I have the exact same problem... and believe the only fix is to use a PS2 mouse hack to interface the trackball. You ask why... here's what I've found
1) I've adjusted everything and still have the same problem. Including disabling mouse acceleration, adjusting velocity, adjusting analog sensitivity and digital speed. etc etc. no dice.
2) Those who have it working say to change the mouse settings in the control panel to a sample rate of 200 and disable the fast init.
The problem resides is that using the MINIpac in USB mode *which is the only way to use the trackball input on the MINIpac* is defined in windows an HID device... and not a mouse, and therefore does not have access to these settings.
So, by hacking a PS2 mouse and interfacing thru it... then you can access more detailed settings in WinXP. Sucks, but there is light (i hope).
Umm, I think you're mixing up some things. First, MiniPAC is seen as a mouse. If it wasn't, mame wouldn't see it as a mouse.
Next, DirectX DirectInput (which mame using to read all inputs) is
not supposed to be effected by windows mouse settings
according to MS documentation: "Because Microsoft DirectInput communicates directly with the mouse driver, the values for mouse speed and acceleration set by the user in Control Panel do not affect this data."
The problem with MS's doc is that dX dInput talks to the driver, not the hardware itself. So if the driver is designed to be directly effected by the control panel (it's not supposed to, but some MS drivers seem to, amoung others), the control panel settings do effect those devices. So, depending on the driver being used, the control panel setting may or may not have any effects in mame. (Mind you,
all hardware uses a driver; when you hear "Does not need a driver" really means "uses a standard (preinstalled) windows driver" or "does not need a special driver".)
See if using a different driver helps fix your problems of the control panel settings not effecting mame. Some people like the IntelliMouse driver; I've never tried it.
...On the goldem tee games when I try and swing like I would swing in a aracade I get really bad swings when I spin the ball fast. When I spin it slower I can get really nice swings. I have tried lowering sensitivity and upping it and at lower settings I cant get good swings at all, at higher 65% I get nice swings but again its not like in the aracde. Am I doing something wrong? Windows settings? Something else in the tab menu for the analog controls I need to change?
Any help is appreciated. I have gotten used to how the game plays as is now but the hard part is making soft / short shots in this setting.
I'm not sure what you mean by "bad swings". Is it "mouse backspin", were the faster TB spins seem to go slower or backwards (than the slower spins) in mame? What about on the desktop?
I'd try disabling windows accelaration (ie: unclick "enhance pointer precision" in XP) and see if that helps on GT.
Also in the Tab menu in mame for the analog controls what does the digital setting do for the trackball?
If you want to use a digital device, say a keyboard, those setting are used by mame for it's simulation of an analog input to the game (which the game is expecting). It's not supposed to effect inputs from TBs, but try setting the speed to 1. Sometime a high speed seems to increase the chance of mouse backspin fo some reason.