2player or 1player controllers possible?

unkis17 · 15 Mar 2017, 03:35

All,

I built a all-in-one pi zero & nintendo controller using GPIO and all is working. I purchased a second USB controller and have that working - kind of.

If I have the second controller plugged in via USB everything works fine. The controllers are assigned correctly and hotkeys are working correctly (modified xxx.cfg to get this via ssh).

The issue is if I do NOT have the second controller plugged in then controller one (the one with the pi zero in it) does not work, inside of the games, no issues in ES menus.

I have thought about modifying retroarch.cfg to hardcode controllers, but I am not sure if that is the right thing to do.

I have also used the Retroarch RGUI to bind the controllers to there assigned inputs, but not the keys nor hotkeys. So I am not sure if it is still using auto-configuration or not (I assume yet as I did not modify retroarch.cfg)

Can anyone help point me in the right direction. I searched several threads, but couldn't find my solution. Maybe someone can point me to the right tread

Thanks,

Unkis (running Retro version 4.0)

AlexMurphy · 15 Mar 2017, 03:56

@unkis17 Try this. https://github.com/meleu/RetroPie-joystick-selection.
Assign the main controller / case as always P1 and the additional as P2.

unkis17 · 15 Mar 2017, 17:41

@AlexMurphy

Thank you for this suggestion. I will try it tomorrow night. I am hoping to mark this thread as solved

AlexMurphy · 15 Mar 2017, 17:50

@unkis17 I was having a relatively similar issue. Whenever I plugged in a second controller it took over as Player1 which was a pain as it was a different controller with different button values and mapping. Plus, everyone wants to be Player 1! This tool totally sorted it. I imagine this is your issue, but may not be. Let me know how you get on.

unkis17 · 17 Mar 2017, 01:28

@AlexMurphy

Good news is I got the plug-in installed and configured correctly. I have rebooted the Pi and the settings I assigned in the plug-in have remained. FYI i configured both global and NES system (as NES is all I will be playing)

The bad news is it doesn't seem to be working. If I unplug the 2nd controller (via 3-port usb hub) & launch a game controller one is non-responsive.

I did mess with Retroarch RGUI at one point and use player1 binds and player 2 binds. I am curious if this is messing things up? I do not know much about Retroarch RGUI and only tried it based on infromation I read before posting here. I did double check these settings again after using the joystick plug-in and they are still active and look correct.

Any ideas? i think the only way I know to remove the settings I played with in Retroarch RGUI is to delete the retroarch.cfg file and I am not sure if that is safe to do.

meleu · 17 Mar 2017, 02:03

@unkis17 For a better help we need to take a look at these files:

/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/YOUR_JOYPAD_NAME.cfg
/opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg

Please paste their content in ghostbin.com (or something similar) and then post the respective links here.

unkis17 · 17 Mar 2017, 02:16

@meleu

Retroarch.cfg

NES retroarch.cfg

NES Pad = player 1 with pi zero inside

USB Gamepad = player 2

Darksavior · 17 Mar 2017, 02:21

You can also assign pads to an emulator from Configuration Editor in Retropie-Setup

meleu · 17 Mar 2017, 02:27

@unkis17 your all/retroarch.cfg was cursed by the "config_save_on_exit setted to true" curse.

To break this spell you must summon some magical powers through the following command:

cp /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg.rp-dist /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

After this ritual you can try again what you were trying to do. And never enable the config_save_on_exit on RetroPie again. ;-)

If you wanna know why enabling config_save_on_exit on RetroPie is a bad practice, take a look at this post.

unkis17 · 17 Mar 2017, 02:44

@meleu
I think you have that command backwards? When copying the retroarch.cfg file don't I need to copy the existing file to a new file? I have no file named "retroarch.rp-dist" Please don't take this the wrong way. I am not Linux command guru, but I think your intent was to backup the file with extension .rp-dist? I can certainly be wrong here.

couldn't I just edit the all/retroarch.cfg and change to "false"?

unkis17 · 17 Mar 2017, 02:51

@meleu -

just checked my /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg and my "config_save_on_exit" is "false"?

What am i missing here? sorry for any added confusion.

unkis17 · 17 Mar 2017, 04:29

@AlexMurphy , @meleu ,

I started from scratch again from an old image where the only change I did from stock install was to enable the GPIO driver for the NES inputs.

I copied over my backed-up Controller Files and re-ran the Joystick selection script.

I am having a different issue now. Controller 1 seems to behaving as controller 1 even once controller 2 has been removed, but I loose the hotkeys to controller 1 once controller two is removed?

I took a look at the retroarch.cfg in /opt/retropie/configs/all directory and it is different then the one I posed earlier so I though I would include that:

Original Retroarch.cfg

meleu · 17 Mar 2017, 05:07

@unkis17

@meleu
I think you have that command backwards?

No. The command is right. The intention wasn't to backup the all/retroarch.cfg. The problem is you don't have the .rp-dist file. My suggestion is to reinstall RetroArch via RetroPie-Setup, this creates that .rp-dist file.

couldn't I just edit the all/retroarch.cfg and change to "false"?

No. Your file is already cursed. An "uncursed" retroarch.cfg looks like the last one you've posted.

I'm not sure if it's the origin of your problem, but if you read this post you'll know why config_save_on_exitshould be avoided in RetroPie.

meleu · 17 Mar 2017, 05:14

@unkis17 said in 2player or 1player controllers possible?:

I am having a different issue now. Controller 1 seems to behaving as controller 1 even once controller 2 has been removed, but I loose the hotkeys to controller 1 once controller two is removed?

Are you removing the controller two while the game is running? (if yes, you shouldn't do it)

Did you enabled the "joystick selection by name" method? (if not, I suggest it so)

unkis17 · 17 Mar 2017, 12:19

@meleu . No, I am not removing the controller while the game is running. I remove the controller before I select and run the game.

I did not enable "joystick selection by name" method, but I will try that next. I wasn't sure what that would do so I didn't enable it.

Thank you for your support.

meleu · 17 Mar 2017, 15:43

@unkis17 said in 2player or 1player controllers possible?:

I did not enable "joystick selection by name" method, but I will try that next. I wasn't sure what that would do so I didn't enable it.

The README of the joystick-selection tool says:

The advantage of the selection by name method is that there is no need to care about the joystick connection order. You can configure your "Generic USB SNES gamepad" to be the player1 no matter what USB port you use. Or, better yet, configure your "Fancy Bluetooth joypad" to be the player1 no matter what was the order it was paired or how many USB joysticks are connected.

I think it's exactly what you want. ;-)

unkis17 · 17 Mar 2017, 19:27

@meleu . I will be honest I did not read the readme, I followed along the website AlexMurphy provided.

I just tried this option and we are in business! Very happy. Very Appreciative of your and AlexMurphy's help. Thank you again!

AlexMurphy · 17 Mar 2017, 19:29

@unkis17 No problem. Glad you got sorted. It's a really handy tool written by @meleu