Joypad plugin for Linux available!

**ammoQ** · April 21st, 2002

This new version of my joy device plugin for Linux comes with a configuration dialogue; it has been tested with ePSXe 1.5.1 on SuSE 7.3. Please tell me if it works or not on your PCs and what should be improved. Binary and source available at http://download.ammoq.com

**ammoQ** · April 21st, 2002

Tested it with pcsx... generally works, but buttons are totaly confused, i.e. up-down-left-right and triangle-cross-square-circle are swapped. Looks like epsxe has a different understanding of Joypad Plugins than PCSX. Well, this one works with ePSXe. If someone wants it for PCSX, contact me and I will make a different version which works well with PCSX.

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

**ammoQ** · April 21st, 2002

created a new version with PCSX support.

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 21st, 2002

Great work, I will post it over at PSX Fanatics and our Linux Site

turbofan · April 22nd, 2002

Nice Work.
I can finally play MGS on my pc with a gamepad.

Anyway, here is some information that you requested:

- which Linux version, which joydevice are you using?

Using Mandrake 8.2 as well as Redhat7.2. Both distros appear to work just fine.

- is the assignment of axes to up-down-left-right working properly?

Yes, perfectly... however this was not the case for lamer0's pad plugin.

- which button-layout did you choose?

I assigned each button in the config dialog box.

- what was the device file name?

/dev/input/js0
I have used two different pads with the plugin so far, 1)Gravis Gamepad Pro 2)MS Sidewinder. Both of these pads use the gameport. I have a usb pad also which I can eventually test.

Have not yet tested the plugin with pcsx. Will get back to you on that one.

wtsexton · April 22nd, 2002

Now only if I could figure out why using gamecon(part of the kernel that allows you to use playstation, n64, etc controls like ntpad or directpad pro does) causes my system to slow. Parport is loaded with DMA support, which makes me believe its something else. Anyone have this problem?

**ammoQ** · April 22nd, 2002

turbofan: there is a difference in the way PCSX and ePSXe interpret joypad data, that's why i made a PCSX toggle button to change it. Lamer0's pluggin uses the PCSX layout, so it won't work well with ePSXe.

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

**ammoQ** · April 22nd, 2002

Version 0.4 (now available) also supports keyboard input, but this doesn't work with ePSXe (no need, since ePSXe handles keyboard input itself). Now, also the joysticks axes can be configurated.

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

**lu_zero** · April 23rd, 2002

please report ePSXe or PCSX developers the misbehaviour

About gamecon: I experienced too that slowdown I just looked at the camecon source w/out having hints about, I'll try with the parport source now
(I do hate that the latest kernel supporting gamecon well is th 2.4.2 )

__________________
lu_zero
FPSE Former Team Member
P.E.Op.S member
GPSE Project starter

**ammoQ** · April 23rd, 2002

reported it to _demo_ and linuzappZ; keyboard not working in ePSXe is (in my eyes) not a fault but by design (if ePSXe reads the keyboard events, the plugin doesn't get them)

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

**ammoQ** · April 28th, 2002

there is a new version available, which allows to read joy device input in a seperate thread, to avoid blocking (some people have this problem, hope this helps)

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

**Kellicros** · April 28th, 2002

great, I'll give u some red stars!

** EDIT: no red stars? that's strang... :confused:

__________________
Kellicros' DeviantArt

Last edited by Evil Squall; April 28th, 2002 at 13:32..

**Shadow Lady** · April 28th, 2002

maybe u r not alloed to do that ;P<span style="height: 11; Filter: Glow(Color=black)>

__________________

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**ammoQ** · April 29th, 2002

he has 10 of them, he could give me one or two... :-)

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

krz · April 29th, 2002

The reason the gamecon driver, under Linux, slows everything down is this:

When the controller is in analog mode, it has about 64 bits (or so) of data to send/receive. The parallel port talks to the controller in bits, so that is 64+ transfers it has to do. Each transfer has a delay of about 120 microseconds (60 with clock high, 60 with clock low). 64 * 120 = 7680us = 7.6ms. That is about 130th of second, or about half of a 60Hz frame. *ouch*

If look at the function gc_psx_read_packact (in $/linux/drivers/char/joystick/gamecon.c) You will see the following:

interrupts off (kernel is "paused")
talk to controller
interrupts on

I didn't notice too much of a slow down when using my controller in digital mode (less data to transfer), but in analog mode I really noticed it.

--
Keith

**ammoQ** · April 29th, 2002

thanks a lot krz, how can I switch the controller to digial mode?

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

**Bobbi** · April 29th, 2002

Red stars ? Here you go

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Specs: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ • 2048 MB PC400 RAM • Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT PCI-E • WinXP Pro

**ammoQ** · April 29th, 2002

wow!!!!

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

krz · April 29th, 2002

What I meant when I said "controller in digital mode" was that the red LED on my dualshock controller was off. When the analog sticks are not "on" the controller has less data to transfer, therefore the kernel is paused for a shorter time.

One other thing to note about the gamecon driver (at least in linux 2.4.18) is that the L3/R3 button (pressing the analog sticks down) did not work. I submitted a patch (the problem was a small typo) to the author and hopefully there will be a new gamecon driver in 2.4.19.

The only way to speed this up would be to lower the delay time the gamecon driver uses for clocking the controller. Perhaps the scanning delay could be made into a module parameter, maybe I'll try it out tonight and see how it goes.

--
Keith

**ammoQ** · April 29th, 2002

Thanks, krz, one more question since you know this stuff very well: An ePSXe user who has speed probs with gamecon and padJoy told me he has absolutely no speed problems with other games, so what could that other games do to avoid this? Any ideas?

__________________
If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 21st, 2002	#1 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	Joypad plugin for Linux available! This new version of my joy device plugin for Linux comes with a configuration dialogue; it has been tested with ePSXe 1.5.1 on SuSE 7.3. Please tell me if it works or not on your PCs and what should be improved. Binary and source available at http://download.ammoq.com

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April 21st, 2002	#2 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	Tested it with pcsx... generally works, but buttons are totaly confused, i.e. up-down-left-right and triangle-cross-square-circle are swapped. Looks like epsxe has a different understanding of Joypad Plugins than PCSX. Well, this one works with ePSXe. If someone wants it for PCSX, contact me and I will make a different version which works well with PCSX. __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 21st, 2002	#3 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	created a new version with PCSX support. __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 21st, 2002	#4 (permalink)
Keith Guest Posts: n/a	Great work, I will post it over at PSX Fanatics and our Linux Site

April 22nd, 2002	#5 (permalink)
turbofan Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 23	Nice Work. I can finally play MGS on my pc with a gamepad. Anyway, here is some information that you requested: - which Linux version, which joydevice are you using? Using Mandrake 8.2 as well as Redhat7.2. Both distros appear to work just fine. - is the assignment of axes to up-down-left-right working properly? Yes, perfectly... however this was not the case for lamer0's pad plugin. - which button-layout did you choose? I assigned each button in the config dialog box. - what was the device file name? /dev/input/js0 I have used two different pads with the plugin so far, 1)Gravis Gamepad Pro 2)MS Sidewinder. Both of these pads use the gameport. I have a usb pad also which I can eventually test. Have not yet tested the plugin with pcsx. Will get back to you on that one.

April 22nd, 2002	#6 (permalink)
wtsexton Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 3	Now only if I could figure out why using gamecon(part of the kernel that allows you to use playstation, n64, etc controls like ntpad or directpad pro does) causes my system to slow. Parport is loaded with DMA support, which makes me believe its something else. Anyone have this problem?

April 22nd, 2002	#7 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	turbofan: there is a difference in the way PCSX and ePSXe interpret joypad data, that's why i made a PCSX toggle button to change it. Lamer0's pluggin uses the PCSX layout, so it won't work well with ePSXe. __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 22nd, 2002	#8 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	Version 0.4 (now available) also supports keyboard input, but this doesn't work with ePSXe (no need, since ePSXe handles keyboard input itself). Now, also the joysticks axes can be configurated. __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 23rd, 2002	#9 (permalink)
lu_zero Moderator Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Earth,Europe,Italy,Turin Posts: 292	please report ePSXe or PCSX developers the misbehaviour About gamecon: I experienced too that slowdown I just looked at the camecon source w/out having hints about, I'll try with the parport source now (I do hate that the latest kernel supporting gamecon well is th 2.4.2 ) __________________ lu_zero FPSE Former Team Member P.E.Op.S member GPSE Project starter

April 23rd, 2002	#10 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	reported it to _demo_ and linuzappZ; keyboard not working in ePSXe is (in my eyes) not a fault but by design (if ePSXe reads the keyboard events, the plugin doesn't get them) __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 28th, 2002	#11 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	there is a new version available, which allows to read joy device input in a seperate thread, to avoid blocking (some people have this problem, hope this helps) __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 28th, 2002	#12 (permalink)
Kellicros Administrator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Posts: 7,719	great, I'll give u some red stars! EDIT: no red stars? that's strang... :confused: __________________ Kellicros' DeviantArt** Last edited by Evil Squall; April 28th, 2002 at 13:32..

April 28th, 2002	#13 (permalink)
Shadow Lady Advanced Newbie Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Bogotá... not that it matters... Posts: 5,792	maybe u r not alloed to do that ;P<span style="height: 11; Filter: Glow(Color=black)> __________________ Main Rig: Pentium Dual-Core E2160 @ 2.8GHz -- 9600GT @ 715/1033MHz -- 4GB DDR2-667 4-4-4-12 -- Windows Server 2008 SP2 Collecting dust: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ -- ATI Radeon 9500 Pro -- SB Live 5.1 Digital -- 2.5GB DDR 2-2-2-5 Ram -- Windows 2003 server r2 SP1

April 29th, 2002	#14 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	he has 10 of them, he could give me one or two... :-) __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 29th, 2002	#15 (permalink)
krz Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 10	The reason the gamecon driver, under Linux, slows everything down is this: When the controller is in analog mode, it has about 64 bits (or so) of data to send/receive. The parallel port talks to the controller in bits, so that is 64+ transfers it has to do. Each transfer has a delay of about 120 microseconds (60 with clock high, 60 with clock low). 64 * 120 = 7680us = 7.6ms. That is about 130th of second, or about half of a 60Hz frame. ouch If look at the function gc_psx_read_packact (in $/linux/drivers/char/joystick/gamecon.c) You will see the following: interrupts off (kernel is "paused") talk to controller interrupts on I didn't notice too much of a slow down when using my controller in digital mode (less data to transfer), but in analog mode I really noticed it. -- Keith

April 29th, 2002	#16 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	thanks a lot krz, how can I switch the controller to digial mode? __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 29th, 2002	#17 (permalink)
Bobbi Totally crazy Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 2,381	Red stars ? Here you go __________________ Specs: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ • 2048 MB PC400 RAM • Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT PCI-E • WinXP Pro

April 29th, 2002	#18 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	wow!!!! __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.

April 29th, 2002	#19 (permalink)
krz Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 10	What I meant when I said "controller in digital mode" was that the red LED on my dualshock controller was off. When the analog sticks are not "on" the controller has less data to transfer, therefore the kernel is paused for a shorter time. One other thing to note about the gamecon driver (at least in linux 2.4.18) is that the L3/R3 button (pressing the analog sticks down) did not work. I submitted a patch (the problem was a small typo) to the author and hopefully there will be a new gamecon driver in 2.4.19. The only way to speed this up would be to lower the delay time the gamecon driver uses for clocking the controller. Perhaps the scanning delay could be made into a module parameter, maybe I'll try it out tonight and see how it goes. -- Keith

April 29th, 2002	#20 (permalink)
ammoQ Emu author Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Vienna/Austria/Europe Posts: 1,168	Thanks, krz, one more question since you know this stuff very well: An ePSXe user who has speed probs with gamecon and padJoy told me he has absolutely no speed problems with other games, so what could that other games do to avoid this? Any ideas? __________________ If you think my English is bad, wait till you read my Polish.