xboxdrv dpad-as-axis: is it possible? (ps3 controller + intellivision)

mustangfanatic01

Hi all,

I've been trying to write an xboxdrv configuration to make my DualShock3 controller work for intellivision games using jzintv. It's so close to perfect, but I cannot figure out how to map the D-PAD correctly.

Pi Model: 4b 2GB ram
Power supply: Official 5.1v 3A
RetroPie Version: official image: retropie-buster-4.7.1-rpi4_400.img
Emulator: jzintv

After sleuthing these forums for awhile, I found a good controller setup for using Playstation controllers with Intellivision, thanks to Dudleydes. He was able to have the right analog stick send the numeric keypresses 1-9, left stick handle the direction disc, and the d-pad also handle the direction disc.

Dudeleydes Configs

The core of this comes from the xboxdrv config section (swapping d-pad/right analog):
[evdev-absmap]
ABS_X = x1
ABS_Y = y1
ABS_Z = DPAD_X
ABS_RZ = DPAD_Y
ABS_HAT0X = x2
ABS_HAT0Y = y2

(There is something about the right analog stick sending xbox d-pad codes to jzintv that allows it to work with the numeric key presses. When trying to use the xbox's analog x2/y2 it will not work. I suspect because it just outputs a series of directional "down" presses instead of the "up"/"down" presses you get with the DPAD_X/DPAD_Y (HAT).)

This works perfectly when I use my PS4 controller, however the PS3 controller does not output ABS_HAT0X / ABS_HAT0Y. It outputs BTN_DPAD_UP, BTN_DPAD_DOWN, BTN_DPAD_LEFT, BTN_DPAD_RIGHT.

For the life of me I cannot figure out how to map these 4 discrete directional buttons to the xbox's 2nd analog stick (x2/y2). As I am using all of the other available buttons that the xbox controller can output (Start, Guide, Back, A, B, X, Y, LB, RB, LT, RT, TL, TR, DU, DD, DL, DR), I have nothing else to map to. I can't map to DU, DD, DL, DR since jzintv will be mapping d-pad (Hat) inputs to the 1-9 keypad.

Is there any way to map BTN_DPAD_UP to axismap? I tried the following, but it doesn't work.
[evdev-absmap]
BTN_DPAD_UP -= y2
BTN_DPAD_DOWN += y2

I have read the xboxdrv man page (3 times):
man xboxdrv
The docs for mapping an intellivision controller:
Mapping a Controller for Intellivision
The docs for Universal mapping with xboxdrv:
Universal Controller Calibration & Mapping Using xboxdrv

At this point, it would be smarter to just buy another PS4 controller and call it a day, but I've been wracking my brain over this for days and am fixated on figuring it out. It HAS to be possible. I don't really understand it all well enough, particularly how UI-AXISMAP, UI-BUTTONMAP, EV_REL work.

If I could just make the D-pad send 4 distinct codes, I could map them appropriately in jzintv, but there are no xbox buttons left to map to. Is it possible to send keyboard keys when using the d-pad? I noticed that jzintv recognizes when I press stuff on my keyboard, and maybe I could bind to those.

I know that xboxdrv is powerful enough to handle this, I just cannot figure out how; have been completely stuck. Here is what I have so far, and it works perfectly, except the d-pad doesn't do anything since there is no mapping.

xboxdrv config:

[xboxdrv]
evdev = /dev/input/event1
silent = true
detach-kernel-driver = true
deadzone-trigger = 15%
deadzone = 4000
mimic-xpad = true
trigger-as-button = true
#dpad-as-button=true

[evdev-absmap]
ABS_X   = x1
ABS_Y   = y1
ABS_RX  = DPAD_X
ABS_RY  = DPAD_Y

[evdev-keymap]
#BTN_DPAD_DOWN	= DD
#BTN_DPAD_UP	= DU
#BTN_DPAD_LEFT	= DL
#BTN_DPAD_RIGHT	= DR
BTN_SOUTH    = a
BTN_EAST    = b
BTN_WEST    = x
BTN_NORTH    = y
BTN_TL   = lb
BTN_TR  = rb
BTN_TL2   = lt
BTN_TR2   = rt
BTN_THUMBL = tl
BTN_THUMBR = tr
BTN_SELECT = back
BTN_MODE    = guide
BTN_START     = start

[axismap]
-y1 = y1
-y2 = y2

[calibration]
x1 = -32767:0:32767
y1 = -32767:0:32767
x2 = -32767:0:32767
y2 = -32767:0:32767

jzintv 'hackfile':

MAP 0

; Game interface
ADD_COMBO 2 JS1_BTN_08 JS1_BTN_09
COMBO2 QUIT                     ; Select + Start
JS1_BTN_10 RESET                ; PS button
JS1_BTN_09 PAUSE                ; Start

; Keypad
JS1_BTN_04 PD0L_KPC             ; Clear key mapped to L1
JS1_BTN_05 PD0L_KPE             ; Enter key mapped to R1
JS1_BTN_03 PD0L_KP0             ; Key 0 mapped to Triangle
JS1_BTN_06 PD0L_KP0             ; Key 0 also mapped to L2
JS1_BTN_11 PD0L_KP0             ; left analog stick btn press also 0
JS1_BTN_07 PD0L_KP5             ; Key 5 R2
JS1_BTN_12 PD0L_KP5             ; right analog stick btn press also 5

JS1_BTN_00 PD0L_A_T             ; Top Action button mapped to Cross
JS1_BTN_02 PD0L_A_L             ; Bottom left Action button mapped to Square
JS1_BTN_01 PD0L_A_R             ; Bottom Right Action button mapped to Circle

; Hat / D-Pad (Right analog stick because xboxdrv)
; Keypad 1 to 9 (except 5) 
JS1_HAT0_NW PD0L_KP1
JS1_HAT0_N  PD0L_KP2
JS1_HAT0_NE PD0L_KP3
JS1_HAT0_W  PD0L_KP4
JS1_HAT0_E  PD0L_KP6
JS1_HAT0_SW PD0L_KP7
JS1_HAT0_S  PD0L_KP8
JS1_HAT0_SE PD0L_KP9

; Left analog stick mapped to Direction Disc
JS1A_E    PD0L_J_E
JS1A_ENE  PD0L_J_ENE
JS1A_NE   PD0L_J_NE
JS1A_NNE  PD0L_J_NNE
JS1A_N    PD0L_J_N
JS1A_NNW  PD0L_J_NNW
JS1A_NW   PD0L_J_NW
JS1A_WNW  PD0L_J_WNW
JS1A_W    PD0L_J_W
JS1A_WSW  PD0L_J_WSW
JS1A_SW   PD0L_J_SW
JS1A_SSW  PD0L_J_SSW
JS1A_S    PD0L_J_S
JS1A_SSE  PD0L_J_SSE
JS1A_SE   PD0L_J_SE
JS1A_ESE  PD0L_J_ESE

; D-pad also mapped to Direction Disc
;?? PD0L_J_N
;?? PD0L_J_E
;?? PD0L_J_S
;?? PD0L_J_W

Any help would be greatly appreciate so I can sleep at night again :)

SavedByZero

@mustangfanatic01 said in xboxdrv dpad-as-axis: is it possible? (ps3 controller + intellivision):

BTN_DPAD

Same problem. I was trying to follow this guide:
https://gist.github.com/dudleydes/dae86816bcc504ff6ee8e0451e09ef36

But my PS3 controller does not have any Hat, the dpad outputs BTN_DPAD_[.] for everything. I don't know how to map those to the xbox specs, because the file will throw an error if I try to set the BTN_DPAD_[whatever] to an axis. Trying the du/dl/dd/dr solution doesn't work for me either.

@dudleydes any thoughts? I think this was your solution...it seems like not all PS3 controllers are created equally?

Another thing I just don't get about this process is that there seem to be three different ways of reading the controller inputs that give me three different sets of names. event_diag for the intellivison games I want to remap, evtest for xboxdrv, and jstest. I wish I knew how these all connected, other than the apparent need to use xboxdrv to make event_diag recognize certain things in my PS3 controller.

I also know that my PS3 controller shows nothing for any buttons in event_diag, no matter what I seem to do -- only the axes show up. My other controller buttons (buffalo and arcade) show up fine in there.

TLDR:

I mapping BTN_DPAD_[.] to dl/du/dr/dd doesn't work -- none of them register in event_diag, none of them work in Tron Deadly Discs.
if we can get them to work, how would we swap them with the RX/RY axis the way you do with hat PS3 controllers?

SavedByZero

Okay, I may have fixed the issue by doing a full RetroPie update from source. Now I can see the button presses! Of course, my intellivision screen looks tiny now even with the smallest resolution....

mustangfanatic01

@savedbyzero

I had that weird resolution issue also. I "fixed" it by manually specifying the resolution for anything that wasn't the default jzintv (which seems to auto-find the resolution just fine)

This is my emulators.cfg (non-default jzintv gets a tiny/weird screen resolution for some reason. So we have to specify it manually in that case. This will obviously cause issues if it doesn't match (particularly if exceeds) the tv/screen):

lr-freeintv = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-freeintv/freeintv_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/intellivision/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
default = "jzintv"
jzintv = "/opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv/bin/jzintv -p /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS -q --kbdhackfile=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/intellivision/tron.kbd -f1 %ROM%;"
jzintv-std = "/opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv/bin/jzintv -p /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS -q --kbdhackfile=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/intellivision/hackfile.kbd -z1280x720 -f1 %ROM%;"
jzintv-alt = "/opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv/bin/jzintv -p /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS -q --kbdhackfile=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/intellivision/hackfile-alt.kbd -z1280x720 -f1 %ROM%;"

mitu

@mustangfanatic01 said in xboxdrv dpad-as-axis: is it possible? (ps3 controller + intellivision):

This is my emulators.cfg (non-default jzintv gets a tiny/weird screen resolution for some reason. So we have to specify it manually in that case. This will obviously cause issues if it doesn't match (particularly if exceeds) the tv/screen):

You're not running the latest version of jzintv or RetroPie. The latest version should have displaysize parameters which would be filled in automatically with your resolution:

jzintv = "/opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv/bin/jzintv --displaysize=%XRES%x%YRES% --quiet --rom-path=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS %ROM%"

SavedByZero

@mitu said in xboxdrv dpad-as-axis: is it possible? (ps3 controller + intellivision):

--displaysize=%XRES%x%YRES%

Yes. So this needs to go, I think, after the -config option for those custom jzintv commands. It wasn't working for me until I did that. If all else fails, this version of the xboxdrv line worked for me:

jzintv-xboxdrv = "sudo /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv --config /opt/retropie/configs/xboxdrv/intellivision.xboxdrv >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log & /opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv/bin/jzintv -p /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS -q --displaysize=%XRES%x%YRES% --kbdhackfile=/opt/retropie/configs/intellivision/hackfile_trondd.cfg %ROM%; sudo killall >/dev/null xboxdrv"

But you will need to update RetroPie from source for the PS3 buttons to show up in event_diag.
Now if I could figure out why the config menus no longer work with controllers (I need my keyboard to use them)...
For updaters: RetroPie -> Run Command Configuration -> set Joy2Key version to udev (instead of sdl) and then re-enabling the launch menu from the same set of options will fix this