Guncon 2 Pc Drivers
I have started a new Guncon2 driver, to aid those of us who were unable to use Smog's Guncon2Mouse. As time went on, it evolved in to more than just a hack, and can now work with any guncon2 compatible lightgun (those working with Smog's and those not due to the 'Rolling X' problem). You can visit the WinGun site. Features: # Support for all Guncon2 compatible lightguns # Functions just like a mouse and keyboard, only this program is required to run # Works with your television, no special modifications required! # Works with arcade monitors with little or no modification # Lets you use a gun with the Rolling X problem normally # Support for autocalibration, and gun type detection # Allows you to tweak settings on the fly to get the gun calibrated just right # Detects when the lightgun is not pointed at the television and releases control of the mouse.
Some of you would know tell me how to set the GunCon 3 for PS3 on PC? You could 'easily' create drivers. The problem would just program them!
# Allows you to remap the buttons on the lightgun to different mouse or keyboard buttons # Two offscreen firing modes, either map offscreen firing to a button or use MAME mode Please post your comments and experiences with the program here or in the forums on its site. My project differs from Smog's in a few ways. First, Smog is a more learned programmer - and has made a 'better' driver.
Not in usability yet, but that will come. You should try his before you try mine, unless you need a feature mine supports. Mainly, my program supports guns which are having the 'Rolling X' problem to some extent - a problem where the guns would return bad coords, rendering them unusable with smogs driver. My program implements an AI that can guess where the pointer should be, allowing you to use them while we work out how to actually fix the problem. That is its main purpose.
My program also differs from smogs in that it supports mapping gun buttons to keyboard keys, although again, his will have this at some point I'm sure. WinGun also allows you to shoot offscreen in mame without making mame use a button for it. WinGun, as of yet, has no support for multiple guns. This will come, but if you need it now smogs driver already has some support for them. Smog's driver also has a 'sensitivity' option - I can't get it to work in his driver, and have no clue what it does, but mine does not and probably will not have it.
If you have any more questions, let me know! Acorn, Apologies to start with for asking what is possibly a very stupid question but I have no idea how these things work (but here goes anyway!): I have a normal SCART TV and an ATI card. Using a home-made cable I go from VGA to SCART and use some software called Power Strip to set resolutions.
Will this driver work with this setup? Hope thats enough info! Buks EDIT: Just checked this site - and it has details on creating a cable for an arcade monitor - do you think that seeing as you use VGA-out (rather than TV-OUT) with an arcade monitor that I need the same thing?
Just for extra info - the VGA SCART cable HOWTO is here - (just in case people don't know what I'm talking about!). Thanks again, Buks. Sure when I get some free time I will drop you an email (hopefully this weekend I will be free).
One other thing I noticed is when calibrating at the part where you shoot at the targets with the gun 1 inch from the screen one of my guns you shoot the first target and sometimes get to shoot the second target, then it just kicks you out like you clicked cancel. Only my Gunman light gun does that. My official Namco Guncon II does not it can shoot every target without trouble and finish the calibration properly. WinGun V0.7B has been released! Check for full details - this time, bugfixes and lots of features YOU have been requesting, including (but in no way limited to) support to turn autofire/autoreload on/off with the press of a button! I think you will enjoy the improved screen brightening as well Chris: No, calibration is not required every time. In fact, you should only have to do it once ever for each gun.
Try 'The Troubleshooter' at for multiple guns in games that don't support the second player using a mouse. Some people report slowdown in firing with it, your milage may vary.
Acorn, Apologies to start with for asking what is possibly a very stupid question but I have no idea how these things work (but here goes anyway!): I have a normal SCART TV and an ATI card. Using a home-made cable I go from VGA to SCART and use some software called Power Strip to set resolutions. Will this driver work with this setup? Hope thats enough info! Buks EDIT: Just checked this site - and it has details on creating a cable for an arcade monitor - do you think that seeing as you use VGA-out (rather than TV-OUT) with an arcade monitor that I need the same thing?
Just for extra info - the VGA SCART cable HOWTO is here - (just in case people don't know what I'm talking about!). Buks - actually you may find your setup works, as with your setup you are not using a VGA signal at all, but a 15.75Khz RGB signal. (unless its some fancy HDTV mode - then I'm not sure) So the syncs that are coming out your card are the correct frequency for the gun. Also, seeing as you are using a radeon, you will find that there is an option in the driver to output composite syncs. (Display properties-Advanced-Displays-Monitor-Adjustment (I think)). Set this to composite, then in theory your H-sync pin on the Vga card will now be outputting a 15.75Khz composite sync - which is exactly what the guncon needs on it's yellow composite RCA connector.
So you need to connect the H-sync pin to an RCA connector and thats probably it. Ah yes you are quite right. I've noticed that you have contol over the polarity of the syncs in ATI drivers (display/monitor/adjustments or something similar). You would want to set them negative. As for the voltage yes - VGA syncs are 5V (TTL level) and composite around -300mV I think. I'm successfully sending 1V syncs at the moment from my circuit and that works ok (an error on my part, as composite is 1Vpeak-peak, but the syncs are not).
However, I know the chip on the Jpac that produces composite sync does not pull down the voltage. I don't own a JPAC so the real thing may adjust it. Anyway, I tried the composite out on my radeon for the guncon - and it does not quite work - I can track in the x-axis only (so it probably is not dealing with vertical syncs too well.?).
Thanks for the feedback on that - missed it before. Interesting re guncon1's not giving y values - mine are switchable guncon1/guncon2.
I don't suppose you happen to know that if the gun can not detect a Vsync, would it work at all (I'm guessing not). RE: the catylist drivers and composite sync. Well I know they work on the card I'm using (radeon 9500) with recent catylists as I've actually had the VGA port hooked up to a waveform monitor (I was doing this to compare the output of the VGA to the circuit I was making). Turning the syncs + or - or composite in the displays drivers all worked fine. In composite sync mode it sends the composite sync out on the H-sync pin if I recall correctly.
Composite sync does not work with the circuit I made, you need the syncs seperate. I have not tested using powerstrip to output a 15Khz signal and turning on composite sync and feeding that directly to the guns. Obviously there are voltage differences (5V in VGA) but as andy warne had the circuit working with 5V Hsyncs it may well work. I'll try and get round to giving it a try sometime. Sorry this is long.
But I want to get all of the pertinent details in here. I'm REALLY close to having my GUNCON2 set-up work. Here's my set-up: I am using two Scorpion 3 guns. I have an NVIDIA FX 500 graphics card. The VGA output goes to a custom cable that allows me to tap off pins 10 (SGND), 13 (HSYNC) and 14 (VSYNC). These are then fed into the custom circuit here.to generate a composite sync signal. I have also built a circuit to provide the Scorpion 3s with +5v and +9v through a pair of hacked PS2 extension cables.
Everything hooks up nicely. I have a clean picture on the screen at either 800x600 or 640x480 resolutions. The driver recognizes both guns. I thought I was home free. But not quite.
When I try to calibrate the guns, the cursor 'wraps' across the bottom and left edges. The top and right edged seem to be 'hard'. The gun recognizes them fine. The left and bottom edges, however, are not recognized properly.
When the gun is at roughly the center of the screen, moving from far right to left, the cursor is already on the left edge. If I keep moving left, the cursor wraps to the right edge.
By the time I get to the left edge, the cursor is near the center of the screen. Similarly, when moving from top to bottom, as the gun reached about 3/4 way to the bottom of the screen, the cursor wraps off the bottom, back on to the top, and continues to about 1/4 way down by the time the gun reaches the bottom of the screen. When the gun is tracking the cursor in a usable area of the screen, it's PERFECT. No jitter, no unexpected movements / jumps. I feel like the circuits I built must be working. Or I wouldn't be as close as I am. Seems like a (probably obvious) calibration issue.
Anyone else had this problem, or know of a solution? You've entered a rather grey area on these guns that I've come across but have no time to test (and won't for a while). Basically, although you are using that circuit to make a composite sync, you are still running at 31KHz. (Unless you are outputting something fancy via powerstrip, but it doesn't sound like you are).
Most of the time I've tested this, the guns go crazy and can't track at all (I have scorpion3's too). I'm guessing - and its a large guess - that the vaguely good results you are getting is because the guns are in 100Hz mode. I'm amazed it works at all, as they are designed to recieve a 15Khz signal while looking at a 50/100Hz tv. The only success I've had with what you are doing is: 1) outputting a 15Khz signal from the pc directly, using powerstrip. You will need a monitor that can cope with this though (which a standard VGA monitor can not) 2) Builing a circuit that converts the syncs from 31Khz to 15Khz and feeding that to the gun.
I used a chip off a Jpac which can be bought seperately from Ultimarc. There is more info and a wiring diagram on both the driver projects I believe. However, it is interesting you have partial success as it is - have you tried selecting 'rolling X' mode and calibrating with that in the driver? Also - when you say no jitter - do you mean none at all? I always had more jitter than I expected, but never had anything to compare it to. I have spoken to Andy at Ultimarc. He agreed that his JPAC 'small chip' should work in my situation; also suggested (as you did) that I need to 'divide the sync in half'.
He has posted a new diagram for a circuit for the chip on his web site: I have ordered his chip, and will build a circuit for it when it arrives. That being said, I would be interested in knowing / learning why mine isn't quite working, and how I might be able to change it to make it work. I am not doing anything special with the PC output. Just setting resolution with the nvidea driver to 800x600 @ 60 Hz refresh.
I have tried setting rolling X and calibrating; it is no different. I also sent Acrons a file from his driver log; he said the behavior was not something he had seen before; not like rolling X. I posted that dump file from the gun on his site in the support forum if you want to take a look. As for the gun tracking, it is VERY smooth in 'following' the gun. By that I mean it moves at constan speeds that vary with, and are in the same relative direction that the gun is moving. No jerkiness. At least on an all white screen.
That being said, because of the wrapping, the cursor is only near where the gun is actually pointed in the upper left area of the screen. Someone (I think you) mentioned the signal not being 'terminated' by the guns. Could this be the problem; If so, how would I terminate it? As you may have guessed, I'm pretty adept at building the circuit, given a plan. Lego batman 3 beyond gotham cheats. But I really have no understanding of why / how it does what it does.
I'm willing to experiment on this; If I en up going with the JPAC route and the circuit I put together would be useful to someone else (for their own use, if they can't build it thenselves) or for research, I'll work with them. Even though you are sending a composite sync, you are sending a horizontal sync signal which is at 37Khz.
The gun was designed to work at 15.7Khz. I would expectic highly erratic behaviour - if any behaviour at all - using this. Not sure why it nearly works for you - could be something to do with you gfx card or your monitor. Termination - whenever a video signal is connected to a peice of equipment - say into a monitor - it is connected via a resistor that is almost 75Ohms (In Tv world anyway). This is called termination.
It effects the level of the voltage coming in. Incorrect termination say on a monitor can result in no picture, or a picture thats horribily bright. With my bodge test circuit I found that feeding the Hsync directly to the composite input of the gun was erratic until I plugged the passthrough of the gun into a tv and turned it on. However, I would not expect this to be an issue as it was probably related to how I had set my circuit up. I notice Andy has modifed the circuit slightly, grounding a couple of extra pins - thats interesting, as I was having issues with the pull-down level when it was blanking out alternate syncs ( I built another flip-flop circuit to clean up the output) - this might improve things.
My opinion is the driver is excellent. I've had a fair few problems setting them up (and still have) but most of the time its been down to me not reading the faq and readme. I never do read manulas though Games like Duck Hunt in MAME track very well. Probably not 100% accurate but pretty close (for my setup anyway). Other games just don't seem to work but thats usually because they have a dark background. Flashing the screen is supposed to fix this (I think) but I've spent more time on the games that work so maybe its just that I havent configured stuff correctly.
I'm using RGB-SCART to a Daewoo 17' TV. I've had problems with any resolution other than 640x480 but the graphics on GTA:SA look excellent with all the settings ramped up (not a lightgun game though so off topic. This is something to do with overscan but seeing as I play games too much I have no idea what this means or if I can fix it. Just a quick note, my domain (acornscity.com) expired.
5-7 years ago I registered with a company that was good at the time, but isn't anymore. They want $20 to renew. I've started a transfer to 1and1, but it may take a while. In the meantime, the site is still up if you care to go there -. This is hosted on a computer at my home, since the one 1and1 is hosting constantly references acornscity.com (this one is usually my test site). I think it is fully functional. I have also registered - it will be available in 2-3 days, and become the 'official' domain shortly after.
Sorry for the confusion! I was thinking of getting some of these for an upcoming project, I got to the end, and saw that it was gone, so I checked the Wayback archive and grabbed the driver, I have attached it below. I hope this helps. A question, are these the best guns for MAME, or are the ACT labs the best? I like the possibility of switching from a TV based display to a real arcade monitor, and not needing to replace both guns. Here is the last page archived: I always try the archive first, sometimes.exe and.zips get archived too, that was the case here. I just zipped the.exe, but if you are weary of.exes like I am, you can open it with 7-zip.
Here the version info from the release.txt. Quote -Version Log:- Versions are counted like this: A = Alpha B = Beta D = Development R = Release 0.0X will be the alpha releases 0.X will be the beta releases 0.XX will be development releases, and eventually X.XX X.X will be releases V0.82B Fixed a critical bug with multiple guns and the new by USB port connection code. Fixed a couple other trivial bugs, like one with the input que (was executing one 'blank' instruction every loop. Had no effect on gameplay), and insta-timeout on program start (again had very little effect, since the guns still all reconnected).
Changed Quick Calib so it will work when used from the key select menu directly under button config. Spent the day researching and trying stuff out, implemented a system that shouldn't depend on the usb interface you are connected to. If you have old INI files, you don't need to replace them, but you might want to recalibrate to take advantage of this feature. V0.81B Fixed a critical input bug that was preventing extended periods of play. Fixed the screenflash issue where the guns that wern't primary wern't flashing when both players fired at once. Also with this fixed the issue where in drag/autofire mode guns that didn't have their triggers depressed could turn off the flash.
Decided that checking for updates every time you entered the menu was too annoying. It only checks when you start the program now, or go into about.
I may change this back or to something else depending on feedback. Corrected one 'Select Key' issue where L was being mapped to I. V0.8B Added a new interface for mapping buttons to gun keys. It is a visual representation of a keyboard, useful for those of you with no keyboards connected or those having trouble with the 'Get Key' function. Includes mouse mappings.
Under macros, added the ability to switch quick calibration on and off (with a gun button press). This allows you to recalibrate using Edge Calibration at any point in time (even in game!).
Added support for 'Mouse4' and 'Mouse5'. But before you get all excited, mame doesn't seem to recognise them (though windows does). Remember any game that supports edge clicking (like Area51) will work with Click Edge for the second gun's reload now, and most other games support mapping reload to whatever you want. Added a hidden (no interface to change it) option in WinGun.ini. Allows for all guns to track. Doesn't always work.
See readme.txt under 'Editing the INIs'. Proper support for command line parameters. This is mostly an internal thing - but the side effect is you get more of them Also, you can use multiple parameters now. Also for command line support added single instance checking! If you open a second copy of wingun, the command line parameters used will be passed to the first copy and the second copy closed.
Added command line parameter -loadprofile (or -lp). You can use this to load a profile for any gun by gunnum, and profilenum or name! See readme.txt user 'Command line parameters' for usage information! Automatic version checking! WinGun will now check to see if the version you are running is the most recent, and if it isn't, display a balloon tooltip (which you can click to get information about the newer version). This feature can be disabled under the new about screen, and requires an internet connection to work at all.
Guncon 2 Windows 7 Driver
Where it made sense replaced the nasty messageboxes with cute balloons. Gun connections are now mapped to a USB port - meaning if you have more than one gun connected, and reopen the program, the guns shouldn't reconnect in a different order. It also means that you can have only one gun plugged in, and if that gun is using the settings of Gun #2, Gun#2 can be enabled when Gun #1 is not. May sound complex, but it fixes a lot of the 'weird' issues some of you have been having with multiple guns.
Note about this: Your guns should be connected to one interface to make the best use of this possible. See Readme.txt under 'USB'. Output of mouse and keyboard events redone to a que system. Some disadvantages, but many more advantages - mostly for people with 2+ guns. They should work much more as expected now, being able to test myself was a huge help! Overall, multiple guns work 100x better.
Click Edge now performs whatever is assigned to Main Trigger - at the edge of the screen. Threads terminated in a different manner - people with 1 gun shouldn't end up with wingun reporting 2 connected guns anymore. Installer added. Includes uninstaller. And shortcuts.
V0.7B Singlefire mode fixed, trigger detection fixed (was a simple line of debug code left in, sorry to any it affected!) 1/3rd of the offscreen shot detection secondary AI enabled. This is not really useful if Screen Brightening works for you, but if it doesn't it should help a little.
Changed the way the screen flashes based on the current gun mode (single now flashes almost instantly, drag still stays bright for as long as you hold the trigger down) MAME Mode was renamed 'Click Edge' - a lot of people were having trouble understanding that 'MAME Mode' for offscreen shots was just a button press with an associated location (the edge of the screen). Hopefully this will help. Added the ability to map any button to 'Click Edge' (Use Scroll Lock when getting a key) Added button presses to Data.txt logging. Fixed a bug in data.txt logging, you can now log all guns at once and it will work Added the ability for users to modify the time between autofire shots, and the number of shots between an autoreload.
Autoreload is now mapped to whatever offscreen trigger is mapped to as it should be, instead of being limited to 'mame mode'. Yes, it will run a macro even. Added support for multiple, loadable profiles!! Along with this comes with a profile manager, and the ability to create and edit profiles from in the UI. A profile contains (up to) all settings for a certain gun, as well as the global settings. Profiles are now hot-swapable!
This means a couple of things: First, you can set a button on your gun to cycle through a list of 2 or more profiles, loading and activating all the settings in each profile as you switch to it. Second, you can create a kind of 'Shift' button.
Instead of cycling though, it loads a second profile only for the duration of the button press! Added more console logging, in autocalibration and other places (easier to see problems). Added the ability to define which buttons are rapidly fired in autofire mode, and which ones are only pressed once in autofire mode.
Fixed a couple of existing 'quirks', such as not being able to enter a negative number in the centering boxes. Fixed many bugs, such as the 'spaces in ini' bug that was causing crashes after a while. Updated what I do if 'Hide Mouse' is checked. Cursor is reloacated to the bottom of the screen every time a gun fires when it is on now - slightly better at making it look hidden, but without locking the real mouse out from being used. Screen Flashing has been improved!
If your card supports it, it should work almost flawlessly now - even on complete black. Note that for ATI, Radeon 9600+ has been confirmed to work, and for Nvidia, TNT2 and above is confirmed to work. Other brands or older cards may or may not work. A new fun 'fun feature'; Gun Rating! Take the test and see how well your gun scores. This is in very early stages, and will become more reliable as time goes on. V0.6B Unfortunatly I did not keep a log of the changes, as I was not planning at the time on releasing further versions.
One could say that WinGun has became an entirely new program in the meantime! I will try to list the main changes below: Support for multiple guns!
Up to 4 guns will now work at the same time. Huge, huge thing to get working. Screen Brightening; causes the screen to flash bright when a trigger is depressed. Very requested, but doesn't work on all video cards. New autocalibration routine; includes easy to read on the TV instructions, and a new shoot the targets phase. Updated and further completed interface; includes a tray icon, and many more options.
Redid so all menu's will fit on a 640.480 screen. Completely redone connection method. You can connect a gun and have it detected without user interaction, and if a gun stops sending data WinGun should attempt to reconnect it.
Along with this change came many other connection code changes: it should be much more reliable now, and account for many more error situations. Added an 'information' screen that is invaluable for debugging and troubleshooting. Added tons of console output messages for use with it, all timestamped and neat.
Added the ability to log console output and gun output to files. Added support for basic macros in Button Config. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del, click in a specific location, etc. Up to 20 events, which can be delayed, told to execute multiple times, etc Added Hide Mouse option Redid, improved almost every internal function. Over 80% of the code for WinGun is different from 0.2B As noted, did and changed way more than I can possibly remember. V0.2B Interface for configuring the buttons.
(woot!) New calibration routine, some tweaks to calibration. Fixed just about everything I know of that could help the rolling x problem. This is as good as it gets, until we solve it. Redid the interface. Added singlefire firemode, and option to switch in the interface Added the ability to switch between normal and rolling x modes manually in the interface Added auto-fire and auto-reload.
Auto-fire is best not used in duck hunt, I've found. Fixed a bug where Buttons A-C wern't being read in from the INI and resorting to using the defaults.
Cleaned up code, fixed other random minor bugs V0.1B First public release. Fixed a couple of file write bugs, added in about 10 error messages, and took out some debug code to make ready for a public release. Please note that the interface is brand new, most of the program was written using a console to output errors. It will be improved in the next release.
V0.02A - Added ini file saving Added this readme Changed the routine for finding normal/rolling gun mode. The previous one took 30 seconds for guns that sent information at a slower rate. Fixed a couple of bugs V0.01A - First 'release', only tested by one person other than myself.