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Can’t get Aimtrak Lightgun to work in Launchbox


Mattco

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I’m having trouble configuring my Aimtrak lightgun to work in Launchbox. I set it up in windows 10 without any problems. I then went into MameUI64 and set it up without any problems. I am able to hit tab, and configure the gun to the controls I want without any issues, but when I launch the game from Launchbox, it’s picking it up as a mouse on the screen. I’ve tried and tried to hit tab, and configure the controls for the gun with no avail. It will configure the trigger and 2 side buttons, but I cannot get the gun to register the X and Y axis. It pops up on my screen as a mouse cursor and I can move it on the screen, but I can’t get it to register to the X and Y axis. Any help would greatly be appreciated. 

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Uhh, I'm not sure what you're asking unfortunately mate. Is this a MAME issue that only occurs when launched from Launchbox? Or are you trying to bind your Aimtrak as a gamepad device to sift through your library in Launchbox (I'm guessing not this because I struggle to understand what the point would be)? I have 2x TopGun's so if you elaborate on what is it you're trying to do I might be able to help.

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Sorry for the confusion. No, I’m not trying to use the gun to shift through my library. All I am trying to do is use the gun to play shooter games. I am not sure if it’s a Launchbox problem or a Mame problem. If I open up Mame and start a shooter game, the gun works perfectly fine in Mame, but if I start the same game through Launchbox, only the trigger works. I can’t get the crosshairs to move at all. A mouse pointer shows up and I am able to move it around the screen, but the crosshairs won’t move. It only happens when I launch a game through Launchbox. 

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Thanks for the clarification buddy.

It's a strange issue because looking at it in my LB, there's no "special setting" needed, the only MAME parameter I use is -skip_gameinfo     To test I just launched both Area 51 and Terminator 2 (a "lightgun" game and an "adstick" game) out of Launchbox, using the guns to select the game and go "Play" and had no issues in either. If you're certain they work in MAME (I found configuring the guns correctly in MAME very hard) without Launchbox the only things I could suggest is making sure your Launchbox points to the correct MAME executable (maybe you've been using backups as you test around and you're pointing to an old backup of MAME?), ensuring you run MAME in full screen (just to be certain it takes full control of raw devices), and if the Aimtraks have any "release mouse when off screen" option then toggling it - maybe the mouse is getting "trapped" offscreen/in Launchbox when it adjusts your resolution to suit MAME.

Let us know if any of this doesn't work and we'll dig a bit deeper and try to recreate the issue on my machine.

Out of curiosity, what is your normal mouse (not Aimtrak) doing when this happens? How does it behave when this happens (does it control MAME, control the cursor, control nothing?).

Another thought: Use the Aimtrak in Launchbox, what cursor do you have? Is it just a plain small windows cursor, or is it the enlarged "fancy" Launchbox cursor used for analog controls? If it's not just the plain windows cursor then your Aimtrak might be in "gamepad" mode instead of mouse mode, and Launchbox is taking control of it that way. If that's the case, then you'll need to put the Aimtraks into mouse mode (which afaik they should be for about everything except dolphin anyway) and reconfigure MAME. This is all just guess-work at this point though.

Edited by JRPGod
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I’ve triple checked that my Mame path file is the correct one. I only have one version of Mame on my computer and I have LB pointing to the correct Mame file. In Mame, both my mouse and lightgun control the mouse cursor.  When I click on a game to open it up, the mouse cursor disappears and my crosshairs show up. I am able to use my lightgun without any issues.

When I open LB, my lightgun will move the mouse cursor around and it’s the fancy looking one. I can highlight a game with the gun and pull the trigger and it will open the game in Mame without any issues.  When I open a game in LB, the fancy mouse cursor is on the screen and I can move it around with my lightgun, but the crosshairs stay dead center on the screen and won’t move.  The mouse cursor doesn’t get stuck at the edge of the screen or anything  it moves wherever I move the lightgun without any problems.

If I hit tab and go into my player one controls, everything is setup just as it is if I had opened it directly from Mame, but still won’t move the crosshairs. I’ve tried turning off the crosshairs and just tried using the mouse cursor to shoot at the screen, but all the bullets hit dead center on the screen. I’ve tried hitting tab, opening player one controls and tried to remap the X and Y axis for the lightgun, but they won’t register. I can see the fancy mouse cursor moving across the screen when I try to map the X axis and up and down for the Y axis, but it still won’t register. The trigger and the two side buttons work fine, just can’t get the crosshairs to move.

I’ve also tried to go into the Aimtrak software and setting the gun to act as a joystick instead of a mouse, when I do that, the crosshairs move in the games I open with LB, but they freeze for a couple seconds once they pass the center of the screen and the games are pretty much unplayable like that. Also, when I exit a game, and put the lightgun in the holster, it acts as if I’m pressing down on the joystick and basically just keeps cycling through all the games until I hold the gun perfectly level at the screen, then it will stop.

I appricieate the reply back, I just don’t know what else to do. It’s driving me crazy. 

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This is strange. I have two aimtrak guns myself, but I don't have the trouble you seem to be having. LaunchBox shouldn't affect the guns in any way..

Can it be that the MAME folder contains configuration files for the specific game you are launching which contains different settings from the default configuration?

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Hmm, your cursor in Launchbox should not be the fancy analog controller one, it should be a default windows cursor when using the gun, you should also not be able to launch a game with one click of the guns, it should require a double-click, or in my case ('cos I can't trigger that fast), right-clicking with the gun and then pressing play with the trigger - at least that's how it works for me on both of my guns and my normal mouse. I feel like your issue is related to this but how I do not know.  Your guns are definitely in mouse mode, and NOT joystick mode? Because you should only get the 'fancy cursor' inside launchbox when browsing with an analog controller input, which the aimtraik becomes in joystick mode. You've made sure to close and reopen launchbox after switching it into mouse mode? Heck, close launchbox, put the guns in joystick mode, put them back in mouse mode (and be sure they're in mouse mode), reboot the PC and ensure they're still in mouse mode then open launchbox, and see how it goes.

Alternatively maybe try disabling gamepad input entirely in launchbox, restarting the app, and seeing how it goes.

Edited by JRPGod
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was going to suggest to check the Mame.ini and ctrlr file and ensure all the appropriate controls are set up right, particularly with respect to the ctrlr file.. I just set 1x Aimtrac light gun up last night with the help of Mavericks Arcade tutorial and aside from a couple of issues with calibration/tracking on windows side- MAME was a doddle, worked a treat with no issues in LB/BB save for a couple of games-

 

My only issues are with T2 and Rambo where I have some odd things happening---

in T2 the cross hairs will move to aim but when I depress the trigger to fire, the gun fires but no where near where the cross hairs are pointing

in Rambo the cross hairs do not move at all but the when I press the trigger it fires dead centre in the crosshairs.

 

both these games are adstick games I think?? so in MAME, I have configured both lightgun X and Y axes and adstick X and Y axes-  but no luck, I can not understand why it isn't working....any ideas??

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  • 4 months later...

Hi, i've found this thread and are experiencing the same problems.  The guns work fine when launching a game from Mame (UI) however launching the same game from BB the gun does not work within the game.  Same as the OP the cursor moves on the screen but no cross-hairs in a game.  When trying to assign controls through LB/BB the x/y are not recognized but are through Mame. 

I've tried the toggle between joystick/mouse in Ultimarc Aimtrack configuration software but no joy with that.  

Any other ideas?

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Vandango- I don't have any issues launching gun games from LB/BB, although. I recall having issues when I initially was setting it up!

I would suggest you watch Maverick's Arcade channel on how to set up ultimarc light guns- Follow it very carefully and you will get it to work as they can be a little tricky to get right.

 

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Too bad it isn't working for you! Mavericks videos was the solution for me too. That, and check that MAME uses the right configs. I had a problem where MAME repeatedly just wrote over my configs, so I made a script which copied my working config to the right directory at launch :) Can't remember how I did it now.

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