starwars centering issue?

[Lilwolf]

I just got an original starwars controller working with a rebuild kit and new pots (works great!)

Trouble is, it works great with most games but starwars... sigh...

when I get into starwars, the centered position of the controller is in the lower left.  So when trying to fly straight, I have to point up and the the right...  and the percents are all messed up.

I tried a bunch of other analog games, and this didn't happen. 

NOTE:  the joystick is centered propertly in the windows gameport configuration and calibrated fine.

Any clue? 

I have in the mame.ini

joystick_map              auto
joystick_deadzone         0.0
joystick_saturation       1.0

and inside mame I have auto center to 0 and sensitivity at 50 (but that shouldn't matter... should it??  I tried a few settings...)

Also, another weird thing... I have to state -joystick in mame  (mame starwars -joystick) where everything else works without the -joystick. 

I'm running .129, but I also tried a very very old version (analog+mame .82) and they both had the same centering issue.

Any clue?

Last note... I did make sure that when I put the pots back in, they where in the same centered position.... And they seemed to be original.. but I didn't pull it out of a machine... I'm not sure if the original hardware had different 'default' position... but if I move it much, the pots would be at the extreme position before the yoke was at the edge, which would destroy the pot... so I believe that is set correct...

THANKS!

[Xiaou2]

 What Value are the pots you installed?

 Arcade games used 5k pots.. where I believe PC uses 100k pots.

 If you do not have a device that translates and changes the values of
a 5k pot to 100k spec for pc... then it wont function properly.

 Pots should be mounted in placed centered, allowing equal distance in
either direction.



 Also, are they audio taper or Linear?  I believe they must use Linear.

 Example of difference:

 1,2,3,4,5   instead of  1,2,8,15,30


  Finally, Star Wars has Auto-Calibration on it.  To calibrate.. start up a games,
and roll the controller to the furthest possible points in all directions a few times.
Eventually, it realizes how far its off, and makes an automatic adjustment.

 
 Ohh, and try deleting all your ini, nvram, etc.. settings for starwars.  Sometimes
changes in mame version can cause odd behaviors with old settings.

[Xiaou2]

btw - In case you are not sure about what pots are in there...

 Using a multimeter, measure the ohm resistance between two pins.
(middle and end, i believe...  or is it end to end?)

 At full turn one way, will be or nearly zero.  Full turn other way should read either 100k, or 5k.


 Some people hack certain joysticks which use 5k pots..  or you can buy certain
arcade interfaces here that support it.   Or, you might be able to find 100k pots
that match in size to replace the 5k pots in there.

[Lilwolf]

They are 5k pots..

but that shouldn't matter... Everything works perfect in windows -> control panel -> game controllers settings... perfectly smooth,.... center is in the middle of the screen....    plus it doesn't happen in other mame games...

There isn't a configuration / setup menu for starwars is there?

[Lilwolf]

ok, some more weirdness...  I never found the pot settings menu... pain to get there... but found it *(f2 -> 9 -> 8 -> 9 or somethign)

Anyway, my joystick IS centered based on the pot menu... and then when I get ingame, its showing about about 1/2 way between the center and the bottom left corner...  Weird...

Am I really the only one who is getting this?  I don't have any other analog joysticks at the moment so I can't test others... but since (again) its working great in the windows setup, I'm guessing thats not the problem.

[Bender]

I Had this same issue when I first tried my Yoke
mine always starts out in that same position too

I believe that Star Wars is a self centering game

on the opening screen rotate the yoke all the way around the extreme edges of the screen and it will self calibrate
and when you let go it should be centered

you have to do this each time you turn the game on

hope that helps

[Xiaou2]

I said that already

 

Finally, Star Wars has Auto-Calibration on it.  To calibrate.. start up a games,
and roll the controller to the furthest possible points in all directions a few times.
Eventually, it realizes how far its off, and makes an automatic adjustment.

[Bender]

I said that already

 

Finally, Star Wars has Auto-Calibration on it.  To calibrate.. start up a games,
and roll the controller to the furthest possible points in all directions a few times.
Eventually, it realizes how far its off, and makes an automatic adjustment.

oh yeah, would help if I read to whole thread, sorry

[u_rebelscum]

I said that already

 

Finally, Star Wars has Auto-Calibration on it.  To calibrate.. start up a games,
and roll the controller to the furthest possible points in all directions a few times.
Eventually, it realizes how far its off, and makes an automatic adjustment.

I missed it too. 

IMO, this should have been the first and only answer (at least until it was tested by the OP).  That Q is asked and this is the why so often, I thought there was a FAQ about this, but I can't find it.

Run the yoke all around 3 or four times and you'll be fine.  (You'll have to do this every time you restart starwars.)


edit: okay, here's a thread with links to other threads about this star wars specific feature.

[jasonbar]

Just another +1 for this "fix" & a bump for a very handy thread.

I'm using a Logitech Attack 3 analog stick & I too get nice centering in the setup pot screen but the crosshairs is shifted down & left by default.  Each time I run SW, I need to roll the stick around to the corners a few times & it self-calibrates.  Interestingly, I seem to be able to do this in the attract mode or the level select screen.

-Jason

[Ginsu Victim]

Each time I run SW, I need to roll the stick around to the corners a few times & it self-calibrates.  Interestingly, I seem to be able to do this in the attract mode or the level select screen.

I've mentioned this in a different thread at some point, but this works for me on the U360 as well.

[1UP]

Just for the record, the sensitivity/analog settings will affect your inputs.  It's been a while, but one of those will "scale" your joystick input.  I would try cranking them up/down until your crosshair gets roughly centered, so you don't have to do the calibration every time.