Blood (build engine) & analog sticks as emulated mouse via joymap \ VOGONS

Blood (build engine) & analog sticks as emulated mouse via joymap

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First post, by PicoFemto

Posted on 2019-12-03, 14:44

PicoFemto Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: 2019-12-03, 14:14

Good day,

Background

I'm attempting to play my (purchased) copy of Blood (1997, Monolith) on DosBox (on my Raspberry Pi 3b+, aka RPI3b+, running RetroPie). I am able to launch the game, get audio working, etc. Graphics are limited to 320x240 (VESA modes are slow, not sure if it can be run on a RPI due to limited computing power). My main problem is getting a gamepad working, using "joymap" (i.e. emulate a gamepad to behave as if it were a mouse).

I'm attempting to use my Logitech F310 gamepad (which is very similar to the Playstation style controllers with dual analog thumb sticks). I've used the following tutorials to get to where I currently am:

"DosBox - PC", <https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/PC#tutorials>, accessed 2019-12-02.
"Mapping a Game Controller in Kodi - PetRockBlock", <https://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/topic/ma … di/#post-106586>, accessed 2019-12-02.
"DosBox; Mapping mouse to PS3 Analog Stick", <https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2032/dosb … s3-analog-stick>, accessed 2019-12-02.
"F310 Gamepad - Logitech", <https://www.logitechg.com/en-ca/products/game … 10-gamepad.html>, accessed 2019-12-02.

What I've done, is configure Blood to use "Keyboard + Mouse" controls via the "SETUP.EXE" tool that is bundled with it. For example, the WASD keys are mapped to movement/strafing, and the mouse is configured for turning/aiming. I also use the following launcher script to invoke "joymap" and DosBox to launch my game.

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/blood.sh

1#!/bin/bash
2LOADMAP="/home/pi/joy/loadmap"
3KEYMAP="/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/blood/blood_keys.map"
4DOSBOX="/opt/retropie/emulators/dosbox/bin/dosbox"
5PC_ROMS="/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc"
6
7sudo "${LOADMAP}" "${KEYMAP}" &
8"${DOSBOX}" -c "mount c ${PC_ROMS}" -c "c:" -c "cd BLOOD" -c "SETUP.EXE" -c "exit"
9sudo killall loadmap
10sleep 1

Additionally, by careful inspection using the jscal and jstest tools via the command-line, I generated the following joymap configuration file.

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/blood/blood_keys.map

1# General Mouse Mapping for DOSBox for Blood (1997), Monolith.
2
3################################################################################
4# Movement.
5################################################################################
6# Walk forward/backward.
7# "w" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-stick up"
8# "s" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-stick down"
9axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=1 target=kbd minus="w" plus="s"
10
11# Strafe left/right.
12# "a" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-stick left"
13# "d" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-stick right"
14axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=0 target=kbd minus="a" plus="d"
15
16# Rotate left/right.
17axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=3 target=mouse axis=1 deadzone=1000
18
19# Look up/down (must use "toggle mouse aim" toggle button at least once!).
20axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=4 target=mouse axis=0 deadzone=1000
21
22# Run.
23# "t" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-shoulder"
24axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=2 target=kbd plus="t"
25
26# Jump.
27# "k" ==> Logitech F310 "A"
28button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=0 target=kbd button="k"
29
30# Crouch.
31# "h" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-button"
32button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=9 target=kbd button="h"
33
34
35################################################################################
36# Action buttons.
37################################################################################
38# Use item.
39# "p" ==> Logitech F310 "Right-shoulder"
40axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=5 target=kbd plus="p"
41
42# Open door (action).
43# "j" ==> Logitech F310 "X"
44button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=2 target=kbd button="j"
45
46# Toggle mouse/right-analog-stick aiming (always do this once).
47# "l" ==> Logitech F310 "Right-analog-button"
48button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=10 target=kbd button="l"
49
50# Previous weapon.
51# "u" ==> Logitech F310 "Y"
52button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=3 target=kbd button="u"
53
54# Next weapon.
55# "i" ==> Logitech F310 "B"
56button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=1 target=kbd button="i"
57
58# Previous item.
59# "," ==> Logitech F310 "Select"
60button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=6 target=kbd button=","

…Show last 13 lines

61
62# Next item.
63# "." ==> Logitech F310 "Start"
64button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=7 target=kbd button="."
65
66# Fire weapon.
67# "o" ==> Logitech F310 "Right trigger"
68button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=5 target=kbd button="o"
69
70# Alt-fire weapon.
71# "y" ==> Logitech F310 "Left trigger"
72button vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=4 target=kbd button="y"

Problem/Question

If I click the left mouse button, the thumb sticks (left for movement, right for aiming), begin to work, but they are constantly spinning in circles. I tried setting "deadzone" to 100, 1000, etc.; but can't get the thumb sticks to be usable (in a meaningful sense). How do I fine-tune the analog sticks?
None of the "button" entries work. I've configured the game to expect, the "w", "a", "s", "d"; buttons to correspond to movement. However, none of my button inputs work at all. I could, hypothetically, use the DosBox mapper (i.e. via CTRL+F1) to configure these keys, but I'd prefer to use a single tool to remap all the game pad's digital/analog controls rather than adding more levels of complexity to my setup. How do I get my button mappings working?

If I can figure this out, I'll gladly post an in-depth tutorial (with pictures) in the future.

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

Reply 1 of 1, by PicoFemto

Posted on 2019-12-03, 15:53

PicoFemto Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: 2019-12-03, 14:14

So I've made some (lucky) progress this morning. Analog controls are mostly fine with the changes below. Now to figure out why digital button presses aren't being received by the game. Doesn't make sense, as analog stick controls are being converted to WASD keys. It's as if the joystick-button-to-keyboard-button functionality is broken somehow.

1# General Mouse Mapping for DOSBox for Blood (1997), Monolith.
2
3################################################################################
4# Movement.
5################################################################################
6# Walk forward/backward (analog input to digital output).
7# "w" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-stick up"
8# "s" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-stick down"
9axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=1 target=kbd minus="w" plus="s" min=-32767 max=32767 deadzone=1000            flags="trinary"                                                                         
10
11# Strafe left/right (analog input to digital output).
12# "a" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-stick left"
13# "d" ==> Logitech F310 "Left-analog-stick right"
14axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=0 target=kbd minus="a" plus="d" min=-32767 max=32767 deadzone=1000            flags="trinary"                                                                         
15
16# Rotate left/right (analog input to analog output).
17axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=3 target=mouse axis=0           min=-32767 max=32767 deadzone=1000 speed=1200                                                                                         
18
19# Look up/down (analog input to analog output).
20# Must use "toggle mouse aim" toggle button at least once!
21axis vendor=0x046d product=0xc21d src=4 target=mouse axis=1           min=-32767 max=32767 deadzone=1000 speed=800  flags="trinary,invert"

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