How to configure MAME racing games with U-HID

[sega_mad]

Hi,

Have got the steering running on Daytona and Sega Rally with ultimarc's U-HID device (can't get throttle and brake working yet)....waiting on a reply from Andy.

Would like to get MAME games (Out Run and Power Drift) configured, but can't configure the analogue controller.

Anyone know how to do it?

Running MAME 102, but can easily upgade to 141 if needed.

Thanks

Sega_mad

[BadMouth]

No experience with the U-HID, but I'll give it a try...

Do the axis for the throttle and brake work when you check it under Game Controllers in the control panel?
Do they show up as separate axis, or two halve of the same axis?  
Model 2 requires them to be separate.  The games you mentioned also require them to be inverted in the Model 2 input menu.
(I think both pedals need to be inverted, but it might just be the gas.  They are all the same way except for the two Jaleco games.)

In MAME, it could be that the joystick needs to be enabled in the ini file.
See the MAME section of the driving cab thread about joystick deadzone and saturation.
Driving games suck bigtime with them set at the defaults.

Running MAME 102, but can easily upgade to 141 if needed.

You're probably only missing out the Cruisin' series with that build.  
It takes a fairly fast processor to run them though (2.8Ghz dual core in my experience)

The cool thing about the U-HID is that it can handle input from both a potentiometer and an optical encoder.
So if you had a wheel that spun 360 degrees and a continuous rotation pot, you could have both the 360 & 270 degree wheel games covered.
If it had outputs for a FFB motor, it would be a perfect interface.

[sega_mad]

Hi Bad Mouth.

As soon as I installed both brake and accelerator the steering stopped working. Andy advised to connect them to J5 & J6 outputs, so will give that a go today.

I should have mentioned that this is a dedicated racing machine, so only has about 10 games or so. It's a Scud Racing machine with FFB but I wont be using that, will be creating "feel" with springs like in Outrun.

As it doesn't have any joystick games, only racing games....what settings do I need to change? When I select TAB to change settings for the analogue controls, it doesn't recognize it?

Thanks for your help.

[BadMouth]

As it doesn't have any joystick games, only racing games....what settings do I need to change? When I select TAB to change settings for the analogue controls, it doesn't

In MAME, it could be that the joystick needs to be enabled in the ini file.
See the MAME section of the driving cab thread about joystick deadzone and saturation.

Joystick=Analogue Input, when it comes to the mame ini file.
If you don't have it enabled, MAME won't allow you to map any analogue controls.

Open your MAME.ini file with notepad and change

joystick 0

to

joystick 1

If you're using some other build of MAME (MAME32, MAMEUI, MAME+, etc), there's probably a checkbox for "enable joystick input" somewhere.
It will accomplish the same thing.

[sega_mad]

Wicked.

Will give it a crack when I get home later today.

Thanks.

[sega_mad]

Wow, can't believe it was that easy. Outrun and power drift now working, and changed the settings in Mala so that I can use the steering to select the games 

Changed the dead zone to 0.1 and saturation to 0.95 (read this some where)...is this about right?. Outrun still seems to have quite a dead zone, but still drivable, Power Drift is great/

Still cant get the throttle and brake running withthe U HID...I hope Andy can sort it out for me??

That is some extensive write up on driving cabs......thanks very much.

Did I see something in there about FFB for Outrun...how is this possible, as it never had it? If it is possible, is Power Drift and others do-able as well.

Thanks for you help

Sega_mad

[BadMouth]

Did I see something in there about FFB for Outrun...how is this possible, as it never had it? If it is possible, is Power Drift and others do-able as well.

The original standup cabinet had FFB that shook the entire wheel left and right (the ffb didn't turn the steering wheel itself though).
There were also deluxe sit down cabs where the whole cab moved left and right.

A long time ago somebody modified the Final Burn emulator to add FFB support for Outrun and Afterburner.
Only those two games were supported.  The FFB is pretty good, but the rest of the emulation leaves a lot to be desired (It's based on a very old version of Final Burn).
The sound gets messed up sometimes and there are some graphics missing.  There aren't even any clouds in the sky.  It kinda makes it look like pole position. 
It was a neat experiment to try it out, but I didn't even bother adding it to my gamelist.

[sega_mad]

I used to own a deluxe outrun, as well as deluxe power drift and G. Loc and after burner!! When you said FFB for Outrun I thought you meant steering wheel resistance. Don't think it's worth just the shaking.

Thanks for your help

[BadMouth]

Changed the dead zone to 0.1 and saturation to 0.95 (read this some where)...is this about right?. Outrun still seems to have quite a dead zone, but still drivable, Power Drift is great/

0.1 = 10% deadzone, way too much in my book.  Mine is at .05

Saturation at .95 means that when your wheel is turned 95% of the way, MAME will see it as turned all the way.
Probably not even noticeable, but I don't see any reason not to have it at 1. (100%)

Getting the sensetivity dialed in on the "in game" (TAB) menu is a PITA and must be done separately for each game,
but it makes a huge difference in the playability of the game.  The games just suck when the controls don't feel right.  
Those settings depend on your controller, so there's no "correct" settings that work for everyone.

[sega_mad]

Hi Badmouth,

Thanks for the info.

OK, I have a new problem now....

I've now got the Throttle and brake (analogue axis) running  ....works perfectly in Daytona!!

Problem now is that when I go into MAME config (TAB), to set up the throttle and Brake on MAME games, it's like the up/down arrow is been pushed constantly (have tried another keyboard...same problem), so I can't get into the menu to set the analogue settings.

As soon as I select joystick 0...its fine, but obviously I can't configure the analogue settings that way 

Have reinstalled MAME 1.14 and MALA.....no change.

Please help....I'm almost there, but this is killing me

Cheers

Sega_mad

[BadMouth]

Hi Badmouth,

Thanks for the info.

OK, I have a new problem now....

I've now got the Throttle and brake (analogue axis) running  ....works perfectly in Daytona!!

Problem now is that when I go into MAME config (TAB), to set up the throttle and Brake on MAME games, it's like the up/down arrow is been pushed constantly (have tried another keyboard...same problem), so I can't get into the menu to set the analogue settings.

As soon as I select joystick 0...its fine, but obviously I can't configure the analogue settings that way 

Have reinstalled MAME 1.14 and MALA.....no change.

Please help....I'm almost there, but this is killing me

Cheers

Sega_mad

Set joystick = 0 then go into the tab menu
Go to the TAB menu and select:
 Input(General)>User Interface

Make sure UI up, UI down, etc aren't mapped to the joystick.

If that doesn't work, set the joystick =1 and the joystick deadzone to 1 and try it again.
After you're done making the changes in the TAB menu, change the deadzone back.

[sega_mad]

UI is mapped to up arrow and down arrow.

Your second suggestion started to work, but I couldn't calibrate paddle 1 decrease or the brake. When I went out of MAME and then back into it, the scrolling started again, without changing anything else.
 

[BadMouth]

I couldn't calibrate paddle 1 decrease

Of course you couldn't set the analogue controls because the dead zone was 100%.
That was just to keep it from flipping through the menu while you fixed it.

You shouldn't be mapping the controls that say INC and DEC.
Those are for buttons being substituted for analogue controls, not the analogue controls themselves.
(This is covered in the driving cab thread.     )

Either the analogue controls are mapped to UI up and down or the U-HID is also posting arrow key presses.
But if it were posting arrow keys, I would have expected it to still scroll when the dead zone was set to 1.
You could try changing UI up and down to some other keys and see what happens.

I'm out of ideas. 

[sega_mad]

Badmouth..... You're a legend. 

Turns out the accelerator POT was causing the menu to scroll.

But your last post helped out heaps..... Didn't realize that I didn't have to configure Inc or Dec.

All sorted now.

Thanks very much for all your help, it's been very much appreciated.

[sega_mad]

Ok, next problem.

When configuring Model 2, I've got a new problem.......

Steering Brake and Accelerator are fine (Analogue). I'm now wanting to configure the VR buttons. When I do this on my normal desktop computer....reconfiguring is fine.

Now when I try to configure on my Arcade Rig I get the following......
If I double click on VR1 or 2 or 3 or 4 it doesn't let me choose a button, it automatically assigns Joy 1 up 2 (I think, can double check if needed).

What's up with this?? I wont let me choose a button.

Running a U HID and J-PAC.

Any thought?

Thanks

Sega_mad

[BadMouth]

Any thought?

One of your pedals are registering as being pressed when they're not.
After the last issue, you should have an understanding of how they work and be able to fix it on your own. 

[sega_mad]

Thanks, good advise.

I ended up configuring it on my desktop, and copying the new CFG file to my Arcade machine.

All good now.

Thanks for all you're great help and advise.