Aimtrak gun loses alignment when I aim off the screen. <tag> Aimtrak <Tag>

Efriim

Oh well, I should have researched more before proposing so many ideas.
Leaves to remain these changes for advanced mame
/opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/advmame.rc

device_fb_fastset yes #  description from advmame doc: "Don't set the video mode if it's expected to be idential at the current one. This can be used to avoid a screen refresh when not required."
device_mouse raw
device_raw_mousedev[0] /dev/input/mouse0
device_raw_mousedev[1] /dev/input/mouse1
device_raw_mousedev[2] /dev/input/mouse2
device_raw_mousedev[3] /dev/input/mouse3
device_raw_mousetype[0] ps2
device_raw_mousetype[1] ps2
device_raw_mousetype[2] ps2
device_raw_mousetype[3] ps2

#defaults
device_fb_fastset no
device_mouse auto
device_raw_mousedev[0] auto
device_raw_mousetype[0] pnp

if you haven't already.

It is likely these problems will not persist in lr-mame, but if they did then it would tell us that it is device interface/driver problem since all the screen/resolutions have been tried.

dureq83

Just an update, I moved the rom from the Advmame folder to Arcade and ran it with LR-Mame2010 emulator, still having the same issue. So we know that using two different emulators that the problem is persisting.

dureq83

This is what my advmame.rc looks like (doesn't look like yours)

device_mouse auto
device_raw_firstkeyhack no
device_raw_mousedev[0] auto
device_raw_mousedev[1] auto
device_raw_mousedev[2] auto
device_raw_mousedev[3] auto
device_raw_mousetype[0] pnp
device_raw_mousetype[1] pnp
device_raw_mousetype[2] pnp
device_raw_mousetype[3] pnp

Efriim

@dureq83
Well at least it works and it is probably right, I'm probably wrong I think I scanned it here
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Spinners,-Trackballs,-Lightguns,-and-other-Mouse-Devices#advancemame
but I read about it searching for aimtrak in two places.
There is a firmware on the gun device itself? And the windows program allows it to have different configurations maybe these apply. Setting it to Mouse mode only.

dureq83

The firmware on Aimtrak guns are stored in the gun themselves. I updated the firmware while plugged into my windows machine. I currently have the aimtrak gun configured as a mouse.
This is what I don't get. I run gunconf on my raspberry pi and am able to calibrate it correctly. (while in the calibration screen, the crosshairs don't become misaligned after moving off the screen.) ((So we know that the sensor bar is reading the gun correctly)) I then load a game using two different emulators (not just different versions of the same emulator) and both emulators have the same problem (which tells us that it's not an emulator problem, or at least I don't think so.) So if it's not an emulator issue then where, Dear Watson, does the problem lie?

Efriim

@dureq83
Quick question. When the aimtrak is pointed way off screen and the trigger is pulled; does the alignment over-compensate proportionately, only parabolic? Or rationally with condensed values?

dureq83

@Efriim I'm sorry, I dont understand the question.

Efriim

@dureq83
When reloading and the alignment gets adjusted, is this adjustment equal to the distance off screen reloaded? If you were to shoot the lowerleft without going offscreen will it make any adjustment? And if you were to shoot the lower left off of the screen is the adjustment diagonal or will it show only x and y adjustments? Finally if reloading several times off screen does the misalignment compound itself limitlessly?

dureq83

Whether or not I go to reload the gun, when I aim off the screen it loses the alignment.

Efriim

@dureq83
Could you try?
lr-mame2010
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/mame2010/ini/mame.ini
line 80/115

offscreen_reload          1

I could not find this setting for advmame.

dureq83

I changed the Offscreen_reload from 0 to 1 in LR_Mame2010, and ran Aliens.zip and still am having the same issue with the calibration being off when I aim off the screen. I tried to launch Lethal Enforcers 2 with Mame-2010 and it won't run, probably because of the rom family which is for Advmame.

Efriim

@dureq83
Like a mouse it is trapped on the screen. Then it needs some sort of off-screen scroll. Or perhaps a way to disable the some of the mouse cursor functions yet not make inoperable the tracking.

Efriim

@dureq83
While I thought the above configurations for advmame.rc were to enable the device functions maybe they are used to make separate the mouse events of the aimtrak. Can you confirm this function.
advmame.rc post #16

dureq83

I'll have to check this later when I'm in front of my game. Has no one else on this forum (300 views) ever had this problem? It would be great to have additional details or ideas from others.

mitu

I don't have an Aimtrak, so I don't know how it can be configured, but I suppose that - like other lightguns - it emulates a mouse in Linux.
The only idea that pops to mind for the behaviour you're seeing is that the emulator is reading the mouse movements as relative coordinates and once it's off screen it looses the correct position. I know that some Libretro cores have an option to use 'absolute pointer' (for instance mame2003-plus), but I don't know if Advmame has this kind of option - or maybe it's not only up to the emulator, but there's something that can be configured for the gun itself.

dureq83

@mitu thank you for the reply, I will explore this when I'm more awake.

dureq83

I'm currently installing Mame 2003 Plus from source and am going to mess around with the settings for the emulator.
I did have a question that might help troubleshoot the issue. I'm seeing the same issue in multiple emulators, is it possible that there might be a setting in Retroarch that is causing the issue seeing as how Retroarch is what handles the emulators? Or am I way off?

Efriim

@dureq83
Nah retroarch only handles lr-emulators.

mame2003plus had a build failure for me, I think it ran out of virtual memory somehow. I don;t know what to do about.

The advmame.rc settings above are still worth trying. From what I read in aimtrak posts they worked but most of it was pretty bleak.

dureq83

Understood, Mame2003 is still installing at the moment, so I'll have to wait for it to finish. I did contact Andy with Ultimarc and bounced some ideas off his head.

Efriim

ping