PC wheel/joystick analog settings: dead zone

[TheShanMan]

I got the Logitech PC wheel ahofle and I were discussing in this thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=82640.0

It works great. Calibrated in the windows control panel but when playing in mame (spy hunter, paper boy, calif speed tried so far), there is a significant dead zone around center. I probably have to turn the wheel > 30 degrees left or right for mame to register any reaction to it, yet windows shows instant reaction as you start turning the wheel.

I played with the analog settings even though I don't fully understand them, and can't seem to get it to improve at all. Something simple, I'm sure, but either I'm too dense to figure it out or mame doesn't make it straightforward. Any help?

BTW, a wheel is considered a joystick in windows, so I assume that this issue would also occur if I had an actual joystick.

[TheShanMan]

Figured it out using MameUI - there's a dead zone setting in the game options dialog. I'm kind of amazed at how high the default is though - 0.30. I dropped it to 0.05 and that seems pretty good (only tried 1 game of paperboy so far).

[u_rebelscum]

I agree the default deadzone is pretty high in a lot of cases, it was set a long time ago, when it designed for both analog-devices-to-digital-game-inputs, and analog to analog.  Mame's current analog to digital map is way better than the old way, but the deadzone is still there.  The default value also has to cover all analog devices, from cheap analog gamepads with big wandering centers, to higher end devices like the one you got.  The 5% value you set it to is a good number, but you might want to go even a little lower (2-3%), as long as that doesn't get into the floating center.  Or if the wheel's driver has a deadzone, you can set mame's to zero, and only the driver's deadzone will be in play.

Another setting you might want to look at is the -joystick_saturation (not sure exactly what it's called in mameUI) setting.  It's like the opposite of deadzone, if you turn the wheel past the number (the default is 85%), mame sees it as fully turned.  85% is, IMO, a great number for joysticks, but too low for analog wheels; you might want to try in the mid to high 90s (95%-99%).


BWTW, I'm using percentages (such as 85%), instead of the decimal number mame uses (0.85) as I feel percentage makes more sense, and 0.85 = 85%.  I hope it didn't add any confusion.

[TheShanMan]

Thanks for your input. I'll definitely play with those settings on your advice. But at least games seem to be very playable with deadzone set to 5%. I have been thinking of dropping that value a bit though.

Not sure if my wheel's driver has a dead zone setting. I'm currently just using the default windows driver and I don't recall seeing such a setting. I tend to prefer not installing driver software since sometimes they can be fairly bloated with features I don't care about. But if I don't settle on the perfect mame setting, then I might try that route as well. I'm guessing there isn't much difference in the end result whether done in the driver or in mame though.

[u_rebelscum]

Not sure if my wheel's driver has a dead zone setting. I'm currently just using the default windows driver and I don't recall seeing such a setting. I tend to prefer not installing driver software since sometimes they can be fairly bloated with features I don't care about. But if I don't settle on the perfect mame setting, then I might try that route as well. I'm guessing there isn't much difference in the end result whether done in the driver or in mame though.

Yah, deadzone is one of those "bloated" features you might get that MS's default driver doesn't usually have, and the end result is about the same (as long as you stay inside mame).  As you said, most of the time the extra features aren't needed, but some people like them, especially if they play other driving games that aren't as configurable as mame (ie: all of them ). 

Have fun!