Star Wars yoke and Mame - configuration problems

[JDGJr]

Just got my star wars yoke working, using 1UpArcade's Sidewinder hack - thanks 1UPArcade!!! I wired it together and plugged into Vista box - Game controller applet allows calibration, and MAME 'works'.

After calibrating in the game controler, the crosshair in the properties window acts as I expect - I can hover at any position I want, and starting to move in any direction from a hover is fluid/linear.

But I'm not satisfied with the fluidity and aim-ability while playing Starwars under MAME v119...
 - Control lags when starting to move from a stop
 - When hovering off-center, the control jumps around - it is not close to steady.

I think that the hardware (pots, etc) are working properly since the display inside the Game controller applet work as I want.

I can't tell how the Analog Control settings in MAME really make a huge difference. I've tried a wide range for most values, and can see a slight change, but can't get a combination that supports enjoyable play. Does anyone with an operational yoke care to list the settings they're using? What suggestions do you have that might help configuring?

Thanks in advance!
John

[mrserv0n]

maybe try using .122 of mame, they are always tweaking the controls and such... might have better support?

[protokatie]

Dont know much about this, but would like to see you get it resolved in case I want to make a similar setup. On that note, a few things to try (without me knowing anything really about your setup)

1. Make sure that MAME is set to "Sleep when possible"

2. Set the task priority for MAME down a little bit

Sorry, Im not much use here, but I fathomed that MAME may be taking too many clock cycles and the controller driver may not be getting enough... Just a guess from so little info, and the fact I dont have one of these things (yet that is)

[JDGJr]

I finally got it close to very good.

The key to the slugishness when starting to move was the 'joystick_deadzone' setting in mame.ini. It defaults to .3, and when i changed to .1 all movements became fluid.

Jitteriness when attempting to hold at a random location (like entering initials on the high score display) was improve by overriding the Analog settings inside the game. I changed all numeric values from 30 to 0, and both percentages to 1%. I can now hover to add my initials to the list!!!

now to relearn how to play the game well.

[protokatie]

I was going to say something about deadzone, but figured you had dealt with it already...  Good to hear my reply was worthless

Regardless, Please post exactly what you  did (from install to tweaks) so that others can benefit from your experience. In the future I may want to add a Yoke, and would like to know about it from beginning to end.

[genesim]

Yes please post!

I am currently working on a hack, but I would also like good settings.   Can you set the deadzone in MAME32?

[genesim]

Just out of curiosity, is the Star Wars Yoke just a fancy flight stick?

Or is the turning up and down or left and right part of the programming?

Or is just one axis based, and the rest is just facy movements??

[Minwah]

Just out of curiosity, is the Star Wars Yoke just a fancy flight stick?

Yes, it is just a 2 axis (X & Y) controller.

[genesim]

Thats what I thought...not that it is a bad thing, but nice to know a regular flight stick will do the job.

[Level42]

Thats what I thought...not that it is a bad thing, but nice to know a regular flight stick will do the job.

Doesn't come near to it

[genesim]

Well everyone likes decoration.    Thats while steering wheels are so big on the Turbotwist...for me, a spinner is good enough, just as long as I can make the movements!

[JDGJr]

I was going to say something about deadzone, but figured you had dealt with it already...  Good to hear my reply was worthless

No reply is worthless! i tried 1 of your suggestions (priority) and couldn't figure out how to do the other. That got me to re-looking at other configuration settings and to the deadzone value.

Regardless, Please post exactly what you  did (from install to tweaks) so that others can benefit from your experience. In the future I may want to add a Yoke, and would like to know about it from beginning to end.

I'll try to collect info soon, but aside from the [already compelte] wiring instructions, and the few settings i mentioned here, i haven't done anything difficult.

[u_rebelscum]

Even though you found a work around, one thing you might look into is make sure the yoke is mapped correctly (Mame's default isn't).

Check that the yoke is mapped to "AD stick X analog", but NOT "AD stick X inc" NOR "AD stick X dec", and ditto to Y axis.

Basically, the "...analog" is for true analog devices like your yoke, while "...inc" and "...dec" are for digital inputs that you want mame to fake as analog.  Since mamecan't tell if the axis is analog or digital (it's a windows limit), mame defaults treat all axes as both.   Setting digital speed and autocenter to 0 minimizes the inc/dec, but the way to get rid of the problem is to unmap the yoke from inc/dec.

[JDGJr]

I had seen that X and Y had values for all 3, but didn't understand. What you say makes sense, and a really quick test after setting the inc/dec values to 'none' shows it plays at least as well as before. I plan to do some more tests later.

To be clear - you're saying the digital speed and autocenter settings (from the analog controls menu) are ignored if the AD stick settings are only set to analog (in the input menu)?

also, is there an online reference to the meaning of all the configuration settings in the mame.ini file and the in-game menus?

thanks, u_rebelscum

[u_rebelscum]

I had seen that X and Y had values for all 3, but didn't understand. What you say makes sense, and a really quick test after setting the inc/dec values to 'none' shows it plays at least as well as before. I plan to do some more tests later.

To be clear - you're saying the digital speed and autocenter settings (from the analog controls menu) are ignored if the AD stick settings are only set to analog (in the input menu)?

Pretty much.  Those two settings are used by mame when trying to simulate an analog input from digital inputs. 

For example, when someone used the arrow keys on an AD_Stick, digital speed is how fast mame moves the simulated analog stick from the last state (usually center) when the left arrow key is pressed to the full analog left.  I believe the number is "count per screen refresh", so if a game plays at 60 hz, and the digital speed is set to 1, after the key is held for 1 second, mame is sending the game the the stick in at 60 (assuming range is -128 to 128).  Autocenter is bacially the opposite: the speed the simulated analog stick returns to center when no arrow keys are pressed.

also, is there an online reference to the meaning of all the configuration settings in the mame.ini file and the in-game menus?

Not in a single, simple to read site.

The closest place comes with mame in the docs folder, mostly in config.txt and windows.txt files.  For more info, you can also look into the comments in the source (a little much for most people, though ).  All these are also held at mameDev and Maws.

Also, have you looked at mameDev FAQ?  If you think of needed questions or clarifications in the Controls page, I can see what I can do.

thanks, u_rebelscum

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