Do you use a Light Gun? If so, which and what setup? ***IT'S DONE!!!!***

[Games001]

Just trying to determine the best direction to take for a Light Gun add-on to my MAME cab.

If you use a Light Gun in MAME, how is the cab setup (PC monitor, TV, arcade monitor?) and what Light Gun do you use (interface, etc)??

Thanks all.

[unclet]

I have a JVC 27" TV and I use the ActLabs USB TV Lightgun.  Works great.

[FrizzleFried]

Would that work with a JPAC/Arcade monitor combo?

[Fozzy The Bear]

How many times are you planning to ask the same question........
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=78092.0

This is thread number 3 you've started..... Asking more or less exactly the same thing. Do you think you might like to restrict it to one thread and follow that up instead of flooding the board with multiple threads that are more or less the same. There's nothing stopping you extending the question in previous threads you know.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Games001]

I am asking a question here that is one of opinions, not specific setup.  Since my other post was a question of a specific setup, many might not bother to answer, let alone review the post and attempt to lead the thread in a direction of personal setup styles.  Hence my asking  here as a new thread.  I was under the impression these would be considered two different questions with different anticipated outcomes.

I won't shamelessly bump a thread to make sure people see it, and I have no idea of if it is possible to mod the subject of an exisiting thread.  Forgive my mild ignorance, but the WIKI does not get very heavily into Light Guns and the web is full of contradictory or out dated info.

I am trying to figure out if a CRT is the best choice when adding a LG, does the LCD issue become a real problem for people?  A search gives me little in the way of recent opinions, just tons of this works / no, this works / no, this works.. so I ask here for the general population's opinions.

Thanks.

[Fozzy The Bear]

I am trying to figure out if a CRT is the best choice when adding a LG, does the LCD issue become a real problem for people?

The only issue with the LCD Topgun is one of distance from the screen, mine works fine at about 4 feet with a 21" monitor .....  That distance can be reduced by mounting the light bars above and below the monitor instead of at the sides, and can also be reduced by using a mobile phone camera wide angle lens (I can get the distance down to 2.5 feet with this).  Just in case you are confused by its name, it doesn't require an LCD Screen it works with any screen. Projectors, LCD's, CRT's etc etc etc.... The Act Labs guns work with specific CRT's IE they work with PC monitors only or TV's (arcade monitors) only, depending on the model. The act labs guns also don't track in real time, and require a screen flash in order for the gun to see where it's pointing when you pull the trigger.

There are no interfaces required they both plug straight into the PC.

All of this information IS in the WIKI....  as is the setup information.

A search gives me little in the way of recent opinions, just tons of this works / no, this works / no, this works.

That's because there is no perfect solution and there is no cut and dried answer. You will always get different answers and different opinions on this.

I am asking a question here that is one of opinions, not specific setup.  Since my other post was a question of a specific setup, many might not bother to answer.

Strange...... I could have sworn that you asked:

If you use a Light Gun in MAME, how is the cab setup (PC monitor, TV, arcade monitor?) and what Light Gun do you use (interface, etc)??

Looks like a pretty damned specific setup question to me.... 

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Bleagh]

Just go buy an Area 51, Zero Point, or a Police Trainer for like $450.   The pc lightguns are just toys.

[Games001]

That's actually funny.. my converted MAME cab is a former Zero Point. 

The screen was burnt to heck, the body a mess, the wiring all rust covered and many areas were burnt out or toast.  I do still have the guns, but they are arcade guns and won't work for my needs, sadly.

[fjl]

Ebay them

[phishpac]

relax

[Games001]

Ok, got my LCD TopGun today and have been able to install it on the MAME cab.  Seems to work fine as a mouse on the desktop and on the Front End (GameEX).. but MAME won't see the gun in game.

I have set the MAME cfg file to accept input from the Lightgun, and I turned light gun support on (1).  I also tried seting the input to mouse, but again, fails once in game.  It still won't move the cursor in game nor have the buttons any effect once we leave the FE and enter game play.

Any clues what I missed??

[Fozzy The Bear]

Any clues what I missed??

Yes.... Light gun support has changed in newer versions of Mame..... It treats a light gun as a mouse. Put  1 in the config next to -mouse and remove the 1 in config next to -Lightgun. you no longer need to use the -lightgun or -dual_lightgun commands.  But you must use the -mouse command.


You must also calibrate the gun in each game using the calibration routine in the game ROM.  You may also need to hit tab and set prefs for some games.

That should get you started.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Games001]

Having looked around a bit today, you lost me on the in game calibration... I recall some method of doing so, but for the life of me I don't recall the keys used to reach it.

Additional 4/1:  No method I can find in MAME v123, be it set (1) to mouse, (0) lightgun, or any combination of the suggestions on these boards that I have found seems to be working.

I've gotten much better reaction when using the Guncon2PC app.  So now I know for sure this gun works as a mouse, I can move my mouse on screen in Desktop and in FE Mode (GameEX).  So why is MAME being so damn contrary.

[Fozzy The Bear]

I've gotten much better reaction when using the Guncon2PC app.  So now I know for sure this gun works as a mouse, I can move my mouse on screen in Desktop and in FE Mode (GameEX).  So why is MAME being so damn contrary.

Not sure why this is not working.... But you may need to drop back a few versions of Mame to get this working. Light gun input has been a bit screwey since .119 I've got .118 working well with them at the moment.

First of all you may need to hit tab and check the games dip switch settings. Also try getting into the games service mode. The in game calibration can be found there. You'll find the key for the service mode of a particular game listed in the key configurations for mame. Not sure how you have it set up or whos build you're using, but it's usually key F2 to get into the test screen of the individual game, then F3 to reset the game.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[lanman31337]

I got them working in .123 - definitely has to be mouse, and of course multiple mice has to be checked as well.  Go into the global settings for controls, and set your buttons.  It'll show something like P1 B0 for button 1, P1 B1 for button 2, and then where it says lightgun for the x axis, hit enter, then hit escape.  It should show something like mouse 1 or lightgun 1.  do the same for the y axis, and then player 2 controls if applicable.

[Games001]

Example of issue:

MAME v123 working rom of Crypt Keeper (light gun game)

Hitting F2 brings me to the Service Mode for the game.  I skip down and enter the Gun Setup which takes me to a screen with a grid pattern and center/corner boxes.

I activate the on-screen crosshair and find that whenever I move the gun the at first stable and centered crosshair will 'zoom' wildly to that screen corner.  Like it is moving at hyper speed.  I don't see the crosshair staying still in the corner of my direction movement though, it seems to skip all over the screen while staying often in the corner for a moment.

If I bring the gun to the dead center of the screen the crosshair zips from corner to corner, a few times a second.. like it is trying to be in all corners at once.

I have tried turning the gun sensitivity up and down in MAME, does not seem to help.

I have calibrated the gun to work near 100% outside of MAME, so it's not IR blocking or other forms of error.

Hmm...  whoever has gotten one of these EMS LCD TopGuns to work in a recent MAME version, please, let us talk via IM or phone trouble shoot this issue.   

[Fozzy The Bear]

I activate the on-screen crosshair and find that whenever I move the gun the at first stable and centered crosshair will 'zoom' wildly to that screen corner.  Like it is moving at hyper speed.  I don't see the crosshair staying still in the corner of my direction movement though, it seems to skip all over the screen while staying often in the corner for a moment.

That's because it's not calibrated in the game!!! The calibration for windows and the gun is NOT the same thing as in game calibration.  The game rom needs to understand the input it is getting from the topgun.

Your gun IS actually working in Mame.

You need to follow the calibration routine that is built into that game's ROM.  This might involve shooting at specific on screen positions when asked to. But you must enter the calibration routine inside the game's service menu first. Most games give you a grid to shoot at and some give you crosshair points to shoot at. You must shoot those points on the screen folowing the on screen prompts to do so.

Once you've done that the game will understand the input it's getting and it should work for you.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Games001]

Fozz, here's where you seem to be missing the last and most difficult part of the equation. 

How does one calibrate a gun that is not even remotely near center when the trigger fails?  I can't shoot the targets offered in a calibration screen because the gun's trigger is not able to be keyed to MAME.  If the crosshair is flying all over the damn place when I stand at the correct distance from the machine, say baout 4-6 feet, I really can't press the fire button if it's keyed to the CP.

Thus yet another thing this gun is not doing correctly in MAME, but still does work correctly in a Desktop or GameEX mode.  So we know the trigger works, it's just MAME refusing to even see a trigger pull, let alone a movement of the crosshair.

Having the mouse and multi mouse options manually entered in the MAME cfg, check.
MAME in game Config shows Lightgun X/Y as 'Gun 1', check.
Gun 1 Button 1 (trigger): Nothing happens on a trigger pull.

My frustration with the blasted program is starting to show I bet.  I know it's not the gun, and I know others have made it work.  Reverting to an older version of MAME seems useless as others have v122-124 and have the same guns working.  So I need the insight of someone that has actually done this setup on this version or close to it.

Thanks.

[JKJudgeX]

I've had some difficulty playing with a wiimote for a lightgun... it is similar to what you are describing with not being able to configure the trigger...

Mine seems to read the trigger I pull as p1 fire, but wants to move p2 crosshairs.  Having a devil of a time with it, really.  Just a matter of messing with configs I'd wager.

[Games001]

I tried the WiiMOte as a lightgun, my USB BlueTooth saw the device but would never 'connect' to it.. so that's shot (pun intended).

[Fozzy The Bear]

I can't shoot the targets offered in a calibration screen because the gun's trigger is not able to be keyed to MAME.

OK..... Easy fix.....  The gun buttons send what are effectively gamepad button inputs to the PC. An easy fix would be to use a piece of software like Joy2Key to map those inputs to keystrokes. Mame would then see them as being normal keystrokes. Either that or map the Joypad inputs inside mame. I suspect that the first of those two would prove to be easier and cause less problems with the rest of your controls hardware.

Out of curiosity.... and because it might help... Which keyboard encoder are you using?

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Games001]

WAIT!

We have done it!

Thanks to the effort of LanMan, now my best friend ever!, we have found that no settings worked under MAME v123.

We did find that if we used MAMEUI32 v123, then the Lightgun works perfectly.

You must set the Default Controller Options in MAMEUI32 as Lightgun with multi-mouse on.

*sigh* What a trial.. but it's done.  Trigger works, Tracking is very close to dead on.  All is well in bugville.

Thanks to Lanman, Fozzy, and everyone else that helped work the problem and put up with my stress. 

[lanman31337]

Glad I could be of service.   Now to get both of my guns working properly...

[Afterburner]

The only issue with the LCD Topgun is one of distance from the screen, mine works fine at about 4 feet with a 21" monitor .....  That distance can be reduced by mounting the light bars above and below the monitor instead of at the sides, and can also be reduced by using a mobile phone camera wide angle lens (I can get the distance down to 2.5 feet with this).

Fozzy:  Do you have any specific instructions for using the cell phone camera lens?  I didn't see anything in the Wiki for this, but perhaps I didn't look in the right place.

The best I've been able to do with my LCD TopGun is about 6 feet with a 17" CRT.  It's absolutely maddening.  That's with the lightbars as close to the actual screen as I can get them without blocking the screen.  If I move them out to the edges of my bezel where I'd like them to be, I have to stand back roughly 8 feet.....way too far away from a 17" display.

Any pictures or details of what you did would be appreciated.

[Games001]

I have not been able to try this yet, but what about changing the position of the IR Bars as to have them pointing more towards the center of the screen?

Would this reduce range requirements or would it simply kill the effective IR beam?

[Fozzy The Bear]

Fozzy:  Do you have any specific instructions for using the cell phone camera lens?  I didn't see anything in the Wiki for this, but perhaps I didn't look in the right place.

There is nothing in the WIKI about it right now..... I'm going to write up a tutorial on making your own LED bars that work to reduce the distance and using Mobile Phne camera lenses on the front of the topgun.... Might be a while doing it though.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)