Mouse Look in Dark Forces?

So I bought Dark Forces from a 2nd hand store yesterday for $5 (US$2.50).

I know in a previous thread about DF one of the comments I made was that the lack of mouselook is frustrating. WSAENOTSOCK (I think) claimed that mouselook was there, you just had to enable it. I can't find that thread now.

Consequently I've done a preliminary websearch, and even looked for patches, but no luck.

Does anyone know of mouselook being available in DF?

Maybe I'm better off trying to bind Page Up and Page Down to my scroll wheel & seeing if that gets me anywhere?

Are there any other interesting utilities / patches / hacks worth finding? Better textures, mid level saves - that sort of thing? Anything to improve gameplay on modern PCs?

 

I remember her saying that too. I believe the only way you can do it is to bind the mouselook to a button - say, the right mouse button. Then, you could just hold that button down and aim with the mouse. Granted, your middle finger and the muscles in your hand will get tired. But I think it's the only way. edit: If you have an Intellimouse explorer or Optical, you could bind it to one of the side keys. Or if your hand gets tired, you can bind the key to the keyboard.

As for all of those other things, no idea.

 

> If you have an Intellimouse explorer or Optical, you could bind it to one of the side keys. <

Side buttons is an option 4 for up, 5 for down (yeah, I have an optical intellimouse) if one can't bind to the scrollwheel, which would be preferable.

I've never needed to bind keys to the mouse before, so I'll test it out tonight.

Can you set up different preset key bind combos for different games? And just enable the desired one prior to game launch?

 

It depends on the software. The new software (I believe 4.0, not sure, check out MS's downloads site) allows you to choose a program (the DF .exe of course) and pre-select the binded buttons for that program.

So, say you did this: In the program, you set the left thumb button to Alt and the right pinky button to Ctrl. Every time the game launched, those buttons would be mapped to those functions. All you would have to do is set those functions in the game - so if you wanted the left thumb button to be the mouselook, in the DF key configuration, you would set mouselook to the Alt key. Or you could do the up and down thing for the scroll wheel, but that's less accurate. I suppose it saves your hands though.

So every time the game launched, MS's software would bind the appropriate keys to the mouse, and the game would do the rest. So it's very simple. I do it all the time.

 

I was all right playing DF without mouselook even after I was used to mouselook from JK and JO. DF has auto-aiming so you don't have to be as precise in where you are pointing your gun.

 

Yeah, but I don't much care for scrambling for the Page Up / Down keys when I'm being shot at from a ledge above my field of vision.

If I can map those keys to my mouse buttons, I'll be a happy lad -> thanks Dan, I'll test it out over the weekend.

 

If it's possible, map the mouselook key to a remote keyboard key, and then jam that down with something, a folded piece of paper for example. Works better than having to hold the button down at all times.

I remember I had to do that for the original Quake.

 

Um...you don't, er...happen to know how *I* can get sound for DF, do ya? Someone told me a while back there was a patch I had to d/l, but I can't find where the link to that patch is.

 

You probably need a Soundblaster emulator. You can get the one I use, VDMSound, here.

 

I saw Dark Forces for $10 at CompUSA that said "for Windows 95/98".

Anyone seen that before? :-\

-Kev

 

It truly does suck when you've got the newer operating systems (2k, XP) and newer sound cards like the Live! and Audigy and you can't even get the sound to work for older games like Dark Forces and the myriad of Sierra and LucasArts adventure games. I can't stand that. Still can't figure out how to get all of them to have working sound.

As for the older FPS games - most of them were controlled (most people I knew played like this) with the arrow keys on the right side of the keyboard. I didn't know many people before Quake I was out that used WASD to play FPS games. DECENT Mouselook wasn't native till...I think Half-Life if I'm not mistaken. Sure other games tried it, but I think Half-Life perfected the mouse-look. I could be wrong though...

 

Bah. Installation issues. There's a bunch of help at lec.com, but I haven't had time to digest it all yet. I'll get there.

I guess if worst comes to worst I just need to wait for this;

Dark Forces JO TC

Some nice screenies & models already being showcased. Check it out all you DF fans.

 

omgomgomgomgomg

 

Sweet. I love DF. A TC is just what I'm looking for.

Edit: The Gammorean is looking good. I'm sure it wil be realeased by someone as a MP skin.

 

Here's that original thread where WAESNOTSOCK mentions binding mouse look in DF. I'm gonna have to ICQ her & see if she can help.

I can't even figure out how to change the keys (the 2nd hand copy I bought has no instructions).

Also some good links in that thread by Jeff 42 to get the thing installed with sound.

I've played it a couple of times straight from the cd (no sound, no level save) so am looking forward to getting it working correctly tonight.

 

wasenotsock started school and is busy, no disturbing her plz , plus icq is nevar on.

 

I'm really considering going back and playing this starting tonight. Memories. But I just dread the though of the sewage system in the third (?) level. I ALWAYS get stuck there, and it makes me mad every time.

 

So would this game work on my XP system? It has always seemed fun, but never bought for the reason that I didn't think it would work.

Sooo, would it work?

 

I remember it working on Windows 2000, so it should work on XP. I'll let you know for sure when I try it later today, hopefully.

 

Well, when I managed to install it properly, the key controls came up. And I bound page up / page down to mouse button 4 & 5 as Dan recommended. It's good enough. Digital sound is fine, though I have no music.

I'm in the sewers now. I remember playing that level with my friend when the game first came out. It's horrible.

I might just go for a walkthrough, as I really can't be bothered getting stuck there for weeks.

 

It works under XP. You may just need a decent emulator for your sound card if it's too recent... Like VDM Sound, for example.

 

I'm using win98, not XP.

 

I was responding to Sithy...

 

Thanks Xizor. It's just that since Jaepee took control of Games, he thinks every piece of advice is directed at him.


(Jaepee, I'm JOKING. Sheesh. )

 

You pampered pansies. DF is fine. Just get used to the controls.