Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Discussion of keyboards, gamepads, joysticks and other input related peripherals.
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Alkadian
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Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by Alkadian »

Hi guys,
Do you know whether it is possible or not to make permanent changes in the 'button/key remap for a specific game' option? I understand from the instructions that appear in the menu that 'It will be cleared when you load the new core'. I don't mind remapping the buttons every time , but it would be very good to be able to sort of saving the new remapping for each game.

Thanks a lot!
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by charmless »

I thought it was just a matter of saving your settings after doing the remap in whatever core you are using. That seems to work for me.

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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by Alkadian »

I have tried to save the settings several times but it didn't work. The game in question is Robotron. If you get a chance, would you mind trying with this specific core? That would be appreciated! Many thanks!
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by Newsdee »

Maybe an easier way would be an option to load a saved profile, instead of saving one per core/game.
There are many games that share the same layout, e.g. QAOP + space for Spectrum and early DOS games.
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by Aspie »

I have the same problem with arcade Defender. I remapped 3 keys and have to do it each time I load the core.
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by edr »

Same issue here - would be a great improvement to have remap be persistent after using Save on the settings. Not sure why it's not persistent currently, maybe difficult to implement or requires some unique id to recognize the game that isn't easy to do? (could be done based on hash of game file on disk or partial content in the game).

Problems with lack of persistence:
- Has to be done over and over
- Cannot be done without a keyboard - so each time I want to play certain games, I have to unpack and plug in a keyboard to do the remap. The reason it requires a keyboard is that after mapping buttons/keys, have to press <Enter> on a keyboard to complete the changes. Unfortunately pressing the USER button on the mister board does not work to apply changes for this remap feature.
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by FoxbatStargazer »

There is AFAIK no support for saving button remaps. There IS save support for alternative inputs, i.e. the second round of input assignments when you configure a controller for a core, but that is a far more limited feature.
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by edr »

FoxbatStargazer wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 5:20 pm There is AFAIK no support for saving button remaps. There IS save support for alternative inputs, i.e. the second round of input assignments when you configure a controller for a core, but that is a far more limited feature.
Thanks, that's exactly the issue.

Alt inputs are saved permanently.

Game-specific remaps are not saved and gone next time coming back to the core/game.

For ex. on my Sony DS4 controller I have L1/R1 mapped normally, and right analog stick alt mapped as L -> L1, R -> R1.

In some PSX games this rotates the camera clockwise. In some games it rotates the camera the other way. For humans, this is not fun :). So in a few games I would like to reverse the mapping. Unfortunately can't save these settings. And it requires pulling out a keyboard.

PSX games are all over the place in how they use buttons - for ex. some RPG's use square, some triangle to open the menu/status. For confirm/continue, some games use cross, some use circle. Cancel is sometimes circle, sometimes triangle. Would be nice to be able to make some of these more consistent using remap, if I were able to permanently save the remaps.
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by Wave »

Strong agree.

I've known this is an issue for quite a while, but just ran into a big case of it myself yesterday when I wanted to adapt Armored Core's (PSX) outdated control scheme onto a DualShock's sticks. That involved mapping eight buttons to the two sticks. I succeeded, but I will now have to re-perform that tricky series of MiSTer menu inputs every session to reproduce the remap. I would love to see a way to preserve these remaps.

Side thought, the USER button is useful when doing cores' main input mappings; I wonder if there is a good reason why the USER button doesn't work during the per-game remap process? Be nice if it did; might be enough to remove this process's keyboard requirement.

Edit: It would also be nice to have a more elegant way of erasing/resetting per-game button remaps than the current method of closing the core.
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by LamerDeluxe »

I'd love it if there was a way to remap the key (combinations) needed to run attached cartridges, to controller buttons, in some of the computer cores (for instance Atari 800 and VIC-20). Being able to map their function keys would also be handy.

I have a 'The VIC-20' and it allows you to map keys to buttons per game. Which is really useful with computer games that use very different keys per game, often for starting the game and options.
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by akeley »

Being able to save the button remaps permanently would be a huge functionality boon. There are countless games which would benefit, mostly for computers, but also some on consoles too. I made a request for it some time ago, sadly it was closed rather quickly. Still not sure if it's impossible to do, or just unwanted.
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Re: Permanent changes in button/key remap for game

Unread post by Wave »

LamerDeluxe wrote: Tue May 17, 2022 7:57 am I'd love it if there was a way to remap the key (combinations) needed to run attached cartridges, to controller buttons, in some of the computer cores (for instance Atari 800 and VIC-20). Being able to map their function keys would also be handy.
This too. Similarly:

Despite its ability to dump native-res screenshots I find MiSTer is actually a rather poor screenshot machine in practice as the only way to activate the capture function is an awkward keyboard command. (It got more awkward a while back when the command for native-res changed to require three keys.) Hardly something you can do on the fly while actively playing.

It'd be sensible and much more functional to be able to map that to a spare gamepad button.
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