Support for stable contoller IDs in MAME

[tverona]

Hi all,

One painful issue with controllers in MAME is that their ids are not stable. For instance, a gamepad controller may be assigned to “Joy 1” initially, but after a reboot, it may get re-assigned to “Joy 3”. The reason is that MAME enumerates attached devices and assigns controller IDs based on the enumeration order. Factors that can cause controller IDs to change include plugging / unplugging USB devices, changing ports / hubs and even system reboots. It's very painful / cumbersome to keep having to update controller configs whenever input id's change.

I've submitted a pull request to address this issue @ https://github.com/mamedev/mame/pull/1405.

The change adds a config option to specify "mapdevice" to map between device name and controller id. For example:
  <mapdevice device=”VID_D209&amp;PID_1601” controller=”GUNCODE_1” />
  <mapdevice device=”VID_D209&amp;PID_1602” controller=”GUNCODE_2” />
  <mapdevice device=”XInput Player 1” controller=”JOYCODE_1” />
  <mapdevice device=”XInput Player 2” controller=”JOYCODE_2” />

The above example maps (on my system) two Aimtrak lightguns to guns 1 & 2 and two xbox controllers to joysticks 1 & 2. The pull request has documentation on this with more details.

It's been working very well on my system. I've verified on Windows & Linux and on multiple input devices.

I'm wondering if others on here can try this out as well? Let me know how it works for you and if you find this useful. See above link for the pull request - you'll need to apply the change & build it. Would be great to get confirmation this works for folks on both Windows & Linux and with various input devices.

Cheers!

[headkaze]

Just a suggestion. You could enumerate the controllers based on the device name sorted alphabetically. At least then the device order would be predictable.

[Titchgamer]

Afraid I cant help with the testing but if you can get this working you will make many people very happy!
(Inc me...)

Good luck!

[Howard_Casto]

That should be a marked improvement in terms of how it is done now, but be warned....  VID/PID pairs aren't really a good way to enumerate devices... their physical address is. 

Why?  Well if you own two of the same joystick their vid/pid pairs are going to match.  Hobbyist controllers like the aimtrak have different pairs but this is a rarity. 

The address is a better method since you can deem one port on your computer the player 1 port and so on.  So long as a device is plugged into the same port it will retain it's address. 

Obviously Xinput devices are an exception, but since they can also be read as a direct input device it would work just as well. 

Probably the ability to use the xinput id, the physical address or the vid/pid would be the best way to do it, but that's an awful lot of work. 

[tverona]

I'm planning to allow for matching on any substring of the full device name. Here are input names for various kinds of device inputs based on what MAME recognizes on my system:
Raw input (aimtrak light gun 1): HID#VID_D209&PID_1601&MI_02#9&375eebb1&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd}
Raw input (aimtrak light gun 2): HID#VID_D209&PID_1602&MI_02#8&389ab7f3&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd}
XInput (xbox controller #1): XInput Player 1
XInput (xbox controller #2): XInput Player 2
DirectInput (aimtrak light gun 1 - joystick buttons): ATRAK Device #1
DirectInput (aimtrak light gun 2 - joystick buttons): ATRAK Device #2

As you said, I found that my aimtrak guns have different PIDs, which is why the above example works for me. Even if PIDs were the same, I'm hoping that allowing for match on substring of the full raw device name is sufficient.

[Howard_Casto]

That should work beautifully.  That's how I'm doing it in an upcoming release of troubleshooter 2.  If I could ever get around to updating all the memory addresses to the new version of m2emu. 

[nordemoniac]

It shouldn't switch on reboot, but it could switch if you plug it into a different port...

[Titchgamer]

Sadly they do switch on reeboot.
Stupid as it is.

[Paul Olson]

I won't have a chance to mess with MAME stuff for at least another month, but I will try to test it when I get a chance. I use 2 U-HIDs, an optipac, 2 49-way encoders, 2 aimtacks, 2 star wars USB adapters, and a 360 controller. As you can imagine, this is a huge issue for me.

Sorry I can't help test this sooner, but October is just a whirlwind month for me this year.

[tverona]

Hey guys,  happy to say that this is now released with MAME 0.178. Give it a shot! Cheers.

[Titchgamer]

I noticed your name appear on the MAME site.
Not had a chance to try it yet but excellent work.

[steveskalley]

 
Thank you for trying to solve this problem! i had resorted to grabbing the output from a controller remap app, and scripting changes in multiple config files.. This may solve my MAME problems, but still have to deal with the find-and-replace-scripts for other consoles..

This will work where I have a single joystick of a particular model, but if i have 2 joysticks of the same model, it seems to be confusing them.  The DirectInput for the Joystics just shows OEMNames instead of Hardware IDs, and since there are multiple matches, i'm having difficulty. I tried changing using both the OEMName and the HardwareIDs in the mapdevice section, but only the Hardware IDs are recognized at this point. (thinking it might be a problem with the way i'm escaping the '&'s or '\' ?)

Any Guidance you can provide would be welcome!
Thanks!


Hardware IDs for 'NES Controllers'
HID\VID_0079&PID_0011\8&34F77B0D&0&0000
HID\VID_0079&PID_0011\8&223DCA68&0&0000

this is my test ctrlr file: testremap.cfg
<mameconfig version="10">
<system name="default">
<input>
<mapdevice device="HID#VID_0079&amp;PID_0011#8" controller="JOYCODE_1" />
<mapdevice device="VID_0079&amp;PID_0011#8" controller="JOYCODE_2" />
<mapdevice device="VID_0079&amp;PID_0011\8" controller="JOYCODE_3" />
<mapdevice device="NES Controller" controller="JOYCODE_4" />
<mapdevice device="NES Controller" controller="JOYCODE_5" />
         <port type="UI_UP">
            <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_UP</newseq>
         </port>
      </input>
   </system>
</mameconfig>


D:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\178>mame64.exe -ctrlr testremap -v

Video: Monitor 65537 = "\\.\DISPLAY1" (primary)
Direct3D: Using Direct3D 9
Physical width 1920, height 1080
Direct3D: Initialize
Direct3D: Configuring adapter #0 = NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Direct3D: Using dynamic textures
Direct3D: YUV format = RGB
Direct3D: Max texture size = 8192x8192
Direct3D: Device created at 1920x1080
Direct3D: Initialize HLSL
RawInput: APIs detected
RawInput: APIs detected
RawInput: APIs detected
Sound: XAudio2 created initial buffers. total size: 46080, count 10, size each 4608
Sound: XAudio2 initialized. 57 ms.
Input: Adding Kbd #0: HID Keyboard Device (device id: \\?\HID#VID_413C&PID_2003#8&be5da2c&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Kbd #1: HID Keyboard Device (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0409&PID_2433&MI_00#7&1c10e4c0&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Mouse #0: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_047D&PID_1022#8&17f6d9fc&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Mouse #1: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0409&PID_2433&MI_01&Col01#7&8e0c882&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Gun #0: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_047D&PID_1022#8&17f6d9fc&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Gun #1: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0409&PID_2433&MI_01&Col01#7&8e0c882&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Joy #0: N64 Controller (device id: N64 Controller)
Input: Adding Joy #1: NES Controller (device id: NES Controller)
Input: Adding Joy #2: SNES Controller (device id: SNES Controller)
Input: Adding Joy #3: NES Controller (device id: NES Controller)
Input: Adding Joy #4: SNES Controller (device id: SNES Controller)
Input: Adding Joy #5: N64 Controller (device id: N64 Controller)
Input: Adding Joy #6: GP-Wiz40 (device id: GP-Wiz40)
Region ':user1' created
Starting No Driver Loaded ':'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting Video Screen ':screen'
Optional device ':screen:finder_dummy_tag' not found
Starting No Driver Loaded ':'
Input: Remapped Joy #3: NES Controller (device id: NES Controller)
Sound: overflows=0, underflows=1
Sound: XAudio2 deinitialized

The result is a single match on the OEMName, but HID doesn't match.

[tverona]

Ok, I see the problem - in this case, we have directinput devices that have generic names like "NES Controller" so we cannot disambiguate between multiple devices. Actually the VID/PID also match in this case so even if we had them in the device id they would not be useful to disambiguate multiple devices. Directinput devices gives you the friendly name, product identifier (which is basically VID/PID) and instance identifier. In this case, we'll need to use instance identifier to disambiguate. From my (limited) experiments, it looks like instance identifier is actually stable on a given machine.

So, to address this, I added a more unique device id for directinput devices that includes product identifier and instance identifier.

Can you try the below private build to see if it addresses your issue:
https://mega.nz/#!MltwjC4K!JDddZckH6WtmoRqRyXG7cAhioMnceuQlECdTL043LoM

You'll need to pick the right device id for your controller(s) (from the output of mame -v) and then use the instance_XXXXXXXXXXX part in your mapdevice config setting. That should be enough to disambiguate. Let me know if that works.

[steveskalley]

At first glance, looks like this works perfectly!

New testremap.cfg:  (i used my GPWiz as device joystick1, and the two "N64 controllers" as joystick 2 & 3, which worked amazing. I also left the two references in for "NES Controller" just to see if that was handled differently, but looks like it had same behaviour as previous (which is not a problem, because the instance ID works like a champ!!)

<mameconfig version="10">
<system name="default">
<input>
<mapdevice device="instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8006-444553540000" controller="JOYCODE_1" />
<mapdevice device="instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8002-444553540000" controller="JOYCODE_2" />
<mapdevice device="instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8003-444553540000" controller="JOYCODE_3" />
<mapdevice device="NES Controller" controller="JOYCODE_4" />
<mapdevice device="NES Controller" controller="JOYCODE_5" />

         <port type="UI_UP">
            <newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_UP</newseq>
         </port>
      </input>
   </system>
</mameconfig>





D:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\178.1>mame64.exe -v -ctrlr testremap
Video: Monitor 65537 = "\\.\DISPLAY1" (primary)
Direct3D: Using Direct3D 9
Physical width 1920, height 1080
Direct3D: Initialize
Direct3D: Configuring adapter #0 = NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Direct3D: Using dynamic textures
Direct3D: YUV format = RGB
Direct3D: Max texture size = 8192x8192
Direct3D: Device created at 1920x1080
Direct3D: Initialize HLSL
RawInput: APIs detected
RawInput: APIs detected
RawInput: APIs detected
Sound: XAudio2 created initial buffers. total size: 46080, count 10, size each 4608
m_xAudio2->CreateMasteringVoice( &temp_master_voice, format.nChannels, sample_rate()) failed with error 0x80004005
create_voices(format) failed with error 0x80004005
Sound: XAudio2 deinitialized
Input: Adding Kbd #0: HID Keyboard Device (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0409&PID_2433&MI_00#7&1c10e4c0&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Kbd #1: HID Keyboard Device (device id: \\?\HID#VID_413C&PID_2003#8&be5da2c&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Mouse #0: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_047D&PID_1022#8&17f6d9fc&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Mouse #1: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0409&PID_2433&MI_01&Col01#7&8e0c882&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Mouse #2: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_D209&PID_1601&MI_02#7&6f69e7b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Gun #0: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_047D&PID_1022#8&17f6d9fc&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Gun #1: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0409&PID_2433&MI_01&Col01#7&8e0c882&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Gun #2: HID-compliant mouse (device id: \\?\HID#VID_D209&PID_1601&MI_02#7&6f69e7b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding Joy #0: N64 Controller (device id: N64 Controller product_00060079-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8002-444553540000)
Input: Adding Joy #1: NES Controller (device id: NES Controller product_00110079-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8001-444553540000)
Input: Adding Joy #2: SNES Controller (device id: SNES Controller product_e5010810-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_9e4d5450-7481-11e6-8001-444553540000)
Input: Adding Joy #3: ATRAK Device #1 (device id: ATRAK Device #1 product_1601d209-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_285e7ed0-8b43-11e6-8002-444553540000)
Input: Adding Joy #4: NES Controller (device id: NES Controller product_00110079-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8005-444553540000)
Input: Adding Joy #5: SNES Controller (device id: SNES Controller product_e5010810-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_9e4da270-7481-11e6-8002-444553540000)
Input: Adding Joy #6: N64 Controller (device id: N64 Controller product_00060079-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8003-444553540000)
Input: Adding Joy #7: GP-Wiz40 (device id: GP-Wiz40 product_0035fafa-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8006-444553540000)
Region ':user1' created
Starting No Driver Loaded ':'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting Video Screen ':screen'
Optional device ':screen:finder_dummy_tag' not found
Starting No Driver Loaded ':'
Input: Remapped Joy #3: NES Controller (device id: NES Controller product_00110079-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8001-444553540000)
Input: Remapped Joy #1: N64 Controller (device id: N64 Controller product_00060079-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8002-444553540000)
Input: Remapped Joy #2: N64 Controller (device id: N64 Controller product_00060079-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8003-444553540000)
Input: Remapped Joy #0: GP-Wiz40 (device id: GP-Wiz40 product_0035fafa-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_f1641160-a808-11e5-8006-444553540000)
Sound: XAudio2 deinitialized



Side note: I changed the OEMName registry keys on this arcadePC so the joysticks do not show up with generic names, instead showing up with friendly system names. This is very necessary because right now i have 6 external usb controllers, and looking to add at least dreamcast and genesis also. Controller assignment and management is a necessity!  Thank you for your effort on this!!!

[tverona]

Awesome! Glad to hear this worked for you. Thank you very much for validating. This change has been incorporated into MAME and should be available with 0.179. Cheers!

[cyberfix]

Awesome! Glad to hear this worked for you. Thank you very much for validating. This change has been incorporated into MAME and should be available with 0.179. Cheers!

tverona,

Not sure if you have seen the other thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151941.0.html

Nothing I have tried will get .178 to run.   .177 does run fine and so does your build of .178.    Can you think of anything you did differently on your build that might have fixed it?   Are you able to provide a diff of your build versus the .178 official source?    I am trying to get MAMEUI64 to run.   Maybe you can make a version of it with your patch?   Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jking3]

is there a default ctrlr.cfg file that gets used? or do you always have to pass that ctrlr.cfg file along with starting mame64.exe?

Thanks

[Martin0037]

Hi. I'd love a solution to this...   I'm absolutely tearing my hair out with this problem. I just wish I'd have known about this before I spent a tone of money building my cab to then have this problem. I'd have never have built it. No way!    I'm using two aimtrack guns, a trackball and a spinner

[jking3]

is there a default ctrlr.cfg file that gets used? or do you always have to pass that ctrlr.cfg file along with starting mame64.exe?

Thanks

Yes, Found in the mame.ini ctrlr can be called out as a default.....
FYI

[millercentral]

Question for @tverona:

I don't have any light guns in my system, but I notice in the verbose output that MAME assigns lightgun inputs to the same devices as my mice inputs. Should I make multiple mapdevice entries per mouse device, one for MOUSECODE and one for GUNCODE if I want to use the trackballs for gun games?

Thanks so much for getting this into mame. It will be a huge help!

[tverona]

@millercentral, I believe either would work since, as you observed, MAME maps mice to lightgun inputs. Try GUNCODE to see if that works.