U360 Automatic Direction Mapping

[EddieArcadian]

This is a cross-post I posted in the main forum...think it goes here too...

What is the best way to have the U360 automatically map the correct joysticks in my emulators (MAME and other consoles)?  I know you guys don't manually map the joysticks every time you play a game...

I do understand that it will "work" out of the box as analog, but Andy seems to think it's better to map the sticks if you can.  I've read posts from people who say that there are joystick maps pre-built that you can have automatically applied, via your Front End software, but I can't seem to find much info on them.  Andy acknowledges that the GameEx and Mala front ends might support this, but is unsure about HyperSpin - that's the front end I'm using.

Here's Andy's email to me:
Mame will automatically map an analog stick to the game and this applies to the U360. But its more accurate to send maps to the stick. I should really know what, if any, front ends support auto-sending of maps. I do know that Game-Ex requested the info on this and also Mala but I have lost track of what software actually implemented it. Sorry I don’t have much helpful info on this. I really need to research this and add the info to our site.

If anyone knows the best way I can utilize my U360 with HyperSpin, has info on automapping (I don't even know how to achieve this), or has any suggestions in general, I appreciate it.

-Eddie

[yakk11]

You will want to use LEDBlinky with Hyperspin to auto assign your U360 maps.  There is an option in HyperHQ for LEDBlinky, you will want to check that and enter the install path.  Then setup LEDBlinky to use with your U360 and Hyperspin.  Instructions and download are here:

http://dndw.com/ledblinky/ledblinky.htm

Hope this helps!  Hyperspin seems difficult to setup up, but the end result is amazing!

jason

[gamepimp]

The GameEx frontend also has a plugin that will automatically send the correct map to the U360 when a game is launched. And it's a bit easier to configure than Hyperspin. But they are both great programs. Kudos to their authors! 

[EddieArcadian]

Jason,
Invaluable info man, thanks so much!  I will be looking into LEDBlinky.

Thanks again,
~DJ

[marioxb]

Very interesting. I figured the U360 would interact/ map with MAME directy, not the frontend.

[EddieArcadian]

Right, me too.  Only thing I can think of is if you have more than one emulator (NES, Daphne, etc.) controlled by your Front End, this is actually nice... although in  that case, each emulator only has one "right" joystick map (ex. there is only one type of correct NES controller/set of directions), so mapping the stick by emulator wouldn't be a big deal.  But yes, I was surprised too... more so that Andy didn't have more detailed info on this in general.

If anyone can chime-in as to how they go about using their U360's, it's appreciated.  Do most of you folks just plug it in and play (making the stick analog)?

[dgame]

If you are only using MAME set it analog and forget it.

Mame auto-magically maps the controls. Generally I don't see how using external maps would be any better.

Mame.exe -v  romname  to see what controller mapping is being used.

For games like Qbert use Headkaze's Mame Analog Joystick Map Editor http://headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=mame&page=joymap to get the qbert.ini file which handles this special case. The program also includes several examples of good maps.

[EMDB]

As I'm facing the same problem I decided to create a tool myself. I call it UltraMap4Mame. You call it from Hyperspin instead of calling mame.exe providing the same parameter (the game title).

It looks in it's configuration file which mapping should be used, calls UltraMap to download the map to the stick(s) and finally calls Mame to launch the game. My testversion runs fine but needs to be cleaned up a bit. No UI (yet) for the configuration but this can be done using your favorite text editor.

Here's the configuration file I currently use to test:

[Settings]
MamePath="f:\emulatoren\mame64\mame64.exe"
UltraMapPath="E:\UltraMap\UltraMap.exe"
ConfigsPath="e:\ultramap\configs"
DefaultConfig="8"

[Games]
dkong="4"
pacman="4"
qbert="4-diagonal"


I created a config folder with 4.ugc, 8.ugc and 4-diagonal.ugc for now. You only have to specify the games with alternative mappings. In my case the majority has 8-way mapping so only the 4-way and some special (QBert has 4-way diagonal) games have to be specified. When I'm finished I will provide a download link in the software section.

[EMDB]

And here's the preliminary UI for UltraMap4Mame:

[EddieArcadian]

For those following this,

Here is the crosspost in the Main Forum:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134049.0.html

And EMDB posted his software on this forum:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134128.0.html

I'm excited to try this.  Thanks to EMDB!!!