Author Topic: Controls.dat Viewer Released!!! (Read 5436 times)

Howard_Casto · « **on:** January 15, 2004, 11:00:11 pm »

for a full news blurb go to:

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus/

For just the file go here:

*update* this is a new version, which fixes the currently known bugs

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus/files/johnny5_0.6beta.zip

If you have no clue what I'm talking about, go here:

http://fe.donkeyfly.com

SirPoonga · « **Reply #1 on:** January 16, 2004, 02:14:01 am »

Just incase it isn't noted in the readme or docs (I should go download it before I post this) but HC used the ini file, not the xml.

Go to http://www.fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/supported.php to see what is currently supported. Check back there to see if you need to update your current ini file. Eventually the ini file and xml file will be versioned so you will be able to compare versions. If your favorite games aren't supported please contribute.

cdbrown · « **Reply #2 on:** January 16, 2004, 02:23:50 am »

Off-topic but worth a mention - controls.dat currently supports a total of 1252 roms (401 parents, 851 clones) although the ini file that comes with the viewer isn't the latest. Well done to Howard for his viewer and also to both Howard and SirPoonga for continuing efforts in controls.dat

SirPoonga · « **Reply #3 on:** January 16, 2004, 03:13:19 am »

HC, talk to me as soon as you can. LOTS of bugs to work out.

MisterB · « **Reply #4 on:** January 16, 2004, 09:04:26 am »

Howard-

I've been anxiously awaiting this! Thanks for all the hard work - your contributions to this forum are always very much appreciated.

Can't wait to get home and take her for a spin...

nirious · « **Reply #5 on:** January 16, 2004, 11:34:59 am »

I looked at that forum for abit and read something about coctail cabs and beta and two player controls and I didn't really get it what it was all about, so can someone plz tell me in about three lines what its about and what it does. thank you

PacManFan · « **Reply #6 on:** January 16, 2004, 12:08:33 pm »

I'm sure HC will correct(flame) me if I'm wrong or forgot something, but the Controls.dat project will provide information that frontends will be able to use to display extended information about a game in Mame. Basically, this information is:

-Number of simaltanoeus players
-What do the buttons in each game do? (p1b1 = fire,jump,shoot,etc..)
-What controls are user for each game (4-way, 8-way, analog controller, spinner, trackball,etc..)
-other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting...

What this will do for you:
Now, theoretically (and hopefully soon - practically ), you can design what your control panel looks like from your cabinet (joysticks,buttons, etc) using a layout editor, and when you use a front end that can read the controls.dat, you will be able to see how to play each game using your control panel, and what controls on YOUR control panel map to the ORIGINAL games' controls.

Hope this helps.

-PMF

atog · « **Reply #7 on:** January 16, 2004, 01:52:34 pm »

Can't wait for this! There is a game called Super Dodgeball that they had at my local arcade when I was in high school. It was a unique game, and if I remember right it had a joystick and 2 buttons. Those 2 buttons let you do all kinds of different moves though.

I have tried it in MAME and for the life of me I can't pull off any of the moves I remember from 15 years ago. Maybe it's just because I am old now and suck, but I am hoping that the controls.dat project fleshes out the controls for Super Dodgeball so I can read up on it and play the game again.

Minwah · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2004, 02:24:05 pm »

Quote from: atog on January 16, 2004, 01:52:34 pm

Can't wait for this! There is a game called Super Dodgeball that they had at my local arcade when I was in high school. It was a unique game, and if I remember right it had a joystick and 2 buttons. Those 2 buttons let you do all kinds of different moves though.

I have tried it in MAME and for the life of me I can't pull off any of the moves I remember from 15 years ago. Maybe it's just because I am old now and suck, but I am hoping that the controls.dat project fleshes out the controls for Super Dodgeball so I can read up on it and play the game again.

Well controls.dat will tell you what the buttons were labelled as in the arcade, but not neccessarily how to pull off moves. It might be listed in the Misc details tho...

In this case the control panel is very helpful:

CM · « **Reply #9 on:** January 16, 2004, 02:42:07 pm »

and ULTIMATELY this will allow some motivated geek to put little microcontroller-driven-text-readouts by each button on a control panel that say what each button does in a game.

(and of course he will mass-produce his solution and sale it to the rest of us at low prices!)

atog · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2004, 02:59:02 pm »

dont know where you came up with that thing Minway, but you are the best!

Jakobud · « **Reply #11 on:** January 16, 2004, 03:15:54 pm »

Good job HC and Poonga. I am looking forward to seeing this project implemented into FE's. I am imagining a day when, using your fav FE, you select a game to play and before the game starts (or while Mame is loading the roms maybe.....) the FE displays an image (that is possibly automatically generated by the FE) that shows a layout of your own personal control panel and explains what buttons are used for that game and what each button does for that game.... Good job guys!

SirPoonga · « **Reply #12 on:** January 16, 2004, 03:17:41 pm »

Quote from: nirious on January 16, 2004, 11:34:59 am

I looked at that forum for abit and read something about coctail cabs and beta and two player controls and I didn't really get it what it was all about, so can someone plz tell me in about three lines what its about and what it does. thank you

Click on the controls.dat project link at the top of the page

http://www.fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/faq.php

TalkingOctopus · « **Reply #13 on:** January 16, 2004, 04:00:02 pm »

Quote from: atog on January 16, 2004, 01:52:34 pm

Can't wait for this! There is a game called Super Dodgeball that they had at my local arcade when I was in high school. It was a unique game, and if I remember right it had a joystick and 2 buttons. Those 2 buttons let you do all kinds of different moves though.

I have tried it in MAME and for the life of me I can't pull off any of the moves I remember from 15 years ago. Maybe it's just because I am old now and suck, but I am hoping that the controls.dat project fleshes out the controls for Super Dodgeball so I can read up on it and play the game again.

Look at this for all of the moves for Super Dodgeball:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/file/super_dodge_ball_a.txt

atog · « **Reply #14 on:** January 16, 2004, 04:35:02 pm »

thanks, that was the first place I looked, ages ago. That FAQ was never there that I know of, and if it was, it was likely for the Neo Geo version, not the 1986 Technos version that is in MAME.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #15 on:** January 16, 2004, 06:23:33 pm »

Answering some questions.....

The controls.dat project is a project set forth to document real life button labels and controls for games and the inputs that are used to emulate them in mame (and as a result the link between the two). What I have released is the controls viewer, the first application to use the data from teh database we have been building. Basically it does it's best to do exactly what pmf said above.

Btw it's extremely buggy atm, but i still need beta testers.... post your bugs here or at mamehost PLEASE.

If anyone is willing to write the apps, (which would be easy btw) all of the things jakobud said are possible. I'm actually working on blitting to the screen so you can see the controls inside mame as well.

DK is already prepared for the viewer. I will post a tutorial on how to get it running shortly at my site.

I'm sory I haven't been around today.... been a little under the weather. Hopefully I can answer more questions soon.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #16 on:** January 16, 2004, 08:35:06 pm »

New version is up... It fixes the file saving errors amoung other things.

MisterB · « **Reply #17 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:42:49 am »

I know this is still early beta, but I have a feature suggestion. As Minwah mentioned, sometimes having reference to the original Control Panel is useful as well. Perhaps you could add the option to "stack" CP images? For example, show the dymanic layout on the top half of the screen, and the image of the original control panel underneath?

SirPoonga · « **Reply #18 on:** January 17, 2004, 01:58:45 pm »

Quote from: Minwah on January 16, 2004, 02:24:05 pm

Well controls.dat will tell you what the buttons were labelled as in the arcade, but not neccessarily how to pull off moves. It might be listed in the Misc details tho...

In this case the control panel is very helpful:

Actually, in that case the instruciton card is very useful

Minwah · « **Reply #19 on:** January 17, 2004, 03:52:29 pm »

Quote from: SirPoonga on January 17, 2004, 01:58:45 pm

Actually, in that case the instruciton card is very useful

What do you mean? I haven't seen an instruction card for the game but the control panel overlay seems to have all you'd need.

shmokes · « **Reply #20 on:** January 17, 2004, 04:35:33 pm »

I think he means an instruction card, for Street Fighter for example, that would tell you how to do things like Ken & Ryu's dragon punch, etc. Not just a button label, but instructions for a combination of stick movements and button presses to achieve a desired outcome.

Controls.dat won't do this, but instruction cards could.

shmokes · « **Reply #21 on:** January 17, 2004, 04:36:47 pm »

Hey Minwah,

Is Mamewah set up to use this Controls.dat. If not, do you have plans to incorporate it any time soon?

SirPoonga · « **Reply #22 on:** January 17, 2004, 06:46:25 pm »

Quote from: shmokes on January 17, 2004, 04:35:33 pm

I think he means an instruction card, for Street Fighter for example, that would tell you how to do things like Ken & Ryu's dragon punch, etc. Not just a button label, but instructions for a combination of stick movements and button presses to achieve a desired outcome.

Controls.dat won't do this, but instruction cards could.

Yep. I wish there would be an instruction card resource like there is a marquee resource. I collect them as I come across them.

Controls.dat will just give you what the buttons are labeled. There may be info on how to playin the misc details.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #23 on:** January 17, 2004, 07:44:35 pm »

Quote from: MisterB on January 17, 2004, 09:42:49 am

I know this is still early beta, but I have a feature suggestion. As Minwah mentioned, sometimes having reference to the original Control Panel is useful as well. Perhaps you could add the option to "stack" CP images? For example, show the dymanic layout on the top half of the screen, and the image of the original control panel underneath?

Actually after we further along, the viewer already supports alternate layouts. Using the "universal input" fudging We can generate a slew of layout files thatare based upon the orginal games. Control panel pics are useless in most cases as they are low res and too small to read the text on an arcade monitor or tv. We need fresh control panel overlays that we can apply frosty's generic control images to. That way it's readable.

Minwah · « **Reply #24 on:** January 18, 2004, 10:16:00 am »

Quote from: shmokes on January 17, 2004, 04:36:47 pm

Hey Minwah,

Is Mamewah set up to use this Controls.dat. If not, do you have plans to incorporate it any time soon?

No and no...but I DO plan to do it when I get chance. I want to be able to use the info from controls.dat to filter on and such. This means quite a lot of code re-writing and adding for me, which I can't do yet. When my cab is complete(ish) this is more likely to happen

papaschtroumpf · « **Reply #25 on:** January 20, 2004, 04:42:45 pm »

So can we use a "helper" batch file between minwah and mame to display instructions after selecting the game? Ideally you want a single batch file, not one per ROM!
I just came back from a trip so I didn't get to try this app yet, but I'll be giving it a try over the next few days.
How does the app exit, do you just press any key (my vote)? does it timeout by itself?

I also would like to use a "different" controls.dat for my non-mame applications, but it doesn't look like you can pass it a controls.dat on the command line. Maybe I'll have to "pollute" the existing controls.dat by adding my own entries at then end, or do weird things like swapping out config files at "runtime".

I'll probably have more comments after I actually try the app...

SirPoonga · « **Reply #26 on:** January 20, 2004, 05:41:09 pm »

You would have to follow our format to the letter in order to do that then. For consoles this project wouldn't work as the buttons are A, B, X, Y, Z whatever:)

Minwah. All you;d have to do for now is support using the viewer. That;s the purpose of the viewer. Liek the wrappers it is meant to be used by FEs.

Minwah · « **Reply #27 on:** January 20, 2004, 07:37:52 pm »

Quote from: SirPoonga on January 20, 2004, 05:41:09 pm

Minwah. All you;d have to do for now is support using the viewer. That;s the purpose of the viewer. Liek the wrappers it is meant to be used by FEs.

OK - I don't know why I didn't see that at the time...so yes it should be easy to support the viewer (I must try it soon...)

I was just thinking a little further on, it would be GREAT to be able to filter etc. on the info in controls.dat - far more accurate than the current MAME input type. This would make it possible to properly filter for multiple control panels for eg.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #28 on:** January 20, 2004, 11:22:44 pm »

Just a status update. Cdbrown helped me find a couple of major bus regarding the parsing of alternate .lof (layout/skin) files. I haven't updated the exe yet so if you have troubles in those areas you'll know why.

SirPoonga · « **Reply #29 on:** January 21, 2004, 12:51:54 am »

Quote from: Minwah on January 20, 2004, 07:37:52 pm

Quote from: SirPoonga on January 20, 2004, 05:41:09 pm
Minwah. All you;d have to do for now is support using the viewer. That;s the purpose of the viewer. Liek the wrappers it is meant to be used by FEs.

OK - I don't know why I didn't see that at the time...so yes it should be easy to support the viewer (I must try it soon...)

I was just thinking a little further on, it would be GREAT to be able to filter etc. on the info in controls.dat - far more accurate than the current MAME input type. This would make it possible to properly filter for multiple control panels for eg.

Yeah. In the future filtering would be awesome. Right now not enough games are in the system to warranty doing that anyway. But I totally agree with you on that.

When I get around to making my SDL FE for linux I will have little icons representing what the game used, not a full out controll panel. Or the option of outputting to the viewer in windows version (since in theory an SDL app can be cross platform).

papaschtroumpf · « **Reply #30 on:** January 21, 2004, 03:25:20 pm »

Quote from: Minwah on January 20, 2004, 07:37:52 pm

Quote from: SirPoonga on January 20, 2004, 05:41:09 pm
Minwah. All you;d have to do for now is support using the viewer. That;s the purpose of the viewer. Liek the wrappers it is meant to be used by FEs.

OK - I don't know why I didn't see that at the time...so yes it should be easy to support the viewer (I must try it soon...)

I was just thinking a little further on, it would be GREAT to be able to filter etc. on the info in controls.dat - far more accurate than the current MAME input type. This would make it possible to properly filter for multiple control panels for eg.

Awesome, can't wait!

Tilzs · « **Reply #31 on:** January 21, 2004, 03:27:34 pm »

This is a cool project and the data is definatly usefull. I don't like the viewer however. I think it'd be much more user friendly if you didn't have to command line everything.

I'm much more interested in just browseing and grouping games based on the raw data than haveing some CP graphic. A lot of times i'm wondering what games are 4 player, how many are there, is there anygames with this config etc..

I think it'd be nice if there was a web front end for the data in a mysql database (sortable of course) Suppose one could feed an applet or something that displays a cp as done now with the current front end if one wanted to.

papaschtroumpf · « **Reply #32 on:** January 21, 2004, 04:31:48 pm »

While what you're asking would also be useful, what I really wanted was a viewer and I think it should stay a separate application from a listinfo type of program. That's what's great about the controls.dat project: it provides the data in a common easy to use format and everyone else can use that data for whatever purpose. I'm sure a lot of front-ends will eventually rely on that dataset in the future.
In my case I find it easy enough to write scripts or import the data into a database and sort it, whereas writing a full blown viewer like Howard's is a project a little too ambitious for the time I have available so I'm happy someone else decided to take on that task!

SirPoonga · « **Reply #33 on:** January 21, 2004, 11:06:31 pm »

Quote from: Tilzs on January 21, 2004, 03:27:34 pm

This is a cool project and the data is definatly usefull. I don't like the viewer however. I think it'd be much more user friendly if you didn't have to command line everything.

See, the purpose of the viewer is for other FE devs to incorporate into their FEs like HC's wrappers. So commandline based is a must.

Quote

I think it'd be nice if there was a web front end for the data in a mysql database (sortable of course) Suppose one could feed an applet or something that displays a cp as done now with the current front end if one wanted to.

Well, this is the closest I can give you off hand. It's mysql if that helps

http://www.fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/gamesbycontrol.php

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #34 on:** January 21, 2004, 11:17:49 pm »

Quote from: Tilzs on January 21, 2004, 03:27:34 pm

This is a cool project and the data is definatly usefull. I don't like the viewer however. I think it'd be much more user friendly if you didn't have to command line everything.

I'm much more interested in just browseing and grouping games based on the raw data than haveing some CP graphic. A lot of times i'm wondering what games are 4 player, how many are there, is there anygames with this config etc..

I think it'd be nice if there was a web front end for the data in a mysql database (sortable of course) Suppose one could feed an applet or something that displays a cp as done now with the current front end if one wanted to.

Well then make one. No offense but you can't complain about the end product if you don't contribute and I don't see a single entry with your name present.

The data is there, everyone is welcome to it, but if you have a problem with what I'm willing to code in terms of middleware, then you'll have to write different applications yourself. I do encourage this and we even have a basic dev kit in the works.

p.s. people, this is a hint...... I'm more than willing to add features and work on new apps if I feel they are a good idea. I will find ideas much better if they are included with a generous dontation of a few database entries.

(I'm not interested in this particular one though as simple text based filtering or xml, which we supply, are better ways to go.)

SirPoonga · « **Reply #35 on:** January 21, 2004, 11:43:42 pm »

Oh, I will add. On my spare spare time I am working on this.

THIS IS NOT NEAR COMPLETION. It just gives a good idea. If you want to use those graphics talk to me in pm. The graphics are supplied with the viewer. They are Frosty's work. If you use them make sure you credit him somewhere in your program or docs (that's why you can pm me, I will give out credit information)

http://www.fe.donkeyfly.com/xml/controls.html

This was done for a school project. Hence the game suggestions to click on. I had to prove it worked.

Tilzs · « **Reply #36 on:** January 22, 2004, 12:03:57 am »

Quote from: SirPoonga on January 21, 2004, 11:06:31 pm

Quote from: Tilzs on January 21, 2004, 03:27:34 pm
This is a cool project and the data is definatly usefull. I don't like the viewer however. I think it'd be much more user friendly if you didn't have to command line everything.

See, the purpose of the viewer is for other FE devs to incorporate into their FEs like HC's wrappers. So commandline based is a must.

I was kind of figureing that was the case.

Tilzs · « **Reply #37 on:** January 22, 2004, 12:18:42 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on January 21, 2004, 11:17:49 pm

Well then make one. No offense but you can't complain about the end product if you don't contribute and I don't see a single entry with your name present. The data is there, everyone is welcome to it, but if you have a problem with what I'm willing to code in terms of middleware, then you'll have to write different applications yourself. I do encourage this and we even have a basic dev kit in the works.

p.s. people, this is a hint...... I'm more than willing to add features and work on new apps if I feel they are a good idea. I will find ideas much better if they are included with a generous dontation of a few database entries.

(I'm not interested in this particular one though as simple text based filtering or xml, which we supply, are better ways to go.)

I'm sure you put a lot of work into it and it's great but it's just wasnt' what I was really expecting. It took me a bit to figure out what really was going on. It just seems to me odd that a util that is command line based is released to the public when the utility is more or less geared toward FE devs (hence the reason for the command line). Whats the harm in makeing it both besides a little time. Yes you can get all grumpy about me not contribing but when someone posts something and asks for some input and gets defensive after the fact, seems a bit odd. I'm just giving some feedback here to help from an end user.

Maybe this whole thing is a documentation issue since the app is geared toward a FE dev and it took me a while to figure all this out. Acutally didn't really figure it out until the replies in this thread.

BTW I looked though the data file, looks great. Wouldn't take very much effort to parse it into a sql database and I'm sure someone will do it soon if I don't do it myself.

SirPoonga · « **Reply #38 on:** January 22, 2004, 01:31:08 am »

Quote from: Tilzs on January 22, 2004, 12:18:42 am

Quote from: Howard_Casto on January 21, 2004, 11:17:49 pm
Well then make one. No offense but you can't complain about the end product if you don't contribute and I don't see a single entry with your name present. The data is there, everyone is welcome to it, but if you have a problem with what I'm willing to code in terms of middleware, then you'll have to write different applications yourself. I do encourage this and we even have a basic dev kit in the works.

p.s. people, this is a hint...... I'm more than willing to add features and work on new apps if I feel they are a good idea. I will find ideas much better if they are included with a generous dontation of a few database entries.

(I'm not interested in this particular one though as simple text based filtering or xml, which we supply, are better ways to go.)

I'm sure you put a lot of work into it and it's great but it's just wasnt' what I was really expecting. It took me a bit to figure out what really was going on. It just seems to me odd that a util that is command line based is released to the public when the utility is more or less geared toward FE devs (hence the reason for the command line). Whats the harm in makeing it both besides a little time. Yes you can get all grumpy about me not contribing but when someone posts something and asks for some input and gets defensive after the fact, seems a bit odd. I'm just giving some feedback here to help from an end user.

1) Where are the FE devs? Here, that's where. That's why it is posted here.
2) It generated a surge of interest in the project again. We've had many submissions lately.

Quote

BTW I looked though the data file, looks great. Wouldn't take very much effort to parse it into a sql database and I'm sure someone will do it soon if I don't do it myself.

It already is

But not a public one. Internet is slow for some people anyway. Plus why would someone put this info in another sql server anyway.

ErikRuud · « **Reply #39 on:** January 22, 2004, 04:07:55 pm »

I just tried out Howard's viewer today. I really like what I am seeing.

Is there any tool out there to make creating the ctrlr files easier?

On my cab, I have buttons reassigned all over the place. That information is stored in the roms .cfg files. Is there a tool for reading the .cfg files? I would rather not have to go and manually build ctrlr files to match all of that customization.

As an example , In tempest I have the bottom row of player buttons assigned to Fire and the upper row is assigned to the Super Zapper. I made a ctrlr file for Tempest so that Johhny5 displays the controls correctly, but doing that for every game will be a pain.

SirPoonga · « **Reply #40 on:** January 22, 2004, 06:27:50 pm »

Well, I don't believe anyone has made a toolf for that yet. I toyed into incorportating editing the ctrlr files into the mame menus. A couple of devs and I agree it is possible but will take time to implement.

Pretty much all you can do is start making ini files. BTW, this is why HC and I have been suggesting to use ctrlr files over the last serveral months when control questions come up

Some of my hacks that are implemented in NoNameMame could help you out. you can create ctrlr files based on numberof players and number of buttons (at least buttons mame has mapped).

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #41 on:** January 22, 2004, 08:13:44 pm »

Quote from: ErikRuud on January 22, 2004, 04:07:55 pm

I just tried out Howard's viewer today. I really like what I am seeing.

Is there any tool out there to make creating the ctrlr files easier?

On my cab, I have buttons reassigned all over the place. That information is stored in the roms .cfg files. Is there a tool for reading the .cfg files? I would rather not have to go and manually build ctrlr files to match all of that customization.

As an example , In tempest I have the bottom row of player buttons assigned to Fire and the upper row is assigned to the Super Zapper. I made a ctrlr file for Tempest so that Johhny5 displays the controls correctly, but doing that for every game will be a pain.

You do know that you can make a default.ini, mouse.ini ad_stick.ini ect..... You shouldn't need to make more than a handful of game specific ctrlr files. Most of this junk is covered in the docs in your ctrlr folder within mame.

Mame developers, if you are listening, the time has come to better integrate ctrlr files into the mame core. I'm willing to help but my knowledge of mame's innermost functions is limited.

SirPoonga · « **Reply #42 on:** January 23, 2004, 12:06:49 am »

i am going to address the comment That some people would like the viewer to not be so command line.

Ok, in order to do this what do we have to do? We have to list all the mame games in the viewer. If we did that the next thing you will ask is that you can filter that list. Isn't this the purpose of an FE? And that's why it is comand line. It's not the viewer's job to list and filter the game.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #43 on:** January 23, 2004, 07:19:41 am »

Well to add to that wtf would you use the viewer for? To look up a game just for curiosity? Well that's all well and good but you'll probably wanna play it afterwards. When you do you'll open up a fe (or a command line) and launch mame to play it...

Wouldn't it make a whole lot more sense to have it where you press a key on a selected game in the fe and the viewer pops up? Then if you don't wanna play it simply exit and if you do just start the game. Well that's why it uses the command line exclusively.

As a stand alone app I can see the viewer as nothing less than useless. It's more of a companion, sorta like the history.dat and mameinfo.dat. Actually that's where we got the name for the project (even though there isn't a single "dat" file involved). However, if anyone is interested try pressing f2 during a view. The most relevant ctrlr file found will open up and you can modify it. Just something I thought might be useful.

Minwah · « **Reply #44 on:** January 23, 2004, 08:49:11 am »

Quote from: ErikRuud on January 22, 2004, 04:07:55 pm

Is there any tool out there to make creating the ctrlr files easier?

I had planned to make something like this at some point:

The way I envisaged it working would be similar to my AVGA MAME Res Tool, if anyone knows how that works...The list of native resolutions would instead be a list of all the different controller configurations used in MAME (from controls.dat). The list of AVGA resolutions would instead contain details (ie what controllers are there) of your control panel(s).

I initially thought that the user would (manually) make some ctrlrl files for the basic stuff as HC said, dial.ini, paddle.ini etc. The clever part is the program would then go through every type of controller used in MAME, and apply the relevant ctrlr files specific to each game, based on the controls available and even pick the most suitable control panel (if applicable).

I'm sure I overlooked something but I figured that would do as a start, and I'd go from there...unfortunately I don't see me having time to start this for a while tho

ErikRuud · « **Reply #45 on:** January 23, 2004, 09:12:55 am »

Howard,

I do have a default.ini and a few others defined but with the way I have assigned the controls in mame, I will need a lot more than a handful. I don't like having dead buttons on my CP, if a game only uses two or three buttons, I assign unused buttons to those functions.

I was experimenting with Johnny5 yesterday and trying to launch it from GameLauncher. I got it working so that it When you launch a game the viewer displays the controls, and then when you hit escape, the rom gets launched. As neat as that was, I realised that escape on my cab is a shifted IPac button. It would be nice if the "Exit" key in Johnny5 was user definable.

I also decide to get the GameLauncher source code and see if I can incorporate it directly into GL. I let everyone know how that goes.

Erik

Minwah · « **Reply #46 on:** January 23, 2004, 01:43:20 pm »

Finally gave the viewer a shot, looks great so far

For some reason I can't see the button labels tho - controls.ini is being read OK as I can see the controller type and misc details, but no button/stick labels - what have I done wrong?

Couple of small bugs:

Options > Layout > (Background File) '...' > Cancel = crash,
Resizing a label too small (ie no height/width) results in either crash, or inability to make the label bigger again.

Good work HC

ErikRuud · « **Reply #47 on:** January 23, 2004, 02:35:15 pm »

The information for the button labels comes from your ctrlr files.

You need to tell the viewer which directory to look in for the ctrlr fils. ie: c:\mame\ctrlr\ or c:\mame\ctrlr\SlilStik

You set it under "Options" "Viewer".

Minwah · « **Reply #48 on:** January 23, 2004, 03:00:07 pm »

Quote from: ErikRuud on January 23, 2004, 02:35:15 pm

The information for the button labels comes from your ctrlr files.

You need to tell the viewer which directory to look in for the ctrlr fils. ie: c:\mame\ctrlr\ or c:\mame\ctrlr\SlilStik

You set it under "Options" "Viewer".

I've done this, my location is 'c:\emuarcade\mame\ctrlr\cabinet\'. Also tried it with the '\hotrodse' folder with no joy

SirPoonga · « **Reply #49 on:** January 23, 2004, 03:53:45 pm »

Did you modify the layour to use your keycodes?

SirPoonga · « **Reply #50 on:** January 23, 2004, 03:55:06 pm »

Quote from: Minwah on January 23, 2004, 08:49:11 am

Quote from: ErikRuud on January 22, 2004, 04:07:55 pm
Is there any tool out there to make creating the ctrlr files easier?

I had planned to make something like this at some point:

The way I envisaged it working would be similar to my AVGA MAME Res Tool, if anyone knows how that works...The list of native resolutions would instead be a list of all the different controller configurations used in MAME (from controls.dat). The list of AVGA resolutions would instead contain details (ie what controllers are there) of your control panel(s).

I initially thought that the user would (manually) make some ctrlrl files for the basic stuff as HC said, dial.ini, paddle.ini etc. The clever part is the program would then go through every type of controller used in MAME, and apply the relevant ctrlr files specific to each game, based on the controls available and even pick the most suitable control panel (if applicable).

I'm sure I overlooked something but I figured that would do as a start, and I'd go from there...unfortunately I don't see me having time to start this for a while tho

As I said I was thinking of incorpating this directly into mame. uRebel and I had a nice discussion aobut this on the old mame dev forum. But when they changed software they lost that discussion. So I don;t have my notes anymore

Minwah · « **Reply #51 on:** January 24, 2004, 08:02:14 am »

Quote from: SirPoonga on January 23, 2004, 03:55:06 pm

As I said I was thinking of incorpating this directly into mame. uRebel and I had a nice discussion aobut this on the old mame dev forum. But when they changed software they lost that discussion. So I don;t have my notes anymore

Presumably that would be either general of game specific like the current CFG settings? My prog would be able to create INI's for every game in one hit. What you talk about would of course be great, seems like the only way to go since the ctrlr ini files were introduced...

Minwah · « **Reply #52 on:** January 24, 2004, 08:12:11 am »

Quote from: SirPoonga on January 23, 2004, 03:53:45 pm

Did you modify the layour to use your keycodes?

Well I'm using default (more or less) keys. Here's whats in my default.ini:

P1_JOYSTICK_UP "KEYCODE_UP"
P1_JOYSTICK_DOWN "KEYCODE_DOWN"
P1_JOYSTICK_LEFT "KEYCODE_LEFT"
P1_JOYSTICK_RIGHT "KEYCODE_RIGHT"

Seems to match the labels...what does the viewer do, read [ctrlrpath]\default.ini and compare to the keycodes set in the layout editor? Almost seems like it isn't reading the ini file...here's what I get:

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #53 on:** January 24, 2004, 08:28:58 am »

What about your std.ini... Is it in your ctrlr root folder? The viewer needs this or it crashes and burns.

All of your ctrlr files are read, in a hierarchy, overwriting each other. Exactly like mame does it. This is why the std.ini has to be there.... it's read first for mame's defaults.

One more thing...... The mame devs made the ctrlr syntax very very wierd and thus it's hard to parse. Mame might be a bit more forgiving about improper formatting than the viewer is..... You can't have any extra spaces, no tab can be out of place ect..... This is no problem if you copy and paste entries from the std.ini like I do.

Btw I'm aware of the font resizing bug, it's just not a bug I can't fix...... vb can't handle very very small fonts or very very small labels. (as you know) I can restrict the size but I don't right now for debugging purposes. Also all fonts you use must be true type or they won't show up. It has to do with the dynamic scaling I use.

Minwah · « **Reply #54 on:** January 24, 2004, 08:55:32 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on January 24, 2004, 08:28:58 am

What about your std.ini... Is it in your ctrlr root folder? The viewer needs this or it crashes and burns.

All of your ctrlr files are read, in a hierarchy, overwriting each other. Exactly like mame does it. This is why the std.ini has to be there.... it's read first for mame's defaults.

One more thing...... The mame devs made the ctrlr syntax very very wierd and thus it's hard to parse. Mame might be a bit more forgiving about improper formatting than the viewer is..... You can't have any extra spaces, no tab can be out of place ect..... This is no problem if you copy and paste entries from the std.ini like I do.

Btw I'm aware of the font resizing bug, it's just not a bug I can't fix...... vb can't handle very very small fonts or very very small labels. (as you know) I can restrict the size but I don't right now for debugging purposes. Also all fonts you use must be true type or they won't show up. It has to do with the dynamic scaling I use.

std.ini is in \mame\ctrlr\. I think the format should be OK, I also tried the standard hotrodse and slikstik ctrlrs instead of the one I made myself...no joy

I must have done something wrong somewhere...does the .cfg look ok:?

1
0
c:\emuarcade\mame\
mame.exe
c:\emuarcade\mame\ctrlr\cabinet\
1
1
0
0
0
0

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #55 on:** January 24, 2004, 09:30:24 am »

There is your problem right there..... It just needs the folder name, not the path to it. So a simple "cabinet" will do.

That's why I had the default value set to "ragingdragon" that way people wouldn't get confused.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #56 on:** January 24, 2004, 09:36:43 am »

Update: FOR USERS AND DEVELOPERS ALIKE

I just put up a external communication writeup for dk in it's online documentation. At the bottom is an example which shows how to use this mode to launch the controls viewer from within dk.

For developers, there is a note at the bottom which shows the most basic command line you can send to the viewer and notes about the type of data you need to send. It's all standard data which should be readily available in most fe's databases. (read any fe that keeps track of clone names and rom names)

There are also several "advanced" things you can send to the viewer but they are very beta. If any of the developers are interested in these features and helping to finish their formats (still undecided about how some stuff should be sent) then please pm me.

Minwah · « **Reply #57 on:** January 24, 2004, 11:21:29 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on January 24, 2004, 09:30:24 am

There is your problem right there..... It just needs the folder name, not the path to it. So a simple "cabinet" will do. That's why I had the default value set to "ragingdragon" that way people wouldn't get confused.

I guess I managed to ignore that somehow, sorry

Works a treat now


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