Post subject: TAS input plugin
Experienced player (616)
Joined: 11/30/2008
Posts: 650
Location: a little city in the middle of nowhere
Recently I heard that this isn't possible, because Dolphin withdrew support for third party plugins for input. I was thinking of a program, which basically does the opposite of Joy2key. Something like VJoy, but with sliders or some way of controlling analog input accurately. Then we could map dolphin to accept input from this virtual joystick which we control, in order to have TAS accuracy. This program could then be used for future emulators, or emulators like Mupen and PCSX. Does anyone know of such a program?
Measure once. Cut twice.
Player (79)
Joined: 8/5/2007
Posts: 865
It'd be pretty bass-ackwards, but I'd drum up something in GlovePIE. I'm not familiar with GlovePIE's GUI capabilities (if any), but the tools are all there.
Active player (419)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
With current Dolphin conditions, it is virtually impossible to test angles efficiently. Since the website is now accepting submissions from Dolphin, I think that a new way of input is basically essential at this point. A controller just isn't optimal enough for this site's standards.
Joined: 7/16/2006
Posts: 635
For the GCN controller, 6 sliders and 12 buttons would work perfectly fine. The 6 sliders are of course for AX, AY, CX, CY, L, and R, while the 12 buttons are for A, B, X, Y, Z, S, L, R, and the D-Pad. This gives us independent control over every possible input. A little circular display showing the current angle/displacement of the two sticks would be nice, but it isn't really necessary. Further in the "unnecessary but nice to have" features would be scripted macros. Turbo input is the most basic, but the ability to have the plugin automatically go through predefined input sequences is really quite nice.
Active player (419)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
What I would prefer is something like a modified version of Mupen's TAS Input plugin, with 2 circular displays instead of 1, and where right clicking is still turbo.
Editor
Joined: 3/10/2010
Posts: 899
Location: Sweden
Remember to account for the additional Wii hardware here.
Active player (419)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
I wasn't even requesting stuff for Wii. That's unnecessary at the moment due to Wii rerecording not being stable quite yet. But a Gamecube half would be preferred as soon as possible. Once Wii rerecs are stable, then I assume it can be added on.
Joined: 7/22/2009
Posts: 128
Location: Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
I personally started to TAS SSBM this week, and I was wondering just today if that input plugin existed. I thought I was allright with my keyboard to TAS as I wanted to, but yesterday I discovered subpixels, which is fairly very hard to handle with a simple keyboard... When this plugin will be available, I sure want to be informed! This tool would be very, very useful.
Taming Dolphin, one frame at a time
Active player (419)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
Issues with the current iteration of the TAS Input: 1. Control Stick + C Stick *need* a clickable interface. The only sliders on the input should be for the L + R analog. 2. You need to be able to use the regular method of input with the TAS Input. e.g., if I have the "A" button mapped to "V" on my keyboard, when I press "V," the check box for "A" needs to be checked. If I let go of "V," it needs to un-check itself. This goes for the sticks as well (aka, the clickable interface I mentioned needs to match controller/keyboard input on the TAS Input itself.). I'll list more issues if I think of any.
Joined: 8/2/2010
Posts: 41
So in one post Wak is seen asking for information on the plugin, and then 3 months later sonicpacker posts as if hes giving information on what needs to be improved with a current input plugin? So my question is, does the plugin exist in any form yet (and if so where is it)? I want to start doing some monkeyball TAS'es and that would really benefit from being able to tweak the x/y axis little by little, instead of relying on keeping my thumb still. thanks.
Editor, Experienced player (607)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
The TAS input window (created and implemented by Toad King) has been included in every Dolphin revision since r7621. Just go to the Emulation tab inside Dolphin and click TAS Input. The TAS input window will pop up, and you can set the joystick positions and press/release buttons. It's awesome and really helpful! I agree that the issues sonicpacker listed need to be resolved, but I don't see them as urgent. The current input window is all I need to work on Paper Mario: TTYD!
Player (154)
Joined: 2/4/2011
Posts: 61
Is it only possible to use the plugin for one controller?
Editor, Experienced player (607)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
Yes, it currently only works for one controller. I remember seeing a Melee TAS where someone modified the window to allow 2 players and used it for his run, but he didn't share the code or his Dolphin rev.
Player (154)
Joined: 2/4/2011
Posts: 61
I would really like multiple. That should be an easy change. Heck, I may know enough programming myself to implement it. What do people currently do to control multiple controllers? It's all manual? With actual controllers and keyboards and stuff?
Editor, Experienced player (607)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
Yes, that's currently the only way. You could bind buttons from different controllers to the same button, but there isn't currently a way to set specific angles for the joysticks of multiple controllers.
Joined: 10/25/2009
Posts: 59
I have now implemented this on my clone http://code.google.com/r/bradenb95-tas/source/list?name=TAS-Input , i will update this post with builds later tonight and will move the changes to the offical dolphin TAS-Input branch sometime. Edit:Sorry i will not actually be able to provide builds for a while, I had kind of forgotten that i an now on a Mac, which cannot make windows builds.
RachelB
She/Her
Player (127)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
Very nice!
Player (154)
Joined: 2/4/2011
Posts: 61
I love you!
Player (154)
Joined: 2/4/2011
Posts: 61
Has this been merged with the main branch yet?
RachelB
She/Her
Player (127)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
Nope.