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LED-Wiz USB LED and Output Control Device now available. *Blinky lights*

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SirPoonga:


--- Quote from: RandyT on January 24, 2006, 08:16:51 pm ---
--- Quote ---Though I can see a product like this being used outside of the arcade community.  In fact I have a friend that bought a keywiz eco for a project that was not arcade related.

--- End quote ---

Happens more often than you might think.


--- End quote ---
Heh, I doubt it, I think it happens alot :)

I've been thinking of using a couple of ledwiz's to control some 7 segment counter leds for something.  But that would require several ledwiz's and I have to think it all through.

MikeQ:

Ok, just fired up dotron default everything.  I get a joystick, 4 buttons a 2 coin acceptors lit. 

The buttons that get lit are aim up, aim down, p1 button 1 and p1 button 2.  No spinner and no trackball.  This is because by default track Y analog is set to NA and dial analog is set to NA and in MAME32 they contoller mapping for these is set to NONE.

So by default the game is unplayable.  I'm sure this is the case even with controls.dat. 

Now, I go into MAME32 and I map my mouse to "dial" devices.

When I fire up dotron, I get a joystick, 4 buttons, 2 coin acceptors, a spinner and trackball lit.


--- Quote ---"No, by default the controller mappings for Disc of Tron are all keyboard keys. "
I am trying to understand this comment.

--- End quote ---
<snip>
not really worth arguing.  I'm speaking in MAME32 menu terms. 


--- Quote ---So on your control panel do you have a trackball, did you disable highlighting the trackball in dotron?  The game only has an 8 way triggerstick (with two buttons) and an up/down spinner.

--- End quote ---

No, why would I disable the trackball.   The spinner could be pulled up and pushed down to control aiming.  Isn't that what the trackball would be used for?  I also have keys for it but I'd like both the be available if the game supports it.


If the trackball doesn't emulate the push/pull spinner,  then at the same time I enable the spinner, I could disable the trackball.  I have to set this stuff up anyway.



SirPoonga:


--- Quote from: MikeQ on January 24, 2006, 11:59:54 pm ---No, why would I disable the trackball.   The spinner could be pulled up and pushed down to control aiming.  Isn't that what the trackball would be used for?  I also have keys for it but I'd like both the be available if the game supports it.

--- End quote ---
I forgot you are using mame32.  That makes things a little different.
YES, all games that use dial or trackball won't work unless you enable mouse in the mame.ini file.    However, if you have the hardware you are going to enable it.
If you have a spinner why would you want joystick highlighted for tempest?


--- Quote ---If the trackball doesn't emulate the push/pull spinner,  then at the same time I enable the spinner, I could disable the trackball.  I have to set this stuff up anyway.

--- End quote ---
My original point is if you incorporated controls.dat then that stuff could be setup automatically.
What if you had an oscarcontrols up/down spinner?  Why would you want the trackball highlights as it is a hack when you have the actual hardware?

Like I said, the integration of controls.dat would mean the correct controls would be highlighted if the user has them.  There's no configuration.  So if you have a friend come across one of these oddball controlled games it will be correct without having to figure it out ahead of time.  And I think that's the point of highlighting controls, so you don't have to figure out what the game really used.

I guess I was hoping you'd see it that way.  Maybe save myself the need to write something as I didn't want to reinvent the wheel :)  But remembering you are using mame32 also negates that.  Good news is I found the source code for set49way.  My utility will use alot of the same code for parsing listxml and controls.dat to determine the correct hardware to light :)

MikeQ:

I don't think MAME32 works differently.  I've built a .102 MAME from my source and the LED stuff works the same.  I should probably double check that with a weird game.

How do you tell normal MAME to a spinner to the mouse vs keyboard?


--- Quote ---My original point is if you incorporated controls.dat then that stuff could be setup automatically.
What if you had an oscarcontrols up/down spinner?  Why would you want the trackball highlights as it is a hack when you have the actual hardware?

--- End quote ---

So how does controls.dat modify the control settings?  Does it replace the .cfg files or does it require a specail build of mame?  I thought controls.dat was used to create an image of a CP with the buttons that a game uses.  I didn't realize it reprograms all the input mappings.


--- Quote ---I guess I was hoping you'd see it that way.  Maybe save myself the need to write something as I didn't want to reinvent the wheel :)  But remembering you are using mame32 also negates that.  Good news is I found the source code for set49way.  My utility will use alot of the same code for parsing listxml and controls.dat to determine the correct hardware to light :)

--- End quote ---

Really, I'd rather not make my stuff public.  I like this hobby more when I just do what I want.  I really want to work on my 3D stuff and changing what I have to make the rest of the world happy isn't helping me any.  I don't mind fiddling with the occasional game that has weird inputs.  It really hasn't been a problem so far.  You can walk into any BestBuy in the country and pick up a box with my software I've worked on, so I don't get a kick out of a bunch of people using my stuff.  Also, with people now adding RGB, LEDs to the mix, I'd have to go make a way to specify button colors.  I don't have or plan to do this on my setup so again, I'd be doing this for everyone else. 

I haven't had a chance to work on my cabinet in a month because I've been working on the lighting stuff.  I've been testing the code out the wazoo and making the LEDWiz hot swappable so that it all behaves like a nice product.  I wasn't doing this for me.  I'd really like to spend some time finishing or at least playing with my cabinet and working on the 3D acceleration.  Look at today.  I'm going to get about 5 hours sleep because I've been looking for a stupid game with more inputs than controls.

 BTW, unused buttons on NEO-GEO games aren't going to be detectable with my scheme.  The machine still has memory addresses for the unused buttons.  Luckily, a big picture in the game shows me what controls aren't used.  Also, I don't play an NEO-GEO games so it isn't a problem for me.

I would suggest not waiting on me.  I'd like to see another solution arrive so I don't feel like I should make my project public.   I think the simple config file for each game is a good solution for now.  It lets people use RGB's and is fairly simple. 

If you plan on using my LEDWiz.dll for communication, you may want to wait on the DLL that can support multiple LEDWiz's though.  If you use the current DLL you will probably suffer through a minor API change.   I should have it done this week.

mccoy178:

Thanks for what you have done.  I say if it's burning you out, let it go.  Do your thing.

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