CPWizard and missing controls.xml entries

[TheManuel]

Hello.

I wonder if this is a common problem or just my problem.
I have recently been creating CPWizard layouts and trying to create as few special layouts as possible.
I launched Pyros (Mr. Wardner in other territories) and the layout only shows buttons but no directions on the joystick.
Then I noticed the same with Bomberman (the bbmanw variant).

The one thing both have in common is that they don't have an entry in the controls.xml file.
However, CPWizard should be able to read the ctrl and cfg files and find the inputs assigned to movement on the joystick and display generic "left", "right" labels. 

Is anyone having a similar problem?

[headkaze]

CPWizard doesn't guess labels for the joystick directions, it only does it for the buttons. CPWizard takes the same approach as Johnny 5 did and that is to use the input codes to deal with control mapping in cfg's, ctrlr's and ini's. If I simply went by P1_JOYSTICK_UP, P1_JOYSTICK_DOWN, P1_JOYSTICK_LEFT and P1_JOYSTICK_RIGHT then I could deal with missing Controls.dat entries easily. But I use the input codes instead so that mapping is more accurate.

What we really need is an updated Controls.xml. I PM'ed SirPoonga recently but he never got back to me. It would be a shame if updates for it ended.

[TheManuel]

Thanks for the reply, Headkaze.

I'm glad to see I'm not simply screwing up big time.

One potential work-around for CPWizard would be to use the MAME input name such as P1 Left, etc. as shown in the MAME configuration screen as a fallback when the game does not have an entry in the controls.xml file.  Is that available in the mame.xml file?
At least, this way, the labels are not left blank.   What happens now is that for those games, my joystick has not labels and is faded out.


Two more questions while you're still around:

1) Would it be possible in the future to allow two images to "label link" to the same label?  When I do that now, one of the figures will be faded and the other will be properly link.  I have a frankenpanel with a few buttons hardwired together (because of input limitations in the keyboard encoder) that don't need to be used simultaneously in any games.  However, when I link both to the same label, one of them will fade even if the button is available.

2) Would it be possible to have a mapping for trackball analog input besides trackball right, left, etc.?  The reason is that, in MAME, you map the trackball to the analog control rather than the x decrement/increment input.  Therefore if you are forced to map the trackball to these inputs and those inputs have been disabled, the trackball will alpha fade.  I hope I explained that right.

Thanks again.

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to configure CPWizard for my challenging setup.  It is quite addictive and I'll end up with a lot of game-specific layouts (at least for the games in my favorites list).

[TheShanMan]

What we really need is an updated Controls.xml. I PM'ed SirPoonga recently but he never got back to me. It would be a shame if updates for it ended.

I PM'ed him recently too, and have submitted data for Spy Hunter (can't believe that game isn't in controls.dat). He doesn't seem to be very active lately there (my submission is still pending) or here. Since CP viewer apps are perhaps the biggest users of controls.dat, it would be great to start a movement of the viewer app users to submit new games and corrections for existing games to controls.dat, and of course that kind of relies on administrative support from SirPoonga.

[TheManuel]

I'll be happy to submit entries for games in my favorites list that don't have entries.

[TheShanMan]

Go for it! Hopefully an influx of submissions will lead to a new release!

[Space Fractal]

I want to see a update too, but for now it could just replaced by mame.xml version, if they are not listed in controls.xml which I would do (if possible?).

It could list mame's default in the missing games, until they got checked with real input.

Some button only games should list as pinball buttons for pinball games if you ask me. There is also comply of pinball games not listed in the file.

It would either been nice to list games, that is missing, so they could been added....

[NOP]

>It would either been nice to list games, that is missing, so they could been added....

here ya go!
http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/mergelog.txt


I added this feature to romlister build 13-when creating the merged xml file, I now create a log file of all the roms that are missing from controls.dat (xml in my case)

This was created from an older version of mame, so there are likely more missing now than when this was created, but it's a good start.  There are a LOT of missing roms.

[TheManuel]

I see that list is huge in part because it includes all clones for each game.
If the controls for a parent ROM are defined in controls.xml, does CPWizard pick up the information and displays it for the clones as well?

Also, I'll try to keep alive my two other questions/suggestions.  I'm afraid they'll get buried deep into this post and Headkaze will not see them:

Two more questions while you're still around:

1) Would it be possible in the future to allow two images to "label link" to the same label?  When I do that now, one of the figures will be faded and the other will be properly link.  I have a frankenpanel with a few buttons hardwired together (because of input limitations in the keyboard encoder) that don't need to be used simultaneously in any games.  However, when I link both to the same label, one of them will fade even if the button is available.

2) Would it be possible to have a mapping for trackball analog input besides trackball right, left, etc.?  The reason is that, in MAME, you map the trackball to the analog control rather than the x decrement/increment input.  Therefore if you are forced to map the trackball to these inputs and those inputs have been disabled, the trackball will alpha fade.  I hope I explained that right.

[headkaze]

1) Would it be possible in the future to allow two images to "label link" to the same label?  When I do that now, one of the figures will be faded and the other will be properly link.  I have a frankenpanel with a few buttons hardwired together (because of input limitations in the keyboard encoder) that don't need to be used simultaneously in any games.  However, when I link both to the same label, one of them will fade even if the button is available.

Good idea I'll consider it for another release. So much to do so little time!

2) Would it be possible to have a mapping for trackball analog input besides trackball right, left, etc.?  The reason is that, in MAME, you map the trackball to the analog control rather than the x decrement/increment input.  Therefore if you are forced to map the trackball to these inputs and those inputs have been disabled, the trackball will alpha fade.  I hope I explained that right.

There are so many things to consider with Mame's input system I don't think I even fully understand how it works. I don't have a trackball set up in my cab yet so I haven't been able to test it alot in that way. I think people have used trackballs with CPWizard successfully though. I did have to split inputs up into two separate codes so that left/right up/down can be displayed as labels. In Mame a single analog input deals with them both and I thought CPWizard dealt with that okay.

Another problem is Mame changed some of it's keycodes which has again messed with CPWizard and I just haven't had the time to check it out.

[TheManuel]

Thanks for considering all that.  I'm shy making requests because I don't really contribute all that much.

About the trackball, it's not a big deal.  I can build a layout for trackball games which CPWizard conveniently distinguishes.  It's probably not worth spending time on that if I'm the only one pointing out the issues.  However, if you ever want to do work with trackballs on your cab for testing, simply plug in a mouse and you  have a trackball because that is how MAME recognizes them.

Thanks.

[headkaze]

About the trackball, it's not a big deal.  I can build a layout for trackball games which CPWizard conveniently distinguishes.  It's probably not worth spending time on that if I'm the only one pointing out the issues.  However, if you ever want to do work with trackballs on your cab for testing, simply plug in a mouse and you  have a trackball because that is how MAME recognizes them.

Another way of dealing with controls in CPWizard is to use it's "Layout Map" feature where you can use rules to display layouts based on the controls they use.

[TheManuel]

That's a really useful feature and that's what I had in mind to use.
It's really no big deal to have an extra layout for trackballs and one for spinners.

Thanks.