Joysticks, The Ooniverse and Mint 13 KDE

[Halfhand]

Greetings commanders

I've just spent the evening setting up Oolite (oolite-1.77.linux-x86_64.run) on Linux Mint 13 and wanted to share my experiences because of how long it took me to get it set up and working with my old commanders from 1.65 for Windows. I'm no linux guru but everything seems to be working fine.

oolite 1.77 installed for all users

FULLSCREEN ON DUAL DISPLAY

I have 2 displays (4:3, 1280x1024) and initially oolite spanned both screens, not pretty to say the least, after digging around the GNUstep website i inserted the following just above <key>fullscreen</key> in ~/GNUstep/Defaults/.GNUstepDefaults

Code: Select all

<key>display_height</key>
<integer>1024</integer>
<key>display_width</key>
<integer>1280</integer>

ran the game up and it worked. Afterwards i realised that i could use left and right arrows to select a different fullscreen mode in "Game Options" This wasn't obvious and i never noticed it documented in the wiki.

I still dont know how to make it use the secondary monitor though, lucky for me i wanted it on the primary anyway.


JOYSTICK

I have a bog standard USB Trust Predator QZ501, its nearly 9 years old now but still does the job, i think it was under £10 back then.

make the xserver accept input from joysticks

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-joystick 

to stop the joystick interfering with the mouse /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-joystick.conf looks like this, all I added was the Option lines.

Code: Select all

Section "InputClass"
	Identifier "joystick catchall"
	MatchIsJoystick "on"
	MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
	Driver "joystick"
	Option "DebugLevel" "0"
	Option "StartKeysEnabled" "false"
	Option "StartMouseEnabled" "false"
EndSection

To check the joystick was working and all of the axes are recognised

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install joystick evtest jstest-gtk
jstest /dev/input/js0

run through all of the axes and watch the pretty data to confirm the joystick axes are recognised and working. It said mine had 6 axes, it turned out that the hat was axes 5&6, while researching i found that some folks joysticks came up as js1, if yours does that then just replace my js0 with js1.

To make SDL based games see the joystick add the following line to the end of /etc/environment
SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE="/dev/input/js0"


INSTALLING OXPs EN MASSE

I've played oolite before and have a few commanders that i wanted to resurrect but that meant I needed quite a few OXPs installing, I'd already spent a few hours figuring out the joystick so wanted a quick and dirty way to get this done.

I downloaded all of the OXps that i wanted and then moved them into a new folder on their own so i would have them all later if needed (~/Downloads/oxps)

Using Dolphin, I then selected ALL of the .zip files and right clicked and chose "Extract/Extract Archive Here,Autodetect Subfolder" and it magically unzipped all of them to their own subfolders.

after a lot of fannying around i found i had to install them to /opt/Oolite/AddOns/ because i had installed for all users. More importantly, it had to be done as root. I right clicked the oxps folder and chose "Root Actions / Open In File Manager"

Made sure Dolphin was in Details View Mode (Ctrl-3) and expanded the folders so I could see the .oxp folder names.
go to Setting/Configure Dolphin/General/Context Menu and tick Show 'Copy To'

Then I selected all of the .oxp folders using Ctrl LeftClick and then right clicked for the menu. Chose "CopyTo" and browsed to /opt/Oolite/AddOns before clicking "copy here" and magically they all got copied in to the folder at the same time.

copied my old commander files into ~/oolite-saves and ran the game.

Right On Commander!



These are the OXPs i installed in one fell swoop.

• Aquatics 2.30.oxp
  Armoury 1.11.oxp
  Assassins.oxp
  BigShips 1.02.oxp
  BountyScannerv2.0.oxp
  ClippersV1.3.1.oxp
  Commies.oxp
  Executive Spaceways v2.4.oxp
  FTZ v0.15.oxp
  Fuel Station 1.34.oxp
  griff_boa_prototype_normalmapped.oxp
  Griff_Shipset_Replace_v1.34.oxp
  Griff_Shipset_Resources_v1.2.25.oxp
  griff_station_bundle_fullsize_tex_v1.1.oxp
  hOopyCasino1.2.1.oxp
  RandomHits1.4.18.oxp
  Rock_Hermit_Locator1.3.3.oxp
  sell_equipment.oxp
  Shady_blackmonks_v1.46.oxp
  System_Redux.oxp
  Target Reticle 1.2.1.oxp
  Tori2.01.oxp
  UPS-courier v1.8.1.oxp
  x-ships.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_A_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_B_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_C_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_D_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_E_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_F_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_G_4.1.7.oxp

Hopefully this post will save some other poor soul some heartache, it's hard to stay focussed when daydreaming about Rock Hermits and Naval Energy units.

Turns out my commander was saved with a full cargo bay, I'm off to the market!

Halfhand
Python ET Special (Dangerous 2027)

[Diziet Sma]

G'day, Halfhand, and welcome aboard!

Thanks for the feedback, too.

I've just spent the evening setting up Oolite (oolite-1.77.linux-x86_64.run) on Linux Mint 13 and wanted to share my experiences because of how long it took me to get it set up and working with my old commanders from 1.65 for Windows. I'm no linux guru but everything seems to be working fine.

1.65 eh? So it's been a while, huh?

FULLSCREEN ON DUAL DISPLAY

I have 2 displays (4:3, 1280x1024) and initially oolite spanned both screens, not pretty to say the least, after digging around the GNUstep website i inserted the following just above <key>fullscreen</key> in ~/GNUstep/Defaults/.GNUstepDefaults

Code: Select all

<key>display_height</key>
<integer>1024</integer>
<key>display_width</key>
<integer>1280</integer>

ran the game up and it worked. Afterwards i realised that i could use left and right arrows to select a different fullscreen mode in "Game Options" This wasn't obvious and i never noticed it documented in the wiki.

Thanks for that.. I run a pair of spanned 1280x1024 monitors too (Mint13 MATE), with Oolite in fullscreen across both. I've actually gotten used to the sights being split, half on each screen, and quite like the setup. (see this post for pics) However, if I ever go to change it, thanks to you, I know how.

I still dont know how to make it use the secondary monitor though, lucky for me i wanted it on the primary anyway.

Try changing to windowed mode, dragging the window across to the other monitor, then switching back to fullscreen. If it works like it does for Firefox and Thunderbird, Oolite will remember which monitor to use, although it may start on the 'wrong' one for a few seconds before switching to the other monitor.

Joystick: I'm very surprised you had to go to so much effort. My Saitek Cyborg EVO 'just worked' with Mint and Oolite.

after a lot of fannying around i found i had to install them to /opt/Oolite/AddOns/ because i had installed for all users.

Thanks for reminding me.. I still need to edit the wiki to make the descriptions of the various Linux OXP locations a bit clearer.

These are the OXPs i installed in one fell swoop.

• Aquatics 2.30.oxp
  Armoury 1.11.oxp
  Assassins.oxp
  BigShips 1.02.oxp
  BountyScannerv2.0.oxp
  ClippersV1.3.1.oxp
  Commies.oxp
  Executive Spaceways v2.4.oxp
  FTZ v0.15.oxp
  Fuel Station 1.34.oxp
  griff_boa_prototype_normalmapped.oxp
  Griff_Shipset_Replace_v1.34.oxp
  Griff_Shipset_Resources_v1.2.25.oxp
  griff_station_bundle_fullsize_tex_v1.1.oxp
  hOopyCasino1.2.1.oxp
  RandomHits1.4.18.oxp
  Rock_Hermit_Locator1.3.3.oxp
  sell_equipment.oxp
  Shady_blackmonks_v1.46.oxp
  System_Redux.oxp
  Target Reticle 1.2.1.oxp
  Tori2.01.oxp
  UPS-courier v1.8.1.oxp
  x-ships.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_A_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_B_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_C_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_D_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_E_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_F_4.1.7.oxp
  YOUR_AD_HERE_set_G_4.1.7.oxp

Hmmm.. you don't have  BGS (the BackGround Set), I see. Give it a try.. it brings Oolite into the 21st Century, and makes it feel like a whole new game. It has excellent sound effects, too. (Almost forgot.. you get an absolutely amazing new hyperspace effect too, if your graphics card supports shaders)

[Halfhand]

Thanks for the welcome Diziet, and even more thanks for pointing me at BGS, that put a grin on my face! I have an nVidia GT440 1GB and BGS looks fantastic.

I tried your suggestion for fullscreen on the secondary monitor but it just snapped to the primary again. Your monitor setup is very similar to mine, i had fullscreen on primary monitor using 1.65 and the GNUstepDefaults change i mentioned in my OP. That was on Kubuntu.

Joystick: I'm very surprised you had to go to so much effort. My Saitek Cyborg EVO 'just worked' with Mint and Oolite.

Its worse than that, my joystick lost its calibration after a reboot but i followed Tichy's instructions for Arch Linux and it worked a treat for my Mint 13 install. I used to have a Cyborg 3D it was excellent until i twisted the yaw too much while playing crimson skies and snapped the stick. (Note to self, don't panic while dogfighting). After that i always had cheap ones.

I'm also a big fan of The Culture, your name didn't pass me by

[Cody]

Note to self, don't panic while dogfighting

<nods> Yep... welcome aboard, Halfhand.

[Diziet Sma]

I tried your suggestion for fullscreen on the secondary monitor but it just snapped to the primary again.

Bummer.. What may work is to open your nVidia X Server Settings panel, and change the Display Configuration from 'TwinView' to 'Separate X screens'. After restarting the X-Server, you then assign one monitor to screen-0 and the other to screen-1. Mind you, I haven't played with this myself, I like my spanned TwinView..

<shameless plug>
edit to add, since you have Random Hits installed, you may find the device linked in my signature handy now and then..
</shameless plug>

[Halfhand]

I use TwinView too, and have never tried separate xscreens.

I'll leave that for another day, just in case i screw my system