Stella calibrate Paddles

[lucienEn]

I have quite some jitter with the paddles in Stella.

Any ideas how to fix this?

[D.Yancey]

Do the paddles jitter on a real Atari too? If, so then it's likely the paddles and has nothing to do with the emulator. Calibration would relate to the distance ones turns the paddle before it registers onscreen as movement. Your paddles probably just need cleaning. If you do a search on this forum for cleaning paddles or paddle maintenance, you should find what you need. Hope this helps.

[lucienEn]

I cleaned the paddles with contact spray. I don't have a real Atari only a Flashback 2.0 & PC.

 

On the flashback 2.0 the jitter is little bit less (none on warlords, little bit in Super breakout).

I just tried Z26.exe and there the jitter is nonexistant.

 

So is there a way in Stella to calibrate the paddles?

[+stephena]

I cleaned the paddles with contact spray. I don't have a real Atari only a Flashback 2.0 & PC.

 

On the flashback 2.0 the jitter is little bit less (none on warlords, little bit in Super breakout).

I just tried Z26.exe and there the jitter is nonexistant.

 

So is there a way in Stella to calibrate the paddles?

Not right now, but I can look into fixing it for the next release, due in a few weeks. Can you describe the game you're playing, where you are onscreen, etc. In other words, I'd like to load up that ROM, and see exactly what you're talking about. It will be much easier to fix if I can see it.

[lucienEn]

Not right now, but I can look into fixing it for the next release, due in a few weeks. Can you describe the game you're playing, where you are onscreen, etc. In other words, I'd like to load up that ROM, and see exactly what you're talking about. It will be much easier to fix if I can see it.

 

Thanks. I looked at super breakout (1978) (Atari) (!).bin. The jitter is visible anywhere except outside walls.

Video olympics also shows same jitter. Now it's possible that my paddles have some jitter so I'd be great to know anyone else experience. Looking at the controller digital readout on the PC I do little bit of jitter (+-1 step max).

 

It would be great if this could be calibrated. The Z26 video modes look pretty bad on my PC.

[+stephena]

Not right now, but I can look into fixing it for the next release, due in a few weeks. Can you describe the game you're playing, where you are onscreen, etc. In other words, I'd like to load up that ROM, and see exactly what you're talking about. It will be much easier to fix if I can see it.

 

Thanks. I looked at super breakout (1978) (Atari) (!).bin. The jitter is visible anywhere except outside walls.

Video olympics also shows same jitter. Now it's possible that my paddles have some jitter so I'd be great to know anyone else experience. Looking at the controller digital readout on the PC I do little bit of jitter (+-1 step max).

 

It would be great if this could be calibrated. The Z26 video modes look pretty bad on my PC.

OK, just for clarification, these real 2600 paddles hooked up to a Stelladaptor, correct? Or are they some sort of paddle/slider controls on some other type of controller?

 

Also, how do you view the digital readout on the PC? What type of program does this??

[lucienEn]

OK, just for clarification, these real 2600 paddles hooked up to a Stelladaptor, correct? Or are they some sort of paddle/slider controls on some other type of controller?

 

Also, how do you view the digital readout on the PC? What type of program does this??

 

Yes these are real 2600 paddles hooked up to a Stella adaptor.

 

An easy way to view the digital readout in windows:

- Go to control panel - game controllers and choose StellaAdapter

- Go to calibration and click a button (regardless if you centered)

- Select 'Display Raw data'. Now you can see the digital values returned (cancel after that)

 

I've heard that you'll always have little bit jitter so would be great if this could be adjusted in Stella.

Not sure how Z26 does it but must be to ignore step changes less or equal than +-2. As I noticed that increments are always in 2 (apparently 7 bit).

 

By the way the racing controllers work fine for me in Stella:-).

Edited March 27, 2006 by lucienEn

[+stephena]

OK, just for clarification, these real 2600 paddles hooked up to a Stelladaptor, correct? Or are they some sort of paddle/slider controls on some other type of controller?

 

Also, how do you view the digital readout on the PC? What type of program does this??

 

Yes these are real 2600 paddles hooked up to a Stella adaptor.

 

An easy way to view the digital readout in windows:

- Go to control panel - game controllers and choose StellaAdapter

- Go to calibration and click a button (regardless if you centered)

- Select 'Display Raw data'. Now you can see the digital values returned (cancel after that)

 

I've heard that you'll always have little bit jitter so would be great if this could be adjusted in Stella.

Not sure how Z26 does it but must be to ignore step changes less or equal than +-2. As I noticed that increments are always in 2 (apparently 7 bit).

 

By the way the racing controllers work fine for me in Stella:-).

OK, I just added this to Stella, and it will be in the next release. It's done a little differently than z26, in that you specify the number of 'ticks' of movement that indicate the paddle threshold. For example, the normal paddle movement is from -32768 to 32767, and the default threshold is 600. This will mean that if a paddle moves from left to right quickly (or vice versa), it will have to move further than 600 ticks before an internal event will be generated. I'm sure this '600' is somehow related to the 2 steps in z26, but I don't care to work out the math, since this method works just as well.

[lucienEn]

Sounds good!!! Let me know when the next version is released. Can't wait to check it out.

 

Lucien