identical peripherals in unRAID


Recommended Posts

Hi

 

I currently have a dual joystick setup (for space sims etc.), but I want to try to get my dad to play some normal flight sims with me.

My setup has pretty much enough hardware to run 2 normal systems (2 monitors, 2 GPU's and a i7 4790k), the only problem is it's just one system. I startled looking around on the internet and I had seen Linus' "2 gamers one CPU" video before so I thought I'd check out how he did it.

 

Everything seemed OK for me to go ahead and setup unRAID, I have (powerful) enough hardware to do so. Until he mentioned you can't use 2 identical peripherals in 2 separate VM's... My plan was to have each VM equipped with one joystick so he and I could both fly at the same time. But apparently this isn't possible. Is there any workaround for this (and does this even apply to joysticks or only to mice and kb's? (I would assume it does, but still...)) ?

 

bonus question: I use a Sony PS3 Eye for cheap DIY headtracking, if I were to connect 2 of them to the system would it work?

 

Thanks.

Link to comment

It should work ok if each VM has it's own USB controller to work with. I think the bigger issue is whether or not your motherboard and CPU can correctly separate all the resources to handle 2 simultaneous VM's. I'd see if you can find anyone using your specific motherboard and GPU's in that configuration. Basically 1 VM with passthrough is relatively easy. 2 VM's each with their own passed through resources is much pickier with what hardware it works with.

 

BTW, this is the general support section, there is an entire category just for VM stuff, better to ask specific questions there.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?board=60.0

Link to comment

A quick Google search on my motherboard and unRAID support didn't yield any interesting results other than the MSI support page (lol). I guess I'll just have to try and see if it works? Also can you clarify "if each VM has it's own USB controller to work with", what usb controller are we talking about?

 

Edit: I guess we are talking about this: https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=36768.0.

How do I know how much usb controllers my motherboard has without having a working VM installed?

 

Edit 2: I looked through the manual of my motherboard (MSI Z97 GAMING 9 AC) and have determined I should have plenty usb controllers.

 

Thanks for moving the post btw, I am unfamiliar with this forum...

Link to comment

Your post struck a chord with me because being able being able to play video games with my father is what sent me down this rabbit hole as well.  I recently got my setup working pretty well and I think I'm starting to get a handle on some of this stuff.  If you want, shoot me a PM and I'll send you my email and we can collaborate on some of this stuff off board.

Link to comment

If you have 2 identical items that you want to pass through it is possible.

As jonathanm mentioned you can pass through a USB controller to one VM.

This USB controller will be stubbed and therefore will not be seen by the host system. So any USB devices plugged into it will not show up to be assigned as a normal USB device. But any device you plug into that stubbed controller will pass through to the VM for which you assigned that controller

 

Now you could pass through 2 USB controllers one to each VM. This would be nice as then you can just plug whatever device you want into it and be able to hot swap USB as in a 'normal' computer.

 

But you may not have 2 controllers that you can pass through. So in that case, you would pass through one usb controller to the first VM. That controller would have one of the joysticks plugged into it.

 

The other VM you could just assign the other joystick as a normal USB device, as to unRAID it would only be seeing that one as the other is in the stubbed controller. So therefore would not be duplicate devices.

Hope that makes sense

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.