I kind of understand what's going on now. InputAutoTrigger and InputAutoTrigger2
are indeed used but only if Lost World is configured to use CRT-based light guns. Sega actually manufactured two kinds of light guns
1. Traditional lightguns using a single photodiode connected to a serial board, originally introduced for the Model 2 (i.e., the Virtua Cop series). These require a medium or low resolution CRT monitor and don't know where the gun is pointed until the trigger is pressed. That's why you see the screen flash in games that use these types of guns. They render a single bright frame and the gun has a simple photodiode that triggers a circuit when the electron beam scans past where it is pointed. The signal is sent back to the system, which knows exactly where the electron beam was at that time on the screen because the screen timing is known.
2. A new Type 2 gun that features a simple IR motion sensor and requires IR LEDs to be placed around the screen.
See here for a complete description. This type of gun can be tracked continuously and the screen does not need to be flashed when the trigger is pressed. This also works with non-CRT displays.
These are two completely different boards but Lost World supports both! And as of a few years ago, so does Supermodel. Users prefer the Type 2 emulation because when Lost World detects that gun, it can render a targeting cursor during the menu sequences (impossible with the light gun because the aim position is only revealed by flashing the screen) and doesn't flash the screen each time the trigger is pressed. It's a better experience overall.
You can choose which gun to emulate by editing the XML file. Under the entry for "lostwsga", change:
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<inputs>
<input type="common" />
<input type="analog_gun1" />
<input type="analog_gun2" />
</inputs>
To this (if you want the old light gun behavior):
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<inputs>
<input type="common" />
<input type="gun1" />
<input type="gun2" />
</inputs>
Now when you press the off-screen button, you will also need to fire to reload. But if you edit Supermodel.ini and set InputAutoTrigger=1, you will notice that merely pressing the off-screen button also fires and therefore reloads.
Why is the behavior different for Type 2 (analog_gun1 / analog_gun2) ? I don't know! We might be emulating it wrong. This type of gun presents itself differently. Supermodel has "left" and "right" triggers for each gun and this is certainly incorrect! What we are calling "right trigger" is in fact an off-screen indicator signal but for some reason, activating this signal triggers a reload, which I believe is the wrong behavior but I am trying to confirm. I've reached out to the author of the Type 2 gun blog post.
Summary:Lost World supports two different kinds of light guns. InputAutoTrigger is functional only when Lost World is set to emulate the old CRT-based light guns. And to do that, you need to edit Games.xml and change "analog_gun" to "gun".
by k_rollo » Fri Jul 08, 2022 6:56 am 
