Turning a Rotated 8-way via Software

[NoOne=NBA=]

I originally posted this in another thread, but thought it might be useful to those with 45 degree sticks on their CP.
It is the mappings necessary to cause a standard 8-way stick, that is set at 45 degrees (like P3 and P4 on alot of people's quad panels), to function like it is lined up perpendicular to the screen.

This will work with any 8-way stick, but will work best with round restricted sticks (Wicos/Monroes/P-360/49-way DRS)


Red is the MAME command, Green is the Joystick settings

To Rotate UP 45 degrees RIGHT:

UP=(Up NOT Left) OR (Right NOT Down)
LEFT=(Left NOT Down) OR (Up NOT Right)
DOWN=(Down NOT Right) OR (Left NOT Up)
RIGHT=(Right NOT Up) OR (Down NOT Left)


To Rotate UP 45 degrees LEFT:

UP=(Up NOT Right) OR (Left NOT Down)
LEFT=(Left NOT Up) OR (Down NOT Right)
DOWN=(Down NOT Left) OR (Right NOT Up)
RIGHT=(Right NOT Down) OR (Up NOT Left)


To set UP for the right rotation above, you would do the following.

1) Go to "input settings for this game" in MAME.
2) Select P1-UP, and hit ENTER.
3) Push Up on the joystick, release it, and immediately Push Left twice.
(That will set the command to P1-UP=Up NOT Left).
4) Stay on P1-UP, and press ENTER again.
5) Push Right on the joystick, release it, and immediately Push Down twice.
(The command for P1-Up should now read P1-Up=Up NOT Left OR Right NOT Down).


That will cause MAME to read Up-Right on the Joystick as UP, but will send commands for UP AND LEFT when the joystick is in its TRUE Up position.
This will, in effect, turn the joystick back perpendicular to the monitor, as far as the feel of the controls goes.

[markrvp]

Excellent!  Can you map it the other way?  I want to face the control panel at 45 degrees (from the left) and use my Player 1 joystick as the Robotron P1 Right Joystick (and the player 3 joystick which is rotated 45 degrees will correctly work as player 1 left joystick).

Here is the diagram.  The joystick is in a normal orientation, but I want to map it like in the diagram.

[markrvp]

Here's a better diagram showing both joysticks so you can see how Robotron would be played.

[Veinman]

I'm guessing there wouldn't be a way to interpret different degrees, for example if your P3 and P4 were at 30 degree angles?

[markrvp]

The directions are relative to the switch (sensor locations).  Up will always be 90 degrees from right, etc.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Here's a better diagram showing both joysticks so you can see how Robotron would be played.

The mapping I did above will do exactly that for your P-1 stick, BUT.....why wouldn't you just use your P1 and P2 sticks for Robotron?

For 2 player SmashTV you would need to use P-3/P-1 and P-2/P-4 as controls, but for Robotron you'd want to be centered on the monitor, wouldn't you?

[NoOne=NBA=]

I'm guessing there wouldn't be a way to interpret different degrees, for example if your P3 and P4 were at 30 degree angles?

No, it's increments of 45 degrees only.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I revised my original post to include a left rotation for the stick as well.

[markrvp]

Sorry, I had to go work for a little while. 

I just used Robotron for an example.

[markrvp]

Okay, I just mapped my GP-Wiz 49 49-way joystick with your first settings to rotate up Right 45 degrees . . .

. . . AND I CAN CONFIRM THAT THEY WORK.

The only thing is that I couldn't hit the joystick combinations of Up not Right for both conditions correctly, soooooo, I just edited the config file.  With the GP-Wiz 49 I had to edit the Joy_1_Code entries (for my one stick). 

Thanks again NoOne=NBA

[NoOne=NBA=]

Glad to help.

[IntruderAlert]

Yeah thanks for working this out dude!
I'm still trying to decide on my new panel layout but I'm planning to have the sticks in line on 45 degree angles and using this method for 2 player dual stick games.