Sega Model 2 Emulator Full Screen Shooter fix - RamjetM2Borderless - App

[Howard_Casto]

Ok added in the persistent code and it does seem to cut down on the overhead somewhat. 

I also did some minor hex snooping which lead me to fix the p2 y axis issue in Behind Enemy Lines it was the 5th, count em, 5th address in memory that allocates a buffer for the y axis that I needed to NOP. 

The fact that there are so many different locations in memory that do the exact same thing seriously confuses me.  Why would joystick/mouse allocation be done differently for different games?

Anyway I think aside from not finding the crosshairs that's the last of the functional issues that were left unresolved, so that's good. 

[Howard_Casto]

I found a nice little timesaver. 

I mentioned that I had to re-calculate the NOPs because the offsets are different depending upon the exe.  Well apparently the magic offset is 7b0, that is the difference in the offsets between the 32 bit exe and the 64bit one.  So all the 64 bit optimizations must occur at the beginning of the exe.  Now this is what I expected, but I don't know a lot about modern compiling techniques, so I wasn't sure.  This means that a task that could have taken me hours should now only take a few minutes. 

Gonna go do that now and then I'm done for the morning. 

[mike boss]

Pardon my ignorance,

so when all is said and done this will work in connection with most any light-gun's including Aim Trak guns ? And it will be made available here for download ?

[Howard_Casto]

yup

[mike boss]

Thanks Howard_Casto ,

You do a ton for this arcade world !
Keep up the awesome work !

Same to RamJet, thanks!

Looking forward to this.
Cant wait to have a kick --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- cabinet with some awesome (flawless working) gun support !

[Howard_Casto]

Did some work with the sega vs billboard for the fighting games. 

I found the data at 0x559CA8, which is the standard location, but I can't figure it out, so somebody with a bit more experience is going to have to look at it.  It is indeed multi-plexed and it does throw the winner lamps into the same byte that controls the 7 segment display. 

In the test menu, the p1 winner lamp shoots out a value of 144 and the p2 lamp a value of 152 but these are NOT the bitmask values... they can't be because they aren't powers of 2.  So there is an address register in there somewhere and then the value.  My guess would be the registers are a low value, like 4 or 8 and then the rest of the number is the 7 seg code.  Maybe a look at some 7 segment displays in mame would help, I dunno. 

[Howard_Casto]

I thought I might add the ability to close the emulator with some optional exit keys so I went ahead and put that in.  Every single pc game as well as m2 exit with the press of alt+f4, so that makes things easy. 

I thought about it though and I'm going to have to make a generic ini file for the rest of the model 2 games.  It'd be a pain in the butt to rig up an exit key solution for only the games that don't have outputs or guns. 

[Howard_Casto]

Well I started hooking up that elusive trigger/reload code. 

The good news is that it works.  The bad news is my bitmasking code is bad or something so I'm not sending the correct values.  It's getting late, so I'll look at it tomorrow. 

[Howard_Casto]

Well there are more issues with the reload code than I expected. 

After working on it all last night I determined that the "down" trick doesn't work as I thought it did.  I dunno why I was working before... maybe a combination of different NOPs I tried had disabled it or something, but it isn't working now. 

Now I did manage to use the reload info I had found previously to get vcop working, and it works just fine, but the other games don't.

So to clarify:

vcop 100% working
gunblade 100% working
rail chase 2 100% working

behind enemy lines - grenade button not working
vcop 2 - reload button not working
hotd - reload button not working.


It might be one of those deals like the axis, where there are multiple writes and I just have to find the correct one for each game.  Honestly I'm tired now though, so I'll work on it tomorrow. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok I'm starting to understand why vcop is a special case now.  It seems that all the lightgun games have an extra bit for reload. 

For vcop it's at +18F7BC and values are ADDED to a buffer for the reload signal... in other words it's 0 when nobody is reloading, 1 for p1 reload , 2 for p2 and 3 for both. 

For hotd it's at +18F7DC and the values are SUBTRACTED to a buffer for reload...  3 for no reload, 2 for p1, 1 for P2 and 0 for both. 


So yeah I figured out HOTD at least, and maybe the others work this way as well.  One thing is certain... the reload procedure is so complex for these m2 games (on top of this I have to freeze the keyboard input and simulate a trigger press to reload) that I'm going to have to hard-code some functions for them... which sucks because I wanted to keep things as generic as possible. 


**update**

I remembered that hotd and vcop2 have more similar hardware than the original vcop, so I looked and sure enough, the addresses for hotd work for vcop2 as well! 

So now all that's left is the annoying Behind Enemy Lines...  AGAIN
I'm actually busy this week so I'm not sure how much I'll get done.  I just worked on it a little tonight to make sure my original idea for reload wasn't a dead end. 

[RamjetR]

Ok I'm starting to understand why vcop is a special case now.  It seems that all the lightgun games have an extra bit for reload. 

For vcop it's at +18F7BC and values are ADDED to a buffer for the reload signal... in other words it's 0 when nobody is reloading, 1 for p1 reload , 2 for p2 and 3 for both. 

For hotd it's at +18F7DC and the values are SUBTRACTED to a buffer for reload...  3 for no reload, 2 for p1, 1 for P2 and 0 for both. 


So yeah I figured out HOTD at least, and maybe the others work this way as well.  One thing is certain... the reload procedure is so complex for these m2 games (on top of this I have to freeze the keyboard input and simulate a trigger press to reload) that I'm going to have to hard-code some functions for them... which sucks because I wanted to keep things as generic as possible. 


**update**

I remembered that hotd and vcop2 have more similar hardware than the original vcop, so I looked and sure enough, the addresses for hotd work for vcop2 as well! 

So now all that's left is the annoying Behind Enemy Lines...  AGAIN
I'm actually busy this week so I'm not sure how much I'll get done.  I just worked on it a little tonight to make sure my original idea for reload wasn't a dead end.

Dude, I don't know how to find so much time to get this far? I come off call tomorrow, so maybe I'll have some time to look at whats left over the weekend.

[Howard_Casto]

That'd be helpful, thanks. 

I looked at the original vcop and although it does use a different byte to actually write to the game, that first inverted byte is what gets passed to THAT byte.   So I can use the same code for all three lightgun games, which is awesome. 

Also I tried the keypress simulation method that is used for the pc games on model 2.... originally it hadn't worked, so I abandoned that idea but apparently it DOES work.  Maybe some bad code on my part initially?  It could have been a focus issue as well.  Unlike joystick input, m2 doesn't respond to keyboard input unless the window has focus. 

Well this simplifies things dramatically.  On all lightgun and analog gun games, P1 Button 1 is P1's fire button and P1 Button 2 is P2's fire button.  They are Z and X by default in M2 so I can probably remove most of my NOPs, which would have made it mandatory for me to handle all other keyboard input.  I just need to block the mouse, which I'm pretty sure I can do. 

Unfortunately BEL won't be effected by this as it's keyboard inputs aren't hooked up. 

So aside from it, which I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to write a convoluted custom function for, that should hopefully take care of the rest. 

[Howard_Casto]

Oh, one more thing before I forget. 

Can anyone confirm this for me.

I was playing around the other day and figured out a rather round-about way to block mouse input.  If I turn on raw input and have two mice hooked up I have to configure the mice to id #0 and id#2  id#1 doesn't do anything as as a consequence if I assign both players to id#1, I get two blocked mice. 

Now if I assign them to a crazy high number (I tried 8 and 9) it doesn't work, it blocks keyboard input as well.  I actually had to restart my pc on that little adventure. 


So I'm thinking the cleanest route might be to assign the mouse to an empty space and only use the reload code I found before. 

[vandale]

Oh, one more thing before I forget. 

Can anyone confirm this for me.

I was playing around the other day and figured out a rather round-about way to block mouse input.  If I turn on raw input and have two mice hooked up I have to configure the mice to id #0 and id#2  id#1 doesn't do anything as as a consequence if I assign both players to id#1, I get two blocked mice. 

Now if I assign them to a crazy high number (I tried 8 and 9) it doesn't work, it blocks keyboard input as well.  I actually had to restart my pc on that little adventure. 


So I'm thinking the cleanest route might be to assign the mouse to an empty space and only use the reload code I found before.

Doesnt it depend on what ID has been assigned to each device in windows meaning it can vary from PC to PC, ie my mac is 1 and 4 but my pc is 1 and 3.

[isamu]

Howard just to clarify, is this El Semi's Model 2 Emulator you guys are referring to? If so, do you have the source code for it? If so does that mean we could possibly see further improvements to the emu?

One bug in particular I'd like to point out is the emu crashing when you have more than 3 USB devices connected to your PC and you enter the controls config menu. As soon as you click on any of the analog settings the emu crashes.

[Howard_Casto]

vandale:  Most likely.  Don't compare Macs and Pcs though... Macs are wierd. 

isamu:  Yes that's what we are referring to, but I do NOT have the source code.  If I did I could have added these additions in like an hour. 


Anyway, I woke up eraly this morning (bah! I need to sleep!) and thought I would implement my mice enumeration function for that little rawmouse app I posted a week or so ago.  The good news is the enumeration numbers of the mice are in the same order as model2 detects them!  With that knowledge in mind here is the revised plan of attack for the lightgun games:

1.  You setup in the troubleshooter if you'll be using mice (or lightgun's that show up as mice) or joysticks.

2.  If you are using joysticks, prior to m2 launching, the ts writes to the emulator.ini and sets rawinput to 0, if you are using mice, it sets rawinput to 1 and sets the RawDeviceP1 and P2 in the ini to the devices you have defined in the troublshooter. 

3.  Instead of ts getting launched automatically via lua scripts, we do it the other way around, ts now launches m2. 

So basically what will happen in lamens terms is if you are using a joystick device, I'll use my reload NOPs and you'll map your joystick buttons of choice in Model2.  If you are using mice, I won't use any code, instead just letting m2 read the mice buttons as normal.  In either case I'll block out the axis movement and handle it myself. 

In other words, it's merely the axis movement in m2 that's broken, so instead of pulling my hair out trying to include triggers as well, why not just let m2 handle them normally?  The only catch will be that you can't mix and match devices.  You can use either mice-based devices or joystick ones, not one of each.

This will cover every game but bel, and honestly I've accepted the fact that it will need a convoluted custom function anyway.  Also it was mentioned in another thread that Virtua ON has screwed up controls.  It will take another custom function, but if it's fixable I'll do that one as well. 

[mike boss]

Keep up the awesome work guys.
I look forward to getting the completed project installed.

[Howard_Casto]

I gotta go in a few minutes, but I thought I would fire up Virtua ON and look at my cheat engine file with it running to try and track down the problem. 

Seems to be a coding error... there are two banks for the inputs on the game, one for the left stick in the usual place, and another for the right one byte over.  There's an error where only one bank can be written to at a time, thus why both sticks can't be pressed together.  It might be fixed via new code so somebody more talented than me might want to check it out. 

The area in memory (on multi cpu) is 58f91e for the right stick's bank, and 58f91d for the left (which also houses stuff like the coin/start/and menu buttons).  A single NOP located at +B75CF disables both.

When I NOP the location mentioned and manually adjust the banks I CAN get both sticks to work at the same time, so regardless of the approach it is fixable. 

[Howard_Casto]

Worked a little more on things tonight. 

Gunblade is my goto test game, so I tried the new theory about simply letting m2 handle the inputs.  Seems to work fine.  What I did was revert the inputs in m2 to their default,  Z for p1 button 1 and X for p1 Button 2 (which is actually p2 button 1 in the gun games) I then used the troubleshooter in joystick mode and assigned the triggers on that end to the first button of the joystick.  When running, troubleshooter just simulates pressing the Z key and that works just fine.  I then went on to try the game in mouse mode.  Now TS still sends the Z key, but it doesn't interfere with the pressing of the mouse buttons, so no need for a special case. 

Anyway, I'll keep working on it. 

Also somewhere along the line, my NOPs for rail chase 2 got screwed up....  It probably happened when I was trying to get BEL working as I kept copying and pasting back and forth in the ini files to try different addresses.  It's fixable, but that's annoying because now I'll have to go back and try them all again, which will take the better part of an afternoon. 

So hopefully if I spend this weekend getting my ducks in a row with the ini files and writing the special reload function for the lightgun games, I'll be ready at least for an alpha release, soon. 

[Howard_Casto]

Thought I'd take a little break from the m2 end of things again and do some finishing touches on the pc games. 

Installed a pc version of VCop (which sucks) and played around with it to get the double reload function working. 

I honestly don't have a clue why it's setup that way. 


I want to go back to the pc stuff later on and make sure all menus are usable via the gun buttons, but for now, vcop was the last special case thing I had to deal with. 

[RamjetR]

Gunblade is my goto test game, so I tried the new theory about simply letting m2 handle the inputs.  Seems to work fine.  What I did was revert the inputs in m2 to their default,  Z for p1 button 1 and X for p1 Button 2 (which is actually p2 button 1 in the gun games) I then used the troubleshooter in joystick mode and assigned the triggers on that end to the first button of the joystick.  When running, troubleshooter just simulates pressing the Z key and that works just fine.  I then went on to try the game in mouse mode.  Now TS still sends the Z key, but it doesn't interfere with the pressing of the mouse buttons, so no need for a special case. 

Wicked... I had a good hunch that the keyboard binds would work... I was suprised when you initially said it didn't... There is so much nopping going on, it wouldn't take much to leave some test nops in and get false results... glad you decided to revisit it.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah it sure has simplified things.  Now if I could get that stupid Behind Enemy Lines to play ball.  The poor game must have been hacked to hell to get it running, because it seems like every function on it is a special case. 

Ok more good news to report.  I added a new "reload mode" option in the ini files.  If set to "VCOP" it does the double reload trick for the pc version, if set to "M2L" (model 2 lightgun) it checks to see if you are using joysticks and installs two NOPs for the reload button and installs the trigger keys if you are.  Tried it with m2's VCop and it works flawlessly for both players.  So FINALLY a fully working lightgun game.  The reload method is universal as well, so it will work, without modification for hotd and vcop2. 

If Set to "MLA"  (model 2 Analog) it will only install the key hooks as those are all that's needed for gunblade and rail chase. 

I'm off to modify hotd and vcop2 ini files to make sure it works.  Expect an update in about 5 minutes. 

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah the new reload code works for the other two games as well. 

Apparently I've forgotten to do the NOPs for the axis in vcop 2 though, so I'll have to fix those. 

So to update:

gunblade 100%
rail chase 2 100%
vcop 100%
vcop 2  needs axis fixed
hotd 100%
bel  needs triggers fixed

[Endprodukt]

Awesome, almost there. Will you release the ts when the guns are fully supported or will you implemented fixes for the outputs first? Thank you so much,again!

[Howard_Casto]

I'm not sure to be honest. 

I've got most of the outputs at least partially figured out, so most games have a output section, they just aren't necessarily working 100%.  I would hate to release it and then find out that one game's output requires a custom function, but then again, I need it out there pretty soon so people can test it. 

[Howard_Casto]

I went ahead and spent the morning finding the axis for vcop 2.... I haven't plugged them in yet, but there are working in the cheat engine, so we might as well check vcop 2 off the list


now it's just bel and gunblade (that was an error in my last progress report, it's axis are hosed as well). 

[BadMouth]

I'm not sure to be honest. 

I've got most of the outputs at least partially figured out, so most games have a output section, they just aren't necessarily working 100%.  I would hate to release it and then find out that one game's output requires a custom function, but then again, I need it out there pretty soon so people can test it.

Not that it isn't worth doing, but 99% of the users aren't going to utilize the outputs anyway.
IMO, get everything else working perfectly for the first release, then focus outputs for the next release.
Just my $.02

[Endprodukt]

Just my thought. This way we can test everything lightgun related on our systems and report if something is not working while you can focus on the outputs!

[yakk11]

Hey guys, thanks for all of your hard work! 

I have installed this application in the folders needed, but am not able to do an off screen reload.  When i minimize the emulator, I can see the icon of the game in the taskbar.  Am I missing something?  I'm using an Aimtrak...

Can't wait for the 2 player hack!   

[Howard_Casto]

You'd have to ask ramjet... the osr app is his. 

Ok I got rail chase fixed, so that just leaves bel. 

Also a note to myself, I need to re-calculate the single cpu addresses to vcop2. 


So that just leaves VON, which isn't terribly complicated, I just need to write a custom function, and BEL, which well I'm about to hunt down the people that made this game and strangle them in their sleep. 

[RamjetR]

Hey guys, thanks for all of your hard work! 

I have installed this application in the folders needed, but am not able to do an off screen reload.  When i minimize the emulator, I can see the icon of the game in the taskbar.  Am I missing something?  I'm using an Aimtrak...

Can't wait for the 2 player hack!   

Hi,

So long as you downloaded it as a ZIP (from the File>Download selection on the page from google) and extracted it into the main folder. Then all the scripts and logo's should have gone into the right places on their own.

If the Icon show's the correct game when you've launched the emulator then it should have worked. Does it remove the min,max,close buttons around the screen? if so then it has done it's job.

I don't know if the reload function only worked when it is fullscreen? can anyone confirm this with a lightgun? I had some people in the forum test this for me as I don't have one or two of them yet. Oh perhaps check your aimtrak settings? isn't there an off screen reload funtion in their software? like a Right Click or something?

I'm considering a better file hosting. Google drive is good, but alot of people seem to miss the download button to get the whole zip as they think it's just files?

[BadMouth]

We've hijacked RamjetR's thread, but it's way to late to start a new one.  All the info is here. 

Didn't see anyone else working on a logo for Troubleshooter 2 and felt like giving it a try.
The site I got the gun from says everything is public domain (even though it's user uploaded).
This is a first draft.  I should probably do something different with the 2.

Thoughts?

EDIT: added another version
double edit....slightly tweaked 2nd one to center things better

[Howard_Casto]

I really like the second one. 

Maybe a faux chrome effect on the text to make it look cheesier, but I'd say that's perfect. 

Once I release this thing I'll start a new thread.  We've ruined this one. 

Except for those last two games it's mostly cleanup work at this point.  The user configuration menu is still non-existant, but it's gotten simplier as we've went on, so it was best to wait until last. 

I'm honestly not sure if we'll have a release this weekend or not.  I keep getting burnt out working on this, but I can't stand it when I've got an unfinished puzzle lying around, so I keep coming back to it. 

I"m going to go ahead and fix the addresses for vcop 2 before I forget about it, but I think that's it for today. 

[BadMouth]

It's a bit harder to read with the 90's style fake chrome.
The one in the first post is a slight gradient.
Maybe I can make it shinier somehow.

This is the extent of my ability to make fake chrome unless I find time to follow a tutorial.
I will gladly turn it over to someone who already has the skills.

Done for now. I need sleep.

[RamjetR]

We've hijacked RamjetR's thread, but it's way to late to start a new one.  All the info is here. 

I haven't minded... we've all had good input into it. Howard fortunately has a lot more windows programming skills and experience than I do. There was little point me pushing my program as without each others help, this would have taken alot longer. He deserves a name in the hall of fame of Arcadecontrols.com for his efforts to the community.

It's only a little over a year since I release the RamjetVR program which has till now been only Pacdrive compatible because I didn't have anything else to test with... and that was pretty much the start of a movement for Model 2 again. Everything I've done has been for the first time and pretty much winging it from electronic experience of past.

I don't think this would have happened had the issue with M2 losing screen focus on reload was not solved, and then suddenly it seemed viable to put effort into fixing what was left.

Darthmarino's video was confirmation that Model 2 shooters looked exciting to play when he first posted the test video with the borderless app. So it's really been a community pulling together. I'm really glad to have been part of it and to share what we've done.

I love the Logo too! It's almost fitting to the time that the program now serves

[Howard_Casto]

Well for me, the thing with model2 is I never expected that after all these years it would still be the ONLY way to play these games.  When it came out I remember thinking "this is great, but it'll get better once these games are in mame."  Fast forward several years later and Mame can barely boot some of them.  At the time the pc ports of these games were a viable option as well.  Now, as I've unfortunately experienced during testing, some of the older titles particularly the original hotd and vcop, barely install on a modern pc. 

I had just been playing around with the idea of wiimotes as a gun when I stumbled upon this thread.  So the timing was right.  Things tend to go along faster when it's a group helping each other along.  Go over and look at the old controls.dat site for proof of that.  You'd think that all of those pain-staking-ly tedious entries would have been done by a massive team, but nope... just me and two other guys for the most part. 


In regards to the logo.... what software are you using?  I've got a small collection of filters in photoshop we can try if you want to keep tweaking it.  I like the layout, I like the colors, it's well done.  We just need to get that flat look off of it so that the text feels in front of the guns and not against them. 

But I "demand" a stupid tag line.  We need just list a bunch and decide which one is funniest. 

I'll start us off.

Troubleshooter 2:  Shoot Harder

Troubleshooter 2:  Reloaded

Troubleshooter 2:  This time, it's personal

Troubleshooter 2:  Judgement Day 

Troubleshooter 2:  Electric Boogaloo   (Damn I've got to use that for one of my apps eventually.    )


Aaaaanyway.  It's a new morning so I think I'm going to work on the app a little.  I'll leave the games for later.  Right now I'm going to start hooking up the configuration page. 

[Endprodukt]

Judgement day made me crack up!!

[Howard_Casto]

Well I got the configuration menu to load nearly all of the user-configurable ini settings.  Upon hooking it up I realized that a few options need re-organized, but it's no big deal.

Then I just do the whole thing in reverse for saving. 

[DarthMarino]

[Howard_Casto]