Main > Main Forum
Software setup and moduler CPs
tetsujin:
--- Quote from: Lilwolf on January 31, 2005, 02:16:57 pm ---The frontend references was basically stating that I've solved the problem for hotswap in my frontend... but I don't see a good solution for modular control panels.
--- End quote ---
It's not a trivial solution because it's not a simple problem - but I believe my suggestion would do the job.
1: Provide hardware that allows software to determine how the CP is set up.
2: Provide software in the front-end that knows the requirements of each game and can determine if a particular game can be supported by the current controls, and generate control configurations.
3: Given the configurations established by the front-end, either reconfigure the game's input to match what'll be delivered by the encoder, or re-map the encoder to match the inputs expected by the game.
(2) is the hardest as far as I'm concerned. You want the dynamic control mapping to work intelligently, but there are a lot of subtleties. What about 4-player layouts used for 2-player games? For a 4-player game P1 should be on the far left, but for a 2-player game P1 should be close to center.
(3) says that, yes, you essentially do have to change the config for each game - but for MAME that's easy to automate, and if you're using a programmable encoder (like most keyboard encoders, I expect) you should be able to reprogram the encoder if you need to support a game with non-remappable controls.
You might be able to avoid some of the dynamic configuration problems if you have an encoder with a sufficient number of inputs and you assert that each "bank" can only be used for a certain controller, and never change the mapping of each bank. Then you can control how the controls are mapped by controlling where you plug them in internally. (The plug-in ports inside needn't correspond exactly to where the control is located - though I think it's preferable to maintain that relationship.)
Personally, though, I think complication like this is best attacked with software. It's a hell of a lot easier to implement sophisticated behavior in software than hardware.
Paul Olson:
I haven't even started to think about this part yet. ::)
What front end is everyone planning on using? I'm using Ultrastyle, but I don't know if it will work for something like this.
Paul
telengard:
--- Quote from: pcolson on January 31, 2005, 06:08:34 pm ---I haven't even started to think about this part yet. ::)
What front end is everyone planning on using? I'm using Ultrastyle, but I don't know if it will work for something like this.
Paul
--- End quote ---
I use AdvanceMenu. Works great w/ my modular setup and rotating monitor. I have games grouped by Horizontal/Vertical and then had groups for different control configurations (single 4 way, dual 8 way, etc).
Doc-:
I recommend MAMEWAH along with Noname MAME (Analog mame also works fine) which provides the ability to support multiple emulators and also multiple analog devices like trackballs, lightguns, etc...
The wiring is pretty straightforward - I have jacks for joystick 1, joystick 2, buttons 1, buttons 2, one for control buttons, plus a USB hub for analog devices. In addition several of the ports are duplicated so I can (if needed) have more than one joystick on the same joystick port (say a 4 way and 8 way). Detailed wiring pictures, table, color scheme is here:
http://www.beersmith.com/mame/wiring.htm
All emulators and the IPAQ are mapped to the same MAME keyset. When I need to change the defaults for a particular MAME game it can be easily done from the tab menu (settings for this game). This is very straightforward to accomplish and works well since you usually use a given panel configuration for a given game.
The only hitch I have found is the "-joystick" option used when running some analog controls in MAME. It can cause conflicts in certain situations - for example I might want it off when I run with the extra USB gamepads in 4 player mode (using joy2key). However, MAMEWAH allows for alternate command line switches, so I just set up a separate button to run games with the "-joystick" button on. This lets me include that option only when needed.
I also recommend looking at http://www.screenshotarchive.com/ if you are using non-MAME emulators. These include emulators that are (largely) remapped to support the MAME defaults (notably quit=escape!), and in most cases you can remap the remaining keys from the in-game menus to match your MAME defaults.
Doc-
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version