The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls

Main => Software Forum => Linux => Topic started by: bleargh on April 24, 2015, 02:49:06 am

Title: [Mostly Solved] AimTrak calibrated, but doesn't work in MAME
Post by: bleargh on April 24, 2015, 02:49:06 am
Ok... I'm sure that I'm missing something here, but for the life of me I can't figure out what.   :banghead:

I've got a Linux box here (Fedora 21), and an AimTrak lightgun.

I've calibrated the AimTrak, and have it such that on my X-windows desktop it happily moves the mouse pointer all over the place, and it track really well there.

However... when I start up MAME 0.160, it immediately drops the crosshairs to the bottom-right corner of the screen, and doesn't ever move them from that position.

I've tried different games to see if its game-specific.  Nope, same behaviour in all games that I've tried.

I've seen piles of stuff online showing how to go into MAME GUI (on Windows) and set it up, and I believe that I've duplicated those settings in my "mame.ini" file.  Same result, though; crosshairs go to bottom-right and don't move.

I've also tried countless combinations of enabling/disable "mouse", "joystick", and "lightgun", as well as setting the "lightgun_device", "positional_device", and "adstick_device" settings to either "mouse" or "lightgun".  Same result; crosshairs go to bottom-right.

When I quit MAME and go back to my X-windows desktop, the mouse goes back to tracking beautifully on my screen again, so I'm pretty sure that its not that the gun calibration is off.  Its something to do with the way that MAME is picking it up, or how I've got that part misconfigured.

Anyone here got some insights they'd care to share?  I can't imagine that I'm the first one here to try running an AimTrak on Linux.
Title: Re: AimTrak calibrated, but doesn't work in MAME
Post by: bleargh on April 25, 2015, 01:38:36 am
Ok... made some progress today...

Running Windows 7 under VMware Workstation, I was able to get the AimTrak Utility to detect the gun.  However, there was a catch... the gun had to be plugged in, and the USB device exposed to VMware before I started Windows up.

But, that allowed me to at least get the utility up, so that I could try switching the gun over from "mouse" to "joystick".

THAT, seemed to help out quite a bit.  Although I could no longer use the AimTrak to track the mouse in X-windows (as I hadn't yet configured it to allow for joystick control), I could now use it within MAME to move the crosshairs around.  Yay!

Unfortunately... I didn't set up the buttons to go along with it when I moved it to "joystick", so the buttons on the gun don't register for anything just yet.

And, adding insult to injury, I can't seem to get the AimTrak to detect again properly under Windows 7 when firing up the AimTrak Utility.  Sigh... the force just isn't with me this week.    :hissy:

Next, I think I'll try downloading the utility from ArcadeGuns.com (based on the AimTrak hardware), and will see if that helps.  More to come tomorrow...
Title: Re: AimTrak calibrated, but doesn't work in MAME
Post by: bleargh on April 27, 2015, 03:56:16 pm
Some more progress from over the weekend...

Figured out how to get Windows (under VMWare) to always detect the gun... make sure its plugged in before starting up the VM.  Then, when I'm done, shut the VM down before unplugging the gun.

Doing it that way, I was able to get both the "AimTrak Utility" and the "ArcadeGuns Configurator" to detect the gun, and help me get it all tweaked out.

Through that, I found the trick to getting it detected and working properly in MAME under Linux... set it to "joystick" instead of "mouse".

It did mean losing the ability to have it control the mouse in X-windows, but I believe that's only because I haven't yet gone back to reconfigure X-windows to see/use it as a pointer device.

But, I was able to successfully calibrate the gun when configured to work as a Mouse, then switched it over to work as Joystick and it kept the calibration and worked perfectly in MAME.  Yay!

Next up?  Changing the ID so I can have two guns in use at once.
Title: Re: [Mostly Solved] AimTrak calibrated, but doesn't work in MAME
Post by: RobeeJ on December 10, 2015, 05:37:30 pm
Did you ever get a happy setup? I recently got two Aimtrak OEM modules (and put them in my old Act Labs gun housings), they work fine as mice but I have the same issue you did, cursor goes to the bottom right and stays there. :/

Tried the config recommended in the ultimarc docs, and lots of random fiddling, nothing helps.

I did use my Win7 laptop to change one to a joystick, and that works in Operation Wolf, but it's not a pleasant experience. :/