Ultimarc Ultrastik 360s

[Wombat]

Not really a GameEx question... insetad a targetted question at Ultimarc Ultrastik 360 owners (Headkaze?)

Love the joysticks for the most part... using Headkaze's U360 plugin which the logging says is switching maps as I desire. However in Frogger I suffer far too many deaths (on the very first level!!!!) from joystick "bounce back.... i.e. you move to the left and when you let the joystick go (that's how I remember playing it in the arcades... you jumped in 'steps") the snapback to the centre position seems to overcompensate and a "right" direction is sent and poor old Froggy gets flattened by the very car that was chasing him.

Seems to happen more left/right than right/left and more up/down than down/up.

I've done the obvious things like calibrating the joysticks in Windows and I've also gone to the point of creating a custom map (based on the 4-way) to make all but the outer rim of direction arrows on the 9x9 grid "central" and have adjusted the UltrastikPlugin.ini to use this. I believe I also have the "no restrictor fitted" setting on the sticks checked so no scaling issues should arise.

I've even tried adjusting the Mame "dead zone" parameter although I believe this'll only come into play in analog games (certainly doesn't seem to have any effect for me in the game and I can't find documentation to say what the applicable range of values are anyway).

Now I should say that I ordered the U360s as they were.... I didn't avail myself of any restrictor options (which I don't think would help me in this case since I don't need/desire to physically restrict the throw or directions of the joystick) or the spring options (I assume it came fitted with the softest version therefore).

Could U360 owners tell me of their experiences with Frogger and what hardware/software settings they have. Would a stiffer spring help damp this "bouncing" effect? Any other possible ideas?

I have a suspicion therefore that Q-Bert (I'll try it tonight) would also suffer from this "bouncing" effect albeit on the rotated angles.

[Tempest]

Not really a GameEx question... insetad a targetted question at Ultimarc Ultrastik 360 owners (Headkaze?)

Love the joysticks for the most part... using Headkaze's U360 plugin which the logging says is switching maps as I desire. However in Frogger I suffer far too many deaths (on the very first level!!!!) from joystick "bounce back.... i.e. you move to the left and when you let the joystick go (that's how I remember playing it in the arcades... you jumped in 'steps") the snapback to the centre position seems to overcompensate and a "right" direction is sent and poor old Froggy gets flattened by the very car that was chasing him.

Seems to happen more left/right than right/left and more up/down than down/up.

I've done the obvious things like calibrating the joysticks in Windows and I've also gone to the point of creating a custom map (based on the 4-way) to make all but the outer rim of direction arrows on the 9x9 grid "central" and have adjusted the UltrastikPlugin.ini to use this. I believe I also have the "no restrictor fitted" setting on the sticks checked so no scaling issues should arise.

I've even tried adjusting the Mame "dead zone" parameter although I believe this'll only come into play in analog games (certainly doesn't seem to have any effect for me in the game and I can't find documentation to say what the applicable range of values are anyway).

Now I should say that I ordered the U360s as they were.... I didn't avail myself of any restrictor options (which I don't think would help me in this case since I don't need/desire to physically restrict the throw or directions of the joystick) or the spring options (I assume it came fitted with the softest version therefore).

Could U360 owners tell me of their experiences with Frogger and what hardware/software settings they have. Would a stiffer spring help damp this "bouncing" effect? Any other possible ideas?

I have a suspicion therefore that Q-Bert (I'll try it tonight) would also suffer from this "bouncing" effect albeit on the rotated angles.

I had this problem...

I change my maps to be make the center "sticky" one block bigger...

so instead of:

UUU

UUU

UUU

LLL+++RRR

LLL+++RRR

LLL+++RRR

DDD

DDD

DDD

I have:

UUU

UUU

+++

LL+++++RR

LL+++++RR

LL+++++RR

+++

DDD

DDD

I have the stiffer spring, I have often thought I should try it...

Edit: I had spaces preceding the other characters for alignment, but they don't show in my post!

[Wombat]

Did some more Frogger experimentation with the U360s tonight... had some weird anomaly whereby cells tagged as centre sometimes made the joystick into a mouse (did I model it on the mouse map? Who knows?...)

Anyhoo, what I've done is

1. Created a 4-Way, Centre Plus One.um file (modelled initially on the 4-Way map and adjusted as specified by Tempest... I had initially went further than that but it was a little ridiculuous)
   
2. Copied the 4-Way, Centre Plus One.um file from the UltraMap/Maps directory to the GameEx/Plugins/UltrastikMaps directory (rookie mistake on my part I know but HeadKaze's plugin doesn't seem to indicate in the log if it can't find a map file)
   
3. Edited GameEx/Plugins/PlugInUltraStik.ini to specify a line that says frogger= 4-Way, Centre Plus One.um (as per the comments must have the .um suffix)
   

I've now fired up Frogger under GameEx using HeadKaze's plugin and it seems to play far better... there's still a little bit of left->right bias if I hold the joystick left for a second and let go, but if I keep to stacatto movements it seems sound. Rather than edit the map for the left-right bias that still remains I do remember seeing another thread in another board about giving the shaft a half-twist... if I look at the magnet on the end of the shaft it does seem a little angled that way.

I also remember reading another thread about changing the "scaling" of the sticks although I cannot see how in the UltraMap software (I'm running 1.0.19)

I'd still be keen to hear people's thoughts about joystick performance if they have the hard spring attached.

...I'm off to escort some frogs...

[headkaze]

I've heard the medium spring with a round restrictor works best. But I haven't got any of those parts to try them out.

Also check your mame.ini for the following

joystick_map			  auto
joystick_deadzone		 0.3
joystick_saturation	   0.85

Another thing I don't think you are meant to calibrate these joysticks, but you can always use this Clear Calibration Utility to reset them back.

[Wombat]

Also check your mame.ini for the following

joystick_map			  auto
joystick_deadzone		 0.3
joystick_saturation	   0.85

Another thing I don't think you are meant to calibrate these joysticks, but you can always use this Clear Calibration Utility to reset them back.

Off the top of my head the deadzone and saturation values are those (I've tried adjusting them enough to remember what the defaults are)... the joystick_map isn't familiar... I'll have to check that setting tonight.

Hmmmm...interesting on the "Clear Calibration Utility".... where did you stumble across info for that? I have downloaded and will play around with that and see if it has any effect for me.

Thanks!