Amiberry/UAE4ARM can't see both joysticks at the same time

Bicycle

Hi.
I have been trying to make both of my joysticks to work in amiga emulators at the same time, but only one is showing at a time. If I unplug the joystick that's on the lower port#, the other is showing on the input->dropdown list. They both work alone with Amiberry/UAE4ARM and the emulator is seeing them, but they're not seen on the list at the same time so I can't play 2 player games at the moment.

Joysticks: Ipac2 (gamepad mode) + ArcadeForge KeyStrike 1P (Gamepad mode)
Amiberry version: 2.1
Pi Model or other hardware: Pi3 B
Power Supply used: Official
RetroPie Version Used: 4.3
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website (retropie-4.0-rpi2_rpi3.img)

tuki_cat

Hi,

There is lots of work ongoing to improve Amiberry, and I believe they are gearing up for a new release soon. I think this release includes lots of of improvements to the controls and some compatibility with retroarch configs. Their Facebok page has all the details.

I have compiled the "dev" version that they are currently looking to release and there are loads of great changes.

I know this doesn't help you right away, but it might be better to wait for the new release than try and resolves your current issue.

Bicycle

Hi.
Actually that's good news for me, because I know there's (most likely) fix coming for my problem. Retropie is an ongoing project for me and most people so patience is a virtue with DIY.

Bicycle

Hi.
I just updated Amiberry to the latest v2.12 and the problem is still there. I wiped the config files clean like suggested. Amiberry can still see both joysticks plugged in alone but not together. Is there a way to enable both joysticks in the menu or is there a way to access retroarch menu to tinker with the settings (if Amiberry supports retroarch)?
It's a bit shame not to be able to play head to head in micro machines with proper joysticks.

tuki_cat

@Bicycle

Hi,

From within Amiberry what is each controller showing up as, what is it descriptive name?

If you go into the folllowing directory /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig there should be .cfg files.

There should be one for you Ipac2 and one for your ArcadeForge KeyStrike 1P, and these should match the descriptive names shown in Amiberry.

If the .cfg name for each controller is different then should just work as to seperarte gamepads. It sounds a little like same .cfg is being used for each controller.

If you go into Amiberry go to "paths" and set the controller paths to "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig/" and press "rescan". this should detect each controller.

The wiki is here for setting up controllers, let me know if this helps.

https://github.com/midwan/amiberry/wiki/Setting-up-Input-Controllers

Also, bear in mind only one controller (the first one) will be operational from within the gui.

Bicycle

In Amiberry the controllers are showing up as "Ultimarc IPAC 2 Ultimarc IPAC 2" and "Arduino LLC ArcadeForge Key Strike".
In "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig" has files "Ultimarc IPAC 2 Ultimarc IPAC 2.cfg" and "Arduino LLC ArcadeForge Key Strike.cfg".
There already was "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig/" in Amiberry's controller paths and I tried "rescan"
I added third generic controller and it showed fine with IPAC2 in the list, but Key Strike is having problems with that.
One thing I found out when I was checking things was that when I plug in just Key Strike, the mouse disappears from the list and is not working in games. I'm pretty sure at least the mouse was showing in the list in previous version of Amiberry, because I tested it with Micro Machines and I can't start the game without mouse.
I forgot totally in previous posts that in order to get Key Strike to work at all in retropie, I had to add
"SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{name}=="Arduino LLC ArcadeForge Key Strike", MODE="0666", ENV{ID_INPUT_JOYSTICK}="1""
line in "/etc/udev/rules.d/99-gamepad.rules" file.
In other emulators Key Strike is working with no problems.

If somehow I can't get it to work at all in Amiberry, I probably have to beg my wife to allow me to buy another kind of gamepad encoder. For example the new "GamepadBlock". Hahaha

Bicycle

@tuki_cat
Thank you for your help. You were helpful even I couldn't get it to work as expected.
After a lengthy pondering I decided to go for another encoder totally (GamepadBlock).
I might use Key Strike in another project that's aimed for PC where it works fine.
If you have any other ideas though, I might try it before the new encoder arrives. It might be helpful for someone else in the future.

tuki_cat

@Bicycle

Hi, I would have liked to reply to you sooner, but both mine and my wifes car broke down so I have been fixing them!

There is a way to have two players on your Ipac2, both for other lr-emluators and Amiberry. My Ipac was intially set just to recognise keyboard presses only - it was not in gamepad mode. I am a big Amiga fan and have been following the Amiberry project closely, it's great but not yet fully supporting the Ipac when it used in keyboard mode. You can use it is keyboard mode, it is just that it does not support custom mappings.

To use Amiberry in keyboard mode then you simply select "keyboard as joystick" the mappings for this are as follows (taken from the Amiberry Wiki): -

North Button = Left Shift;
East Button = Left Control
South Button = Left Alt
West Button = Spacebar
D-pad Left = Cursor Left
D-pad right = Cursor Right
D-pad up = Cursor Up
D-pad down = Cursor Down
Left Shoulder Button = Z
Right Shoulder Button = X
Select Button = 1
Start Button = 2
Left 'Stick' Button = F1
Right 'Stick' Button = F2

My Ipac2 is set up with player ones control as gamepad inputs and player 2 are set to the above keyboard inputs. You can do this by downloading WinIpac and then changing the inputs that your Ipac2 uses. This way I can chose my gamepad for player 1 and keyboard as joystick for player 2. The only issue is that player two can only be used as a standard joystick, you cannot map custom controls.

All this really depends on how much you are willing to mess around with control config and the Ipac2. Here is a link that explains how WinIpac works: - https://www.ultimarc.com/download.html

I have set up the other libreto emulators with two players, with player 1 using the Ipac in gamepad mode and player 2 using the Ipac in keyboard mode.

Hope that helps.

Bicycle

Hi
Thanks for the reply. I'm aware of WinIpac and I used it before.
I use two separate joysticks so I can't use 2 sets of controls on one Ipac2. You can see my setup here
I prefer gamepad modes because I can more easily use them across all platforms with just plug & play (Windows + Linux + other).
I chose 2 different encoders for the reason so they don't conflict namewise.
But like I said I made a decision to change the Key Strike to GamepadBlock from PetrockBlock. Apparently there are still some minor problems with Key Strike so I save myself a headache and go for another one. Maybe Key Strike is better for PC-only setup (works without problems).
Thank you for your help. There was some useful tips.

Brownmonster

@tuki_cat said in Amiberry/UAE4ARM can't see both joysticks at the same time:

is lots of work ongoing to improve Amiberry, and I believe they are gearing up for a new release soon. I think this release includes lots of of improvements to the controls and some compatibility with retroarch configs. Their Facebok page has all the details.
I have compiled the "dev" version that they are currently looking to release and there are loads of great changes.
I know this doesn't help you right away, but it might be better to wait for the new release than try a

Hi,

I recently added some fixes to the amiberry dev branch which will allow the RetroArch keyboard input to be recognised as more than one Joystick. So in the case of having amiberry running on an arcade setup (with an iPac setup as keyboard) you will now be able to play 2 player games with one iPac correctly. I've also added the ability to use the hotkeys in RetroArch to open the menu and exit the emulator too.

Hopefully this will be merged to the master soon too!

Thanks

Ste

tuki_cat

@Brownmonster

Hi Ste,

Thanks for the update, I have downloaded the new version and Amiberry but I am having trouble getting Amiberry to regonise Retroarch Keyboard as Joystick for custom mappings.

My Ipac2 is set up with player one's control as gamepad inputs, this is recognised as "Ultimarc Ipac 2"and I can use custom controls with this, the "r" indicating a retroarch controller shows next to the input box.

Player two is set up with keyboard inputs, this is recognised by Amibery as "Retroarch Keyboard as Joystick [#1]", but for some reason I cannot use custom mappings, and there is no "r" in the input box and it states "Not a valid Input Controller for Joystick Emulation".

It does recognise the standard joystick controls "left, right, up, down and fire button 1" which are mapped via my retroarch.cfg (this is placed in opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/conf/ directory, so the second player controls are working, I just can't get custom mappings to work.

Any ideas why?