Ultimarc AimTrak Light Guns??

[HotMommasCowboy]

1 hour ago, skizzosjt said:

lol oui oui apparently they like American Laser Disc - oh the irony, going to French site for American Laser Disc emulator 🤣

sorry the plan didn't work out this weekend, here's to hoping it comes together next weekend then! 🍻

do let us know how it goes and if you end up needing any more help I'll do what I can for ya!

I appreciate that. I'll keep you posted. I'm sure we'll get it. I actually rewatched that video again yesterday and some things finally started to click in my thick head! I might go at it again tomorrow. If it's any consolation, I did get American Laser Games up and running!!  

[marcosgaming]

Hi guys,

this is great post and now it's in my favorite. 

I bought 2 lightgun Aimtrack and I would configure them on all my platforms games on my  launchbox. 

At first i create a Playlist called Light Gun Games and then i add all games that support light gun, for every platform. But i will need to configure them for every different emulator. 

I would that all is portable and preconfigured for others pc as rest of my settings. 

At this point i start from Mame.

I follow the guide and tomorrow i refresh you. 

See you tomorrow guys. 

Bye bye. Mark. 

 

[marcosgaming]

Hi guys,

I would configure my 2 Aimtrack on MAME, RetroArch and all others emulators. I  need a an universal solution that works on others pc too... "PORTABLE".

I'm starting just now. I connect my first Light Gun to my pc and set id to #1 for first gun and #2 for second gun. It's ok or it's better for example 5 and 6 ???

Later for each devices i do calibrate and for now ok. I set buttons as like picture. It's ok ? I'm here now.

I start from RetroArch i think...i create a copy of Emulator RetroArch called RetroArch for Light Gun and i'm trying to set Guns here.

Please i need your help. I'm not very good with lightguns

Thanks.

[HotMommasCowboy]

@marcosgaming I apologize, but I'm not sure what you're asking. This is just my thought, but as long as everything is saved to your an external drive that you plan on making "portable", it should work when you take it with you. Although I've never used it, one of the features of LB was being able to make it portable. So as far as I know, you should be able too as long as everything is saved to your portable drive. One of the issues I had when I posted my question was that every time I turned off my computer, my light guns were given new address locations. A couple people posted on how to fix it along with several videos, which I eventually figured out. But then I also found out that downloading (I apologize if I'm not allowed to mention this...delete if I'm not allowed to state this) the program Arcade Gun Pros utility, solved my problem. So that's the program I use now to keep my ID's for my LG's.

[marcosgaming]

Hi, thank you for fast answer. 

I don't know this Utility. 

But works only for Mame? 

So don't need to create a file remap cfg with ctrlr in mame. Ini? 

I'm really confused and I have questions to do... 

Please can you help me from start to configure my lightgun Aimtrack on my platforms of Bigbox? 

If you want i can do you a little donato for your time. 

If you can we can talk on Skype, WhatsApp or Teamviewer too for a fast solution. I would finish all in next dream. 

Thanks for all, Mark. 

[HotMommasCowboy]

4 hours ago, marcosgaming said:

Hi, thank you for fast answer. 

I don't know this Utility. 

But works only for Mame? 

So don't need to create a file remap cfg with ctrlr in mame. Ini? 

I'm really confused and I have questions to do... 

Please can you help me from start to configure my lightgun Aimtrack on my platforms of Bigbox? 

If you want i can do you a little donato for your time. 

If you can we can talk on Skype, WhatsApp or Teamviewer too for a fast solution. I would finish all in next dream. 

Thanks for all, Mark. 

Mark, a donation is not necessary. That’s what this forum is for! It’s to help one another out. If it wasn’t for the LB community, I would’ve given up a long time ago!!
Here’s a pic of the program I use now. It’s similar to AimTrak, but, unlike AimTrak, it keeps the light guns recognizable by MAME. This program automatically turns itself on when you start/ re-start your computer so the light guns don’t lose their configuration. You would only need to set them up one time in MAME.
As far as working with other emulators, I’m not sure because I only use them in MAME. 
As far as setting them up in MAME, if you google “AimTrak MAME Config Light Guns” by Retro Lizard, he does a great job explaining how to set them up in MAME. I’m sure you’d probably need to do the same for other emulators. I’ve just never set mine up for other emulators. 
 

[skizzosjt]

marcosgaming is already using the correct AIMTRAK software that is meant for their specific light gun. they are different branding, but otherwise they both do the exact same thing. assign player #s, assign buttons, calibration, etc. I don't see a benefit of downloading another brands software, if it's even compatible. I wouldn't mess with it because I would believe firmware is not the same and if wrong firmware gets updated you may break them from ever working again.

marcosgaming, in general the scope of questions you ask here and in PM is already shared in deep detail. I'll try to clarify some of your questions, but, otherwise, it sounds like you should return to existing guides to better understand the setup processes.

 

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It's ok or it's better for example 5 and 6 ???

Later for each devices i do calibrate and for now ok. I set buttons as like picture. It's ok ?

this is totally up to you. there is no right or wrong way. you need to understand the layers you are going through though. if you set the gun's trigger to be button1 then MAME needs to have the trigger/shoot input be the corresponding button. if it were set to a mouse button in MAME, then that wouldn't work because there is a disconnect in that example. you pull the trigger, it sends "button1" but MAME expects "left mouse click", nothing will happen in that example. you just need to make said settings consistent between the light gun software and the game/emulator. on the same note, if the player 1 controls in a game are expecting inputs from "Gun 1", then that needs to be aligned between the light gun software and the game or emulator. for ex, if you have your light gun as player 5 in the light gun software, but player 1 in MAME expects inputs from player 1 (for ex "GUN 1")  then that is a disconnect. nothing will happen. so hopefully you understand it is critical that things are aligned between these different programs. to fix that specific example, you either change light gun software to have the light gun be player 1, or in MAME make player 1 receive inputs from "GUN 5"

 the light gun is a mouse and controller. aiming the light gun is just like moving a mouse around. the trigger/buttons on the light gun can be mouse clicks, or controller buttons.  meaning, any game or emulator that can receive these mouse and/or controller inputs will work with the light guns.

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And then...Why if i click "TAB" in Mame for change button and click on buttons of my gun, MAME knows as Joy 1 and not as Gun1, why??? But works well.mhmm  it's correct ? I think no because when i click on trigger MAME know that is GUN and not JOY.

you see "JOY" button in MAME because you assigned a controller button to that specific light gun button in the light gun software. given the info you shared, that seems normal. the other buttons may be mouse clicks and I think depending on how you do the device remap, should show up as "GUN". again, seems normal.

 

[HotMommasCowboy]

@skizzosjt You are correct, it’s a different program, but it also works with AimTrak light guns. The main benefit I see to this program (unless Andy’s updated the AimTrak program) is that it will not lose its identifier (not sure of the correct wording here, but it’s not the ID# that is assigned) inside windows when/ if you turn your computer off or even do a restart. There is the video that was posted with Chuck with Maverick’s Arcade explaining how to stop that from happening. Which was a PITA for me to comprehend and understand not being a computer guy. There are features inside Arcade Guns that won’t work with Ultimarc’s light guns, but the guns are always “remembered” when you shut down your computer and turn it back on. Thats why I mentioned that program. I’ve had it installed for about a year now with no issues. 

[skizzosjt]

so to help explain, the Utilities > MAME tab allows the software to auto setup the stuff that is being discussed here. Hence why it asks for the path to the MAME exe and ini file. It's just remapping controls as every guide out there tells people to do by hand.

Due to this discussion, I finally take a moment to see how this feature works, this software just automates some of the setup. For instance, soon as I click the enable check box it will edit the ini file, the most obvious edit being adding the Ctrlr config name, and when looking into your ctrlr remap folder you will see the newly created remap file. My point here is it's always better to know how things work rather than "I click this button and it works now....." and never understand the reasoning.

So this is going to burst your bubble, it's bursting mine too......the software doesn't even do the controller (device) remapping as I assumed it did lmao. It is only remapping controls. I know that might sound the same, but it is not. All this software can do is "make trigger be player 1 button 1" kinda remapping. It does NOT do "make PID_1601 always player #1". so you have literally never even once needed stable controller ID's. I scan through the entire cfg file the software makes, no controller (device) remapping, just controls remapping. 

Here for ex the MAME ini edited, with the new cfg file created. Though, the contents of the file have no stable ID controller remap going on. Don't be fooled by the header, it is blocked off by comments so those VID and PID #s and Light Gun #1 business is like it's not even there to MAME. That's not even the right syntax to declare that stuff anyway

 

Controller (device) remapping looks like this. They can be in the same file, but, this software only does remapping of controls. This is kinda lame it does not do this controller (device) remapping automatically too. And kinda proves how blown out of proportion this can be. You've been running for how long without one, without any problems lol. Obviously it's not needed for your use case. That's not a bad thing. Consider yourself lucky it works for you without any further intervention. So to be clear, this program doesn't remember anything about your lightguns being called player #1 or player #2 in MAME between reboots. You would need lines like the below file in your cfg file for that to be 100% guaranteed. For me, without this file, it normally assumes my two light guns are player #2 and player #3. So in my experience this reduces setup a little bit since I have less games I need to custom remap for. Better chances stuff works right out of the gate. When I enabled this feature in Arcade Guns, it broke my setup due to my light guns reverted to this issue for me being #2 and #3, further proving this utility does not do any device remapping

[marcosgaming]

Hi guys,

thanks your help too i'm understanding always more and now my Light Gun Games on MAME seems works perfectly.

I use this setting in Aimtrack setup

and i change mame ini in this way :

So i remapped controllers GUN for Stable IDs thanks to "ctrlr" -> MARemapControls.cfg so :

In this way i have 2 guns and then  i press TAB in MAME i remap buttons and i can play well all MAME Games.

I think if i change pc i must change mame ini with new IDs of new pc it's right or not ?

Thanks guys.

 

Now i pass to the other platforms for example Sega Model 2. Anyone knows how to do ? Or you try only on MAME ?

Thanks.

[MavericksArcade]

On 1/16/2023 at 1:23 PM, twobucks said:

There is a good video for setting up Aimtrak's in mame with stable ID's. I used this video when i setup my guns a while back.

 

Hey!, it's a me 🙂