Guide: Advanced Controller Mappings

mediamogul

By adding the &, you have separated the command in two. First it launches your xboxdrv configuration and then it launches ScummVM as a separate process. For xboxdrv to tear itself down after the emulator quits, it all has to be in the same command, meaning that your xboxdrv config launches ScummVM as a part of itself and is therefore aware when it quits.

I believe I know where the problem is. I think you may have either skipped over the step that allows uninput to run at the user lever, or you still have sudo attached to the beginning of your xboxdrv command. Either way, it's important that the command run at the user level and not the root user, which has no config preferences for any of the emulators.

MadHorse

Thank you very much, you were absolutely right, i've made the step that allows uninput to run at user level but i forgot to remove sudo at the beginning of the command.
Now it works perfectly.
Thank you very much.

mediamogul

@MadHorse

I'm glad it's working. Tell Threepwood he fights like a dairy farmer.

MadHorse

How appropriate! I fight like a cow! :D

Thank you again.

mediamogul

For anyone interested, I posted an example of an Atari800/5200 mapping here.

Pyjamarama

@mediamogul you have been making an epic tutorial here...

I d love to see a 4way restrictions tutorial for games like PacMan in FBA and ΜΑΜΕ

mediamogul

@Pyjamarama

I'm glad it's been helpful. Restricting the direction to four ways can be done by just adding the variable line below to any xboxdrv command. I've been meaning to edit the first section to make mention of it, but I'll post it here also.

--four-way-restrictor

If you're formatting the command the way I've been illustrating so far, you'd of course add a space and backslash afterward to allow a carriage return to the next line:

--four-way-restrictor \

The difference this makes when playing something like 'Pac-Man' or 'Burger Time' is huge and allows for a much tighter and more authentic control scheme.

Pyjamarama

@mediamogul Sorry for the possible silly post that follows :)

So...lets say my rom is called pacman.zip

If I create a pacman.zip.cfg file that contains only

--four-way-restrictor

and put it where my roms are, will be enough?

mediamogul

@Pyjamarama

I'm afraid not. It can be added to any xboxdrv command, but it's exclusive to xboxdrv. I was a bit unclear in my wording above. I'll change for posterity.

Pyjamarama

@mediamogul I think that I am on xboxdrv. How can I check that it is working? (except from playing experience)

mediamogul

@Pyjamarama

You can check to see if you've installed it previously by going into RetroPie-Setup > Manage Packages > Manage Driver Packages. It will read "installed" next to the xboxdrv entry.

MadHorse

Hello again mediamogul,

i'm here again begging for your help.
I'm trying to switch the mouse control from the left stick to the right stick, so i change the configuracion from --ui-axismap x1=REL_X:10,y1=REL_Y:-10 to --ui-axismap x2=REL_X:10,y2=REL_Y:-10 but it doesen't seems to work correctly, i can use the right stick just to move left and right but not up and down, and the left stick is still active but doesen't move the pointer, just make it disappear like if it is going out of the screen.
My full configuration is the following

sudo killall >/dev/null xboxdrv
/opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv \
        >/dev/null \
        --evdev /dev/input/event2 \
        --silent \
        --detach-kernel-driver \
        --force-feedback \
        --deadzone-trigger 15% \
        --deadzone 1000 \
        --mimic-xpad \
        --dpad-as-button \
        --evdev-absmap ABS_X=x1,ABS_Y=y1,ABS_Z=x2,ABS_RZ=y2,ABS_#48=lt,ABS_#49=rt \
        --evdev-keymap KEY_#302=a,KEY_#301=b,BTN_DEAD=x,KEY_#300=y,BTN_THUMB=tl,BTN_THUMB2=tr,BTN_BASE5=lb,BTN_BASE6=rb,BTN_TRIGGER=back,KEY_#720=guide,BTN_TOP=start,BTN_TOP2=du,BTN_PINKIE=dr,BTN_BASE=dd,BTN_BASE2=dl \
        --calibration x1=-32767:0:32767,y1=-32767:0:32767,x2=-32767:0:32767,y2=-32767:0:32767 \
        --ui-axismap x2=REL_X:10,y2=REL_Y:-10 \
        --ui-buttonmap b=BTN_LEFT,a=BTN_RIGHT,start=KEY_F5,back=KEY_ESC,y=KEY_SPACE \
        --ui-buttonmap guide=void,x=void,lb=void,rb=void,tl=void,tr=void,lt=void,rt=void,back=void \
        -- \

Do you think you can help me?
Please :)

mediamogul

@MadHorse

Everything looks to be correct at face value. I just tried switching one of my own mouse maps over to the right thumbstick and it worked. It could be that ABS_RZ=y2is incorrectly mapped on the--evdev-absmap line. Perhaps the Y2 axis has a different ABS name other than RZ. You might try retracing your steps there.

MadHorse

Doh!, me dumb, you are absolutely right, ABS_RZis wrong, the correct one is ABS_RX. Now the right stick is working correctly, the strange thing is that the left stick still acting strange making the pointer disappear. Adding --ui-axismap x1=void,y1=void at the bottom of my configuration doesen't change anything.
Any other advise ?

mediamogul

@MadHorse

That is strange. So, the left stick makes the cursor disappear when nudged? Does it disappear for good? Since, you've already tried voiding it, you could try mapping it to an unused key to see how it behaves. Something like --ui-axismap x1=KEY_HOME:KEY_HOME,y1=KEY_HOME would be worth trying. Also, not mapping the left stick at all under --evdev-absmap might give you the desired effect as well.

MadHorse

@mediamogul
Thank you for your fast reply, it seems to disappear when i move the left stick and reappear always at the top left when i move back to center.
Yes you are right, if i map the left stick to --ui-axismap x1=KEY_LEFT:KEY_RIGHT,y1=KEY_DOWN:KEY_UP stop acting strange and work like the arrow keys.
You are also right, if i don't map the left stick under --evdev-absmap it disable the left stick.
I will use one of the solution as a workaround but i will try to investigate futher on why is acting like this.
Thank you very much

MadHorse

Hello again,
i have another questions about joypad configuration for individual emulators.
For emulators that start using a shell script like scummVM and amiga it's easy, but for others emulators like for example jzintv what should i do?
The emulators.cfg is

jzintv="/opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv/bin/jzintv -p /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS -q %ROM%"
default="jzintv"

I should create a shell script like scummVM and change emulators.cfg to point the the script or there is an easy way ?
Thank you for any help.

mediamogul

@MadHorse

There's really no one right answer to that. Sometimes you can just add the xboxdrv command to the emulators.cfg and others by pointing to a shell script.

MadHorse

Hi all,

i'm just making some test but it's seems to work well.
Create a runcommand-onstart.sh

nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh

the script will contain a casestatement where it will execute the xboxdrv configuration according to the emulator launched.
The following is just an example, everyone should change the configuration based on their own controller

#!/bin/sh
case $1 in
        fba)
                ;;
        daphne)
                ;;
        scummvm)
                sudo killall >/dev/null xboxdrv
                /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv \
                        >/dev/null \
                        --evdev /dev/input/event2 \
                        --silent \
                        --detach-kernel-driver \
                        --force-feedback \
                        --mimic-xpad \
                        --dpad-as-button \
                        --evdev-absmap ABS_X=x1,ABS_Y=y1,ABS_Z=x2,ABS_RX=y2 \
                        --evdev-keymap KEY_#302=a,KEY_#301=b,BTN_DEAD=x,KEY_#300=y,BTN_THUMB=tl,BTN_THUMB2=tr,BTN_BASE5=lb,BTN_BASE6=rb,BTN_TRIGGER=back,KEY_#720=guide,BTN_TOP=start,BTN_TOP2=du,BTN_PINKIE=dr,BTN_BASE=dd,BTN_BASE2=dl,BTN_BASE3=lt,BTN_BASE4=rt \
                        --calibration x1=-32767:0:32767,y1=-32767:0:32767,x2=-32767:0:32767,y2=-32767:0:32767 \
                        --axismap -Y1=Y1,-Y2=Y2 \
                        --ui-axismap x1=REL_X:10,y1=REL_Y:10 \
                        --ui-buttonmap b=BTN_LEFT,a=BTN_RIGHT,start=KEY_F5 \
                        --ui-buttonmap guide=void,x=void,y=void,lb=void,rb=void,tl=void,tr=void,lt=void,rt=void,back=void \
                        --ui-axismap x2=void \
                        &
                ;;
        intellivision)
                sudo killall >/dev/null xboxdrv
                /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv \
                        >/dev/null \
                        --evdev /dev/input/event2 \
                        --detach-kernel-driver \
                        --force-feedback \
                        --dpad-as-button \
                        --trigger-as-button \
                        --deadzone-trigger 15% \
                        --deadzone 4000 \
                        --silent \
                        --axismap -Y1=Y1,-Y2=Y2 \
                        --evdev-absmap ABS_X=x1,ABS_Y=y1,ABS_Z=x2,ABS_RX=y2,ABS_HAT0X=dpad_x,ABS_HAT0Y=dpad_y \
                        --evdev-keymap BTN_THUMB2=a,BTN_THUMB=b,BTN_TOP=x,BTN_TRIGGER=y,BTN_BASE3=back,BTN_BASE4=start,BTN_TOP2=lb,BTN_PINKIE=rb,BTN_BASE5=tl,BTN_BASE6=tr,BTN_BASE=lt,BTN_BASE2=rt \
                        --ui-axismap X1=KEY_S:KEY_D,Y1=KEY_E:KEY_X,X2=KEY_1:KEY_2,Y2=KEY_3:KEY_4,lt+X2=KEY_5:KEY_6,lt+Y2=KEY_7:KEY_8,rt+X2=KEY_9:KEY_0,rt+Y2=KEY_MINUS:KEY_EQUAL \
                        --ui-buttonmap a=KEY_LEFTSHIFT,b=KEY_HOME,x=KEY_LEFTCTRL,y=KEY_LEFTALT,lb=KEY_F1,rb=KEY_F12,lt=KEY_HOME,rt=KEY_HOME,tl=KEY_HOME,tr=KEY_HOME,du=KEY_E,dd=KEY_X,dl=KEY_S,dr=KEY_D,start=KEY_PAUSE \
                        --ui-buttonmap back=cycle-key:KEY_F6:KEY_F5 \
                        --ui-buttonmap guide=void \
                        &
                ;;
esac

Make the script exacutable

sudo chmod +x /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh

Now we need to create the onend script to kill the xboxdrv, otherwise when we exit the emulator the driver remain active

nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onend.sh

#!/bin/sh
sudo killall >/dev/null xboxdrv

sudo chmod +x /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onend.sh

I have to do some more test, and maybe create a more complex script with a base configuration for all the emulators and the just the different configuration specific for every emulators.
Also i think it will be possible to create a specific configuration not only for the emulator used but also for the games.
Will share any new info, maybe next week.
Now i need to rest, it was a very long day.

mediamogul

@MadHorse

What a great idea! It's a mark improvement over editing each run command. I look forward to trying this out later.