RetroArch Light Gun Game Mode Selection

mediamogul

My Dolphinbar has been on loan to a friend and I just got it back today. The first thing I wanted to see was the state of light gun gaming in lr-fceumm. I was able to get everything recognized relatively easy, but I noticed something that appears to be a somewhat major issue and was wondering if you two could confirm it. In most any light gun game, different modes are selected by pointing the gun off screen and pulling the trigger. It seems as though this isn't possible, as the crosshairs end their movement at the edge of the screen.

Every time I tried to change the game mode in 'Duck Hunt', 'Game A' would start due to the game believing that I shot at the screen while that particular game mode was selected. The emulators on my hacked Wii also display their crosshairs at the outer edge of the screen, but as long as they're at the outer-most edge, it registers as being off screen. Perhaps this is behavior that ultimately needs to be accounted for in programming, such as a few pixels of dead zone where the coordinates read as being off screen. I imagine this would also be an issue for games where you reload your gun by firing away from the screen.

One other thing to note is that in 'Duck Hunt', pressing the 'Select' button on the gamepad in the first controller port is also supposed to allow mode selection. However, it seemed to only recenter the crosshairs for some reason, as if the 'Select' button wasn't even functional. Anyway, I was hoping you two could confirm whether or not this is an issue for you as well, or if perhaps I'm overlooking something.

edmaul69

@mediamogul just tested. In duck hunt it is the same thing for me in lr-fceumm but works correctly in lr-nestopia

mediamogul

@edmaul69

Ah, so it may be isolated to being a core issue. I'll try to find a few games to test in each core and open a ticket over at libretro based on the results. Thanks for testing it.

ChuckyP

Sorry to jump in, I hope I’m not out of place but...

Off screen reload works in Advmame 1.4 Lethal Enforcers. It can tell when the cursor is at the bottom of the screen and shooting reloads. In the actual arcade cabinet you shoot a small colored box at the bottom middle of the screen.

And once you get the Wiitote setup correctly (and mount some sights) it is accurate enough to hit targets without onscreen crosshairs. As accurate as my aimtrack.

mediamogul

@chuckyp

Good to know. I've tested a few gun games in AdvanceMAME before, but it's been a while and it's nice to hear the situation hasn't changed. Thanks.

mediamogul

I seem to be having even more trouble with lr-nestopia.

Mouse movement is shaky and fast
Pulling trigger doesn't register an in-game shot
'Select' button won't cycle through game modes
Standard relative coordinate mice not registering

Edit: I lost functionality with standard mice after updating to the most recent version, so I guess there's just been a regression in lr-nestopia.

ChuckyP

Can you help me verify an issue as well? Lr-fceumm has been working great with a Wiimote and dolphin bar. After adding an overlay (retrorama-nes) I get a system freeze when pressing the trigger. Unresponsive and needs to be rebooted via putty.

Not trying to troubleshoot, just something to report.

EDIT: Duck Hunt & Hogan’s Alley. The only thing I have changed is input_overlay=true/false.

mediamogul

@chuckyp

I wasn't able to test with the Retrorama overlay, but I tested another without any issue.

Lr-fceumm has been working great with a Wiimote and dolphin bar.

Does this mean you're able to select different game modes, such as the skeet shooting, or tin can targets in 'Duck Hunt' and 'Hogan's Alley'?

ChuckyP

No. I have been working on a setup that lets me use sights instead of onscreen crosshairs, and had yet to play anything other than the Game A on Duck Hunt just to get the correct angle dialed in.

But now that I’ve re-read the manual (Duck Hunt),it is clear that the emulator does not function as the normal hardware did.

Select on the controller centers the crosshairs, and shooting offscreen starts Game A instead of changing selection.

edmaul69

@mediamogul i havent updated lr-nestopia, but the other reasons were why i stopped using it. The crosshair lag and speed was too much.

markwkidd

For this specific bug with regard to RetroArch emulator cores I would like to suggest that you all post this information in the libretro forums.

If you could get this thread going with logs over there I will do what I can to attract some attention from developers familiar with the NES light gun situation.

mediamogul

@markwkidd said in RetroArch Light Gun Game Mode Selection:

I will do what I can to attract some attention from developers familiar with the NES light gun situation.

That would be great. I do plan on starting a thread there soon, but I'm currently trying to get my thoughts together on the matter. There's a handful of things that need to be addressed to make light gun use more practical in RetroArch and I want to make sure I can present those issues as clearly and concise as possible. I also need to experiment with all the applicable cores to see what issue they might have as well.

markwkidd

@mediamogul Cool!

There is at least one libretro dev who takes FCEUmm NES light gun functionality pretty seriously so I think if the details are laid out that is a good place to start.

For my part there are evidently still irregularities with mame2003 lightgun support. I'm unfortunately not experiencing them myself, so I'm kind of at the same point as you: getting my documentation and description in order before I put out the call for help! :) Maybe this weekend...

mediamogul

As an aside to anyone looking to change game modes in the mean time, gamepad selection is possible as long as the NES 'Select' button is mapped, or remapped away from the RetroArch hotkey.

ChuckyP

@mediamogul I just tried the overlays from the rpi-video-manager utility by Floob. I still get this freeze, it happens in all RetroArch cores if there is an overlay active. This is on a stock image from the RetroPie website and 1 overlay added to test.

I’m finding it hard to believe this is an isolated incident... I won’t bother you again if you can’t help. Trying to get to the bottom of it. Thanks.

mediamogul

@chuckyp said in RetroArch Light Gun Game Mode Selection:

I’m finding it hard to believe this is an isolated incident.

We could be on different versions of RetroArch. I haven't updated mine in a little while. I'll update and try again this evening.

ChuckyP

@mediamogul I appreciate it. I just need a confirmation one way or the other. Sorry to bother you.

mediamogul

@chuckyp

I just updated everything, installed an overlay and setup the Dolphinbar and everything seems to be working well. I don't know what could be causing the issue. Perhaps a conflict with another mouse?

edmaul69

This post is deleted!

markwkidd

Hello @mediamogul and other lightgun fans: could you answer a slightly remedial question from the libretro side? We know that you have access to the udev input driver -- therefore udev needs to be working well for the retropie lightgun userbase.

Are there any other RetroArch input drivers that RetroPie users employ for their mouse-like devices?