TEC75

Hey Rlad - Thanks for the link. I checked out an earlier version of Devreorder (this like seems to be much newer). The version I tried would not run on my PC. I'll give this one a look this evening. Thanks!

OK, it took me like 14 hours, but I came up with a solution. It's been nearly 20 years since I wrote a line of code, so it's not elegant. The link below has two PowerShell scripts and two shortcuts. You should be able to use these to disable the light guns when you aren't using them so that they do not show up in RetroArch. And then re-enable them as needed. You will need to execute the scripts from the shortcuts to run the scripts with admin rights. You will need to edit the shortcut paths and scripts to fix the file paths to match your system. I will try to refine the code a bit if you are happy with the fundamental functionality. Let me know how the testing goes. PowerShell Scripts

Hello! I've been trying to determine how best to configure my cabinet to work with both MAME and Retroarch. My current iteration is using an I-PAC Ultimate in mixed mode (firmware that allows both joystick controls and keyboard controls in the same config). The "why" is a long story, but here is my problem. The I-PAC controllers appear with only a single PID, so I have not been able to distinguish between them in MAME via the ctrl remap function. Below are the full device Ids as MAME reports them. There is a subtle difference in bold. I have tried using this entire string in the ctrl remap file. The logs show it remapping, but the mapping doesn't actually change (Joystick 1 is still player two, and vice versa) I-PAC Ultimate product_0410d209-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_cb298f50-da88-11ee-8001-444553540000 I-PAC Ultimate product_0410d209-0000-0000-0000-504944564944 instance_cb2b3d00-da88-11ee-8003-444553540000 Retroarch seems to be able to tell a difference, or at least labels the controllers as if it can tell a difference - displaying them with a (1) and (2) suffix. But when saving the controller config file, they end up sharing a single config file so I cannot set different button configs for player 1 and 2. Here is the only guidance I could find via the Ultimarc site: This is an alternative firmware version which enables the board to appear as a keyboard and dual standard game controller AT THE SAME TIME (both also with mouse). Note Retropie does not work with this configuration. The standard multiMode version (above) enables one device type at a time on the host (plus mouse) and this is required for Retropie. IMPORTANT: This version also requires a different version of WinIPAC for configuration. This version does not support Xinput. Unlike the Multi-Mode, this version automatically allocates each of the 2 game controllers on the respective side of the board so WinIPAC does not refer to player numbers, these are defined by the board markings. If what they mean by board markings for player 1 and player 2 are the button numbering, I have that wired correctly, but the opposite controller is active in MAME. I've not been able to find any other references to how to distinguish between the two controllers programmatically, and have found no other references online. Does anyone have some insight they could share on this? TIA

I'm surprised that someone has not come up with a way to change the USB device enumeration in Windows to allow for customized or static device loading. I've found some very outdated apps for this that I could not get to run on Windows 11, but nothing current. I've tried making manual registry changes, but no luck getting that to work. I'm sure you know that you can change the device order in MAME with a config file if the devices all have unique PIDs, but nothing like that for RetroArch that I have found. I've had mixed luck with changing the port assignments in RetroArch. If you have other controllers to assign to Port 1 (for example) and that controller has an auto config, it seems to keep Aimtrac out of Port 1. For example, if I connect my Ultimarc 360 joysticks, I can assign those to the first two ports and the aimtraks to the second two ports and Retroarch keeps them in place. (Although I did have some issues with the auto configs getting confused between the two devices where the autoconfig for the 360 somehow got saved with the PID Aimtrak - but it worked after I got that sorted out. (The 360s were sometimes behaving erratically, which is why I 've been experimenting with other controller options.) I've tried removing/uninstalling devices in device manager to get them to re-enumerate, but no luck with that either. Windows remembers the order based on when the device was first plugged in. The only way I've found to change that is to reinstall Windows and plug the devices in, one at a time, in the order you want them to be recognized. But in my case, if I don't have another device that Retroarch sees as a controller, it will still assign the Aimtracs to the first ports even if I set Port 1 to "none." All that said, since your tanksticks are legit controllers recognized by RetroArch, you should be able to assign them to port 1 and port 2, save the controller profile (should get stored in one of the autoconfig subfolders like "dinput.") You can set the aimtracs to Ports 3 and 4 and save their config files as well. (make sure that the PIDs in the saved config files are correct). Turn on the setting that tells Retroarch to look for a controller config file (sorry not in front of my arcade machine at the moment to be more specific). This may or may not solve your problem, but if not, there is more to do. Load a game and go into the menu and go to the input config. If the controls aren't already mapped correctly based on what you just did, change them and save the remap config for that core/platform/game (whatever makes the most sense in your situation). Now, when you next load that game, you should see messages pop up in the lower left corner of the screen that the devices are being loaded and then remapped based on the config you saved. Now, when you check the inputs for that game, they should be correct. If you save the remap for the core, it will be the default for all machines emulated by that core. If you saved the remap for the directory, it will apply to all roms in that folder. (you get the idea). Obviously, that's a workaround to having the devices load in the desired order to begin with, but see if it does the trick. The only other option that I can think of would be to reinstall Windows and then try connecting your controllers first and then your guns. In theory, that should enumerate the controllers first in the Windows device enumeration order. Will that for sure fix the order in RetroArch? I haven't tested that yet. Good luck!

Hi Truest1 - Did you figure this out? I am having a similar issue with the Aimtraks in RetroArch. Seems like if there is an Aimtrak loading in Port1 that RetroArch locks up. I've been playing around with a lot of different controller options to try and find what works universally as well in MAME as it does in Retroarch, but haven't landed on a solution that I like yet. If I use straight keyboard mapping, Retroarch doesn't see any controllers except the Aimtraks, so they are defaulting to Ports 1 and 2 regardless of my having configured keyboard controls for player 1 and 2. Any insights would be most appreciated.