U360 analog/49 way joystick problem

[mdoggie]

Hi guys, just started playing around with my new pair of u360 joysticks, and I'm having some issues with MAME. I'm running a Mame cabinet rig on win7 64-bit, and I've read I should not use any sort of calibration software as the joysticks self-calibrate. Neither of my joysticks are using a restrictor plate, and are using the stock springs. My problem comes from some MAME games not working very well/consistently that are either analog or 49 way. They just don't always move in the direction they are supposed to.

The biggest culprits are star wars and food fight. Food fight especially is impossible to play; in one direction, it seems like my guy won't move consistently to it. This was one of the main games I bought these joysticks for, so I'm somewhat disappointed that its not working terribly well for it. In the ultramap software, I notice that if I gently move the joystick in a straight line, it'll hit all the corners completely. However, if I make a harder, jerkier movement to it, the same direction will only go about 3/4ths of the way to it. A circular movement of the joystick, too, seems to not hit the corners, either. Back to food fight, just like the ultramap software, I can move in any direction I want if I gently go in a straight direction with the joystick, but playing a normal game where I move the joystick in all directions with jerkier motions, it'll sometimes not go in the direction I want my guy to go in.

Anyone experience the same issues as me? What's the best solution to my problems here?

Oh, and obviously, thanks for this forum. Even though I've only been posting here since I've redone my mame cabinet, this forum has been a constant source of help for many months for me. It helped tremendously with answers on control board layout, i-pac wiring, and purchasing suggestions.

[Bender]

First make sure you don't have a restrictor selected in UltraMap under the options menu
are you using any mapping software like ledblinky?
Do you have mame set for automapping in the mame.ini file?
you can load a custom # for the U360 in ultramap sounds like the # is too low, if you have it in analog mode you should be able to hit all the corners when you move the stick in a circle
The biggest problem I found was with the deadzone in mame again under the mame.ini file set it to 0 and see if that makes a difference also
while in game hit tab and go to analog input and you can adjust settings there, I find that each analog and 49-way game need to be individually tweaked
last but not least star wars needs to be calibrated in game every time you play it by circling the outside of the screen during the level select screen

[mdoggie]

Thanks for the input. I've tried with and without LED Blinky for other games, and most seem to work fine if emulating digital. Qbert, for example, acts appropriately. What number should I try adjusting in ultramap's analog mapping? The deadzone?

I've set it to no restrictor plate in ultramap, and still... BOTH of my joysticks aren't hitting the corners if I circle them. They act like a few corners get almost all the way, and one of the corners seems to get somewhere between half and 3/4ths of the way. In mame, I've manually set the sensitivity in the analog controls menu, and that didn't seem to matter too much. Is this the correct adjustments I should be making in mame?

[Bender]

the mame deadzone should be set to zero "0" I'd do that anyway because the rest of the u360 maps have a deadzone built in so you don't need any through mame

the custom map info is here at the bottom of the page
 
http://ultimarc.com/UltraMap_ChangeLog.htm

I think you need a slightly smaller # somewhere between 9 and 16, actually just try selecting one of the standard restrictor plates (=custom#9) and that should definetly let you hit the corners then go up from thre till you get to a # that just lets you hit the corners

you should get the U360 to hit the corners in Ultrmap before adjusting any of the analog sensitivity settings in Mame

[mdoggie]

Great diagnosis, sir, this fixed my problem completely. Its weird that both joysticks needed a different number, but its good to know both are hitting the corners perfectly now. Thanks very much.

Now off to see whether led blinky or mame's automapping is preferred.

[Bender]

No Problem

As far as the mapping goes
first thing to think about is you want to use any other emulators, if so LEBlinky is the way to go
are you going to be making custom maps, if so UltraMap is easier than Mame to do that, so again LEDBlinky is the the way to go

if you are not doing either of those things then the Mame Automapping is the easiest way to go

just out of curiosity what custom #'s did you end up with?

[mdoggie]

To be honest, I just used the pre-made settings in the restrictor plate option in ultramap. Circular was getting closer, but it seemed to work best at 4/8 way. From there, I can just tone down the analog sensitivity in each MAME game. That seems to be doing great.

I've been messing with LED Blinky, but I'm not sure if there's a way to tell if its working to auto set the joystick maps. Tron, for example, will still hit the diagonals unless I specifically put a pre-made tron .ini in there. I'm also using hyperspin, and I'm not sure if that's causing an issue.

I've made an ini folder in MAME, and changed the joystick map thingy to -joystick_map 7777 whatever it was. Then, in LED Blinky, I'm pretty sure I've set the directories correctly, and told it I have a u360. Is there a good game to test out whether its setting the maps properly?

[secret80sman]

Bender, this is all really useful information. Can you tell me how much better is using the Ultimarc software versus using maps from MAMEJoymap and dropping them into the ini folder?

Also, I never heard of auto joystick mapping in MAME, how is that accomplished? I use MAMEUI in windows 7 64 bit in case that is a factor in any of this.

Thanks man!

[Bender]

To be honest, I just used the pre-made settings in the restrictor plate option in ultramap. Circular was getting closer, but it seemed to work best at 4/8 way. From there, I can just tone down the analog sensitivity in each MAME game. That seems to be doing great.

I've been messing with LED Blinky, but I'm not sure if there's a way to tell if its working to auto set the joystick maps. Tron, for example, will still hit the diagonals unless I specifically put a pre-made tron .ini in there. I'm also using hyperspin, and I'm not sure if that's causing an issue.

I've made an ini folder in MAME, and changed the joystick map thingy to -joystick_map 7777 whatever it was. Then, in LED Blinky, I'm pretty sure I've set the directories correctly, and told it I have a u360. Is there a good game to test out whether its setting the maps properly?

Make sure you set the right restrictor in LEDblinky too

I alway check out qbert first cause it's easy to tell if the right map is installed
also Ledblinky has a debuglog that you can enable and look at to see if it loading the correct maps
also in the LEDBlinky config utility you have to pull up mame then put set it up to load the specific map for tron, that has harder to hit diagonals (you still need diagonals for the cone and spider boards)
I think LedBlinky comes with that map

[Bender]

Bender, this is all really useful information. Can you tell me how much better is using the Ultimarc software versus using maps from MAMEJoymap and dropping them into the ini folder?

Also, I never heard of auto joystick mapping in MAME, how is that accomplished? I use MAMEUI in windows 7 64 bit in case that is a factor in any of this.

Thanks man!

I'm not sure when it was implemented, but it was a while ago, so as long as you have a newish version of mame it has it's own mapping program for analog sticks very similar to the ultramap ones, you just enable it in the mame.ini file
there is more info in this threadhttp://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=86274.0

[arzoo]

I've been messing with LED Blinky, but I'm not sure if there's a way to tell if its working to auto set the joystick maps.

Here's another way to check if the u360 maps are set as expected: start up the Windows Game Controllers dialog before starting the FE, then while playing a game, alt-tab over to the game controller app and check how the stick is responding. You can also do this when the FE is active in which case LEDBlinky sets the map to 4-way (by default).