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Optimal Controls On Each Cabinet How Many Layouts?
Fursphere:
--- Quote from: aArcade on January 11, 2025, 12:15:09 pm ---These are my ideas so far:
4player beatem up 8way joystick with 3 buttons covering xmen, simpsons, sunset riders, pusnisher, Cadillacs and dinosaurs ect
2 player vs fighting 8way joystick with 6 buttons for street fighter and mortal combat ect.
1 player rotary 2 button for tempest and arkanoid
1 player dual stick 4way for robotron and?
1 or 2 player driving wheel
1 player track ball for Centipede golden tee
Dual light gun for area51 and revolutionx
--- End quote ---
I have two near identical cabinets I've built, difference is one has a trackball, other has a spinner. This is because I got tired of spending money when I was ordering parts. :lol
For 4 player games, you can use Retroarch w/ FBNeo to get Players 1 & 2 running on Cab #1, then #3 and #4 on Cab #2 w/ Netplay.
I currently have Sanwa JLF sticks in both cabs with octagon restricters. This is good enough for me for 4-way joystick games. I am going to swap out the joysticks in Cab #2 for Sanwa JLW sticks with Ultimarc's 12 position rotary joystick encoders though, because I have some weird obsession with Heavy Barrel that I can't kick. Cab #1 will keep the JLF sticks.
For driving games.... I built a twin sit down driving cabinet. So I can't help you save money there. :)
Lastly - twin-stick games. Smash TV for example.
I'm going to build a stand alone control panel with dual twin-sticks for two player Smash TV / Total Carnage / etc games. This goes down a crazy road, because you end up looking for sticks with buttons too. There are a lot of variations. (no buttons, 1 button per stick, 2 buttons per stick.. etc). I think I can make a clip-on style bracket where I can temporary hang the twin stick box off the front of one of my cabs and USB connect it when needed, then set it aside when I don't.
Also, a lot of twin stick games used leaf button joysticks, and feel weird with micro-switch sticks. So.. how 'pure' do you wanna get? Because its gets complicated and expensive.
BlueGhost:
--- Quote from: Fursphere on January 11, 2025, 09:36:15 pm ---
--- Quote from: BlueGhost on January 11, 2025, 06:15:30 pm ---I'm going to install a KVM between the pedestal and cabinet so I can "link" them for 3/4 player games and dual stick per player games.
--- End quote ---
I'd love to hear your plan on making this work. I've thought about it a lot, but never quite got all the pieces sorted out.
--- End quote ---
I bench tested the KVM. I was using a dual monitor HDMI KVM, and had two matching 27 inch monitors and 2 matching 1080x360 marque screens. I found I had to add amplified HDMI splitters on the "master" system before the KVM. Other than that it all seemed to work. I had to make sure the "slave" system was exited to the front end before switching over to 4 player mode, otherwise MAME had problems when it switched back to 2 player.
I was originally going for 2 cabinets with identical monitors, but now that I switched to a pedestal I need to check that it still works with the TV and a monitor. I don't think it will be a problem as long as they are the same resolution and refresh rates.
I haven't worked out the software side yet. I think I'm just going to use big box and 2 instances of MAME, one prefering 2 player roms and one preferring 4 player. Then do the rest by editing game list.
Fursphere:
--- Quote from: BlueGhost on January 12, 2025, 01:57:06 pm ---
--- Quote from: Fursphere on January 11, 2025, 09:36:15 pm ---
--- Quote from: BlueGhost on January 11, 2025, 06:15:30 pm ---I'm going to install a KVM between the pedestal and cabinet so I can "link" them for 3/4 player games and dual stick per player games.
--- End quote ---
I'd love to hear your plan on making this work. I've thought about it a lot, but never quite got all the pieces sorted out.
--- End quote ---
I bench tested the KVM. I was using a dual monitor HDMI KVM, and had two matching 27 inch monitors and 2 matching 1080x360 marque screens. I found I had to add amplified HDMI splitters on the "master" system before the KVM. Other than that it all seemed to work. I had to make sure the "slave" system was exited to the front end before switching over to 4 player mode, otherwise MAME had problems when it switched back to 2 player.
I was originally going for 2 cabinets with identical monitors, but now that I switched to a pedestal I need to check that it still works with the TV and a monitor. I don't think it will be a problem as long as they are the same resolution and refresh rates.
I haven't worked out the software side yet. I think I'm just going to use big box and 2 instances of MAME, one prefering 2 player roms and one preferring 4 player. Then do the rest by editing game list.
--- End quote ---
So...
System 1 --> HDMI Splitter
HDMI Splitter 1a --> System 1 Screen 1
HDMI Splitter 1b--> KVM Input 1 Screen 1
HDMI Splitter 2a --> System 1 Screen 1
HDMI Splitter 2b--> KVM input 1 Screen 2
System 2 --> KVM Input 2 (both screens)
KVM Output --> System 2 (both screens)
Is that right?
Then USB inputs/outputs as needed.
The only thing I think you'd need is to remap your System 2 control encoder to be players 3/4 on System 1. Ultimarc Ipacs can do this via command line. Not sure what you're using.
That was pretty close to what I was thinking up, but never though to use the HDMI splitters. Good idea! Thanks for sharing.
BlueGhost:
--- Quote from: Fursphere on January 12, 2025, 03:22:04 pm ---So...
System 1 --> HDMI Splitter
HDMI Splitter 1a --> System 1 Screen 1
HDMI Splitter 1b--> KVM Input 1 Screen 1
HDMI Splitter 2a --> System 1 Screen 1
HDMI Splitter 2b--> KVM input 1 Screen 2
System 2 --> KVM Input 2 (both screens)
KVM Output --> System 2 (both screens)
Is that right?
Then USB inputs/outputs as needed.
The only thing I think you'd need is to remap your System 2 control encoder to be players 3/4 on System 1. Ultimarc Ipacs can do this via command line. Not sure what you're using.
That was pretty close to what I was thinking up, but never though to use the HDMI splitters. Good idea! Thanks for sharing.
--- End quote ---
That's the layout I used.
I'm trying to use the built-in joystick encoders in the u360s in the 2nd cabinet. So ipac2 in system 1 for p1 and p2, and u360s as p3 and p4 on system 1.
I also thought about using 2 ipac2 like you described. I can always change to that if I don't like the u360s.
Fursphere:
I just learned that you can do dual-monitor video mirroring natively in windows. No hardware splitters required as long as you've got enough monitor connections.
Screenshot is from my Windows 11 desktop w/ a GTX3060 video card using all four outputs (3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI). This should also work across multiple video cards, but I haven't tested that yet.
If the secondary cabinet marquee screen isn't important to you, just about every modern video card has three outputs. If the main screen on the secondary cabinet has at least two inputs, you don't even need a KVM for that. You'd just need a cheap USB A/B switch.
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