AimTrak Light Gun Sensitivity Issues

theguru

I have recently bought two AimTrak light guns to use with my RetroPie setup and have it functioning for Duck Hunt NES. The problem that I'm encountering is that the sensitivity of the gun movement is extremely high, the slightest movement and it dances across the screen, making it nearly impossible to play the game. Is there any ability to reduce the sensitivity of the AimTrak guns in any of the RetroArch/emulator configs or within the Linux build itself?

Version info:

Pi Model = 3B
RetroPie = 4.4.12 (Linux build - Stretch, 4.14.98-v7+)
EmulationStation = 2.8.3RP
RetroArch (FCEUmm) = 1.7.6
AimTrak Light Gun firmware = 9.20
AimTrak Setup Utility = 2.0 (Windows)

Steps I've currently taken:

Configured the guns on a windows laptop using the AimTrak configuration utility. Each gun has been assigned a unique device number with auto IR gain disabled. I've tried each of the three settings for Tilt / Z Correction (off, intelligent and continuous), but there is no visible difference. Once the guns are configured and I use the sensor check tab, the IR is correctly captured and showing red, and all movement of the gun across the screen is silky smooth. Changes applied to each gun.
I have attempted to install the Gunconf utility to my Retropie build as per the steps on the Gunconf github, but when I launch the app (either from EmulationStation or from the prompt) it shows that 2 devices are connected, when I pull the trigger on one of the guns it lists 'Gun detected, loading configuration'. It never loads beyond this point. After pushing a button on the keyboard it exits the app with an Exception error (see below). I'm not sure if this is due to the firmware version of the guns and the app not able to support it.
I have modified the emulator that Duck Hunt rom launches to be FCEumm. Under Options, zapper mode set to 'mouse', with the mouse index assigned to each user bind. I have also tried running the rom with the Nestopia emulator, and the results are much the same. The movement of the gun is extremely sensitive.

I have been keeping a close eye on the progress that @MrLightGun is making with light gun support across more platforms and eagerly waiting for PCSX-ReArmed to be rolled out with support.

Gunconf error:

Exception in thread Thread-1:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 801, in __bootstrap_inner
     self.run()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gunconf-0.2.0rc2-py2.7.egg/gunconf/controller.py", line 108, in run
    trans - self._machine.handle()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gunconf-0.2.0rc2-py2.7.egg/gunconf/util/statemachine.py", line 54, in handle
    return handler()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gunconf-0.2.0rc2-py2.7.egg/gunconf/controller.py", line 184, in state_loading
   cnf                            = self._gun.getConfig()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gunconf-0.2.0rc2-py2.7.egg/gunconf/drivers/aimtrak.py", line 81, in getConfig
   cnf                            = config_from_buffer(self._getConfig())
   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gunconf-0.2.0rc2-py2.7.egg/gunconf/drivers/conversion.py", line 66, in config_from_buffer
   cnf[' onCalTrig'] = ((pBuf[11] & 0x1) != 0)
IndexError: list index out of range

@markwkidd, are you able to elaborate further on the support that has been added to RetroArch, as you say that the Dolphinbar setup works great, I'd like to think that the AimTrak guns are just the same, it's something simple that I'm missing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BJRetro

@theguru I don’t have aimtraks, have dolphin bar. On NES at least have you tried mouse mode as pointer? I think that’s what I had to do for my wiimote to work. My guess is that is not your issue but figured I would at least throw that out there.

MrLightgun

@BJRetro said in AimTrak Light Gun Sensitivity Issues:

@theguru I don’t have aimtraks, have dolphin bar. On NES at least have you tried mouse mode as pointer? I think that’s what I had to do for my wiimote to work. My guess is that is not your issue but figured I would at least throw that out there.

Yes, that one jumped out for me too, definitely needs to be pointer.

theguru

I have had a look under the RetroArch menu when I start the game and I don’t see an option to set as Pointer.

The options I’ve got are:

Quick Menu > Options > Zapper Mode: Lightgun or Mouse

I’ve tried setting the option to Lightgun and ensured that player 1 binds were:

User 1 Device Type = Zapper
User 1 Device Index = Ultimarc Ultimarc (#1)
User 1 Mouse Index = 0

There are no other options I can see relating to light guns or mouse modes. If I change Zapper mode to Lightgun the crosshair positions itself dead center of the screen while the RetroArch menu is up, as soon as I close the menu and return to the game the crosshair disappears and no response is picked up from moving the light gun.

I need to have Zapper Mode set to Mouse for the light gun to at least function.

MrLightgun

@theguru The Zapper mode definitely needs to be Lightgun (called pointer in different versions). Once you have set that, then you can experiment with your other settings(such as bindings) and try and fix it.

theguru

Thanks @MrLightgun, I'll give it another shot tonight when I get home and report back.

I've also been reading up about confirming the binding of the AimTrak (mouse dev) and running further tests for its ID, with use of evtest. I'll give this a go also just to confirm the assignments to the AimTrak.

Appreciate your help (and @BJRetro) assisting me with this issue.

tuki_cat

@MrLightgun

Try changing the mouse index, it is possible the index isn’t 0 and that’s why it’s not picking anything up or showing the crosshairs

a1084426

@tuki_cat I have a similar issue with the Aimtrak gun as it doesn't read the config for some reason and get the same error when exiting, so I configured it on windows for calibration and it worked ok. What I found with sensitivity was the range from the screen, I dropped the IR gain down to one on the tool on windows then moved a bt further away from the screen and this helped.

I noticed this on my Amiga 500 emulator as close up it was in-controllable, but 2-3 feet away it was better so I reduced the IR gain a bit and this helped

cult

@theguru Writing to say I'm having the exact same problem with sensitivity settings related to NES. Willing to also try to assist with troubleshooting if needed. I have noted though that with emulators such as MAME 2010 I have been able to get working as long as I turn down sensitivity to 10 X & 10 Y each. Unfortunately not seeing similar settings with Fceumm or Nestopia.

theguru

@cult thanks mate, appreciate the help. Tonight I plan to sit down and map out all settings across the gun config utility on the pc as well as what I’ve tried on the cabinet and post up my config settings.

It would be ideal if a game remap file contained X and Y sensitivity properties to adjust, I believe that would fix the issues I’m seeing.

I’ll post back later tonight when I can sit down and spend a couple hours on it.

Cheers

theguru

I’ve tried a MAME game using the Aimtrak and it worked as expected. Nice and steady movements across the screen, I found I had to set the sensitivity of X and Y to around 50% based on how my Aimtrak has been calibrated. Appears there’s something a miss with the NES emulators and Aimtrak.

@MrLightgun, I see you’ve successfully had your Sinden tech working on the PS1-2 consoles, great work. Any idea when we may see this implementation to the RetroPie PS Rearmed?

MrLightgun

Hi @theguru

Did you ever sort this?

Hopefully I'll publish the additional lightgun support in the emulators in July. If I can't get them tidied up by then I'll probably just release them as is.

Best regards

Mr Lightgun

theguru

Hey mate @MrLightgun,

Sorry for the late reply. I had no further luck with the NES emulators getting the Lightgun to function similar to MAME. The games within MAME are fine, here’s hoping when you are ready to roll out the PSX support that it functions like MAME.

zerohex

@theguru - I have the same issues. I can only get one Aimtrak to work. Can't get them both working together but in FCEUMM on Duck Hunt mouse sensitivity was crazy. After about 2 hours of tinkering to no end, I decided to change the zapper mode to touchscreen just to see what happens and boom. It is now working. Also, I am on FCEUMM 1.7.1 and on a raspberry pi 3 B+. Hope this works for you. Now to figure out how to get both light guns working in MAME or any emulator. My trackball keeps taking precedent over player 1 and I can't seem to override it. Anyways, good luck and hope this helps.

theguru

@zerohex where about’s is the option for touchscreen? I’ve got both guns working perfect under MAME games, when I get home tomorrow i’ll post up some info about the Mame config I’m using.

zerohex

@theguru - When you are in the game and you go into settings an go into options, My "zapper mode" setting has 3 options; light gun, mouse, or touchscreen. Light gun crashes the emulator, mouse mode is too sensitive, touch screen worked for me.

For mame my trackball going through ipac2 keeps taking precedent on player 1 no matter what settings i change. Would be good to see what your config looks like since I know I am probably just missing one small setting.

theguru

@zerohex, i've had a look at my NES-FCEUMM and it appears that the discrepancy in versions (mine being 1.7.6) they have removed the ability to select Touchscreen under Zapper Mode, i've only got Mouse and Zapper.

Regarding MAME, all MAME games are within the Arcade dir for ease of listing within EmulationStation. The lightgun games are run under AdvMame 1.4. I have modified the /opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/advmame-1.4.rc file to include the below at the end of the file.

bang/input_map[p1_button1] joystick_button[3,0]
bang/input_map[p2_button1] joystick_button[5,0]

duckhunt/input_map[p1_button1] joystick_button[3,0] mouse_button[0,0]
duckhunt/input_setting[p1_lightgunx] keydelta:22,centerdelta:31,sensitivity:44,reverse:0
duckhunt/input_setting[p1_lightguny] keydelta:32,centerdelta:31,sensitivity:32,reverse:0

Hopefully this may help

zerohex

@theguru , thanks. My advmame files look like that as well. For some reason the trackball coming off the IPAC2 control board is always the default P1 gun cursor control. No matter what I set in the advmame file. I'm going to fool with it a little more tonight.

As for FCEUMM, that makes sense. I backed up my image today so maybe I will update to 1.7.6 and see what happens. It's always fun breaking stuff.