Hello, I am new here, so I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere.
I am currently making a TAS of new super mario bros. for DS using desmume 9.9. For some reason, certain key press combos are not recognized by the emulator. For example, pressing more than three keys at once causes the emulator to not recognize the fourth key pressed. Also, some two-key combinations (e.g. down and right, down and left, left and X) cause the emulator to ignore certain third keys. This is bogging me down a little.
Do I have some setting set improperly in the emulator? It could also be something with my keyboard but I think that is unlikely since I have tried mapping different keys to different buttons and I get the same result.
Joined: 11/13/2006
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Location: Northern California
It's a keyboard issue. Some keyboards don't recognize more than 2 or 3 buttons being pressed at the same time.
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Okay, good to know. What is the best workaround for this? Obviously I'll not unnecessarily use any more keys than I need, but if I need more do I have to manually edit the dsm file?
Under Config -> Hotkey Config... there are options to set keys for Auto-Hold and Auto-Hold Clear.
To set a controller button to be held down, hold the Auto-Hold key and then press the key for the controller button. To clear everything so that nothing is held down, press the Auto-Hold Clear key.
Auto-hold is a good, universal solution in emulators. However, it may also be possible to remap your keys to support pressing more of them at the same time than your current key mapping allows.
It's not as simple as "this keyboard only supports at most three simultaneous buttons". It actually depends on which keys are being pressed. Certain combinations of keys will only be supported up to three or four simultaneous, while other combinations can go much higher, up to ten or even more. It depends on which keys we are talking about. (This is due to how keyboards are designed. They cut cost by designing them so that not all keys are supported simultaneously, but the way it works is that they are kind of in groups, and keys from different groups can be pressed simultaneously while keys within the same group cannot, or something like that.)
You could try to find out which combinations of keys are supported, and consider remapping your emulator keys to them. (Typically keyboards put an emphasis on the WASD keys and its surrounding area, because it's the most used in games. Keys in that area are more likely to support more simultaneous key presses than elsewhere. Of course it depends a lot on the keyboard.)
Under Config -> Hotkey Config... there are options to set keys for Auto-Hold and Auto-Hold Clear.
To set a controller button to be held down, hold the Auto-Hold key and then press the key for the controller button. To clear everything so that nothing is held down, press the Auto-Hold Clear key.
I can't find any Auto-Holds under Hotkey Config. I can set keys for "Turbo" but that just seems to rapidly press/release the given key.
I can't find any Auto-Holds under Hotkey Config. I can set keys for "Turbo" but that just seems to rapidly press/release the given key.
Config → Hotkey Config and it’s there on the bottom-right. The window should already default to “Main”, but if it doesn’t, select Main from the drop-down menu.
I can't find any Auto-Holds under Hotkey Config. I can set keys for "Turbo" but that just seems to rapidly press/release the given key.
Config → Hotkey Config and it’s there on the bottom-right. The window should already default to “Main”, but if it doesn’t, select Main from the drop-down menu.
