U-HID support is here for GameEx!

[headkaze]

I've been in talks with Andy of Ultimarc about adding support for his fantastic new U-HID device in GameEx which is a total input solution for arcade cabinets as well as having built in support for software controlled LED's. After playing with this thing I am amazed at how easy it is to program using the supplied software.

It supports PC controlled LED output for 16 LED's (like the PacDrive) as well as many other input devices including analog/digital, keyboard or joysticks (spinners/trackballs/joysticks/buttons etc) which are all configured through software and function as a normal keyboard or joystick in Windows through which the drivers are installed when the device is plugged in. Even after using 16 outputs for LED's you still have 40 outputs left over for other devices (56 outputs in total). There is also a cheaper version, the U-HID Nano, which provides 8 outputs.

The LED function in GameEx will allow you to light your buttons based on controls as well as play LED animations in attract mode. Animations are in a format called LWAX which can be created using Arzoo's LEDBlinky Animation Editor.

The U-HID can function just like a PacDrive which is already supported by GameEx. Again like the PacDrive, GameEx will be the first front-end to support this new hardware device.

If your building a cab take a look at the U-HID for an input solution that can cover many different input devices all through the one device. Which will mean much cleaner wiring, space saving and simpler configuration all through the one software program. And very soon, LED support in GameEx!

http://www.u-hid.com/

If all your looking for is LED support, then the PacDrive may be enough for your needs and is already supported in GameEx.

[bkenobi]

Wow, that's pretty damn cool! Only problem I see is that I would run through connectors SO fast!

50 I/O ports sounds like a lot, but if you have a 2 player CP with a 7 button layout, you will be using a joysticks (4), 7 player buttons, 1 coin button, 1 start button, 1 pause, 1 start. That's 2*(4+7+1+1)+1+1 = 28 buttons. I also have rotary joysticks, so minimally, I would need 4 more (if I had a rotary controller board) for a total of 32. That leaves 50-32 = 18 I/O ports for either a trackball, spinner, lighting, etc. For that setup, I guess you could make it by. If you have 3+ players, forget about it and buy a second board! On the other hand, this is probably cheaper and easier than buying both a IPac2 and an APac and a PacDrive (or similiar), plus it's a LOT easier from the looks of it!

[headkaze]

Also note if you use U360 joysticks they have support for 8 buttons each and don't require anything else to run them. So if the joystick covers it's own input as well as the buttons you can use a U-HID to cover all the other inputs.

[bkenobi]

Wow, that's a good point! If you use 2 U360's, then you already have 16 buttons, so you would then have 34 I/O's available! You could pretty easily make a frankenpanel with 2 U360's and one of these then (including spinner, trackball, 4-way joysticks (using same controls as P1 likely), lighted EVERYTHING, etc).

[shaunopp]

Dang I could've used this about 6months ago when I went the minipac+pacdrive route!

So the main advantages are:

A.) Way less wiring if you want IO control + lighted buttons.

B.) Cost

[bkenobi]

So you are suggesting it's cheaper and easier? Hmmm, I guess that's an advantage

I was curious if this controller would allow for dynamic remapping of controls? Meaning, if I have a 7 button NeoGeo/SF layout and want to have it remap keys from:

-567

-234

1

to:

-123

-456

7

if a 6 button game is launched.

So, for all games but SF, MK, etc, it would play with the lower 4 in a standard NeoGeo layout. If I loaded one of the others, it would remap at the controller level the buttons so that they were physically changed to the alternate layout. This would mean no remapping MAME keys as a for instance.

[Tempest]

So you are suggesting it's cheaper and easier? Hmmm, I guess that's an advantage

I was curious if this controller would allow for dynamic remapping of controls? Meaning, if I have a 7 button NeoGeo/SF layout and want to have it remap keys from:

-567

-234

1

to:

-123

-456

7

if a 6 button game is launched.

So, for all games but SF, MK, etc, it would play with the lower 4 in a standard NeoGeo layout. If I loaded one of the others, it would remap at the controller level the buttons so that they were physically changed to the alternate layout. This would mean no remapping MAME keys as a for instance.

I know you know this...The reason I know, is because you wrote the program!

This sounds like another application for your Mame Loader program!

(I can't help it, everytime somebody wants to do two different things in Mame, I think of your program)

Do I still get credit for providing a solution?

[bkenobi]

That's one way to make it work, but another would be to just use the launch before or launch also for MAME. The core requirement for that would be that the controller software that accepts on the fly remapping. If it requires a reboot, then it wouldn't work. Hence the question...can it be remapped on the fly (hopefully by a command line)?

[headkaze]

From the website

Configuration can be changed on-the-fly using a command-line. The board can assume a completely different layout instantly.

So yes this will be quite possible and support has now been added to GameEx, so this is now an option

[bkenobi]

Well, I won't be changing my setup for this as I just rebuilt my CP with the GP-WizRX. Man, if they had rotary built into that thing too...