Retroarch, mayflash, and dolphinbar

[Bedwyr]

I have the dolphin bar connected for Wii gaming now. Unfortunately it appears Retroarch detects this (the bar is in mode 4) and assigns four input slots to mayflash/wii device. Is there a way to disable this while leaving the sensor bar attached as it is? Also, the keyboard commands oddly seem to not work with the usual configs loaded. At least the only input that works via a config/game launch is alt-f4. f1, x, arrows don't appear to work. They're fine if I launch RA separately, just not with a normal game config launch.

[Bedwyr]

Ack. Worse, it seems that the gamepad assignment is first-come first-serve so the 360 controller is jumping around between all five positions. I could switch the sensor bar to mode 1 in the interim to disable the wiimote input detection, but it sure would be nice not to have to get up to do that every time.

[SentaiBrad]

Someone else made a thread about this same thing actually a while back. If I recall, they ended up disabling the Dolphin bar while they wanted to use RetroArch.

[fromlostdays]

Can confirm. Do yourself a favor for now and don't try to mix the two. It's infuriating. The only glimmer of hope I remember is the four modes for the dolphinbar. But there is surprisingly little info on this and trial and error gave me ulcers.

[Drybonz]

Yeah, you just have to press the button on top of the Dolphinbar and change the settings, 1-4. I don't have my Dolphinbar set up right now to check, but I posted the solution in another thread.

[Bedwyr]

Can any of you also confirm whether mode 1 interferes with control? I noticed running a Retroarch NES game that I was getting ghost inputs and lags (like let go of the controller and have the cursor move uncontrollably). Clicked mode 2 and it seemed to be ok, but who knows? Mode 1 is keyboard-mouse mode with bindings for mouse and arrow key controls.

[IlhanK]

I have a similar configuration as the thread starter, and I believe I can suggest a kind-of solution for that problem. Retroarch provides different methods for polling inputs. Even if it sounds counter-intuitive for a windows based system, for your config to work properly you should go with sdl (and not with dinput or xinput). What sdl seems to be doing, is to always register native xinput controllers first, any other controller types second. On my system it even manages to keep order within the subtypes itself, meaning whatever xinput gamepad for player1 will stay player1, and xinput gamepad for player2 will stay player2. Same for the controllers connected via my dolphin bar. It's been that way since I switched to sdl two months ago, and has never failed me. So basically, if you put the dolphin bar into joystick mode, Retroarchs mapping will look like this: 1. X360 Controller #1 2. X360 Controller #2 3. Mayflash Wiimote #1 4. Mayflash Wiimote #2 5. Mayflash Wiimote #3 6. Mayflash Wiimote #4 When the dolphin is being set into mouse mode, it will be: 1. X360 Controller #1 2. X360 Controller #2 It's perfect.

[Bedwyr]

Which one is joystick mode? And is that naturally compatible with Dolphin?

[IlhanK]

With your Dolphin Bar, you can switch between 4 different modes. Basically the Dolphin Bar unplugs your Wiimotes and plugs them back in as alternate devices.

Sometimes Windows doesn't handle that very well, swapping around joystick order like a douche and thereby nuking your gamepad bindings in the process. SDL however doesn't seem to give a crap about what Windows does. At least on my system, it always put my xbox controllers first, anything else second, which gives me enough control to happily switch modes however I feel like. For that reason I prefer emulators that support SDL input, like Retroarch and sdlMAME etc.

Mode 1 (press Home Button + DPAD DOWN on your Wii controller): Your Wiimote #1 acts like a mouse. Useful for controlling Windows desktop.

Mode 2 (press Home Button + DPAD LEFT on your Wii controller): Your Wiimote #1 acts like a mouse + Wiimote buttons mapped as joystick buttons. Useful for lightgun games.

Mode 3 (press Home Button + DPAD UP on your Wii controller): Your Wiimotes go into regular pc joystick mode. That's the mode most useful for Retroarch.

Mode 4 (press Home Button + DPAD RIGHT on your Wii controller): Native Wiimote mode for Dolphin.

 

So here is what you should do:

- Make sure your Dolphin Bar is set to Mode 3.

- Fire up Retroarch and go to driver settings and switch your driver to sdl.

- Go to input settings and set up "Max Users" to 5 or 6, depending on how many xbox controllers you have connected.This is required because otherwise Retroarch won't let you see all your plugged in gamepads. The Dolphin bar always adds 4 gamepads to your pool, even if you actually have less Wiimotes connected. So that's 4 gamepads + any number of xbox controllers you additionally own.

- Go to the "Input User 1/2/3/4/5/6 Binds" and under "User 1/2/3/4/5/6 Device Index" designate your controllers accordingly. You probably want your xbox controllers as player 1 for most cores, if not all.

- Bind all buttons for all players properly.

- SAVE! your keybinds! and your Retroarch config

Edited October 15, 2016 by IlhanK

[Bedwyr]

I think I get it. How does that work if I launch Dolphin/Wii? Do I still need to switch back to mode 4 or will the emulator properly detect the wiimote?

[IlhanK]

I am not at home atm, so I cannot check. But I believe you have to set your Dolphin Bar back to mode 4 manually.

[Beatlemaniac19]

Why don't you guys join the Libretro forums and direct them to this issue. RetroArch eventually is going to add a Dolphin core so they'll be working directly with wii motes and bluetooth connectivity. If you just copy this link and paste it onto their forums, an admin may see the problems and try to fix them. Just my two cents

[SentaiBrad]

We are open to any questions people have, and in fact this has been answered on the forums in the past. It may be better to ask RetroArch though if there are any bugs related to it. If they implement a Dolphin Core I hope they stay on top of it. DS and PPSSPP are severely lacking compared to their standalone counterparts.

[Beatlemaniac19]

@SentaiBrad I've heard rumors that one of their developers will be working on the Dolphin core this summer and want to release it by 2017. Also, I agree that it's frustrating that some of their cores are out of date in comparison to their standalone counterparts. @IlhanK @Bedwyr @Drybonz @fromlostdays RetroArch's forums are pretty active and the administrators are responsive. Since I don't know the issue as well as you guys, maybe you should message them on their forum: http://libretro.com/forums/ If one of you guys message them, message them on the "General" section of the forum. Explain your problem just as you did here and post the link to this thread. Maybe contacting Libretro directly can end this annoying bug. I'd do it myself, but I don't own a Dolphin Bar or any Wii games at this moment so I can't do any testing or explain the issue to the degree that you guys can.

[SentaiBrad]

Yea I get why sometimes the cores fall behind. What they do is VERY difficult and if the person who originally worked on the port isn't around or available then the core languishes. I do think RetroArch can take over the emulation scene with their Unified UI and UX. Some things need improving a bit, but this is part where we come in as well. Our entire point is to make emulation easier and beautiful so the user can enjoy their games instead of spending 6 months adding their games and tweaking ini files. ;) I just worry about their ability to scale up at a significant rate.

[IlhanK]

Ok, I've now created an account over there at libretro. As a newcomer I've gotta say, both Launchbox and Retroarch are wonderful pieces of software. :) I still have some minor Retroarch related issues and I'll certainly bother some people over at their forum at some point. The Dolphin Bar thing is not really an issue since it's not a bug per-se. On the contrary, that little piece of hardware actually solved all my Dolphin related input headaches, so in my book it's a must-buy for anyone planing to seriously do dolphin stuff. It would be nice if the MayFlash windows driver had more features and options of course, like automaticly switching modes through profiles. Right now, you have to manually push buttons to switch modes. What you are getting with the Dolphin Bar is already solid though and definitelly worth the money. The real issue is actually the way Microsoft has implemented joystick support in their Windows OS. Until Microsoft provides a fix, plugging / unplugging multiple controllers from different vendors will always carry the risk of breaking your joystick mappings. And bringing a dolphin bar into the mix in addition to xbox controllers definitelly puts you into that category. Fortunately, a couple of emulators support SDL, which seems to has its own logic of organizing controllers, and as a side-effect, at least I have less input related complaints.

[Beatlemaniac19]

That's cool. I'm not very tech savvy as you can probably tell. It may be more of an issue because of the Windows operating system then. Trust me @IlhanK. I have the Dolphin Bar on my Amazon wish list :) Again, once they implement the Dolphin core they'll either fix this bug on their end or their users will complain all over their forums until they fix it.

[MazJohn [Mr Arcade]]

Getting retroarch and the dolphin bar to co-exist drove me nuts for the longest time... I've been manually switching from mode 4 to mode 1 until now for a lack of a better solution. What is weird in my case, is that retroarch 1.34 seems to properly prioritize my wireless Xbox one controllers better now than previous version. In older versions of retroarch I couldn't get the dolphin bar to use the same priority.. Every time I rebooted, it would assign the wireless controllers to different ports (breaking the emulators) ... 1.34 is the first version of retroarch that I seem to be able to use with the dolphin bar... Of course I still need to change the modes, but at least the priority issue has gotten better. What I am wondering, is if something has changed with the way Launchbox handles microsoft x-input control that has helped? I just may try playing around with the above suggestion in using mode 3... This thread has been the most useful thread I have seen for dealing with retroarch and the dolphinbar. I hope someone from the retroarch forums takes notice. ... I desperately hope to see this situation improve.

[SentaiBrad]

Microsoft did a lot of screwing around with their drivers recently and both us and RetroArch had to do a lot of patching and adding related to them. RetroArch 1.3.4 I believe was the first version they got those fixes implemented?

[IlhanK]

If you follow the advice regarding Retroarch and SDL, you'll find that Dolphin and Retroarch will co-exist peacefully from now on. :-) It allows you to play Retroarch stuff with your Xbox controllers "maintenance-free" and reserve your Wiimotes for Dolphin exclusively, switching modes manually or even unplugging the Dolphin Bar won't be necessary then. If everything is set up correctly, you can safely switch to mode 3 to utilize your Wiimotes as additional controllers for Retroarch multiplayer games. It won't break anything in Retroarch, however don't forget to switch back to mode 4 when you're done with it and you like to play Dolphin stuff again.