Aim Trak and House of the Dead 3

[Deadly]

I used to have a pair of Act LAbs that required the Troubleshooter software to work properly with Game like House of the dead (the whole series) and Virtua Cop.
I finally finished up my Aim Trak guns last night and decided to give them a test drive. Flashed the firmware and calibrated them. Without the Troubleshooter software the guns won't work in the game. Why? Good question. Because the game uses Keyboard or Gamepad by default. Yes a person could program the guns as GP1-4 but then what happens to MAME? I don't want to deal with switching back and forth and I didn;t have to when I used my Act Labs guns.
So I used the HOTD3 control settings as keyboards, enabled the Troubleshooter software and by selecting the option for Two Act Labs TV guns both guns kind of work.
Kind of means P1 works fine until P2 runs out of ammo. P2 causes P1 to reload. When this happens it interrupts P1's ability to keep shooting. Randomely P1 gun stops working and if you unplug and plug back in it works. Someone here on this site mentioned experiencing the random issues of this as well. 

I've seen this exact issue before with my Act Labs guns. This meant the guns weren't properly set (switch on the side of the gun that determines which gun is P1 or P2) If P2's switch was set as P1 this exact issue would happen.

So what's the trick to getting the PC version of House of the Dead series to work with Aim Traks?

[Ragtag83]

I am clueless on what's going on with your guns but did want to inform you that the AimTraks do work great in HOD2 and 3.  With both set to keyboard use, the Troubleshooter set to dual PC guns (if I remember right the guns should pop in that menu to choose which is one and two, I think) and I also used xpadder to map reload and menu keys to my guns.  For some reason the Troubleshooter never seems to start working for me on first install until I am beyond pissed and who knows how many restarts that it will out of the blue start working. Still confused by it, but in the end it's worth it.  Good luck on getting yours to work!

[Cananas]

Without the Troubleshooter software the guns won't work in the game. Why? Good question. Because the game uses Keyboard or Gamepad by default. Yes a person could program the guns as GP1-4 but then what happens to MAME? I don't want to deal with switching back and forth and I didn;t have to when I used my Act Labs guns.

You don't need to remap nothing. If you want to play HOD series without troubleshooter, you must configure each hod game to use mouse. The aimtrak works like a mouse, so it will work, BUT, you can not use two gun for two players game.

To play with two guns with Hod games you must use the trouble shooter with keyboard by default, not matter wich pc guns you have.

If you want a perfect compatibility beetwen troubleshooter and MAME, I recommend you that remap in the Aimtrak program the shot off screen to Mouse button2, and change in mame.ini:

Code: [Select]

#
# CORE INPUT OPTIONS
#
lightgun                  1
multimouse                1
offscreen_reload          1
#
# CORE INPUT AUTOMATIC ENABLE OPTIONS
#
lightgun_device           lightgun


So I used the HOTD3 control settings as keyboards, enabled the Troubleshooter software and by selecting the option for Two Act Labs TV guns both guns kind of work.

Your mistake is that you select Act Lab TV guns. You need to select PC USB ActLabs gun. You will have two. Select a diferents PC USB Actlabs gun for each player.

Act Labs TV guns uses only one mouse to work with two players, with mouse button 1 and 2 for player 1 and mouse button 3 and 4 for player 2.
PC Act Labs USB use on mouse for each player.

[Deadly]

Had some time last night to continue trouble shooting.
Oddly enough I ended up using settings I tried that originally failed. The only difference is out of desperation I tried reassigning the devices as 2&3 instead of 1 &2. I reassigned them back to Device 1 and Device 2 and changed the Troubleshooter back to TWO ACT LABS PC USB and then selecting UHID device 1 and UHID device 2. Magically everything works which before it didn't .... ugh ........ anyway they work that's all that matters I guess heh.

Now to figure out why P1 stops working randomely. Out of pure desperation I tried reassigning Device 2 to Device 1 and Device one to Device 2. The problem always follows Device 1.
Another oddity is I load straight into Hyperspin. When the guns are plugged in the menu is slowed down and for the first time last night it completely disabled my IPAC4???
Using the gun buttons I was able to scroll throught the games. I ended up manually powering down my cab and bringing it back up and my IPAC4 was alive again.
I've never had any issues with my IPAC4. The guns are plugged in to the system board not a USB hub ... strange. Going to drop Andy an email this morning and ask him for advice on this issue.

[TeutonicDarkness]

 I understand your problem exactly.. ( previously used Act Labs ).
Your problem lies in a device ID changing for whatever reason?

 I have a 2 computer setup and use a KVM switch that toggles between the
2 computers by the scroll lock key. I finally figured out if I wanted the MAME PC
light guns to work properly I could not switch to the second PC.
When I switched back it was re detecting my usb mouse and keyboard
which obviously changed the ideas around.

Your problem is similar you just need to isolate what is causing it!

When I want to use my Light guns I don't add anything usb or take anything
away. I have never had anymore problems at all once I realize this simple concept!


I play House of the Dead 1 -2 all the time with my Aimtracks..
Using the Trouble shooter APP
no problem their or with MAME.

It works flawlessly! 



   

[ant2]

i didnt realise that troubleshooter application works with the aimtrak as well..

so ive installed trouble shooter, went in to the hotd2 configuration changed to keyboard/keyboard
selected dual usb guns.
selected usb human interface1 and then 2 for player 2
started game, player 1 works fine, but player 2 does not do anything...
tried changing the buttons for player 2 to make trigger= left mouse and aux = reload
but still doesnt work..
can anyone point me to a wiki or something

hotd doesnt work in mame for me, because the sega model 2 emulator, doesnt work on my pc.. so that's why im using the pc versions..

also another questions, virtua  cop1+2, if i use the mouse everything is fine, but when i try and use the gun the cursor flies all over the screen.. really weird, works fine in hotd2

[Cananas]

Both guns must be mapped like this:

Trigger OnScreen = Mouse Left
Trigger OffScreen = Mouse Rigth
Aux OnScreen = Mouse Rigth


In troubleshooter, select Dual ActLabs PC Usb Lightguns (NOT Dual ActLabs TV Usb Lightguns).
Select usb human interface (maybe a little bit of try&error here, to know which is gun1 and gun2)
Be sure that hod2 is configured to use default keyboard/keyboard.
Verify that hod2 is activated in trobuleshooter.

It must work.

[ant2]

Thanks for your reply cananas! I can now play 2 player

Just to note for any future viewers of this thread
troubleshooter =  http://thetroubleshooter.home.mindspring.com/

If you are using game ex and you boot straight in to the front end (i.e windows doesn't the explorer.exe shell first) more info on how to do this here - http://www.gameex.net/Community/InstantSheller/tabid/73/Default.aspx

Then you need to write a simple script to launch explorer.exe from within gameex, the trouble shooter app seems to rely on explorer being loaded, So I wrote a simple batch file i.e
"enableguns.bat"
that consists of the following
start \B c:\windows\explorer.exe &
exit

Then within game ex, set up an external application "enableguns" to launch that .bat file, so if you want to play any pc games via game ex and you want the troubleshooter app to still work - i.e hotd1-3 + virtuacop1/2, then just just go to more games -> enablegun - this launches explorer and goes back in to game ex, then select the game!