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

[674256dc936c9Malba Tahan]

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.

It would be nice if I could reproduce this bug in order to try to fix it. If the bug happens, and then you save your game, quit the game, run it again and then load the same slot, do you still experience this bug? If that happens, could you send me the savegame?
Thanks.

[674256dc9382bMech Pilot]

Well, I could give that a try, but after I made that post, I thought, "Hey, maybe it's a problem with DOSBox."  So I ran it in Gulikoza's custom DOSBox build, and it worked perfectly - not a single instance of the fixed-axis problem through the whole of deck 1.  If it does turn up later on, I'll post further information, but for now it looks like the problem is solved.

You still want me to try and reproduce it?

[674256dc93a72Malba Tahan]

You still want me to try and reproduce it?

No, it's not necessary if it's a DOSBox issue.

[674256dc93bcacheese, lol]

I experience a problem like what Mech Pilot describes, but it's not the mouse getting frozen on one axis. If I move the mouse too far in one direction over the course of gameplay, it'll hit some sort of boundary and refuse to go any farther in that direction. This problem affects both use and look mouse modes. To remedy the problem, I have to move the mouse in the opposite direction to "re-center" it between these boundaries. I use a relatively low mouse sensitivity (and apparently move the mouse in one direction more often than others), I suspect this is why I've noticed the problem in the first place.

I've been using SSP with dosbox official build, at 640x480, and I run Windows 7.

[674256dc93e78Malba Tahan]

I experience a problem like what Mech Pilot describes, but it's not the mouse getting frozen on one axis. If I move the mouse too far in one direction over the course of gameplay, it'll hit some sort of boundary and refuse to go any farther in that direction. [...]

I've run into this very same problem during my tests. As far as I know, it's a DOSBox bug.

[674256dc93f6bCheese, lol]

Well enough--it's not a pressing issue. I haven't even thought to check if the problem persists in SHLINK.

[674256dc942faCodSlap]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the mods - Tahan's mouselook mod is brilliant and SSP as a whole... wow. I'm just happy to be able to play the game again.

Mouselook mod on, foobar2000 on the background playing space or ambient from DI.com, widescreen display, headphones on, kick in SSP, turn off the original music and go... - wish we could've had it this way back in the day. The internet radio option for replacing the SS1 muzak is actually a surprisingly atmospheric option, try it out if you're interested:
Ambient: http://www.di.fm/mp3/ambient.pls
Space: http://listen.di.fm/public3/spacemusic.pls

I also had the same issue as cheese,lol and few others above, the one with the mouse axis getting stuck. Mine started appearing after roughly 10 minutes into the play, but I was able to shake it (literally) by furiously moving the mouse around through both the axes. I was thus able to repeat the problem numerous times - seems like every time the mouse got unstuck, going through the x axis in a full circle found a point where one of the axes got stuck again. Shake & play worked almost all the time, though, but the problem caused a few deaths. It didn't work all the time, as I said, so I tried Gulikoza's custom Dosbox - all problems went out the window, and it's been happy gaming ever since. The problem is that Gulikoza's custom Dosbox is susbstantially slower, so whereas otherwise 640x400 would be playable, I'm now running the game at 320x240 and the gameplay is still choppy at some points. The main thing is to get to play the game, but still, a tad higher playable resolution would be nice.

Being able to 'shake' the problem off most of the time might have something to do with the fact that I changed the vertical sensitivity to 100 from the original thirty straight from the get-go.

If someone could track down the difference between the two versions of Dosbox that clears the mouse problem and apply it to the 'basic' doxbox in SSP thus enabling faster gameplay, 'twould be appreciated by many, methinks.

[674256dc944d5Kolya]

Try downloading DOSbox 0.7.4 and replacing only the executable in SSP, which is version 0.7.3:
SYSTEMSHOCK-Portable-v1.2\RES\dosbox\dosbox.exe

[674256dc945d3CodSlap]

Well, what do you know! I've yet to run a full stress test with 0.74, but the problem seems to have disappeared. Much appreciated, Kolya.

[674256dc9471dCodSlap]

Full stress test done with 4 levels finished. The problems are gone, but strangely it seems that there is still a possibility to hit an invisible barrier along the x-axis. This can be remedied by rotating for a number of revolutions to the direction opposite to the one where the barrier was met. It almost seems like the mousemod enables the crosshair to move along a vast 2d plane, and it is possible to hit the outer edges of that field - revolutions away from an edge seem to rect the problem. Funky.

It's likely the game's code doesn't behave in this way at all, but that's the best description I can give to the phenomenon. Nevertheless, great job with the mods!

[674256dc9483bCodSlap]

Playthrough complete (<3) with difficulty index 21. 995 kills and with a time of 14:44:44 sharp.
Great stuff, kids! One in a million.

[674256dc94922Kolya]

  Congrats. And now SS2?

[674256dc94b4fCodSlap]

Oh yes! I'm quite familiar with SS2 with around 7 playthroughs back in the day with the vanilla game on Hard; was always relatively easy since I love playing a melee character to conserve ammo.

I'm currently tinkering with a combination of mods to upgrade the graphics and to get the whole thing running properly with all of them. I've heard so many good things about TF's SecMod as a revamped experience I'm sure I'll be giving it a go - I love what HiTorque did with the Med/Sci, but I'll have to forego that for SecMod. Currently I'm looking for the correct activation order for the mods since I'm using a mixed palette from the RocketMan, Eldron and TactiCool varieties as far as guns are concerned, and even if I activate, say, in order; TC Wrench - SecMod - TC fix, I'm having some problems with the original models still appearing in-game. Teensy tinkering to be had, by the looks of it.

I'm currently planning on the following combination:

- Tacticool:
   1. Pistol (11.09.07)
   2. Shotgun (11.12.07)
   3. Laser Pistol (04.07.09)
   4. Wrench (04.09.09)
   5. Assault Rifle (02.16.10)
   6. Grenade Launcher (02.22.10)
- Rocketman's:
   7. Viral proliferator
   8. Shard
   9. AnnelidLauncher
   10. Stasis Field Generator
- AssiDragon's:
   11. Fusion cannon rev. 2
- Eldron's:
   12. Psi-amp.

- Rebirth 2.0
- SHTUP
- SecMod 2.8
- Hires player models
- Björk elevator muzak mod

If I get all of the above working together, I'll be going for run number 8. 'tis been years since I last had a run of Shock 2.

[674256dc94c4dKolya]

That should actually be no problem. I'm not sure what's causing the problem with the TC wrench, I actually used that in combination with secmod not long ago. Maybe try deactivating all mods once and use the Clean Up function from the Tools menu.

[674256dc94d3eMedevila]

Switching resolutions makes the game lock up. (Music still plays, it looks alright, you just can't do anything.)

[674256dc94e7dMr Quackums]

had this mod working great through ssp a while back but have since reformatted and am trying to reinstall it but i keep having the same problem:  i cant change mouse speed for when mouse look is off.  on default resolution its fine, but on all others is it so slow i cant do anything.

i have tried to change the values for "set hmousemul"and "set vmousemul" but every time i do the cursor gets stuck in the btm right corner, and whenever i run the game in DGVESA or DOSbox like the ssp troubleshoot says it simply wont work.

any advice?

 

[674256dc94f70Mr Quackums]

and by "simply wont work" i mean DOSbox crashes before system shock can load;  and DGvesa runs the game for a bit but a few seconds into the intro animation it crashes but the music keeps playing

[674256dc95069Dav]

Use gulikoza's dosbox and the mouse problems will be fixed and try starting up dosbox in windowed mode to avoid the crashes.

[674256dc9518aMr Quackums]

gulikoza's dosbox gave me a missing dll problem, so i downloaded the newest directx (didnt get it since format) and it still didnt work.  vanilla dosbox works if i kwwp it in windows mode but then the game is too choppy.

im just playing it in 640xwhatever.  decent resolution and decent mouse speed.

[674256dc95264Pilimen]

Hello, can i somehow remap the left and the right Mousebuttons?

[674256dc9535bMr Quackums]

^ not through the mouselookmod, no.

but you can download autohotkey and change them through that.

and if your anything like me and get scared off by having to do the tiniest amount of code dont worry, autohotkey is much easier than it looks

[674256dc954e1fox]

Is there a way to adjust the mouse speed (in SSP) when mouse look is switched off? It crawls like a snake in comparison and makes using the HUD slightly frustrating.

I changed sensitivity from 100 to 1000 (in dosbox.conf) but that didn't seem to do anything.

Edit: Oh nevermind, problem solved. I was simply editing the wrong conf since I'm using Gulikoza's modified version.

[674256dc955cdPerspective Designs]

Does this mod still work? The download link doesn't seem to work anymore.

[674256dc956d7Kolya]

The attachment in the first post is the same thing. Also this mod was included in SYSTEMSHOCK-Portable.