mupen64, n64 controller connection


Helio

Still Fresh
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May 31, 2013
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15
Hi guys,

I have had my pandora for about 3 months now. It was a good investment it seems so far, although i'm getting confronted with a few draw backs. Such as the one problem i'm having now. I try to connect a n64 controller through an adapter for pc connection to my pandora. Though the pandora recognizes usb sticks if i enable the usb-host, it doesn't recognize the controller it seems. At least I'm not getting an icon or anything similar in the desktop menu and i can't find it anywhere else. Now my question is, does it work at all? Maybe this specific connection doesn't work? On my pc at least i had no problems to use it to play n64 games.

Maybe you guys can help me out. The adapter is a "Controller converter adapter for n64 to pc usb" from mayflash. I bought it on amazon. As mentioned for my pc it worked just fine. Not for my pandora though.

Thanks for your help in advance.
 
Unfortunately the Pandora's USB host is a "High speed" type only. Most desktops have a chip built in that will also accept "full speed" devices like USB controllers, keyboards, and mice. There wasn't anywhere on the board for them to put this chip, so it was left out. You're going to need a "USB2.0" hub. It doensn't have to be fancy, something cheap should do the trick.

That being said, it won't necessarily work for everything. Some games and emulators will let you change the config to support external controllers, some are hard coded to look for the Pandora's controls only. I believe Mupen can be configured to use external controllers, so you're in luck there. Just find a USB hub and you're set.

You'll also have to reboot the Pandora: plugging in a full speed device causes the USB host to crash and the only known way to recover it is with a full reboot.

Does that make sense?
 
wow thank you for the fast reply. I'll definitely try that out tomorrow. Seems logical to me. I'm not quite sure what you mean by doing a full reboot. You think i would have to plug controllers through the hub, then turn the pandora off (usb still plugged in), turn it on again and it should work?
 
They shouldn't have to be plugged in, simply turning it off and on again (Bring up the main menu, choose shutdown or restart) should be enough, then you can plug in the hub and the controller.

edit: to be clear, you only have to do that because you plugged in an incompatible device first. Normally everything is fine. Plugging in a "full speed" device, like a keyboard, mouse, or controller, causes the USB host to stop working completely until the next reboot.
 
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then theres some configs you gotta mess with in mupen to get controller working, but when you do, from my experience, mupen runs better, and the controls are on point
 
The hub was recognized but now i can't get the controller to work. It seems like the config. is not being saved.

I'll just tell you what I did. I probably just do something wrong.

I open Mupen64plus Conig -> options -> configure -> plugins. From there I changed the input plugin from "PPSP input 2" to "blight's SDL input plugin 0.0.10" (because it was the only one I could use configure and would see a n64 controller button distribution). From there I pressed config. I chose as device "Huijia USB GamePad" (that was the logical choice as it appeared when plugging in the controller through the hub). And Here is my problem. I close the window (is there no way to save? the window seems larger because it is cut off at the bottom but can't be scrolled down, there could be a save option???), close the mupen64plus config and launch the game but it doesn't work. Even if i start it through the config the controller doesn't work. The changes don't get saved. If i reopen the configs everything is back to initial settings.

Thanks for the help
 
the save button could be hanging off the screen. You can grab the window (any window) by Holding the L shoulder button before you click anywhere on the window. Drag the window upwards after doing your config and the save button shouls become avialable.
 
Okay! now I am one step further. changes could be safed. The controller buttons work as well except the joystick does not seem to work properly. I can only save one direction at the time. Which means I can only use the joystick for "up" commands or "left" commands but none combined. Any suggestions? :)
 
okay problem solved. thank you guys! the only problem remaining is actually the sensitivity. @DaMummy how did you get the sensitivity to work properly?
 
okay problem solved. thank you guys! the only problem remaining is actually the sensitivity. @DaMummy how did you get the sensitivity to work properly?
i didnt really do anything, it was mostly  plug and play for me, as long as i had the right controller plugin selected in mupen. i use an Adaptoid n64-usb adapter for what it worth
 
:( still having the same problem. I have super mario 64 playing smoothly on my pandora, I just can't make my character "run" (only walking). the sensitivity is somewhat bad. a friend of mine now told me that he has the same problem on the normal pc running super mario via emulator. is that just emulator thing or can that be fixed somehow?
 
no. I haven't gotten back to it as I couldn't find any solution. But I'll make sure I have to newest mupen version and give it another try. thanks :)
 
Hello everyone! after a long time of not (trying) to play any n64 games I gave it today another try on mupen64 2.1. Now I can't find the input config for the controller anymore. in the old version you could check the input by pressing config and a screen with the controller would pop up where you had to manually set the inputs one by one. has that changed somehow? because I can't find it in the new mupen64plus2 config window..
 
Hello everyone! after a long time of not (trying) to play any n64 games I gave it today another try on mupen64 2.1. Now I can't find the input config for the controller anymore. in the old version you could check the input by pressing config and a screen with the controller would pop up where you had to manually set the inputs one by one. has that changed somehow? because I can't find it in the new mupen64plus2 config window..
Yeah not sure why but that input plugin was left out of the new build, it's a bit of a bummer since it was a good plugin although it had bugs were it couldn't assign some of the analog axis properly with the 3.2 Kernel, but worked fine on 2.6... With that said the fixes ptitseb done with the video plugins and general performance and compatibility outweigh the lack of this plugin.. However I use the old Adaptoid USB to N64 controller adapter so it has built on support without any work at all.. so I may not be the best person to say anything about it.
 
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Unfortunatly, the old GTK window has not been ported to mupen 2, and so is a few plugin (like the old Input plugin).

The new (and only) Input Plugin is Based on SDL, so it should work with your joystick, but it will probably not work automaticaly.

Take a look at /tmp/pndrun_mupen64plus2.out, there should be the name of your joystick.

Tan, use the Config App and choose SDL Input and Config to open the textfile configuration for SDL Input.

There you will probably have to create a new config section, by adding a [YOUR JOYSTICK NAME] and all the rest. There are a few example, so it's doable (but it's certainly much less conveniant than the old method).

Don't hesitate to get back here and ask questions if needed.
 
@ptitSeb, I was just in the middle of a lengthy tutorial and you got to it first. Also your explanation was much better than mine. ;)   I'll add some info that made my life a lot easier. 

I have a Mayflash adaptor that has been working great for my Gamecube controllers, so here are a few things that may also be helpful:

1. The Mupen config app now shows up as a standalone program in Minimenu or in the Pandora menu. Run that program to easily access all the plugins.

2. Try using Qjoypad to make sure all your button presses are being recognized. Writing a config file can be frustrating, but I found a neat trick that helped with my Mayflash adapter. When running Qjoypad, your button presses will show as "Button 1", "Button 2"... etc.  When writing your config for your controller, follow the format given by the other configs in the file as ptitSeb mentioned, but try using Qjoypad to guide what values you use for "Button 1", "Button 2" and so on.

For me, I found that Qjoypad actually shows values = (values recognized by Mupen) + 1.  So now when writing a config file, I press the button I want to map to A, and Qjoypad shows it as "Button 3." The button I want for B shows in Qjoypad as "Button 6". I then write in my config:

A button = button(2)

B button = button(5)

I take all values from Qjoypad and subtract 1 before adding them to Mupen.

I will confirm this process and my formatting when I get home, but I believe this to be a good start.  What is really wonderful about Mupen64 2.1 is that after I got my config files written correctly, it now detects all my controllers if they are plugged in and maps them accordingly.  If my OUYA controller is synced over bluetooth, the game maps correctly there. If my mayflash is plugged in, my controllers are automatically mapped there. Multiplayer works great as well, and I don't ever need to open the config anymore and choose a specific profile if I want to use a different controller. After the config is correctly set, everything is taken care of seamlessly behind the scenes.

[EDIT] Oh, I have also found that many of my controllers are already in the config file, but are just mapped incorrectly. In this case I just modify the existing parameters until it works the way I want. I think the first appearance of your controller title in the config will be the one that is used, so if [asiaplastictek controller] is how mupen recognizes your controller, then pasting a new [asiaplastictek controller] section at the bottom of the config will do nothing if another [asiaplastictek controller] section already appears earlier in the config file. The first [asiaplastictek controller] section is the one that will be used.
 
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Nice tips @edgex004. The Qjoypad trick sure help !!!

By the way, if you have improved ini file, don't hesitate to send them to me (or put them here or in the Mupen thread) so I can integrate it in a future release :) .
 
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Will do! I haven't yet confirmed whether my hack for the OUYA controller is proper enough for release or if I just got lucky while messing with the config.
 
thank you guys for the replies. sadly i haven't gotten it to work.. seems pretty complicated all that stuff. for the folder  /tmp/pndrun_mupen64plus2.out, I couldnt find that one. Seems like I have not much in the /tmp folder at all. About the config writing; I have not downloaded Qjoypad yet. Where would I have to place it? Just somewhere on the desktop will do the trick? And afterwards write the new config text into the existing one (overwriting or just but at the bottom..). And the text is just a copy of a controller plugin-text in the sdl doc with changed button inputs taken from Qjoypad? pretty difficult.. I am actually not even sure if my controller is being recognized by the pandora system itself..at least my usb2 hub is working fine..so the controller should work as well..
 
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