12-Way Rotary Joystick Interface Program (translates to key presses for MAME)

[Archive]

posted by dragonstrap on Dec 20, 2012:

12-Way Rotary Joystick Interface Program (translates to inputs for MAME)

12-Way Rotary Joystick Interface Program. version 2.1

The aim of this encoder is to eliminate the need of a hardware encoder to translate the raw outputs of a mechanical rotary joystick into the clockwise and anti-clockwise turns as required by MAME.
The program sits in your taskbar and converts mechanical rotary joystick outputs to virtual joystick outputs using a virtual joystick (or, if you want, as keyboard presses but these won't be picked up by MAME).
Included also is a configuration tool that will hopefully make the process as easy as possible.



Here's the program and documentation, zipped up.
Rotary Joystick Interface download link: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/68787224/Rotary Joystick Interface/Rotary Joystick Interface.zip

You will also need to install PPJoy. The installation and configuation of PPJoy is also covered in the guides.
PPJoy setup download link: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/68787224/Rotary Joystick Interface/PPJoySetup.zip



I've added support for 2 rotary joysticks via a single virtual joystick device, but 1 will work fine too.
Wiring is the same as most (all?) hardware solutions, reducing 13 wires down to 4 (3 inputs and ground).
There is a wiring guide as well as a setup guide included in the documentation.

If you really like my program or it saves you from buying a hardware interface,
please right-click my program's icon in the system tray and hit "Donate" to bring you to my paypal page.
Buy me a virtual beer/pizza/whatever you think it's worth
This is largely to give me feedback and also some motivation to continue with bug fixes and updates.

Thanks to the author of PPJoy and someone called "Ninja Bob" whose DLL was used to help make this program.
Please report on your failures / successes / ideas and anything that may be useful for bug tracking or further development.

Plans for future versions:
- support VJoy as well as PPJoy (since PPJoy is unsigned and this can cause issues for Win7 users).
- allow low-level keyboard output so these too may be picked up by MAME (this seems to be very hard, so I'll probably never do it).

 

[Archive]

posted by dragonstrap on Dec 4, 2012:

I guess I jumped the gun of releasing before testing on MAME (actually, before my rotary joysticks arrived in the mail too
It seems MAME uses RAW input, so the method I'm using isn't going to work.

It seems that this will likely only work if you compile your own MAME. You would need to use the DirectInput API by modifying a line in src\osd\windows\input.c to:
#define FORCE_DIRECTINPUT 1

damn.. if only things could be easier. Taking the download offline until I sort this out.
 

[Archive]

posted by dragonstrap on Dec 18, 2012:

After a long and painful play around, I just got joypad outputs working with MAME. And just had my first game of Midnight Resistance with a working rotary.
Setting everything up is a pain but I will fix this up before releasing.

Sit tight, it won't be long.

In the mean time, check out my home-made USB rotary joystick

 

[Archive]

posted by dragonstrap on Jan 29, 2013:

Release of version 2.1! - now working fine with MAME (via PPJoy) and 2 rotary joysticks supported.

First post has been updated. Please provide feedback / bug reports / suggestions. Thanks.


Note : For this software to work, you need to go into the Analog Controls for the game you're in and set the following:
Positional Digital Speed = 0
Positional Sensitivity = 100
 

[Archive]

posted by dragonstrap on Jan 10, 2014:

I updated my configuration tool to fix the wording of some instructions. It should be more easy to understand now.
 

[Archive]

posted by erkan on Jan 10, 2014:

Very nice!

I will test it once I buy a rotary joystick.