wing commander 3 control issue

Jdawg

Jdawg

Commodore
I just started playing wc3 again and I map the arrow keys to my controller, all works well except the down key, the ship wont move that direction after a point, has anyone else ever experienced that problem, whats strange is that it works fin when I run the simulator it only happens during missions
 
I haven't experienced this, but then I almost always just map the joystick axis to the left stick. Is there a reason you are mapping the keyboard controls instead of joystick to the pad?
 
yes bc in wc3 and wc4 I have always had bad deadzone issues and with the keyboard mapping it helps a lot, still dont get the precision I really want but its a good 85 percent effective, like I said when I run the simulator it works good, and in some missions it works, but then others it does not. its not the controller bc when I actually used the keyboard the same things happened, whats strange is you can see blair grabbing the stick in the game but it just wont move after a certain pt, it seems to be the worst in the hellcat.
 
still having problem with all ships except the arrow. the controls for the arrow ship work great but in every other ship at a certain point the down arrow key stops moving the ship its the strangest thing I have ever seen
 
The only thing I can think of is maybe it's some kind of overflow error where the gamepad is trying to register more key hits than the game or dosbox can handle. Does your gamepad come with custom mapping software? Are you using that software or the built in mapping in dosbox? What happens when you try flying with just straight keyboard instead of the gamepad? Does the error still happen when using an actual keyboard?
 
AD said:
The only thing I can think of is maybe it's some kind of overflow error where the gamepad is trying to register more key hits than the game or dosbox can handle. Does your gamepad come with custom mapping software? Are you using that software or the built in mapping in dosbox? What happens when you try flying with just straight keyboard instead of the gamepad? Does the error still happen when using an actual keyboard?
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thanks for the reply I use mapping software joytokey, but I thought that as well and have unplugged the gamepad and used the keyboard and the down arrow key wont work there after a certain pt either. I guess I could try a reinstall of the game
 
I would give it one more shot using just they keyboard but make sure the joytokey program isn't resident in memmory. If it still does it, then we can eliminate that program as the culprit. Likely the issue is something to do with the way dosbox is handling key presses. Other people have noted dosbox interprets things a bit funny and things like afterburners don't work right either.

It's possible playing with some of doxbox's input settings might help (can't hurt to try). Another suggestion is to try and switch dosbox from auto cores and cycles to dynamic and a fixed cycle setting (IIRC 50k is good for WC3). The fluxuations in the way auto core works could possibly be messing with the way key hits are registered by dosbox.
 
just uninstalled joytokey and rebooted problem is still there. why do you think the problem is ship specific? like I said when I fly the arrow the game pad and keyboard work perfectly but the problem effects every other ship to where the down and left key do not work.
 
It's weird that it only seems to affect that one fighter for you. It is the fastest fighter though, so I have no idea if that has anything to do with it. Typically I find I do end up doing quicker and more hurried turns when I have the ship velocity up. That still doesn't explain though why it only affects the down key. I'm going to try and see if it will do the same on my PC if I fly with the arrow using the keyboard... It still seems to be something about the way dosbox runs.

Another suggestion though: I don't remember some of the older dosbox versions having this issue, so you could also try running an older version http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox/files/dosbox/. Some of the WC games ran way more stably with the older versions like 6.3 than they do in some of the newer versions.

EDIT = I did a trial run using just the keyboard in Dosbox 0.73 and came up with nothing conclusive though they weren't the most thorough tests. I played a mission with both the hellcat and the arrow. Turning using the keyboard felt like the ship was turning in molasses. It felt like it was turning at half speed. I know i was fighting darkets but it did really feel like it things were going at half the rate they should. Vertical was also way more sluggish than horizontal movement. The arrow was obviously faster but the slow turn rates still seemed to be there.

Secondly, the number pad was also twice as slow to turn than using the directional keys
 
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I had a similar Keyboard bug in some WC game ages ago was (pure DOS). What fixed it (temporarly) was to klick once into the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. Just something you might want to try.
 
thank both of yall for the quick reply but there is a mis understanding. the arrow ship is the only ship that works, the hellcat, longbow, and thunderbolt are all broken when it comes to turning. its not that the controls are slugglish I mean after a certain pt the left and down keys literally stop moving the ship.what is strange is the animation show blair turning the flight stick down and left but the actual ship will not move one inch, I cant even line up an enemy cap ship
 
I have the exact issue in WC3 when flying with keyboard. Only ship I can use is Arrow. On a side note, I'm now really good with an Arrow.... :)

This is the most furstrating and annoying issue. My only guess is that there is some bug in the software but Arrow is not impacting since it is the most maneuverable. (e.g. some formula calculating movement is hosed .....)

Jdawg said:
thank both of yall for the quick reply but there is a mis understanding. the arrow ship is the only ship that works, the hellcat, longbow, and thunderbolt are all broken when it comes to turning. its not that the controls are slugglish I mean after a certain pt the left and down keys literally stop moving the ship.what is strange is the animation show blair turning the flight stick down and left but the actual ship will not move one inch, I cant even line up an enemy cap ship
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One issue is the precision with which angles were stored. I don't remember seeing it on the keyboard but the higher the framerate the less able the game was to respond to subtle joystick motions.
If its the DOS version try tweaking DOSBox to lower the framerate, the lower it is the better the turning.
 
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