Cabinet build - almost finished

spruce_m00se

my ipac was keyboard only, i changed the firmware to make it allow gamepad, that was a ball ache, it bricked, and then randomly came back to life a few hours later.
how do you setup keyboard only? do you have to edit config files or can you use the ES input config? I tried in ES and it just overwrites player one everytime with the second player two joystick.

I was in a hurry to play, had a friend round, which is why i set it to keyboard and gamepad, then I did it through ES.

do you have a config file you could share? I can map the ipac to your config file easily with its config tool,, then just ssh your config file in.

Capeman

The way i setup my iPac is i made sure it was set to keyboard mode. Then i used the ES controller config to map the keyboard to ES so i could navigate the ES menu. Then i went into the configs-all auto joypads folder and deleted the config file for the keyboard.

At this point i could use the keyboard to navigate ES but not play any games in retroarch.

Then i opened retroarch.cfg and mapped out each keyboard key manually to all the default keyboard controls for player 1 and 2.

Then i edited the retroarch.cfg under the system specific folders for any system that didnt follow the default layout (my default was optimized for 2 button play, so i had to customize snes, genesis and a couple others).

Then, and this was the hard part, i had to make a specific per-game config file with separate control schemes for every mame/fba game that didnt follow the default scheme (fighting games had a specific 6 button layout that didnt match the default, some game like ninja turtles had action and jump backward, and so on) so yeah, 40 or 50 custom config files later, i had a really nice setup, and every game worked correctly with keyboard controls.

Needless to say, have about 20 separate backups of these files, haha.

Capeman

It also helps to make a map showing how the retropad is setup for each controller versus how your keyboard mapping is layed out on your control panel, because you still have to set key controls to retropad layout. Mine looks like this, i keep a laminated copy inside my cab. Your layout may vary, but you get the idea.

The top part shows my button layout and the corresponding keys on the iPac2. This is default mame control, so it's pretty universal. (some people reverse mame123 and mame456 button locations though).

spruce_m00se

@capeman where is the configs-all auto joypads folder located ? Can this be accessed over the network? Or is it inside the retropie menu?
Could you copy paste the config file that you mapped to the defaults? Although i love a good learning curve im about out of time on this project. I have ten days left to finish it. And work is mental.

Capeman

I want to say:
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads
But im at work and sadly cant mess around on my pi right now - i'll post a copy of my config files for you to reference later tonight.

If you have the same button layout as mine above, you could technically use them outright with maybe a little modification.

caver01

@spruce_m00se Lookin good! I like the lighting!

meleu

@spruce_m00se nice build man! Can we start that cheevos related tweaking? :-)

spruce_m00se

@meleu I dont have time anymore unfortuantely, I had 5 weeks, I took 4 to build this, I have one left to do a paid project that has nothing to do with gaming :(

if someone can manage to make a gpio pin toggle from high to low when a high score or cheevo is achieved then I would probably pay them to do it right now.

meleu

@spruce_m00se said in Cabinet build - almost finished:

if someone can manage to make a gpio pin toggle from high to low when a high score or cheevo is achieved then I would probably pay them to do it right now.

Do you know what is the command to toggle from high to low from command line?

If yes, just put the command on that script I wrote for you here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/95321

You just need to launch RetroArch with verbose logging to make it work. I don't have the fancy lights and don't know how to deal with GPIO stuff, but I tested with simple output on a terminal and the script works as expected.

No need to pay! :)

spruce_m00se

@meleu it seems pretty straight forward on this link :

http://www.raspberry-projects.com/pi/command-line/io-pins-command-line/io-pin-control-from-the-command-line

spruce_m00se

@capeman said in Cabinet build - almost finished:

I want to say:
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads
But im at work and sadly cant mess around on my pi right now - i'll post a copy of my config files for you to reference later tonight.

If you have the same button layout as mine above, you could technically use them outright with maybe a little modification.

any luck getting the files up?

Capeman

Oh wow, haha i completely forgot. Kids and work, ya know. I'll see if i have copies on my laptop and post them on my lunch break (if i have them)

spruce_m00se

@capeman I completely understand, dont worry about it for now, im out on holiday for the next three weeks, then my kids are back, so its game over, if you have a chance then I will do it at some point, but as of now it doesnt look like i will touch it again for the next month.