System Shock mouselook/key mapping/high resolution mod (DOS/Classic)

[664a242e386e2Immer]

Hmm, as for the "invisible force" - I suppose that depends exactly how exactly your code interacts with the game's.  If you can directly read and modify the 3D orientation variables used by the game then you can probably just modify them to account for mouse-control and let the engine handle the tumbling wherever it normally happens.  Provided neither codeset makes any assumptions about what the orientation was a moment ago (and I can't imagine why it would), everyting should work out fine.

[664a242e38814paulo]

I'd ask something a little different and more challenging:
Please look at the ultima underworld games for the same purpose - they are probably (i think demonstrably because of some badly remembered remake projects) the same or a earlier version of the engine, and lack mouselook too.

[664a242e388fdpaulo]

Is the mousewheel usable now?

[664a242e39152Malba Tahan]

I have done a fair amount of C programming, so I should be able to work with whatever you've got. [...]

Once I clean up my code I'll upload it, so you can take a look at it then.

Hmm, as for the "invisible force" - I suppose that depends exactly how exactly your code interacts with the game's.  If you can directly read and modify the 3D orientation variables used by the game then you can probably just modify them to account for mouse-control and let the engine handle the tumbling wherever it normally happens.

I have already sort of figured out where in the code the game applies forces to the player, but I think I'll take some time to fully understand it. But whenever I try to apply the mouselook rotations (yaw, pitch and roll) to the cyberspace movement, it seems to work OK for an instant and then it starts to act strangely. It looks like the up, left and front vectors aren't being rotated... well, you'll see it after I upload my code

I'd ask something a little different and more challenging:
Please look at the ultima underworld games for the same purpose - they are probably (i think demonstrably because of some badly remembered remake projects) the same or a earlier version of the engine, and lack mouselook too.

Despite being an interesting project to work on, I don't think it's possible. I've already taken a look at the disassembly of Ultima Underworld and played it a little bit, and here's what I figured out:
- System Shock is a 32bit game. Ultima Underworld is 16 bit. That means that, even if they share part of their C source code, their binaries are completely different.
- When I try to look up or down in UU, I notice that there are "discrete" possible angles (pitch). So, even if someone creates a mod for UU to add mouselook, it will probably suck, because you'll have only about 8 or so possible angles to look up-down.

Is the mousewheel usable now?

No, not yet.

[664a242e39c26ToxicFrog]

This is pretty awesome. I'd also very much like to see the code; after releasing the high res mod, I spent a while trying to get key mapping working, even speaking to Marc LeBlanc about it at one point, but for a variety of reasons it never went anywhere. So, I'm very interested in seeing how you did it.

I'm also pretty happy that my patch has gone from "maybe someone will find this interesting" to "it's part of SS Portable" to "holy shit we have MOUSELOOK".

[664a242e3b216Malba Tahan]

This is pretty awesome. I'd also very much like to see the code; after releasing the high res mod, I spent a while trying to get key mapping working, even speaking to Marc LeBlanc about it at one point, but for a variety of reasons it never went anywhere. So, I'm very interested in seeing how you did it.

I'm also pretty happy that my patch has gone from "maybe someone will find this interesting" to "it's part of SS Portable" to "holy shit we have MOUSELOOK".

Wow, I can't believe it! Is that you? You know, if it weren't you, I would never have had this crazy idea of using IDA to figure out the inner workings of System Shock. I'm glad you're back! I'm going to release everything I've got, but I'm making some adjustments before I release my stuff, or else no one will understand it, except myself (ever heard of write-only code? it's something like that).
That's it for now. Maybe I'll upload all my files before the end of this month.

[664a242e3bb06Gibbobobo]

Okay, finally got it to work, though it seems to be a bit unstable. Great work! There are just a few more features this really, really needs though:

A way to invert mouse X/Y axes
A way to map crouching and leaning so that they "spring" back to center when released
Separate mouse sensitivity settings for mouselook/non-mouselook mode (or is that even possible?)

Mouse axis switching is already possible in the version that I've uploaded today.

Can you please tell me how you invert the axis? I'm one of those people that can't play FPS games without inverted mouse and really want to play this game again. Looked all over for an option and can't see one anywhere.

[664a242e3c635ToxicFrog]

Wow, I can't believe it! Is that you? You know, if it weren't you, I would never have had this crazy idea of using IDA to figure out the inner workings of System Shock. I'm glad you're back! I'm going to release everything I've got, but I'm making some adjustments before I release my stuff, or else no one will understand it, except myself (ever heard of write-only code? it's something like that).

Yep, it's me. I've been away for a while, but I always come back sooner or later. Last time I was here ss.org didn't exist; all of this was hosted on SBF. I'm glad my work was inspirational!

And don't tell anyone, but most of my projects start out write-only too.

[664a242e3ca68Nameless Voice]

Last time I was here ss.org didn't exist; all of this was hosted on SBF.

And it still is.  It just got its name changed.  All the SBF links still work.

[664a242e3cb9anotindeed]

Hi i have noticed a bug with your mod where you cannot jump (space) while running (holding down shift).

[664a242e3cff9Malba Tahan]

Hi i have noticed a bug with your mod where you cannot jump (space) while running (holding down shift).

Thanks for reporting! Here's a possible solution:

System Shock treats the shift key in a way a little different from most games.
In other games, you generally bind shift to the run command (e.g.

Code: [Select]

bind shift +speed in Quake).
However, SS programmers decided to do it in a different way. You don't bind shift to any command. Instead, everytime shift is down or caps lock is toggled on, most keys produce a different internal code when used.
Let's say, for example, that you use the key combo alt+l to issue the Load Game command. If caps lock is on, the game won't receive the alt+l command: it will receive the alt+shift+l key code, and you won't be able to load
your game. To fix that, you'll have to bind both key combos to the load game command:

Code: [Select]

bind alt+l loadgame
bind alt+shift+l loadgame
That's probably the reason behind this bug. Try to take a look at XCYB.CFG, there should be there somewhere the command

Code: [Select]

bind shift+space cmd.spaceIf it's not there, just add it.
Make sure you're looking at the current profile (custom).
If it's already there, then it's a bug in my mod, not in XCYB.CFG. In that case, I'll have to find out the internal scan code produced by shift+space.

Just tell me what you figure out.

[664a242e3d1b0notindeed]

Ah, you are correct:

Code: [Select]

bind shift+space rs.jumpis missing from the custom controls section of the xcyb.cfg in both your example mod control setup and in systemshock portable. However, adding it back in solves the problem

[664a242e3d314bhlaab]

Problem: mapping controls for cyberspace is incredibly buggy. Normally the rebinds have no effect (vanilla sshock controls), but if I delete all of the cybserspace entries with "shift" "alt" et al then it seems to use the realspace keybinds to decide which ones to use (so "strafe left" becomes "roll left" no matter what)

[664a242e3d4cdrapurimanka]

Hi, i'm going to try system shock, but its difficult to play without modern control style so i'm interested in mouse look. I have cd enchated version of ss and dos box, already installed game and all is smooth and ok. Now i'm interested in this mouse look patch. As i understand it was achived by hacking the game, right? And no problem here? All is working right?

And we have only one version which is situated in first post? Its the latest one? So i just download this
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=1719.msg8942#msg8942
and thats all?

[664a242e3d5derapurimanka]

Also strafe is a way too fast then running forward. Anyway to slower it?

[664a242e3d76dMalba Tahan]

I suggest you to use System Shock Portable instead, because mlook patch has been integrated there, and Kolya has already changed the DPMI loader to a more stable version.
About these bugs reported, unfortunately I'll be very busy until at least the end of November, and I won't have any time to look at them. I'm studying for some exams (I'm trying to enter college *again* to study Mechatronic Engineering this time  ).

[664a242e3d8f1Dark-Star]

I'm having the 1280x1024 problem : the game freezes and crashes right after selecting the resolution.  And this is on 32-bit Windows XP, btw, so it's not just 64-bit editions that are making this problem.

Also, the custom Dosbox build refuses to run because of a missing .dll, and when I downloaded said dll and pasted it to the right folder, it gripes that it's a bad file. Even worse, the REGULAR Dosbox version hangs after running cdshock.exe! Thank goodness for DGVesa...

Might wanna update to Dosbox 0.74 - there's a metric ton of fixes.

Help? Please?

[664a242e3da3dDelgardo]

Being a collector i still own the org cd version and ofc a true DOS machine...

Does -or will the Xcdshock.exe work in real dos?? (i get an error)

I play it in dosbox with the mouse look mod without any probs... But would love to have the mouse look in the org dos version.

Fantastic work btw ;-)

[664a242e3e2b1Malba Tahan]

Problem: mapping controls for cyberspace is incredibly buggy. Normally the rebinds have no effect (vanilla sshock controls), but if I delete all of the cybserspace entries with "shift" "alt" et al then it seems to use the realspace keybinds to decide which ones to use (so "strafe left" becomes "roll left" no matter what)

Cyberspace controls mapping is disabled by default, because I couldn't find an appropriate way to deal with mouselook in cyberspace.

Also strafe is a way too fast then running forward. Anyway to slower it?

Yes, there's a way to do it, but this behaviour is already present in the original (non-patched) game. I just wanted to keep all the original features of the game, except for the addition of mouselook.

I'm having the 1280x1024 problem : the game freezes and crashes right after selecting the resolution.  And this is on 32-bit Windows XP, btw, so it's not just 64-bit editions that are making this problem.

Almost everyone has this 1280x1024. I have it too. No known way to fix it until now.

Being a collector i still own the org cd version and ofc a true DOS machine...

Does -or will the Xcdshock.exe work in real dos?? (i get an error)

I play it in dosbox with the mouse look mod without any probs... But would love to have the mouse look in the org dos version.

Fantastic work btw ;-)

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a true DOS machine, so I can't test it on real hardware to see why it doesn't work there.

[664a242e3e40cWulf]

I just reinstalled SSP, latest version. Mouselook works lovely, but the mouse moves s o   s l o w l y. . .  The previous solution editing XCYB.CFG
set mlook_hsens 200
  set mlook_vsens 20

now seems to do nothing... Has this been changed? Is there another solution?

[664a242e3e53fJoe]

HI, just wanted to say: THANKS! This is awesome... I will test it on my DOS machine tomorrow. But it's already great to play in DosBox so maybe I don't really want to

[664a242e3f9c4Mr. Nice]

Hi, first all big thumbs up, even though it's been a few years since I last played SS1, so it's strangely weird to use mouse look, and I still revert to the "classic" mouse control sometimes, the way you can do everything with just your right hand is strangely nice when you're drinking or whatever too . Everytime I pick up an item though, I keep ending up looking straight at the sky, since the reflex to instantly drop it in an MFD is too strong, forgetting to drop out of mouselook mode .
On a few points though:
I'm sure Gibbobobo worked it out in the end, but since noone has directly addressed the point, to invert mouse look, just put in a negative figure for mlook_vsens in xcyb.cfg, so -30 to retain the default vertical mouse speed. This won't work in cyber space though, which seems to use hsens for both axis . Talking of which, is the factor of 10 relationship between hsens and vsens empyrical, or based on actual knowledge of the units the angles are stored internally? To me, the vertical mouse seemed a little slow compared to horizontal, so tweaked it up to -40. Left hsens alone, wasjust right for me, 2.25 rotations from one edge of the mouse mat to the other .
On rapurimanka on strafe speed, the way you word your point is slightly odd. Running forward is notably faster then strafing, as it should be. But the default xcyb.cfg has "walk" as the default forward option. Combined with there being no keyboard input method for walking sideways, it does indeed make it feel odd. My solution was to just flip it so w is run by default, and "shifts" to walk. Then it feels more natural to me, with forward being faster then strafing, and that faster then bacwards, by default.

Wulf: hsens/vsens only change the mlook speed (at least in the only version I've used, the one with ssp). hmousemul and vmousemul control the normal cursor speed (and don't affect mlook speed). Lowering them both to 0 makes it about right for me in 1024x768 (yes, lower them to speed up the cursor, odd).

[664a242e4064aMalba Tahan]

This won't work in cyber space though, which seems to use hsens for both axis .

I can't remember by heart exactly without looking at my source code, I'll have to take a look at it, but I think that I have disabled mouselook in cyberspace, so it shouldn't take in account hsens or vsens.

Talking of which, is the factor of 10 relationship between hsens and vsens empyrical, or based on actual knowledge of the units the angles are stored internally? To me, the vertical mouse seemed a little slow compared to horizontal, so tweaked it up to -40. Left hsens alone, wasjust right for me, 2.25 rotations from one edge of the mouse mat to the other .

It's based on the game's internal units. These variables just multiply the number that is passed as a parameter or that is added to the coordinates. It's done this way:

Code: [Select]

setPlPitch( plPitch - mlook_vsens * y );
...
aistr[ j ].yaw -= mlook_hsens * x;


On rapurimanka on strafe speed, the way you word your point is slightly odd. Running forward is notably faster then strafing, as it should be. But the default xcyb.cfg has "walk" as the default forward option. Combined with there being no keyboard input method for walking sideways, it does indeed make it feel odd. My solution was to just flip it so w is run by default, and "shifts" to walk. Then it feels more natural to me, with forward being faster then strafing, and that faster then backwards, by default.

Well, maybe I should have named the commands run_strafe_left and run_strafe_right then. If you play the original game, you'll see that there's no way to strafe slowly, only running. Perhaps I'll turn it into an option in a future release, so that shift also affects strafing speed.

[664a242e4082cMech Pilot]

Just got through the first level of System Shock Portable, and while the improved resolutions and customizable keybinds are both quite nice, by far my favorite feature is the mouselook.  That said, I've noticed what may be a bug: after I play for a while (the exact time varies, but is usually around fifteen or twenty minutes), I get stuck on a single axis in freelook mode; either I can look left and right but not up and down, or up and down but not left and right.  Which is a damn shame, because if not for that problem, I'd be perfectly happy with this mod, as I am with the other components of SSP.  In order to fix the problem, I have to shut the game down and restart it, which tends to kill the atmosphere.  Haven't seen anyone else mention this problem, so it may just be me failing mouselook forever, but if it is a bug, I figured you'd want to know about it.

If it matters, I'm running 64-bit Windows 7 on a quad-core system, using the original DOSBox setup rather than Gulikoza's custom version, with the game set to 1024x768 resolution.