Posted by Antos on January 02, 2002 at 19:57:24:
In Reply to: Happs Trackball Skipping HELP!! posted by Jay on January 02, 2002 at 17:39:19:
First, please explain what you mean by "skipping".
Do you mean that it virtually stops moving, or acts erratic (as if you were moving an optical or low refresh/resolution mouse too fast on the desktop?) Or do you mean that your "pointer" seems to skip pixels and jitter?
This sounds like you are trying to use PC mouse hardware on an emulator, which causes problems due to the much higher sampling rates. (this is VERY similar to the 'steadykey' being needed for pressing multiple buttons at once in many games)
If it's going haywire in windows when you move it fast (ONLY WHEN USING IT IN WINDOWS, not in an emulator!), this is usually always the result of overdriving the tracking hardware on the mouse. For instance, I had this problem with my old inttellmouse explorer, but the new 3.0 lets me jerk it as fast as I want. If this happens in MAME (lets say, that you move it considerably LESS fast than you do in windows), if it's virtually stopping when you are moving it too fast, this has to do with the sampling used by MAME and how much data the optics are sending.
Have you ever noticed what happens if you use a mouse in games like centipede , for instance, if you move it too fast (which is not too fast at all on the desktop?). It seems to almost stop.
This is not a problem with MAME. Rather, it is simply a problem with PC mice being FAR FAR more sensitive than trackball hardware.
A *TRUE* arcade trackball (with ps2/usb interface) should be VERY VERY insensitive in windows.....meaning you would have to turn the acceleration WAY WAY up to be able to use it without going insane.
If your trackball is 'perfect' in windows already, then this means that it's using standard PC internal sensors, which is much more sensitive than what arcade machines use. Too much data going to the arcade machine causes the problem you have mentioned (which is why regular Mice can't be moved fast in Centipede, for instance).
There are a few ways around this, unless you are using mame32/win
The first is to mess around with the sensitivity settings in MAME, however I don't know if you can get authentic behaviour in this.
The 2nd way is to lower the windows sensitivity settings, but this might not affect ArcadeOS, if that's a DOS program.
The third way is to use actual arcade parts instead of PC parts, as you won't have the sensitivity problems there :)