mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support

hhromic

@Riverstorm @grant2258 success!
Following @Riverstorm very instructive post, what I did was indeed to only map the "raw"/"direct" input in the MAME TAB-menu and left the RetroPad input out. It is a laborious manual work. This prevents the double inputs as MAME doesn't care about the RetroPad input anymore. Together with binding a "hotkey enable" key, MAME is completely separated from RA's functionality and I don't loose RGUI navigation. Much appreciated!

I still feel that there should be an easier way, like an option for MAME to disable RA's input listening or the "raw"/"direct" input listening (or have both). So looking forward for this aspect to become better.

Thanks you both guys for all the help! :)

hhromic

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@Clyde said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

How do you set a binding to NONE in MAME's tab menu?

Left, left on the left stick on a controller or double delete on a keyboard. Press enter on the field first. You can try it without pressing enter first and only highlighting the field. It might work but I didn't have any luck that way.

I also use double ESC for setting the binding to NONE. As @Riverstorm said, you first highlight the input field (with ENTER) and then just press ESC ESC. Then it will display "None".

Clyde

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Left, left on the left stick on a controller or double delete on a keyboard. Press enter on the field first. You can try it without pressing enter first and only highlighting the field. It might work but I didn't have any luck that way.

Left, left or double delete after enter only restores the default binding for that control, it doesn't change it to NONE. Without enter, nothing happens in both cases. I tried it on mame2003 and mame2003-plus, and with game focus on and off. I updated both approx. two weeks ago.

Why is it different for you than for me? What I am missing?

hhromic

@Clyde try with double ESC. I just did it some minutes ago with latest RA and lr-mame2003-plus.

Clyde

@hhromic In mame2003, double ESC also only restores the default binding for that line. In mame2003-plus, it binds a double ESC to that line. Again, with or without focus.

I may update mame2003-plus and try it again. But that will take some time. :)

hhromic

@Clyde I remember I read it somewhere. For example I just quickly googled: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,49164.msg479503.html#msg479503

if I remember, I think you after selecting the button (ENTER) you need to hit the ESC twice quickly to get NONE or N/A.. Try that.....

It's a post from 2006, so that feature seems to be very old. Did you try "quickly" pressing double ESC?
Perhaps you need to clear your default.cfg file? (if you don't care for any existing mapping)

markwkidd

Try navigating to the binding you want to remove in the MAME remapper and pressing the Delete key once it is selected.

Do not press Enter first as if you want to rebind, just highlight that binding and press Del.

hhromic

@markwkidd oh I wish I knew that earlier, I was patiently doing the double-ESC after pressing ENTER for each of the million bindings I didn't need.. took some time X_X. Good to know now! \o/

Clyde

@hhromic I did press Esc twice as fast as I am physically able to. :) Also, MAME does react to it, but not in the intended way. It either binds the double tap (i.e. it shows the bound key two times without any and or or in-between) or it reverts any changes to the default binding, depending on the version of MAME I use.

I would rather avoid clearing the defaults, and I would like to be able to set a particular binding to NONE on the fly if the need arises.

@markwkidd I tried Delete without Enter way before I read about the double keystrokes here. Alas, it doesn't work either (i.e. nothing happens when I do it). I also tried holding down Del for awhile, and also tried Backspace to be sure.

I'm very puzzled about this. 😯 I suspect some nasty little mistake we're all overlooking.

Riverstorm

@Clyde said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@markwkidd I tried Delete without Enter way before I read about the double keystrokes here. Alas, it doesn't work either (i.e. nothing happens when I do it)

Sorry, yes the left/left and del/del are for setting to the defaults but like you a single delete highlighting the field doesn't seem to work for me either. Double escape does set my field to NONE. A field you might want to check is your UI Cancel and make sure it's set to escape (ESC) and whatever controller button you want to use.

You can also set the Input (general) fields (in any game) to NONE and they will trickle down to all the game configs.

If you enter Input (this game) (for a specific game) and a field is highlighted (looks white--that's an override and won't inherit the default settings from the Input (general) (default.cfg). Resetting the field with left/left or del/del will pull down the Input (general) settings. If you're doing them one game at a time that would definitely be laborious.

You could manually delete all the game.cfg files and setup Input (general) like you want as the main file that will cover most of your game needs. Then each game launched will pull from the Input (general).

Then go back through to fine tune individual one off games, for example there's no good Input (general) that covers most games and pinball games (flippers) so I go into each pinball game and setup the left/right shoulders or left/right triggers to the left/right pinball flippers, etc. for those type of game overrides. You'll find many games that just don't work at the defaults and will need a game level override.

Think of it as a hierarchy, the top level is for most games, then individual overrides for those one off games.

I don't want to confuse it much but keep it at the back of your mind for later fine tuning. You can go back and override with RA at the global, system, core or ROM level that makes it very powerful. I use all of them in conjunction with TAB input. I have everything set almost perfect for all cores and games.

Also with all the enhancements @grant2258 has put into place you can once again do NOT mappings that I am not sure if RA is capable of doing at this point.

Clyde

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

If you enter Input (this game) (for a specific game) and a field is highlighted (looks white--that's an override and won't inherit the default settings from the Input (general) (default.cfg). Resetting the field with left/left or del/del will pull down the Input (general) settings.

That may be the nasty little mistake I suspected. I only tested your suggestions in the Input (this game) section to avoid messing up my overall bindings. If it's like you said, then it's no surprise that the double taps didn't create NONE but restored the Input (general) bindings.

I'll check this later or tomorrow. My Pi is updating mame2003-plus from source at the moment. ;)

I go into each pinball game and setup the left/right shoulders or left/right triggers to the left/right pinball flippers, etc. for those overrides.

I usually do that via the RA GUI in Quick Menu -> Controls. But I'm also familiar with the MAME hierarchy. I just didn't know about the different effects of double-tapping in Input (general) and Input (this game). It's not really intuitive, I have to say.

Thanks for tipping my in the right direction (I think, we'll know for sure after I'll be able to test it.)

Riverstorm

@Clyde said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

That may be the nasty little mistake I suspected. I only tested your suggestions in the Input (this game) section to avoid messing up my overall bindings. If it's like you said, then it's no surprise that the double taps didn't create NONE but restored the Input (general) bindings.

Right, del/del, left/left or esc/esc will return the field to the defaults or possibly NONE (whatever is configured above in Input (general)). Doing the same key combos in Input (general)will set the field to NONE because there's nothing above to pull down.

I agree it's not intuitive and I had trouble figuring how to clear a field even too. :)

Riverstorm

@Clyde - Sorry, I now you've been doing this a long time too. I started the post directed at giving you incorrect information on left/left and del/del and ended the post trying to share more information, that you didn't need. It was meant for @hhromic helping with his setup, sorry about that and have a good weekend.

grant2258

Ok guys i dont mean to talk down to anyone here. Im not calling anyone stupid or anything like that. Im going to briefly tell you guys what im planning on doing with the ipac/keyboard situation.

now by default people have been confused on a few levels of whats going on with this. I never used the keyboard code before so i didnt look into it. After @Riverstorm had a few problems i looked into it more and figured out what was going on.

problem 1 retroarch hotkeys (easy to work around)
problem2 there really was never no need to set you keys in mame just set it in RA config
this lead to
problem 3 mame keys conflicting with RA binds

let me explain this a little further without getting all technical.

you bind your p1 to ra config
when you press this key mame reads the key press and retro arch sends the retropad code.

I have a working solution and i will also add support for people wanting to use the old way of mame doing things. I just finished a nightshift so ill get the code done really soon and explain what you need to do then. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause anyone.

update: mame2003 plus esc now works that part of the code has been fixed already. The old code wont no need to update yet ill do the fixes soon

Brigane

@markwkidd If you dont mind I would like to request a mame2003-plus fix of Wyvern Wings (wyvernwg) it seems to run with mame2010 but I have no ingame sound and some slowdown. Thanks in advance

Clyde

@Riverstorm No problem, I just wanted to tell you that I know the hierarchy in principle, so that you would know what you don't have to explain to me. :)

Here's the summary of my test today after updating RA from binary, as well as mame2003 and mame2003-plus from source.

Esc,Esc sets a binding to none in Input (general). \o/
Left,Left only sets a binding to none if game focus is on. Without game focus, the Retropad left ist bound twice, which is a known problem discussed here.
Del without Enter still doesn't remove the binding ( @markwkidd ).

So, at least the riddle is solved. I still miss a way to remove a binding in Input (this game) regardless if there is a binding for it in Input (general). I know I could edit the config files, but that is rather inconvenient in testing situations to find the best controls for a game.

@grant2258 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

I have a working solution and i will also add support for people wanting to use the old way of mame doing things. I just finished a nightshift so ill get the code done really soon and explain what you need to do then. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause anyone.

That sounds great, especially the explaining part. :)

update: mame2003 plus esc now works that part of the code has been fixed already. The old code wont no need to update yet ill do the fixes soon

What exactly does work now in contrast to before and/or mame2003? Just trying to avoid (more) misunderstanding. :)

grant2258

@Clyde

everything works mame2003 has the exact same issues with this you assuming you dont have you hotkeys nulled (it wont matter though in thus this case though and you have the default ra pl keyboard settings) start nbbatman in mame2003

press the ra p1 credit key (right shift ) a few times player 3 will start.

I really dont want to get into details here. it will be fixed and the underlying reasons dont matter to the end user.

note this a a keyboard/ipac setup issue that does need addressed

Clyde

@grant2258 As a mere end user myself, I'm perfectly fine with end user level descriptions. :)

In my last post, I just referred to your announcement about explaining what we need to do after you finish your code. Take your time, and thanks for all the work.

grant2258

@Clyde

all you will need to do is set your ipac up in ra config and set an enable hotkey so you dont need to null and hotkeys out nothing more

Clyde

@grant2258 I don't have an IPAC, but two DragonRise controllers and a normel USB keyboard. So, the problems you describe are only occurring with IPAC? Then my apologies for missing that in the discussion. O:)