F355 challenge - Naomi - Demul Full screen setup

[Eckers569]

Interesting. Same set up I started with. Like I mention above - I had no problems with xinput... Didn’t need to have the other window on top. Then I tried my thrustmaster wheel and I did. So I think that’s the issue you’re having with the key bindings are the same as what I had - and you will also have with the G29. One of the ahk scripts that you setup to auto launch before the game above resolves this.

[Eckers569]

Try running this ahk before launching:

On 11/30/2020 at 10:24 PM, Eckers569 said:

Having identified my F355 cab is beyond my means of repair (well,  2 hours  spent re-wiring every component back in it's correct place - hoping it might 'just work'  - only to discover that I'd purchased a Player 2 cab which doesn't have a traditional power supply), I concluded it wasn't  worth any more effort trying to bring this baby back to how God intended. So, I  committed to converting it to an out and out emulation machine - but F355 a none-negotiable...

While doing so, I've verified that when using Xbox One controller (wired) and the DEMUL emulator, you don't actually have to have the black bios window permanently in focus; once you set the controls up on your Xbox pad, start the game as usual with the other window in focus and enter the game's settings menu (F4) - from there navigate to Test Mode Menu > Input test and run through all your controls on the pad. Once you've done it once, bring the main game window into focus and it will now continue to register your controls even when you exit the menus and commence the game (it even remembers it for subsequent plays).

This is either a weird quirk of the Xbox controller or something particular to my system. 'Great', I thought, just need to do the same thing with my racing wheel in place of the Xbox pad and away we go. However, it didn't work. I'm using the Thrustmaster TX (in it's Xbox mode) and this work-around no longer recognised the inputs without the other window in focus. I tried mapping my TX analogue axis via UCR to replicate a standard Xbox (albeit 360, I think) - no joy either.

So, it seems I'm not as blessed as I'd initially thought and back in the same boat as everyone else trying to run the single screen version of this game via DEMUL.

To resolve, I've created a new AHK script in place of the one in Step 3. above (well, shunted together bits of AHK code from other people). It appears to have worked for me, so again maybe someone else will find it useful.

It does the same stuff as above - making the game window full screen with no menus etc - but also now activates the other window over the top making it completely invisible while allowing you to control the game without it getting in the way:

 

#SingleInstance, Force

Loop

{
ifwinexist gpuDX11oldhw | spg: 60 gpu: 60 | Multiboard Slave

If (ErrorLevel = 0 )

{
     WinActivate
     Winmaximize
WinSet, Style, -0xC40000, A
DllCall("SetMenu", uint, WinExist(), uint, 0)  ; Remove menu bar of "last found window".
Break
}

Else
Sleep 1000
Continue
}

Loop

{
ifwinexist gpuDX11oldhw | spg: 60 gpu: 60 | Ferrari F355 Challenge (Twin) <or '..... Ferrari F355 Challenge 2 (Twin)' for that version of the game>

If (ErrorLevel = 0 )

{
WinActivate
Winmaximize     
WinSet, Transparent, 0
Break
}

Else
Sleep 1000
Continue
}

 

Again some one else could probably come up with something much more efficient but it seems to be working as a starting point for me.

You'll now need two separate AHK scripts for both versions of the game instead of just one (F355 and F355 2 twin) and link them appropriately as additional apps in Launchbox as before for each game.

The 'close script' KiinkyFoxx detailed above still works a treat and is set up separately in LB as the running AHK in the main emulator setup/tab. Assuming, like me, you're running separate folders/instances of DEMUL for these multiboard Naomi games.

I've had a nightmare getting this game to work how I'd like it to; my busted F355 cab providing the motivation for finding work-arounds a little more obsessively than most would consider normal - and I haven't even attempted to really setup my wheel and pedals correctly into DEMUL yet, which I know from past experience is going to be tricky - and may very well bring this whole episode to an unsatisfying conclusion. Maybe I'll just cover the thing in Daytona USA 2 stickers and be done ? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eckers569]

Or this one, which also include ‘escape to exit’ (so you won’t need the second ‘close’ f355 script). Not tried this one myself yet - but look like a better way of doing it. Like I said- I need to edit this with best practise contributed by other since I originally set up this thread.

 

On 1/28/2021 at 7:46 PM, SMQ7 said:

Thanks very much, this was a huge help. Based on the advice here, I settled on an ahk that does the job of activating and hiding the second screen, as well as escape to exit (below: just some small changes to what was posted here in case they can be of help to someone).

I too have a Thrustmaster and am stumped on the inputs for accelerator/brake. Everything else works fine. I'd love to hear if you got anywhere. I suspect that having a combined rather than separate axis would work ok but that's not how I'm set up. Currently I have ANALOGUP = 33554433, ANALOGDOWN = 33554689 which gives auto accelerate, best guess is it needs to reverse the input (as in Mame) to register properly.

 

#SingleInstance, Force

Loop

{
ifwinexist gpuDX11oldhw | FPS: 60 RPS: 60 | Multiboard Slave

If (ErrorLevel = 0 )

{
     WinActivate
     Winmaximize
WinSet, Style, -0xC40000, A
DllCall("SetMenu", uint, WinExist(), uint, 0)  ; Remove menu bar of "last found window".
Break
}

Else
Sleep 1000
Continue
}

Loop

{
ifwinexist gpuDX11oldhw | FPS: 60 RPS: 60 | Ferrari F355 Challenge

If (ErrorLevel = 0 )

{
WinActivate
Winmaximize
WinSet, Transparent, 0, A
Break
}

Else
Sleep 1000
Continue
}

 #SingleInstance, Force
DetectHiddenText, On
DetectHiddenWindows, On
SetTitleMatchMode, 2

$Esc::
{
WinClose, gpuDX11oldhw
Sleep, 2000
Process, Close, demul.exe
ExitApp
}

 

[Eckers569]

Then you just need to setup launch box to run this script on start up. 

[Eckers569]

I previously used 'Clickoff' app to get rid of the DINPUT error when using Demul with a wheel installed. That stopped working for whatever reason and I couldn't get it back.

Here's another hotkey script that should remove that error message - select it to run before main application:

For F355 I get 2 DINPUT error message windows that need closing so the script below accounts for that:

 

#SingleInstance, Force

Loop

{
ifwinexist padDemul

If (ErrorLevel = 0 )

{
WinClose, padDemul
Break
}

Else
Sleep 10000
Continue
}

Loop

{
ifwinexist padDemul

If (ErrorLevel = 0 )

{
WinClose, padDemul
Break
}

Else
Sleep 10000
Continue
}

 

 

 

For other Demul racing games you can use a shorter version:

 

#SingleInstance, Force

Loop

{
ifwinexist padDemul

If (ErrorLevel = 0 )

{
WinClose, padDemul
Break
}

Else
Sleep 10000
Continue
}

 

 

 

All in all for F355 and F355 2 I had 5 additional apps (i.e. hotkey and/or bat scripts) running. These helped me auto change Demul setting and controller configs, flip to full screen and have control, remove DINPUT error messages on boot - and auto change my Thrustmaster TC-PC Gain settings between games, combined or separate pedals between games and to auto change my wheel angle for each game (something you cant do in the Thrustmaster GUI) - perfect for my driving cab build. I intend to write a guide on the auto Thrustmaster settings as it can get a bit in depth (auto copy reg-edits etc) as it should help provide per-game user settings for other Thrustmaster wheels (it is clunky though but works and why Thrustmaster havent incorporated this yet is anyone's guess).

 

 

Now, having said all that... A dev build of the Flycast standalone emulator now enables full screen F355 while being controllable (either twin or deluxe 3-screen version) much more cleanly than the Demul work around above. AND it has support for Boomslangs FFB Plugin - and it's freaking awesome for F355. It's not in their main Master build yet, Once i've figured a few more things out, it will be my default Naomi emulator from now on (i still can't get with Retro Arch)

I've spent days configuring Flycast though to even get F355 booting consistently and hope to do a guide soon on how I got it working. Still working on it but a brain dump below that might save someone a similar amount of time 🙂

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Eckers569

[Eckers569]

A dev build of Flycast stand alone emulator now enables full screen F355- either twin or deluxe (3-screen version) much more cleanly than the Demul work around above

I found it a pain to dial in the settings for Flycast for this game – regularly hanging on the bios screen whenever I made a change then working a bit later - making it incredibly difficult to test and trouble-shoot settings etc.

However, after days trying to get it working properly, I think I’ve settled on some setting that may now make this my default emulator for F355 – And it can use Boomslangz FFB and it's awesome.

 

If I get time I’ll try and put a guide together. But somethings I’ve learned along the way that may save you some time:

 

I'm using dev build from Flyinghead - Flycast CI Builds (flyinghead.github.io)

Scroll down the webpage to dev builds and download - i'm using 9512ee657 (listed as 9512ee6 on the webpage).

If you want force feedback, get the latest version from Boomslangz Github - Releases · Boomslangnz/FFBArcadePlugin (github.com)

 

 

You can set full screen mode for the emulator in the emu.cfg file (scroll to the bottom and change full screen to yes then save) not from the main settings – but do that at the end once you’ve got everything working first, you'll be doing a lot of back and forth so keep it windowed.

Make sure you know where your bios and game files are etc (the Naomi ones and all the F355 one's). I just copied them all over to the Flycast data folder.

 

 

Load up emulator and set your file paths in 'General' settings.

First off – and what I think was probably the cause of my frustrations - Go to 'Advanced' settings and change from multi-thread to single for F355. This appeared to stop me getting as many crashes during boot up under OpenGL/Vulkan/DX9/DX10.

In Advanced setting - select Multi-board Screens. I went with 1(TWIN) - I haven't tried 3 (Deluxe).

In Advanced settings, select Broadcast Digital Outputs if you want force feedback.

Also suggest unselecting all the network options – sort these out later if you want - but i can only imagine it makes booting the game up more difficult.

Under Controls - Don’t bother too much dialling in the controls per game at this point, just try to get F355 booting regularly first. But make sure you know your global service and test keys so you can change the cab settings that allows it to identify it's Master and also set your steering and acceleration in global ‘arcade’ controls (not Dreamcast) - this is done in the top right of the screen - in this dev build it's really difficult to see but if you move you mouse there you can select either Dreamcast or Arcade controls. The mappings are a pain to find – but from memory I went with:

Thumbstick left and right in the emulator = left and right on your steering wheel,

L trigger = break

R trigger = accelerate

Dpad up, down, left, right = your Assist functions in F355

Button 1 = Gear down

Button 2 = Gear up.

Set your pedals to combined if you have the option. I don't think separate works  - again similar to Demul. 

You’ll change your global settings later probably to cater for most games – and set up specifics once you're ready but to start with for F355 just use these. Didn’t seem to matter what port – but I chucked wheel and keyboard down as port A (eventually require an extra DINPUT device for the separate IPAC buttons - see below).

Once set, click done - again this is hidden a bit on this dev build version but move your mouse towards the top left and you should be able to select.

Finally for controls - In the 'Mappings' folder for Flycast, find your new .CFG file for your wheel and set the deadzone to 0 - it's default is 10 which is awful for F355.

 

Controllers and wheels work fine. Keyboard you have the old problem of needing the bios screen on top in-order for them to function (really annoying for my start, coin and assist buttons). **

 

In video settings I recommend keeping in DX9 while you try to get the game booting properly. Then leave all the other stuff as is until you get it loading. This graphic API looks awful but it seemed to allow full boot most easily for me.

I ultimately settled on these video settings -  per pixel, vsync off, 2.5 upscale to 1600x1200, OpenGL, everything else as default for now.

I also changed a load of Nvidia settings to help with the OpenGL and to force full vsync from there (pictures below). Still pacing issues – but this was always the case on Demul as well.

With settings complete, I recommend closing the emulator first then re-loaded and trying to run the game. 

If things are wrong the emulator can crash, you may need to open task manager quite often to close the Flycast process fully while you get things set up and working. Maybe a more recent version of a dev build fixes this but i didn't see much of a difference.

 

You can only access the games test menu once you get the orange screen coming up from bootup – and you'll need to find Master first by changing these the first time your boot up. Here, in the test menu change cab setting to individual or whatever from test menu and also that other service menu (forgot what it's called but it's accessed from one of the options in the test menu - and mentioned earlier in this thread about Demul setup). This is one reason why you should still be in windowed mode until you get the game loading. 

I found it regularly hangs on boot the first time I change any setting. So try exiting and loading again from new to see if it works. Sometimes on crash you get left over process running in task manager – so check and close before trying again. It probably fully boots about 70% of the time for me now - else I just close down and try again.

 

It's a bit temperamental - at least this Dev build or my particular setup was. But well worth sticking with, the dev are doing a great job with it.

I kept getting severe 2 second pauses in multi-threaded emulation mode (at least once a lap – multiple times in every race) regardless of how low resolution was set to or the API used. Changing to single thread has reduced these to a much more bearable maybe once in every 3/4 full races – still testing but don’t think its one-time cache issue like Demul. I tested for shorter period on my more powerful 3070ti and that didn't  seem to have the same issue (the rest of my other PC being more or less identical, both with a 12600K CPU) – I’m guessing maybe the 1080TI is throttling, causing these occasional freezes, 3070ti seemed fine but need to test for longer.

Frame pacing issues remain for me regardless of vsync in the emulator or Nvidia so still not great – but seems typical of Naomi emulation across the board. Reports 60 fps and is more than acceptable to my eyes but can definitely notice. For me it works best turning off vsync in the emulator but put it on full in the Nvidia control panel.

It all seemed to work fine through Launchbox,

Icing on the cake for this setup - and deciding factor for me ditching all the hard work I put in to Demul – was the force feedback implementation. It really does make a difference to F355.

I played the real cab in an arcade only a couple of weeks ago for research purposes 🙂 Honestly this, emulated in my home setup, is now so much better - though it didn't help that the arcade operators hadn't cared to fix the steering wheel that was waaaay off-centre.

 

Like I said - this is just a very quick and badly written brain dump while it's fresh in my mind. Will probably do a full-setup once i'm happy with the results. Thanks to Boomslangz for the great FFB plugin and the guys at Flyinghead for a great emulator.

 

 

** Annoying that keyboard controls still need the bios screen on top. The bios and game screen in Flycast are exactly the same name and process - so i can't get the bios screen on top and invisible using hotkey scripts. Also x360ce and UCR virtual game pads don't work with this emulator. In the end, for the arcade buttons on my racing cab I've had to change my IPAC device to DINPUT control pad mode and that does work in Flycast (can also do XINPUT but that's going to mess with all my TeknoParrot racing games) - now i have to reconfigure controls for all my other racing games!

Edited April 22, 2023 by Eckers569

[Eckers569]

[Eckers569]

A quick video of the F355 setup. About 3 years of slow progress and a missus who isn't at all impressed.

Still work in progress but nearly there. Excuse the mess.

 

 

 

Made up entirely of second hand parts, stuff I had lying around from other unfinished projects and regular trips to Home Base DIY.

GTX 1080ti,12600KF CPU, DD4 memory at 3200 and a cheap second hand 19200 X 1200 monitor off ebay.

Half of a broken F355 twin cab. Thrustmaster TS PC race wheel painted white by the previous owner 🙂 pedals and gear shifter.

New art work on the sides and front panel.

I didn't want to wreck my own original dashboard so used an already broken Out Run 2 which I cut out to accommodate the TS PC Race Wheel (only just) and gear stick.

The original panel and wheel/stick mount had to be removed. But the plastic facia panel still fits securely. Original panel buttons routed to PC via Ultimarc's IPAC device (set to DINPUT controller mode) and to LED Blinky for the light-up.

Wheel is supported by the same steel bars that I used to fix in the TCLM pedals. They are strong and don't bend - I got through at least 5 drill bits. The stick is mounted fairly securely by some bits of metal salvaged from a previous race wheel stand I still had around. The gear stick is rubbish though, so I want to change that to something more akin to the one from the deluxe cab.

Chair block has been re-sited as far back as possible for much more leg space. Pedals can be unscrewed and mounted close to the chair for little legs.

It's a basic Logitech surround sound system. Front speakers are the Logitech ones are squeezed in between the monitor and what remains of the old Monitor chassis mount which worked out nicely. The rear speakers and Sub are the originals still inside the seat. I took apart the Logitech Sub/AMP combo, and routed the appropriate wires to the arcade rears and sub (not an exact Ohm match but seems to work and I've kept the volume on them lower so they shouldn't blow!). The Logitech amp/sub is now effectively just an extra board in the base of the cab with long (3m) 3.5mm audio wires going from the inputs to the PC mounted behind the monitor. 

Temps are really good, even when the back of the cab is back in place. I leave it off in-use because Windows regularly re-orders my USB devices; the wheel and stick are often changed, playing havoc with some emulators like Sega M2. Often, I have to remove device from Windows, physically remove the USB then plug it back it until it's back in the correct order. 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Eckers569

[Eckers569]

My way of setting automatic Thrustmaster Wheel settings - custom per game profiles - FFB gain/Pedals/Wheel angle:

 

 

[Pyves]

Hi,

Thank you sooo much for all those useful informations. I’ve now everything correctly set, including lan.

My two cents: I solved devices re-order with joytokey.

edit : did you solved the 2 seconds freeze issue?

Edited May 5, 2023 by Pyves

[Eckers569]

On 5/5/2023 at 6:48 AM, Pyves said:

Hi,

Thank you sooo much for all those useful informations. I’ve now everything correctly set, including lan.

My two cents: I solved devices re-order with joytokey.

edit : did you solved the 2 seconds freeze issue?

I'll take another look at joytokey - i only ever use it for making my joys... er, keys. I didnt know there was more to it. Thanks for the tip.

I solved my stutters (especially bad in F355 2) by changing to the standalone version of flycast. It initially still had issues on both my 12600k/3070TI setup and 11600K/3080 setup (and before that the1080ti). However, i accidentally booted up the delux version while messing around with the emulator - the 3 screen version with side views and that ran perfectly. Turns i out i think my CPUs couldnt keep up with my GPU (...or vice versa) - so when i increased the resolution quite a bit for the standard twin 1 screen version it worked. All this time I've been trying to ressolve the frame rates by working towards lower resoutions when i should have been gong the other way! Same might also be true in Demul.

[arcademode]

Man is there like a Discord for Flycast or something? I can launch the game from a batch file sometimes but when I try to launch it from Launchbox (pointed to said batch file) I swear it just never boots.  The green Naomi boot screen comes up but hangs.  When it works its really cool.

I was able to get F355 booting in Deluxe mode and got my 6 gear shifter working with it via emulated controller. Here's the video that game me the clues on how to set it up. This video is for Demul but the principal is the same: 

 

[Eckers569]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:35 PM, arcademode said:

Man is there like a Discord for Flycast or something? I can launch the game from a batch file sometimes but when I try to launch it from Launchbox (pointed to said batch file) I swear it just never boots.  The green Naomi boot screen comes up but hangs.  When it works its really cool.

I was able to get F355 booting in Deluxe mode and got my 6 gear shifter working with it via emulated controller. Here's the video that game me the clues on how to set it up. This video is for Demul but the principal is the same: 

 

For a whiile i had to keep my fingers crossed every time through the Naomi boot screens - regardless of launching through Launchbox or directly from the emulator. When I'm back on the other computer i'll post my the settings I settled on for Flycast and LB to see if that gives you any luck.

I still get the occasional crash - but now it's when the game has loaded and first enters the demo sequence.

It's been a while since i got this working - but from memory i think it was only a specific build of Flycast that allowed these multi-screen games to work (possibly no longer the case). Might be worth trying the build i used (listed above) if you haven't already.

Another issue i had is once it crashed and i closed Flycast down, it still remained open in task manager. I had to shut that down otherwise subsequent attempts would fail.

Edited April 6 by Eckers569

[Eckers569]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:35 PM, arcademode said:

Man is there like a Discord for Flycast or something? I can launch the game from a batch file sometimes but when I try to launch it from Launchbox (pointed to said batch file) I swear it just never boots.  The green Naomi boot screen comes up but hangs.  When it works its really cool.

I was able to get F355 booting in Deluxe mode and got my 6 gear shifter working with it via emulated controller. Here's the video that game me the clues on how to set it up. This video is for Demul but the principal is the same: 

 

Here's the settings i have for F355 2. Best to keep Flycast in windowed mode until you get things working so you can access the games test menu (only works if the right Naomi window is in focus):

Flycast settings:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 6 by Eckers569

[Eckers569]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eckers569]

Game Test Menu settings:

Once 'Tom' completes his first operation and the orange screen appears you should be able to access the Test Menu where you need to change the Cab setup if you haven't already to Link ID > Single & Cabinate > Twin: 

I have issues with my Test/Menu Keys are set to keyboard and only works when one of the screens (not containing the menu needed) is on top:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eckers569]

LaunchBox settings:

Main thing is just to make sure your associated platforms for the emulator are set correctly.

I don't have any batch files running or command scripts - only my Thrustmaster wheel settings AHK script as an additional app run by LB before the emulator/game starts up.

The running scripts in the last screen shot is something I tried out quickly to attempt to close both Flycast Windows - sometimes it works sometimes I have to press escape twice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 6 by Eckers569

[Eckers569]

Nvidia settings:

I don't think there's much here other than preference over vsync, but might help: