AimTrak Light Gun - Accurate in Windows 10, not in MAME 0.187

[ChuckyP]

Just posted this on another forum, which referred me to BYOAC for more prompt service.  Hope someone can help, thanks.

Hello,

I have the Ultimarc AimtTrak setup in Windows 10, following the instructions provided by Ultimarc on their website. Setup was easy enough, and calibration has the cursor following the sights of the light gun very well.

In MAME however (and forgive me if this has been discussed, but I have been searching everywhere for a solution), The accuracy is off. It requires the gun to point to the edge of my actual monitor to get the cross hair in-game to go to the edge of the "Arcade Screen".

On a vanilla installation of MAME 0.187 at full screen this is happening. It is as if the gun thinks the full size of my Monitor is displaying the game image, rather than the game image being a smaller portion of the monitor itself.

I have tried to adjust setting on a game by game basis in the F2 service menu, but that has not made any progress.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Titchgamer]

Sorry just to clarify...

So the cross hair is only going around the edge of the screen?

Or you are having to aim way off the edge of the monitor to get it to the edge of the screen?

Have you used the IR sensor check in the software to see what thats doing?

If not run the sensor check in the aimtrak utility.
Run the gun around the edge of the screen to the corners and see if its tracking correctly.
If its not making it all the way to the edges you are probably stood to close to the screen.
I stand around 3/4ft away from the screen.

If the crosshair is hugging the edge thats most likely the mame settings.

[ChuckyP]

Thanks for replying. I am running mame with 4:3 settings. But I need to point the gun tot the edge of my actual monitor to get mame cross hairs to the edge of the emulated mame screen. Here is a video I did to help clarify my problem.

[DarthMarino]

Are you running Windows and MAME in a 4x3 resolution?

[ChuckyP]

I am running windows at 1920x1080, and in MAME I have "Enforce Aspect Ratio" enabled.  So most games are 4:3 with borders on the sides of the screen.  I use bezels to fill that space but I have removed all those settings to make sure I figure this problem out correctly.

I have figured out, if I launch a game within MAME I can bring up the TAB settings menu.  With this menu open I can launch the calibration utility for my Aimtrak gun and calibrate it within MAME to get the correct accuracy.  Its a little cumbersome to go through on a regular basis and not my ideal solution, but it does allow me to play the games.

I'm still on the hunt for a more permanent solution though.

ANOTHER QUESTION:  Does anyone know of a way to launch a custom Aimtrak calibration file when MAME launches so I can keep the settings accurate as I switch from desktop the emulator? probably a longshot but it would get me closer to my end goal. Thanks

[Titchgamer]

Regarding the internal calibration for MAME once you have set it once in the service menu etc you should not need to do it again as it saves them.

Ime not sure if this is your actual problem but I think it may be to do with your resolution differences.

I have my monitor set to 800x600 so maybe try setting your main resolution to something like 800 x 600 and see if that helps any?

[ChuckyP]

Thanks. I'm getting very close, going to play around with some resolution changes this weekend and see what the results are.

I haven't even gotten to the individual game service menues yet. That will be next.