Key repeat

[eightbit]

A theory came up last night in chat that key repeat needs to be disabled for mame to function properly. Does any one know if it is a recent event in Mame for this not be true? I have scoured the mame documentation and can't find this mentioned. In my play testing it functions as I would expect it to with out turning it off in Windows. Mame must be coded to deal with this. Turning off key repeat in Dos would have to be done at a bios level.

Its actually a nice feature to have in the front end to be able to scroll the list by holding the joystick or by holding a page up\down button.

[rampy]

A theory came up last night in chat that key repeat needs to be disabled for mame to function properly. Does any one know if it is a recent event in Mame for this not be true? I have scoured the mame documentation and can't find this mentioned. In my play testing it functions as I would expect it to with out turning it off in Windows. Mame must be coded to deal with this. Turning off key repeat in Dos would have to be done at a bios level.

Its actually a nice feature to have in the front end to be able to scroll the list by holding the joystick or by holding a page up\down button.

that is an interesting theory, have you posted it into the mame.net forum? (probably get flamed or incoherent answers, but ...)

rampy

[Silverwind]

Playing "double dragon" on my keyboard (haven't hooked up the keys yet) I noticed that holding down the left or right arrow for prolonged amounts of time will cause a "headbutt" when not intended to be executed...

not sure how the I-PAC will respond.. but keyboard responds in this manner.. (under windows)

[DeathMonk]

With my I-PAC I haven't noticed any problems... yet.

[eightbit]

With my I-PAC I haven't noticed any problems... yet.

The reason that this came up is because the Ipac has key repeat deliberately disabled. My question is, is it necessary to disable key repeat?

[DeathMonk]

OIC...  Well, if your using windows xp, there's that sticky keys thing where it will pop up if the key is repeated... Then games like shooters (for example) that use a weapons charge wouldnt work..  Other than that, I don't see why it would matter.

[eightbit]

OIC...  Well, if your using windows xp, there's that sticky keys thing where it will pop up if the key is repeated... Then games like shooters (for example) that use a weapons charge wouldnt work..  Other than that, I don't see why it would matter.

But thats my point, the games where weapons charge do work with a keyboard without disabling the key repeat. Also games where you through a punch or a single shot don't repeat throwing punches when you hold the key. Other games that shoot as long as you hold the button also work like they are supposed to. Sticky key by default is mapped to shift and I don't remember seeing anyone using the shift button as a mame input.

You have to watch out for things like sticky key and windows key combinations like alt-tab and ctrl-esc but thats a different issue.

[Darkstalker]

I haven't seen any repeat problems in MAME yet.  Games like the Megaman fighter where you can charge the gun by holding down the shoot button work just fine with repeat enabled.

[SirPoonga]

See, I think people might be misunderstanding key repeat.  As I understand, not sure if I am correct, what key repeat is is the longer you hold down a button you get the character of that key repeated, not the keystroke.  I think mame uses the keystroke, not key input?  Would I be correct in that?

[RandyT]

See, I think people might be misunderstanding key repeat.  As I understand, not sure if I am correct, what key repeat is is the longer you hold down a button you get the character of that key repeated, not the keystroke.  I think mame uses the keystroke, not key input?  Would I be correct in that?

I can't speak for the MAME guys, but keyrepeat does the following:

[KEYMAKE]{typematic delay} [KEYMAKE]{typematic delay}[KEYMAKE]{typematic delay}[KEYMAKE]{typematic delay}[KEYBREAK]

This means that your keyboard generates a "key down", waits for a time period based on the typematic delay, then continues to generate key downs at the same intervals until you release the key.  At that time, a "key up" is generated.

Unless MAME is turning off key repeat, which is entirely possible as it is controlled by the PC, it would have to keep a temporary record of keys that have been pressed and only act on those keys in the event of a release.

At least that's how I would have done it  

RandyT