My controls don’t work in n64 emulator

Dakotadog18

So about 3 weeks ago I picked up the pi grrl zero w kit, (Look it up if you’re unsure what it is) we assembled it and the software works great (we are running it on Retropie 4.5.1) all the emulators are good but the n64 emulator. Im fine with the games being laggy, it’s just that none of my controls actually work but the d-pad, start, select, and shoulder buttons, so I can’t do the actions correctly in an n64 game. I have tried configure input many times, and I have tried quick menu to configure controls, but since the action buttons aren’t responsive in the n64 games, I can’t access it. Does anyone know how to fix this?

mitu

Which other emulators work ok with the gamepad ?
When you've setup the retrogame gamepad for the system, which option did you choose from the ones that the gamepad supports:

Dakotadog18

@Mitu every other emulator works great with the buttons, I am pretty new to this. How can I setup n64 controls with retro Game?

Dakotadog18

@mitu I’m pretty sure I picked pi grrl zero. Can I somehow check or go back to make sure i picked pi grrl zero? If I didn’t, how do I change it?

mitu

@Dakotadog18 There's probably a configuration file for it where the settings are stored (/etc/retrogame.cfg maybe ?). But I had the impression that you can configure the gamepad in multiple ways, now I see they have multiple products supported by the same utility (retrogame), so there only 1 option available.
What emulator are you using to run N64 games ?

Dakotadog18

@mitu I have tried every n64 emulator currently on Retropie, and they all do the same thing except “Ir-mupen64” and that one doesn’t even load the game. The one I currently have it set to is “mupen64plus-auto” which I’m pretty sure it’s the default though.

mitu

Mupen64Plus (-auto) is the default, since it runs better than the lr- core, especially on such a low power device. Check if the input configuration is correctly assigned in the inputAutoCfg.ini file in /opt/retropie/configs/n64 - see the N64 page in the docs.

Dakotadog18

@mitu I am pretty new to this. I got lost trying to find it. Can I find it over WiFi, or do I need to take out the sd card.

mitu

@Dakotadog18 If your PI is networked, then you can access these files over file shares - from a PC - through the \\retropie\configs share (similar to how you Transfer ROMs using file shares).
So the N64 configuration folder becomes \\retropie\configs\n64 (instead of /opt/retropie/configs/n64).

Dakotadog18

@mitu Thanks. I will try it. If anything goes wrong, I’ll tell you in this post

Dakotadog18

@mitu I found the file, but I am not sure how and what to edit. There is just a number for each key. What should I edit them to. When I built the pi grrl, there was button numbers when I soldered the button wires to the pcb. Do I put those numbers in? I just don’t know how I should edit this.

Dakotadog18

@mitu Also one more thing I forgot to mention. I don’t have a core. If I need one how do I get get one and which one do I get. So when I assign my buttons, when I hold down on the controller, it shows as keyboard. Every time I input a button, it shows as a keyboard key (example: a = s key) should I use one of those key number value charts to determine what number goes in the controls slot.

mitu

Can you post the existing configuration file (inputAutoCfg.ini) on pastebin.com so we can take a look ?

Dakotadog18

@mitu here is the link. Tell me what I should edit. pastebin.com/SbfAwCgt

mitu

Here is my take on the configuration:

If you look in the inputAutoCfg.ini file, you'll see that how the emulator maps a N64 controller inputs (buttons/D-Pad/Joystick) to keycodes (key (X), X is the key code).
The Retrogame Adafruit utility maps a key name to physical inputs (GPIO pins) - the default one for the Pigrrl2 is below (taken from here:

LEFT       4  # Joypad left
RIGHT     19  # Joypad right
UP        16  # Joypad up
DOWN      26  # Joypad down
LEFTCTRL  14  # 'A' button
LEFTALT   15  # 'B' button
Z         20  # 'X' button
X         18  # 'Y' button
SPACE      5  # 'Select' button
ENTER      6  # 'Start' button
A         12  # Left shoulder button
S         13  # Right shoulder button
ESC       17  # Exit ROM; PiTFT Button 1
1         22  # PiTFT Button 2
2         23  # PiTFT Button 3
3         27  # PiTFT Button 4

So, for instance, the D-Pad LEFT is declared as
You should look at the the phyiscal buttons mapping above and then add the corresponding keycode to the emulator buttons in the .cfg file, based on the

How to map keyboard keys to emulator controls is explained in this page. The .ini file your posted shows the default keycodes show on the page:

A (key code = 97) is mapped to D Pad L
S (key code = 115) is mapped to D Pad D
and so forth. The key code are linked from the wiki page - https://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL-1.2.15/include/SDL_keysym.h.

You'd have to check your Retrogame Adafruit configuration file (I think it's in /etc/retrogame.cfg), note each of the keys mapped and then add the corresponding codes in the inputAutoCfg.ini file.

Dakotadog18

@mitu so I cannot find the retrogame.cfg file, should I just change the key numbers? Also if I changed for example a to 97, what would the d pad left’s (or whatever dpad control had 97) number in place of that.

mitu

@Dakotadog18 said in My controls don’t work in n64 emulator:

Also if I changed for example a to 97, what would the d pad left’s (or whatever dpad control had 97) number in place of that.

You'll have to find what the keycode for the Left key from the wiki page I linked and it to the .ini page, replacing the 97 with that keycode.

Dakotadog18

@mitu do you suggest I just change the numbers to the chart numbers? I don’t know if that solves the whole problem, but I’ve never tried it. Also I can’t find for example “key up” or “key down” on the keycode chart.

mitu

@Dakotadog18 said in My controls don’t work in n64 emulator:

Also I can’t find for example “key up” or “key down” on the keycode chart.

From the page I linked:

/** @name Arrows + Home/End pad */
        /*@{*/
	SDLK_UP			= 273,
	SDLK_DOWN		= 274,
	SDLK_RIGHT		= 275,
	SDLK_LEFT		= 276,
	SDLK_INSERT		= 277,
	SDLK_HOME		= 278,
	SDLK_END		= 279,
	SDLK_PAGEUP		= 280,
	SDLK_PAGEDOWN		= 281,
        /*@}*/

Dakotadog18

@mitu ok I think I know what to do. Should I edit the file to the keycodes?