MAME and Touchscreen Support - Megatouch Emulation **SOLVED**

[JdotFite]

I am struggling to find concrete information on the topic of MAME and touchscreen support.  I have a touchscreen monitor and have been fiddling with the Megatouch XL 6000 rom but I can't get the touch to register correctly.

The best that I have come up with is to set the Lightgun Input Provider to win32.  The problem is that I think the first touch sets the coordinates and then I need to touch again in that area to register the touch.  I haven't been able to figure out a better method or work around to get the first touch to almost "double" click.

• I tried setting the mouse input provider to win32 and dinput, but the calibration was always off.
• I tried adjusting the monitor to match the games resolution of 640x480 thinking that might help with the positioning, but it did not.
• I tried playing with the calibration tool in Megatouch, but that didn't work.
• I tried creating an AHK script that would send a keyboard letter when the screen is touched (left mouse button is clicked), but the "virtual" key, while seen in windows and MAME UI, does not register in MAME itself.
• I tried changing the keyboard input provider to see if it would allow the "virtual" key to show up in MAME, but none of the options made a difference.

I can't seem to dig up munch information on this topic and I am hoping someone here has gone down this path before and can provide some insight.

[JdotFite]

I dug up an old thread from 16 years ago on here and it looks like there was possible success using an Elo screen and enabling "mouse emulation mode".  I believe this changes the touch behavior of the touchscreen in windows and actually moves the mouse around when you touch. I tried turning on the virtual touchpad in windows and I guess it would work similar'ish to this but be full screen and hidden.

https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,76684.0/all.html

[JdotFite]

It didn't look like HP had any software related to the touchscreen I am using (HP L6015tm) so tried installing Elo's control panel software to see if maybe I could turn on their ForceMouse mode.  Unfortunately, I couldn't apply any settings once inside the application. 

At this point, I understood that I essentially needed the touchscreen to act like a trackpad.  I wondered if a trackpad driver could somehow replace the generic mouse driver for the touchscreen. 

I eventually came across a few comments about software called Tablet Pro STUDIO which I believe is an evolution of software that was originally called touchmousepointer.  The links to touchmousepointer were all dead, but after some digging I was able to find what I believe was the final version "touchzoomdesktop2105".

I am happy to say that things are working! 



In summary (in case someone stumbles upon this in another 16 years)

MAME:
Input Device Options:

• Lightgun Device Assignment: Mouse
• Lightgun Input Provider > win32

Advanced Options:

• Mouse On
• Lightgun On

Install TouchZoomDesktop Component (touchzoomdesktop2105)

Settings > Pinch > Mode > Touch to Mouse Mode

I haven't played around with the other settings in TouchZoomDesktop yet.  I am excited that I can move forward with a new bartop touchscreen build!