed fine and to reboot.
5. Before you reboot, close the kext installation utility. You may have to force quit the utility as it is made for previous versions of OSX and does not work perfectly. If you do not quit the app first, when you reboot, the file may delete itself as OSX always tries to fix any conflicts when shutting down and when starting up.
6. Once it has closed, restart.
7. Check to make sure the file "LogitechForceFeedback.kext" has been added to your extensions library at /system/library/extensions.
8. Once this is confirmed, you should now be able to use your Logitech FFB peripherals again.
SETTING UP YOUR WHEELS IN OSX
Now, here's how to get the most out of your wheel in OSX for racing games like F1 2012 and, of course, my game, Auto Sport Driving...
1. Unplug your wheel while the computer is off and make sure you only have 1 USB controller/wheel plugged in (OSX does not like more than 1 device for a game at once)
2. Turn on your computer
3. When the computer has started and you are at your desktop, plug the USB wheel into your Mac
4. The wheel will calibrate (Logitech Wheels were tested)
5. Start whatever racing game you wish and have fun. If you are playing my game you can go to the official site and see exactly how to calibrate the wheels for that specific game.
Thank You for reading, Jason Frabotta