Light gun games - specifically Lost World crosshair issues

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dmark468
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2024 5:14 am

Light gun games - specifically Lost World crosshair issues

Post by dmark468 »

Hi there!

Just got a new version of this emulator, downloading the top-most item on the downloads page. I assume that's the latest.

In the old version, when using the "gun" (as opposed to "analog_gun") input type, reloading is impossible in the Lost World game (lostwsga). Can't do it with keys or mouse clicks (wherever on the screen) or gamepad buttons.

So in this new version, that seems to hold true, so switched it back to the "analog_gun" type (default out of the box, despite the comments in Supermodel.ini, see below). That works, at least for one light gun player (and the other can use the 2P gamepad). But the first player can't switch between the 1P gamepad and the mouse.

In addition, the crosshairs do not show up automatically (am in full screen mode). And when I turn them on, they are not lining up with the "dots" that the game shows natively (or the gunshot effects). It shoots to the right and below the emulator's crosshair. I went in the system menu and ran through the (very confusing) calibration, but that just made it worse, so scrapped the NVRAM and now it is back to almost accurate. IIRC, the aim was perfect WRT to the crosshairs when using the "gun" input type, just couldn't reload. :(

I also tried Ocean Hunter and that one has its own crosshairs and seems to work okay, though my test machine doesn't seem quite up to the task (seems slow overall). Tried LA Machine Guns as well and I think it was working properly as well. Those are the three that share that "analog_gun" input type.

Edit: My test machine (with integrated Intel graphics) is not up to the new 3D engine. Turned that off in the INI and games run much better. So now I can see better that: Ocean Hunter works perfectly; LA Machine Guns has a blue sight looking thing that always stays in the center of the screen. Can't seem to aim at all (of perhaps I'm misunderstanding how the game works?) Lost World is great too, for one light gun and the 2P gamepad. Just that the emulator's cross hair is off by enough to be irritating (to the left and above the actual target).

Anyway, it seems to be working okay overall, despite the dinosaur game malfunctions (if that's what they are). Thanks for making this! :)

Edits:

Any way to put hardware IDs for each mouse (or light gun) in the INI? I thought I once saw a PowerShell script to do just that, but it may have been for an older version. I don't see an input-system entry in this new one (e.g. xinput, rawinput, dinput). It seems to try to support all at once. (?)

Any way to make it so the crosshairs come up for one game and not another? I figured out how to them come up with an INI entry for all, but some games have their own crosshairs.

And maybe I have the wrong ROM version for this game? What version is recommended for this emulator?

One other thing that I've never seen before: Esc closes it when I run it from the command line, but not when run from HyperSpin. No HyperLaunch getting in the way. It just runs it, as it does lots of other well-behaved emulators that support the Esc key to close the window. I believe it works with Esc when launched from CORE as well. Really odd, but I tested it several times. Esc does nothing; have to hit Alt+F4 to get back to HyperSpin. So had to resort to the miserable HyperLaunch AHK thing to launch and close it.

Edit to add answer:

Had windowstate set to HIDDEN in HS. That apparently prevents the Esc from getting through. Not a problem with the emulator.

From HyperSpin log:

Launching Game
12:42:31 AM | Not using HyperLaunch
12:42:31 AM | Running in normal rom mode
12:42:31 AM | Excecutable is Supermodel.exe
12:42:31 AM | Command Line is: "D:\Type R\emulators\Supermodel\Supermodel.exe" "D:\Type R\collections\Sega Model 3\roms\lostwsga.zip" -fullscreen -res=1920,1080

Not sure why I needed the "fullscreen" switch; can that be specified in the INI? And added the "-res" switch, as it prevents it from a jarring change of resolution, which fouls up the second monitor (marquee). Any way to prevent changing the resolution and just going full screen? I played around with various options in the INI (e.g. stretch, wide background, etc.) without any "luck". Perhaps I need to re-read the documentation for this new version. :)

From Supermodel.ini:

; Light guns (Lost World)
InputGunLeft = "KEY_LEFT" ; digital, move gun left
InputGunRight = "KEY_RIGHT" ; digital, move gun right
InputGunUp = "KEY_UP" ; digital, move gun up
InputGunDown = "KEY_DOWN" ; digital, move gun down
InputGunX = "MOUSE_XAXIS,JOY1_XAXIS" ; analog, full X axis
InputGunY = "MOUSE_YAXIS,JOY1_YAXIS" ; analog, full Y axis
InputTrigger = "KEY_QUOTE,JOY1_BUTTON1,MOUSE_LEFT_BUTTON"
InputOffscreen = "KEY_H,JOY1_BUTTON2,MOUSE_RIGHT_BUTTON" ; point off-screen
InputAutoTrigger = 0 ; automatic reload when off-screen
InputGunLeft2 = "KEY_D"
InputGunRight2 = "KEY_G"
InputGunUp2 = "KEY_R"
InputGunDown2 = "KEY_F"
InputGunX2 = "JOY2_XAXIS"
InputGunY2 = "JOY2_YAXIS"
InputTrigger2 = "KEY_A,JOY2_BUTTON1"
InputOffscreen2 = "KEY_S,JOY2_BUTTON2"
InputAutoTrigger2 = 0

; Analog guns (Ocean Hunter, LA Machineguns)
InputAnalogGunLeft = "KEY_LEFT" ; digital, move gun left
InputAnalogGunRight = "KEY_RIGHT" ; digital, move gun right
InputAnalogGunUp = "KEY_UP" ; digital, move gun up
InputAnalogGunDown = "KEY_DOWN" ; digital, move gun down
InputAnalogGunX = "MOUSE_XAXIS,JOY1_XAXIS" ; analog, full X axis
InputAnalogGunY = "MOUSE_YAXIS,JOY1_YAXIS" ; analog, full Y axis
InputAnalogTriggerLeft = "KEY_QUOTE,JOY1_BUTTON1,MOUSE_LEFT_BUTTON"
InputAnalogTriggerRight = "KEY_H,JOY1_BUTTON2,MOUSE_RIGHT_BUTTON"
InputAnalogGunLeft2 = "KEY_D"
InputAnalogGunRight2 = "KEY_G"
InputAnalogGunUp2 = "KEY_R"
InputAnalogGunDown2 = "KEY_F"
InputAnalogGunX2 = "JOY2_XAXIS"
InputAnalogGunY2 = "JOY2_YAXIS"
InputAnalogTriggerLeft2 = "KEY_A,JOY2_BUTTON1"
InputAnalogTriggerRight2 = "KEY_S,JOY2_BUTTON2"
dmark468
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2024 5:14 am

Re: Light gun games - specifically Lost World crosshair issues

Post by dmark468 »

So I figured everything out, except for how to make the Lost World crosshairs accurate (suspect I just don't know how to use the confusing in-game calibration). One other thing with the crosshairs is that there is no way to know in advance how many crosshairs to show (e.g. Lost World has 2 players, but if only one is playing, the second crosshair hovers in the center of the screen). Not sure if there's anything that can be done about that.

Strategy for me is XInput for everything by default and switch to DInput for a single light gun. Appears a fairly complicated script would be required to set up dual gamepads (or DInput gamepads), due to the use of indices.

Speaking of that, I did find the mentioned PowerShell script. By a bizarre coincidence, I recently tried to do something similar with MAME verbose output, but it turned out that MAME's idea of order is not the same as seen in the Windows game controller setup dialog. Need the indices to set up RetroArch, as it uses a similar index-only scheme for gamepads (so will use "half-gamepads", as found in some light guns) and that dialog always tells the tale. I wonder if the output of inputs by your program will yield the correct order...

https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/ ... nfig-file/
dmark468
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2024 5:14 am

Re: Light gun games - specifically Lost World crosshair issues

Post by dmark468 »

Solved for player 1 anyway. Found a Launchbox YT video that showed somebody performing the calibration in Lost World. Not too hard, once you know what it wants.

Aim is perfect. Still not sure what that LA Machine Guns (or whatever it was called) was doing, as it didn't aim at all, but will see if I can find a FAQ for that.

Most of the games seem to be working as expected. Not sure about Sega Bass Whatever, as it was logging some ugly exceptions.

I'll take it. Thanks!
Bart
Site Admin
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Nov 07, 2023 5:50 am

Re: Light gun games - specifically Lost World crosshair issues

Post by Bart »

Sorry, didn't see this till now. Glad it's working for you. What's going on with bass?

Re: LA Machineguns, it's quite easy to calibrate. You basically just want to move the mouse horizontally and vertically across the entire range. If I recall correctly, a button has to be pressed to start calibration.
k_rollo
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Nov 28, 2023 2:39 am

Re: Light gun games - specifically Lost World crosshair issues

Post by k_rollo »

dmark468 wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 1:26 am Solved for player 1 anyway. Found a Launchbox YT video that showed somebody performing the calibration in Lost World. Not too hard, once you know what it wants.

Aim is perfect.
That's probably my video. :D
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