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Author Topic: Settng up light guns in MAME  (Read 7590 times)

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lightgungamer

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Settng up light guns in MAME
« on: July 03, 2020, 11:30:30 am »
Does anyone have any experience of seting up light guns in MAME.

I am using MAME64. I have everything set up and working with only one issue.

The game that I am using (Carnevil) is in 4:3 which is fine. My windows display/monitor runs in 16:9. This seems to cause the aim to be off because windows sees the edge of the screen at the actual edgs whereas MAME has a smaller window - so the closer you are to the edge of the screen, the more the aim is off.

I know that I could configure the Aimtrak for 4:3 but that would mean it was off for other games.

Does anyone know how to fix that?

Thanks
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JayBee

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2020, 12:33:45 pm »
Yeah as you guessed, in 4:3 the mouse horizontal moving range doesn't match the 16:9 calibration, so the gun system needs to have a 4:3 content mode to compensate.
Doesn't the aimtrak have a this kind of mode?
If not, I think you will either have to play fullscreen or recalibrate every time.
The other solution I can think of is making mame using only 4:3 for the video zone but keeping 16:9 mouse range.
Not sure it's possible since it would require mame to process the black borders as part of the input video.

lightgungamer

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2020, 01:42:08 pm »
Thanks JayBee,

Yeah, I think the aimtrak does have a 4:3 mode but I’m trying to get everything integrated into one front end and everything else is 16:9

Do you know how to force name to display full screen in 16:9?
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Foxhole

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2020, 01:16:04 am »
Yes, disabling keep_aspect should do it.
You may also need to tweak unevenstretch.

BadMouth

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2020, 08:54:37 pm »
Doesn't calibrating in the games service menu correct for this?
(only moving the gun around the 4:3 window when calibrating)

lightgungamer

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2020, 03:32:57 pm »
You could calibrate the aimtrak for 4:3 in Windows but doing it in the games calibration menu doesn’t seem to work.

I got it sorted by stretching the games to full screen and it works fine.
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uVSthem

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2021, 04:41:30 am »
Hi guys, has anyone figured out a solution to this. I'd really like to play my light gun games in their proper aspect ratio and not stretch them out.

patrickfx1

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #7 on: November 30, 2022, 07:24:45 am »
I am also in the same situation.  Will try some idea in this forum.  What strange though, and this is usually a good sign we are looking wrongly.  No much people seem to have this behavior.

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #8 on: November 30, 2022, 09:33:46 am »
Doesn't calibrating in the games service menu correct for this?
(only moving the gun around the 4:3 window when calibrating)

I didn't spend a lot of time trying different titles, but I tried this once and saw an odd calibration.  However, I was able to get it to work properly using "trick" calibration, which for those who don't already know, means not shooting at the centers of the calibration targets, rather offsetting aim during the games calibration setup to compensate for what the gun is actually doing in the game.  After that, there was no problem, but it can take a few tries to get it right if one isn't used to it from, say, messing with wonky touchscreens :)

patrickfx1

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Re: Settng up light guns in MAME
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2022, 08:16:15 am »
Doesn't calibrating in the games service menu correct for this?
(only moving the gun around the 4:3 window when calibrating)

I didn't spend a lot of time trying different titles, but I tried this once and saw an odd calibration.  However, I was able to get it to work properly using "trick" calibration, which for those who don't already know, means not shooting at the centers of the calibration targets, rather offsetting aim during the games calibration setup to compensate for what the gun is actually doing in the game.  After that, there was no problem, but it can take a few tries to get it right if one isn't used to it from, say, messing with wonky touchscreens :)

Well, I me too made it work finally, not easilly and to be honest , not exactly sure what has fix it.  Like a lot of time, made many things to fix a issue and not sure what fix what.  But my problem was more about exactly the initial post/question... " This seems to cause the aim to be off because windows sees the edge of the screen at the actual edgs whereas MAME has a smaller window".

In my case, I first change MAME from 1.86 to 2.39b, problem start.  Roms no more compatible.  I fix it.  But the 2.39b have more option for video overall...I also recalibrate.  Oh my god, simple on paper, not in reality.  I was forgetten all the trouble where the middle calibration don't accept it.  Another couple of hours my life loss :). But I made it work by having two IR bar on top of each other to make the job.

In between, many mame options changes..., also try changing my video resolution, IR gain, etc...

Anyway, in short, this hobby is full of fun :)