A request to Stella devs

[Dones]

Recently I setup a game box similar to those used in MAME cabinets that also sports multiple emulators. I don't use it for an arcade cabinet but as a stand alone emu-box controlled by a frontend and a usb gamepad. The box is configured to work without a keyboard, and this poses an interesting problem.

 

I use Stella 1.4.1 (under Win2k) to run my atari 2600 games. The main reason to use Stella is because it lets me map gamepad controls to my liking using an in-game menu. Stella's flexible control mapping permits assignment multilple buttons to a single action. This is extremely useful because I use a playstation pad through a USB connector. Stella lets me configure both the analog and the directional pad of the dualshock to work with it very easily.

 

When I am configuring the input controls in Stella, I use a usb keyboard to access the controls menu and assign the input controls. I exit Stella so that the new settings are recoded. I test Stella with some games and it works fine responding to the custom gamepad settings. If I remove the keyboard from the computer, then the next time I run Stella it defaults to its "factory" settings, completely overwriting my custom input assignments.

 

Could it be possible to modify Stella's code so that upon detecting the absence of a keyboard it won't override custom gamepad settings? I do not know if this behavior is intended or if it is a bug. I have tried making the "stella.ini" file read only but that does not work. If someone could provide some advice it would be appreciated.

Edited September 20, 2005 by Dones

[+stephena]

Could it be possible to modify Stella's code so that upon detecting the absence of a keyboard it won't override custom gamepad settings? I do not know if this behavior is intended or if it is a bug. I have tried making the "stella.ini" file read only but that does not work. If someone could provide some advice it would be appreciated.

935099[/snapback]

This is almost certainly a bug. I don't even know how it's happening, since the code that takes care of that stuff only uses the defaults if it encounters a corrupt INI file. In the case of event mappings, the only way for it to be invalid is if there aren't the same number of items in the list as what Stella expects (ie, in other words, it only does a simple string length test). So I can't see how this is happening. Stella (and SDL) have no concept of a keyboard 'appearing' and 'disappearing', so this really shouldn't be happening.

 

OK, first thing to try is the latest version of Stella, which is 1.4.2. It's possibly only a bug in older versions. Second, I need to try to duplicate this.

 

On a more positive note, the next version of Stella has taken this 'Mame-box' concept even further, by allowing the in-game GUI to be navigated by the joystick. And a mini-menu has been added, which when tied to a joystick button, pops up a list of buttons of commonly selected events. So with just one extra joystick button press, you get access to a lot of other events, and don't have to 'waste' buttons on those events.

 

I'll look into this problem tomorrow, but it's going to be difficult to duplicate, I think. Could you try one of the Stella nightly builds at http://www.hardcoders.org/stella_nightly ? Keep in mind that this is beta code and may have some bugs. Also, this new version has a built-in ROM launcher, but if you launch Stella with a ROM, it will act like older versions and not use the launcher.

[Dones]

Thanks for the quick reply Stephen. Like you said I downloaded 1.4.2 and now everything works fine. Thanks!

 

Yes I agree the behavior is difficult to reproduce because it would require a computer configured for keyboardless use with a front end. When does Stella save stella.ini? Is it saved everytime the program is ran?

 

About the WIP build: I tried the sep 21 nightly and the improvements looks great. It was nice to be able to browse lists with the mouse scroll wheel. It was also very useful to be able to map the "quit" event to something else than ESC. I also think it's great to be able to configure video settings without using command line switches. It's not quite there yet for keyboardless use, but it looks promising. I know the build is a work in progress, still here are a few suggestions:

 

* For some reason I couldn't find an action assignment to "select" a game from the rom menu. It was mysteriously assigned to my gamepad's button 5. I deleted stella.ini manually a few times to make sure I wasn't the one assigning this. Maybe I didn't see it but I could not find it on the event mapping list.

* On the menu windows, it would be a lot easier to navigate if you could use the gamepad to move up or down with the same directional as the left joystick (or maybe get those navigational mappings as separate events on the mapping list).

* If I choose OpenGL as my video renderer, I lose the mouse cursor and cannot exit nor navigate any of the menus. I end up stuck at the main options window. I guess you are aware of all this stuff anyway.

 

I have my own front end for launching games (through command line parameters), but still Stella's built-in romlist is a nice addition. Great job man.

 

Could it be possible to assign the paddle and driving controller actions to something other than a mouse? For example, be able to use a gamepad's x-axis (or directional buttons) to a paddle's left and right respectively.

[+stephena]

Thanks for the quick reply Stephen. Like you said I downloaded 1.4.2 and now everything works fine. Thanks!

Good to hear that we fixed that one.

It's not quite there yet for keyboardless use, but it looks promising. I know the build is a work in progress, still here are a few suggestions:

This feature has only been recently added, so it probably won't be complete for the next release. As with everything, it's a WIP.

For some reason I couldn't find an action assignment to "select" a game from the rom menu. It was mysteriously assigned to my gamepad's button 5. I deleted stella.ini manually a few times to make sure I wasn't the one assigning this. Maybe I didn't see it but I could not find it on the event mapping list.

That hasn't been activated for Win32 yet. Most of the 'joystick is mouse' code was added for the PSP port, and hasn't been extensively tested on desktop systems yet.

On the menu windows, it would be a lot easier to navigate if you could use the gamepad to move up or down with the same directional as the left joystick (or maybe get those navigational mappings as separate events on the mapping list).

Do you mean on those menus with only buttons, to select the buttons instead of moving the cursor? Or in other words, the directions act as 'tabbing' in a GUI program?? I've been thinking about adding something like this.

If I choose OpenGL as my video renderer, I lose the mouse cursor and cannot exit nor navigate any of the menus. I end up stuck at the main options window. I guess you are aware of all this stuff anyway.

OpenGL support support in Win32 is still a WIP, although I haven't encountered that problem. I'll look into it.

I have my own front end for launching games (through command line parameters), but still Stella's built-in romlist is a nice addition. Great job man.

The main reason this was added was for handheld ports, as well as not having to maintain separate frontends for Linux, OSX, Win32, etc. But I tried to make it easy to still use a frontend if you want to.

Could it be possible to assign the paddle and driving controller actions to something other than a mouse? For example, be able to use a gamepad's x-axis (or directional buttons) to a paddle's left and right respectively.

Not for the next release, but we'll start work on it after that. This ties into the PSP port, where they use the analog stick for mouse/paddle emulation.

 

Steve