Oolite Bulletins

I know this is probably a question which has been asked before, and probably been answered too.... But the boards are difficult to navigate (no pun intended), and so I felt it better to just again...


I use a standard 8 button digital joypad..... Similar in design to the original Playstation pad, but without the start/select keys in the middle.

As an experienced Elite player, from back in the day... On the Commodore 64 and then the Atari 520ST I never used to have problems.... However.... I moved on from those systems and have been playing the game (on and off) for over 20 years on the NES, which only has controller input.

I'd like to be able to configure the joypad for just the basic commands of 'Increase/decrease speed', 'Hyperspeed' and 'Begin/abandon automatic docking'

Is this possible, or is the default setup the only way to control the game?

TheYorkMan wrote:

I know this is probably a question which has been asked before, and probably been answered too.... But the boards are difficult to navigate (no pun intended),

Welcome aboard, TheYorkMan - I can't help with your query, but Diziet Sma's handy plug-in can be very helpful for searching the forum.

G'day, TheYorkMan, and welcome to "the friendliest board this side of Riedquat!"™

You didn't say exactly which make & model of joypad you're using, or which OS you're playing Oolite on, but assuming you use some version of Windows, you might take a look at JoyToKey.

The other thing that wasn't exactly clear from your post was if you've already tried using the joystick configuration screen from within Oolite itself? (F2->Game Options->Joystick Configuration) That can do everything you mentioned, except the Docking commands, for which you'd need to use JoyToKey.

Another option (again, for Windows) is Xpadder, which, unlike JTK, is not free.. (US$9.99/£5.99 which includes free lifetime updates) it does, however, support an amazingly long list of controllers. (The Xpadder Game Controller DataBase lists 835 models that it supports - even my Saitek Cyborg Evo joystick is listed) There is also a reasonably active forum for support. And here's a link to an Xpadder tutorial


Edit to add: I'm now currently trying out Xpadder myself, and it seems to be a very neat piece of kit.. multiple button profiles (up to 8!), switchable in-game, for starters.. I'm having a ball, figuring out some useful profiles.

Thankyou..

The in game options were where it's at!!

The Printoff of the buttons didn't say F2 brings up an option screen...

So, now we're good to go.

That's great news..

There is a reference to the F2 key, however.. the Oolite Reference Sheet lists it as the "Game Menu" button (under Ship, Systems & Status Controls), where "Options" is just one of the options listed.. a little convoluted, I admit.

As I mentioned though, you won't be able to trigger your Docking Computers via the in-game joystick configuration screen.. if you really want that ability, you'll need to use JoyToKey or Xpadder to assign the function, and simply leave that button unassigned on the Oolite joystick config screen.

Resurrecting an old thread... while trying to set up a joypad I ended up messing it up- is there any way of restoring the default values?