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

[6877c05c015a1Malba Tahan]

Hello, folks!
I'd like to post my custom System Shock modification, but I don't know whether this is the right place or not.

My system shock executable adds configurable keys, mouse look support and multiple resolutions as well. Thanks!


//last version is 0206

[6877c05c0183aKolya]

Now that is pretty awesome! Thanks a lot Malba Tahan.

[6877c05c01b18Mercurius]

adds configurable keys, mouse look support and multiple resolutions as well.

Sounds fantastic, giving it a try.

[6877c05c01cbeZylonBane]

A mouselook demonstration up on YouTube would be great. I can't imagine how that would work well unless he somehow implemented separate move/shoot modes a la SS2.

[6877c05c01db9Kolya]

He did, switch with E

[6877c05c01f16Kolya]

A few questions Malba:

1) Did you use the cdshock.exe from System Shock Portable? I'm asking because it already had  a hex fix applied (for the com port error) and it would be nice to keep that fix.

2) XCYB.CFG contains solely the new keybinds, so I assume CYB.CFG is still used for other settings, like soundcard, etc?

3) May I include your modification in System Shock Portable at a later date with appropriate credit?

That's it for now. Thanks again, you did great work.

[6877c05c02251RocketMan]

We actually have mods for ss1 now   To think that a couple of years ago this game was pretty much unchanged from 94, now we've got better graphics (to a limited extent), clearer text, new resolutions and ingame mouselook support and custom keys!

This is a cool mod, thanks!

[6877c05c02939Malba Tahan]

1) Did you use the cdshock.exe from System Shock Portable? I'm asking because it already had  a hex fix applied (for the com port error) and it would be nice to keep that fix.

No, I used the original CDSHOCK.EXE from Looking Glass Technologies. You know, I figured out that the COM port error could be eliminated by only removing the "inp6d -1" line from CYB.CFG. But I decided to apply an hex fix anyways, so it wouldn't annoy anyone who still had that (cyberman related??) line in their configuration file.

2) XCYB.CFG contains solely the new keybinds, so I assume CYB.CFG is still used for other settings, like soundcard, etc?

Yes, I decided to leave CYB.CFG untouched so you could go back to the original CDSHOCK.EXE anytime. But remember that XCYB.CFG does not contain only keybindings, it contains some other configuration as well, like "inverted" mouse sensitivity for resolutions higher than 320x200 and mlook sensitivity.

3) May I include your modification in System Shock Portable at a later date with appropriate credit?

Of course you can, but I'd like to clean up a little bit the CDSHOCK.EXE that I uploaded yesterday. It's full of debugging functions that I've disabled for this build, but they're still there! And there are some bugs too. By the way, if anyone finds any bugs, I'd appreciate to know about them!

I'm happy you all enjoyed my mod. I've really spent a long time doing it. I've never player System Shock (well, never past that first blue laser shooting gun in the first level), because I thought that I really needed mouselook to fully enjoy it. Now that mouselook is implemented, It's time to play! See ya!

[6877c05c02ad7Kolya]

Yeah, with the ingame resolution switching I was wondering about mouse sensitivity, then I saw the setting in XCYB.CFG, well done.

The higher resolutions were introduced by ToxicFrog once as you probably know by now. He also provided a patch for 1280x1024 pixel. Did you see this and did you have any luck with that? For some reason I could never get it to work in System Shock Portable.

You're by far not the only one who couldn't get behind the controls. So with your mod a lot more people will be able to enjoy this game. That's cool.

[6877c05c02dcfMalba Tahan]

The higher resolutions were introduced by ToxicFrog once as you probably know by now. He also provided a patch for 1280x1024 pixel. Did you see this and did you have any luck with that? For some reason I could never get it to work in System Shock Portable.

Yes, I based my resolution hacks on his mods. However, I didn't know about that 1280x1024. I didn't know VESA supported such high resolutions! I'll trying to integrate it into XCDSHOCK.EXE now, thanks for the info!!!

[6877c05c03085Marvin]

Is this directly compatible with SSP? What about using the original data and playing the game on Win7x64? Will I still need DosBox?

Edit: Wonderful mod, btw. 

[6877c05c03192Kolya]

You can just drop these files into SSP/RES and try starting xcdshock.exe. If you need DGVESA/DOSbox to run with it, drop the x from xcdshock.exe and start SSP.exe or dosbox.exe.

[6877c05c032b1Marvin]

SS1 on Win7x64 with mouselook enabled ... didn't think this day would come.

Is it possible to assign one key to two seperate commands? For example, assigning "a" to "Strafe Left" in mouselook mode and "Turn Left" in normal mode?

[6877c05c035a2Enchantermon]

Haven't tried it yet, but I must say that this is great news!

[6877c05c0380dRainalkar]

Agreed. Very nice work, well done

[6877c05c03ab6Malba Tahan]

Is it possible to assign one key to two seperate commands? For example, assigning "a" to "Strafe Left" in mouselook mode and "Turn Left" in normal mode?

No, it's not possible. The mod uses System Shock's internal function (which I call "regkeyproc") to bind key events to commands. It let's you bind the same key to different commands in different gamestates, but mouselook mode is not a different gamestate.

[6877c05c03bceMarvin]

Mmh, too bad.

Cyberspace movement could be tweaked a little, with mouselook enabled I feel like a drunken puck being bumped around.  :p

[6877c05c03e6cMalba Tahan]

Mmh, too bad.

Cyberspace movement could be tweaked a little, with mouselook enabled I feel like a drunken puck being bumped around.  :p

Yeah, I forgot to mention it. Cyberspace movement proved to be a little tricky, and I couldn1t figure out how to do it properly it. However, I believe mouselook in cyberspace would screw up its "nature" a little bit. Maybe mouselook movment in cyberspace should be similar to a "flight simulator" style, but I'm not sure about it.

[6877c05c0405fMalba Tahan]

Anyone knows how to use 4shared? I tried to replace the file with a new version, but now I have 2 files, and the new one is name "(2) XCDSHOCK.ZIP". Anyway, here's the new link to download it:
http://www.4shared.com/file/214671141/c9a6bd6/_2__XCDSHOCK.html
I've included the experimental 1280x1024 resolution. I call it experimental because it doesn't work for me, neither on WinXP nor on Dosbox. In dosbox the game hangs after mode switching. But ToxicFrog's patched EXE for 1280x1024 hangs on my machine too, so I guess I'm in the right direction.  :p
Next thing to do is to improve mouselook in cyberspace.
[(2) XCDSHOCK.ZIP expired]

[6877c05c0418dKolya]

As soon as you register here, I'll give you uploader permissions. Unfortunately I can't check that resolution on my netbook... 

[6877c05c04290RocketMan]

The latest revision broke the game.....the download on the first post works for me but updating it prevents the game from loading now.  Maybe it's just my computer?

[6877c05c04384Marvin]

The new version requires dos4gw - hasn't that been redundant for a long time?

1280*1024 works, but the game halts afterwards.

[6877c05c04725Malba Tahan]

The new version requires dos4gw - hasn't that been redundant for a long time?

Oops... I switched from OpenWatcom to Watcom 9.5b and forgot to link the extender stub in... I'll fix it soon.

1280*1024 works, but the game halts afterwards.

Yes, it happens to me too. Did you have any success with ToxicForg's 1280x1024 patch by the way?

[6877c05c04a46Marvin]

Yes, it happens to me too. Did you have any success with ToxicForg's 1280x1024 patch by the way?

At one point, yeah, I think so ... but that changed from time to time.  Maybe I'm not the right one to ask here, though, because Win7x64 is a nightmare in terms of DOS compatibility.  And seeing that DOSBox lags considerably in 1024*768, any higher resolution can be safely ignored in my opinion.


On another note: Do you really plan to add multiplayer? Of course, no one thought even mouselook would be possible without access to the original source code, but coop? Phew. Not that I didn't dream of it, of course.