Best plan to sync all controllers?

[Sorn]

As im learning the in's and out's of this system, im trying to figure out whats the best way to sync 100+ systems with my controller setup. Currently I have a 4P joystick setup, plus 4P xbox360 wired controllers.

 

I currently dont have RetroArch setup, and i was wondering from those in the community that do, does retroarch streamline the controllers across all the systems it supports? Or will I still need to do a configuration for each system within retroarch?

Is it easier to setup each controllers individually in each emulator, or to create joy2key profiles for each system?

 

The goal is to have both Joysticks and gamepads functional across all systems, that way I can use either or.

 

Also, I noticed Controller Remap tool that helps assign device id's to gamepads/joysticks and then configures mame's default.cfg so that all the controllers stay in sync. I have 8 controllers + 2 lightguns, so I do have this issue where sometimes windows enumerates a different ID, which means that if I go through all the systems and set them up, there's always going to be a chance of windows doing something funky and having to re-setup everything again. Is there any advice on how to avoid this other than just not unplugging the usb's? I plan on keeping those devices plugged in forever so that I dont accidentally screw up the configs, but I cannot control what windows does to those device ID's.

[Aorin]

As im learning the in's and out's of this system, im trying to figure out whats the best way to sync 100+ systems with my controller setup. Currently I have a 4P joystick setup, plus 4P xbox360 wired controllers.

 

I currently dont have RetroArch setup, and i was wondering from those in the community that do, does retroarch streamline the controllers across all the systems it supports? Or will I still need to do a configuration for each system within retroarch?

Is it easier to setup each controllers individually in each emulator, or to create joy2key profiles for each system?

 

The goal is to have both Joysticks and gamepads functional across all systems, that way I can use either or.

 

Also, I noticed Controller Remap tool that helps assign device id's to gamepads/joysticks and then configures mame's default.cfg so that all the controllers stay in sync. I have 8 controllers + 2 lightguns, so I do have this issue where sometimes windows enumerates a different ID, which means that if I go through all the systems and set them up, there's always going to be a chance of windows doing something funky and having to re-setup everything again. Is there any advice on how to avoid this other than just not unplugging the usb's? I plan on keeping those devices plugged in forever so that I dont accidentally screw up the configs, but I cannot control what windows does to those device ID's.

 

When you run Retroarch and config your controller inputs, it will work for all systems, but I don't know if you can have more than one controller set up for the first player, for example.

If you want to setup 4 controllers, you won't need to set them up again for any other systems you plan to run in RA.

For you to understand how RA handles controllers amazingly compared to standalone emulators, in MAME core, when I tried it last week I was amazed that it automatically handled the buttons layout for Capcom systems, and NEO GEO systems, Midway Systems and so on, I didn't have to configure anything for arcades what was a pain for me in standalone MAME.

 

I never had trouble disconnecting and reconnecting lots of times, I use two DS3 wirelessly, RA never had trouble with it.

But lately Windows is acting weird when it comes to controllers, sometimes it adds a 3rd controller, I mean, what should be my first become the 3rd and I can't control Hyperspin or Exit emulators, but RA doesn't have problems, even though Windows sometimes mess the controllers entries, RA doesn't seem to be affected.

 

This is what I can say for now, I hope it helps somehow.

[epayson85]

When you run Retroarch and config your controller inputs, it will work for all systems, but I don't know if you can have more than one controller set up for the first player, for example.

If you want to setup 4 controllers, you won't need to set them up again for any other systems you plan to run in RA.

For you to understand how RA handles controllers amazingly compared to standalone emulators, in MAME core, when I tried it last week I was amazed that it automatically handled the buttons layout for Capcom systems, and NEO GEO systems, Midway Systems and so on, I didn't have to configure anything for arcades what was a pain for me in standalone MAME.

 

I never had trouble disconnecting and reconnecting lots of times, I use two DS3 wirelessly, RA never had trouble with it.

But lately Windows is acting weird when it comes to controllers, sometimes it adds a 3rd controller, I mean, what should be my first become the 3rd and I can't control Hyperspin or Exit emulators, but RA doesn't have problems, even though Windows sometimes mess the controllers entries, RA doesn't seem to be affected.

 

This is what I can say for now, I hope it helps somehow.

Just an FYI this is because most emulators use naming conventions some sorts to identify your controllers so it always works.

Mame uses the Joy id#, mouse id# and so forth which is determined by the order in which windows Identifies the device when it powers on. When you use any wireless controllers this can mess up that order. That's why I use only wired controllers except my Wii controller. I setup everything with wired first, used a the joyID program to keep them in that order then setup my wireless Wii controllers. Now nothing changes.

Also FYI for anyone to easily change buttons or ID#s on Mame you can simply open the controller config file in word pad then use find and replace. So you can change anything using "joy1" to "joy2". It works like a charm.

[Aorin]

When you use any wireless controllers this can mess up that order. That's why I use only wired controllers except my Wii controller. I setup everything with wired first, used a the joyID program to keep them in that order then setup my wireless Wii controllers. Now nothing changes.

I never had problems with my wireless DS3, it happened two or three times in the last week, maybe I should reinstall everything, drivers, SCP driver, etc, I remember I used 2 DS3 controllers wirelessly, and plugged in when I need to recharge them lots of times and they never changed their entry in Windows.

 

Your suggestions for MAME sound good, but using Retroarch for almost every system still seem far more viable, if I play Marvel VS. Capcom now it will automatically load the same layout as the Playstation consoles, and it does the same to NEO GEO and other systems MAME can emulate, so if you don`t need to mess with configurations with Retroarch, it`s more user friendly than anything.

[Sorn]

Just an FYI this is because most emulators use naming conventions some sorts to identify your controllers so it always works.

Mame uses the Joy id#, mouse id# and so forth which is determined by the order in which windows Identifies the device when it powers on. When you use any wireless controllers this can mess up that order. That's why I use only wired controllers except my Wii controller. I setup everything with wired first, used a the joyID program to keep them in that order then setup my wireless Wii controllers. Now nothing changes.

Also FYI for anyone to easily change buttons or ID#s on Mame you can simply open the controller config file in word pad then use find and replace. So you can change anything using "joy1" to "joy2". It works like a charm.

MONEY!

 

Thanks so much for responding and letting me know about JoyID! I bet that will solve all my problems!

 

And to anyone else who may read this, yes, using "find and replace" in editors such as UltraEDIT is a great way to minimize your editing time switching controllers around.

 

To understand RA better, is RA simply a frontend that unifies all systems? Like, does RA hook directly into Mame? I only ask because I have to use mame 0171 for my lightguns to work, 0172 & 0173 are broken for example. So I would prefer to keep everything functional. Can I keep my mame 0171 setup but use RA to run it? If so, that sounds like a total winner.

 

Does RA work like MAME, where you can have both keyboard inputs + controller? If so, maybe I can do joy2key profiles which would handle my joysticks mapped as keyboard functions, that way I can have joysticks + gamepads working across all systems

 

As for JoyID -

 

"Note: This tool has an effect only with games using the (old, deprecated) Win32_API for joysticks. Newer games (starting at least with IL-2 1946) probably use the DirectInput API which unfortunately ignores these IDs completely."

 

MAME uses RAWinput first, then relies on the older DirectInput. Does JoyID change the ID's in relation to "RAWInput" ?