Cube/Sauerbraten Game Controller Support

dbox | 2006-03-22 20:33

This content is compatible with older edition(s) of the game it was made for, and is not guaranteed to work with the current or development versions.

Blurb Play Cube or Sauerbraten console-style from the comfort of your couch...

Screenshot Cube/Sauerbraten Game Controller Support

Get original file (56KB)

Detailed description

UPDATED 5/25/2006
- Updated to be compatible with the 04/26/06 build of Sauerbraten.
- Fixed typo in keymap.cfg that was causing binding errors.

UPDATED 4/05/2006
- Added menu-driven joystick configuration. See below for details.

UPDATED 3/29/2006
- Added the joyshowevents property. See below for details.
- Also, verified that the mod works with non-analog sticks.

UPDATED 3/25/2006
This mod now contains executables for both Sauerbraten and Cube.

Why would you do this?
Just for kicks I thought I would see if I could set up game controller support for sauerbraten. I know most serious PC gamers would never dream of giving up the mouse. Personally, I sometimes get tired of being hunched over the computer and find it relaxing to sit back on the couch and play console-style. So if you've got a laptop with support for TV-output and a pc game controller with at least one stick (preferably analog) on it you might give this a shot.

How it works:
Basically, I took the approach that I would intercept joystick events and translate them into sauerbraten keypress events. This allows joystick events to be "bound" to actions like you would any other keyboard or mouse event.

Config File Settings
I added the following variables to the config.cfg to configure the joystick:

joyfovxaxis / joyfovyaxis
This setting specifies which stick should control the field of view (what the mouse does for you now). Each stick has a horizontal and a vertical axis. Each axis is numbered starting with 1. So, for example, on my controller, which is very similar to the one pictured above, if I wanted the use the left stick the settings would be:
joyfovxaxis 1 joyfovyaxis 2
or
joyfovxaxis 2 joyfovyaxis 1
depending on how your controller numbers the axes.

If you wanted to use the right one (recommended) the settings would be:
joyfovxaxis 3 joyfovyaxis 4
or
joyfovxaxis 3 joyfovyaxis 4

joyfovinvert
Specifies how the stick controls your field of view. If set to 0 you will look in the direction you press on the stick. If set to 1 (inverted) the control works like a flight simulator: pull back on the stick to nose up, push forward to nose down. This is the default.

joyaxisminmove
This property sets up the minimum amount of movement that is required to trigger an event when binding axis movements to actions. The range for this setting is 1-30. If set to 1 you basically just have to breath hard on the stick and it will trigger the event. If set to 30 you'll have to push it practically to the edge. The default is 8.

joysensitivity
This is the property you'll probably end up tweaking the most. On certain maps where you're getting really low fps you might need to bump this up a bit. The range for this setting is 1-10 where 1 is the least sensitive and 10 is the most. Remember, these values can be set from within the game. Just type /joysensitivity n at the console to bump the sensitivity up or down, or better yet, create an alias and map this to a couple of your joystick buttons. (See the response below titled "Joystick Sensitivity Script" for an example of how to do this.)

joyshowevents
This property is meant to be used when configuring your game controller. When joyshowevents is set to 1, all joystick events will be displayed in the console. This will help you determine which button to use when binding actions to the joystick, as well as which axis to use for movement and field of view control.

For example, if you want to use a certain button to fire your gun, press that button and you will see something like this displayed in the console:
JOYBUTTON7: DOWN JOYBUTTON7: UP
You can then bind that button from within the game by typing:
/bind JOYBUTTON7 [attack]
(Binding joystick events is discussed further in the next section.)

This is also useful for configuring the field of view axis. In this case you just move the axis to the left and right and then up and down. This will display which axes are being moved which you can use to set the joyfovxaxis and joyfovyaxis values.

Binding Joystick Events
There are currently three types of joystick events you can bind to actions:

Binding Buttons
I've left space for up to 20 joystick buttons that can be bound to the action of your choice. For example, I wanted to map "attack/shoot" to my right trigger finger button, and "jump" to the trigger finger on the left. On my controller the right trigger button is button 8 and the left trigger button is button 7, so I added the following lines to my config.cfg file:
bind "JOYBUTTON8" [attack] bind "JOYBUTTON7" [jump]

Binding Stick Movements
I've left space for up to 5 sticks (10 total axes) that can be bound to actions. Like in the picture above I wanted to use the left stick to control my movement: push forward on the stick to move forward, back to move backward, right and left to strafe. So, I added the following lines:
bind "JOYAXIS1MIN" [left] bind "JOYAXIS1MAX" [right] bind "JOYAXIS2MIN" [forward] bind "JOYAXIS2MAX" [backward]

Binding Pad Movements
Some controllers, like the one in the picture above, have those little up/down/left/right "pad" or "hat" controls. In the picture above I have up mapped to zoom-in and down mapped to zoom-out. The binding for that would look like this:
bind "JOYHAT1NORTH" [fov 15; crosshairsize 50] bind "JOYHAT1SOUTH" [fov 110; crosshairsize 22]
You could also use that pad for controlling your movement. That would look like this:
bind "JOYHAT1NORTH" [forward] bind "JOYHAT1NE" [forward; right] bind "JOYHAT1EAST" [right] bind "JOYHAT1SE" [backward; right] bind "JOYHAT1SOUTH" [backward] bind "JOYHAT1SW" [backward; left] bind "JOYHAT1WEST" [left] bind "JOYHAT1NW" [forward; left]

Menu Configuration
Sauerbraten users can now configure joysticks using the much more intuitive menu-driven interface. Simply navigate to the joystick menu under options->joystick (If you do not see the images below go here):

The following screen will be displayed:

From this menu you can configure all of the joystick settings. The example above shows the user changing the joystick axis used for looking left and right. The example below shows the user selecting an action for a button:

I recommend that you first set "show events" to "yes" before setting the other properties. This will cause the joystick events to be displayed in the console as buttons are pressed or axes are moved. This should help when deciding which button, pad or axis to use with each setting or action.

Disclaimers:

This is built from the 4/26/06 release for Sauerbraten and the 8/29/2005 release for Cube.
This works for all(2) of my controllers. I do not know if it will work for you. (Please try it out and let me know.)
If your game controller does not have at least one stick, this will not work.
This supports only one game controller. If you have more than one connected, I'm just going to take the first one I find.
If no game controller is recognized, or the game controller cannot be initialized for whatever reason there will be no notification, sauerbraten will just load as normal.
I have not tried this on linux yet.
Note to Cube Players: Because of cheat protection built into Cube, modified clients cannot connect to official release servers. So if you want to play online with others you'll have to start up a server using the executable included.
Note to Cube Players: The menu-driven configuration is currently only available for Sauerbraten. If there is enough interest I can back-port this feature to Cube.

Let me know what you think.

- dbox

Mod file sauerjoy.zip (261.96 KB)

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Comments

dbox | 2006-03-28 15:33

Well, I came up with a pretty handy little script for adjusting the joystick sensitivity in-game and I thought I'd share. In this example I'm using the north and south positions on the directional pad (hat) to increase and decrease the joystick sensitivity:


bind "JOYHAT1NORTH" [
  if (  $joysensitivity 1 ) [
    joysensitivity ( - $joysensitivity 1 );
    echo "joysensitivity: " $joysensitivity
  ]
]

Each time the setting is changed, the new setting value is displayed in the console. If you don't have a directional pad on your joystick you can just bind this to a couple of buttons (ex: JOYBUTTON1).

This works in both Cube and Sauerbraten.

Passa | 2006-03-28 20:03

Any chance of support for non-analogue joysticks soon?

dbox | 2006-03-28 21:31

I considered implementing that originally, but I thought I would wait and see if there was any interest. Since there is I'll go ahead and add that.

The tricky thing about non-analog support is that there is really no way (at least not one I've thought of yet) to be able to control the speed at which you look around.

With the mouse you control this with how fast you move the mouse around. With an analog stick you control this with how far from the center you move the stick. But using the direction pad or joystick buttons, you basically just have on or off. So you will always be looking around at a constant speed.

So that's the challenge... I'll go ahead and look at implementing the ability to map the field of view control to button and/or direction pad events.

I'm open to ideas and suggestions on how to vary the speed of the turn.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of game controller do you have?

Passa | 2006-03-29 05:28

it is just like a PS2 controller except it does not have analog sticks. its USB and dosent need drivers... thrustmaster brand i think

dbox | 2006-03-29 07:49

I did some testing tonight using my Gravis Gamepad Pro which has only one stick and it is non-analog. I was able to verify that the mod does work with non-analog sticks.

Now you won't have nearly the control you would have with an analog stick, but it actually does work fairly well.

Be sure to check out the details above about the new property I added: joyshowevents. It should make the process of setting up your controller a bit easier.

Let me know how it works for you.

Passa | 2006-04-01 07:17

I did some testing with my old crappy controller...
After a bit of configuration it worked beautifully!!
I didnt have much control but it was good fun regardless!

I think this joystick support should be added to the official Sauer

dbox | 2006-04-01 08:31

Thanks for trying it out! I'm glad to know it worked for you.

I'm working on an update now that will make configuring the controller easier using dynamic menus. I should be posting it fairly soon.

jnrz | 2006-07-21 02:55

where can i find the files for the new Sauerbraten version.
thank you

Acieeed | 2006-07-21 08:46

Here -> http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=102911

HAVE FUN !

jnrz | 2006-07-23 01:59

i mean the sauerjoy files for the new Sauerbraten version.
current sauerjoy file is 5/25/2006

thanks

dbox | 2006-09-23 19:42

I've been too slammed with work lately to keep up with all the sauerbratening...

I'll try to have a new joystick support build in the next couple of days.

Assnade | 2008-07-30 00:15

I just bought a joystick soley for Sauer, and I am glad to have found this section!!! Thanks alot dbox!

If you cannot beat them...utterly ANNIHILATE them!

Assnade | 2008-07-30 00:37

When I go to run sauerjoy.bat I't can't run b/c I am missing zlib.dll

How can I get this fill, and what am I not doing right, lol?

-Thanks again

If you cannot beat them...utterly ANNIHILATE them!

adinsx144 | 2009-09-04 15:58

I have the same problem, have you found a solution yet?

CC_machine | 2008-08-23 18:45

would appreciate Linux clients. Pretty much any gamepad/joystick will work just fine with linux, so...
otherwise, looking good, but I can't test it.

can i unzip the source files into the latest Sauerbraten and compile? i would with cube, but i can never get cube to compile.

arnold2k10 | 2010-04-09 14:18

hi, im wondering if you can make a config for the xbox 360 controller? many thanks