Injustice: Gods Among Us - keyboard control and other issues

[TheManuel]

BadMouth:

One more thing for you to check: make sure you have set up backgroundmode to 1 in the ini file.  This was required for the hack to work on MKKE.

[BadMouth]

Did you guys see this:

http://www.xgaming.com/support/questions/137/Mortal+Kombat+Komplete+Edition+PC+Setup

It should apply to injustice as well

Hadn't seen that, but the download link is for the same files as are used for SSFIV.
I'm using those in almost every PC game on my cab, including MKK and they work great.
But they aren't working with Injustice.  (It worked for SSFIV, SSFIVAE, SFxTekken, & MKK without much trouble)

When I got the game, I assumed that I would just copy the files over from my MKK folder and be good to go.
No such luck.

BadMouth:

One more thing for you to check: make sure you have set up backgroundmode to 1 in the ini file.  This was required for the hack to work on MKKE.

Yup, tried 0, 1.  Tried 2 and 3 just in case they did something. 



The current version of x360ce has another file that contains this type of info:
Name = Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition
HookMask = 0x00000002
I thought if it had a different address for SSFIV or MKk, then we might be onto something, but they are the same. 


I would love it if I were just making some stupid mistake and someone else figured out the correct settings to make it work.
The only posts I've come across online are about it not working.  Someone with more knowledge than me has to be in the same situation. 

[TheManuel]

Yup, tried 0, 1.  Tried 2 and 3 just in case they did something. 

Well, you get credit for effort.  I wonder if DeLuSioNal29 has given this a try and has something to contribute to the cause.
I'm sure somebody will figure it out before long.

[BadMouth]

Like I say, I'm more persistent than good. 
I feel like I've tried every permutation and every mix of old and new versions. 
(because the current version of x360ce works fine with Injustice, but it doesn't accept keyboard input)

You can see my instructions here.

That info should be copied to the first post of the stickied SSFIV thread. 

[TheManuel]

(because the current version of x360ce works fine with Injustice, but it doesn't accept keyboard input)

When you say "works fine", what does it actually do, if the whole purpose of the app is to allow usage of the keyboard?

[BadMouth]

(because the current version of x360ce works fine with Injustice, but it doesn't accept keyboard input)

When you say "works fine", what does it actually do, if the whole purpose of the app is to allow usage of the keyboard?

The purpose of x360ce is to allow use of a dinput gamepad on games that only support xinput.

The x360kb files from the xarcade site are an alternative ini file paired with an early version of x360ce that did allow for keyboard support.
(r444 from what I've been able to find out)
That type of alternative ini file is not supported in the current version.  I bugged the devs, but they don't seem to have much interest in incorporating keyboard support.

When I say the current version works fine, I mean it works as intended with a dinput gamepad.
Injustice supports dinput controllers anyway, but if you use x360ce, it will pick them up as xbox controllers and display the xbox buttons.
http://code.google.com/p/x360ce/

[TheManuel]

The purpose of x360ce is to allow use of a dinput gamepad on games that only support xinput.

I see.  Thanks for the explanation.

[BadMouth]

The pdf guide available here mentions the way some things "were done in previous versions"
http://ngemu.com/threads/various-x360ce-guides-by-resolutespider5.156807/

This part caught my eye:

Hooking alters the messaging between the system dinput8.dll, and the game or

Before x360ce Library R574 (3.3.1.574) it would have looked something like this:

[InputHook]

HookMode=1

I did try adding
[InputHook]
HookMode=1   (and 2..and 3...and 4)

before, but I did not have dinput8.dll present.
I downloaded an old version of x360ce and do have that file.
One more thing to try.....

[BadMouth]

Somewhere in my travels, I picked up the source code for x360kb.
I don't even know where it's from.
Attaching it in case useful.

(as a layman browsing through it, I don't see anyplace where it looks for HookMode or anything else in the ini file other than what's in the included one)

[Howard_Casto]

Well I don't have injustice, but I poked around in MKKE and like most games, there is a simple 2 byte section in memory that controls input.  If you send the appropriate value to the section the corresponding buttons are pressed, regardless of if you are in joystick mode or keyboard mode. 

Now if a person were to NOP the section of code in memory that the keyboard uses to write to this address and write a wrapper to monitor keypresses and write directly to the memory section all problems would be solved.  In other words exactly what I did with troubleshooter 2.   

[TheManuel]

Would a wrapper add noticeable lag to the inputs?
Not that I'm that subtle of a player in any fighting games...

[Howard_Casto]

Well that's the thing... I don't know.  Even though fighter nerds sware up and down that fighting games are ultra responsive, a typical video game only polls the inputs around once every 66 milliseconds, which is an eternity in computer time.  (If the game uses active polling that is). 

It shouldn't be a problem to do a tight loop and do it that quickly, probably much quicker, but if we are talking about millisecond precision, I dunno if that is possible. 

I also don't know if it would effect online play... some games kill online mode if they detect any "hacking".  I don't use online play... it's a frikkin fighting game, but for those that do....

[Connorsdad]

Quietly sitting on the side lines here, only because I wouldn't know where to start with what you guys are doing. Just a quick post to say thanks and show my appreciation

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[TheManuel]

Well that's the thing... I don't know.  Even though fighter nerds sware up and down that fighting games are ultra responsive, a typical video game only polls the inputs around once every 66 milliseconds, which is an eternity in computer time.  (If the game uses active polling that is). 

It's probably not a concern for us normal people, then.
I wonder if brute-force hex-editing the exe or some other files would allow us to change keyboard key assignments, like is possible with some Taito Type X games.

Quietly sitting on the side lines here, only because I wouldn't know where to start with what you guys are doing. Just a quick post to say thanks and show my appreciation

We'll get you and Connor beating up each other's superheroes in no time.

[Howard_Casto]

It's absolutely possible, to look for the hex values and replace them, but mkke.exe is a massive exe relatively speaking and it pulls much of it's code from any number of scripts contained within the xxx files.

Now if I know what method of input it's using for the keyboard (believe it or not xinput also has a keyboard function, in addition to more traditional methods), then it would be easier to find them, but it would still be difficult.   

[Howard_Casto]

Just as a tip for anyone wanting to poke around in the exe...

The hex code for a upper-case "G" (and the virtual code, which is case-insensitive) is 0x47
Lower case is 0x67

This is most likely the values they are using... 99% of the time keyboard input methods adhere to this. 

*edit*   

To give some context when searching, 0xD  = Enter/Return

[BadMouth]

The price has dropped to $25 on the Steam store if anyone wants to join in on the fun.
I probably won't have time to mess with it again until Sunday.

[Fursphere]

Wow..  that was quick.  It was $50 yesterday.

[TheManuel]

Heck, it was $50 this morning.  It won't be long before it drops below $20, like most other games.

[Generic Eric]

I too saw it for a higher price this am.

If they can afford to do 50% off now, will it be cheaper during the winter sale?  I am really kicking myself for not getting MKKE @ $9.99.


Kudos by the way.  I would have given up a long time ago.

[BadMouth]

Didn't drop quite as fast as MKK.

It was $37 last week for the Steam autumn sale.
That's when I bought it.

I was originally waiting for it to hit $20, but after getting into Mortal Kombat Komplete and liking it so much,
I thought I'd reward the developers buy paying a little more for their next game.
How silly I was.

EDIT:

Kudos by the way.  I would have given up a long time ago.

I could have it working completely anytime I want by giving in and using a combination of Key-Wiz uploader and vjoy.
That's not the way I want it to work though.   

[TheManuel]

I was originally waiting for it to hit $20, but after getting into Mortal Kombat Komplete and liking it so much,
I thought I'd reward the developers buy paying a little more for their next game.
How silly I was.

Especially when you consider how sub-optimal these ports from HV have turned out to be.  I meet the minimum requirements and yet MKKE runs ~40 FPS in some stages like "Street", whereas SFIVAE flows like spring water at close to maximum settings.  I have to use the hacked config files that implements frame skipping in order for the game to play full speed.

However, I'm in the same boat as you.  I would rather buy the sub-optimal version than not getting a release at all so I'm definitely picking up Injustice.

[Howard_Casto]

The reason SF IV and it's sequels run smoother is because the characters and stages in mk/injustice have roughly 4 times more polys, normal mapping, and a bunch of particle/lighting effects.  SFIV just does some cruddy cell-shading on relatively low-poly anime characters. 

I'm not knocking Sf at all, but it's like comparing the performance of a Mario game to a COD game. 

[TheManuel]

I have a GTS 250 and it 640x480, the GPU is taxed to 17%, but the CPU is saturated.  My CPU is a C2D E4300 o/c to 3.0GHz.  The GPU does get up to 70% when I increase the resolution to 1080p but the frame rate does not degrade, unless I crank AA up to c16Q, which really brings the system to its knees, even with SFIV.

I just wished the game would tax the video card more and the CPU less.

[Generic Eric]

Injustice is on sale along with several other games on steam in partnership with VGX videogame award show on Spike.

[Brian74]

I will get it and test it.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

[Brian74]

The reason SF IV and it's sequels run smoother is because the characters and stages in mk/injustice have roughly 4 times more polys, normal mapping, and a bunch of particle/lighting effects.  SFIV just does some cruddy cell-shading on relatively low-poly anime characters. 

I'm not knocking Sf at all, but it's like comparing the performance of a Mario game to a COD game.

SSF IV with settings maxed

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[Brian74]

I got it d/l and installed. Here is what the game set my video settings at. I have to say, it looks really pretty and there is zero lag or shutter. The encoders were worth there $. Makes setting up games like this a breeze.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

[BadMouth]

Finally got around to testing out two players on one keyboard.  Although I saw a post on Steam where someone said it didn't work, it works fine for me.
For all the testing and trying to get x360kb to work, the only real problem with the controls in this game is that the navigation buttons don't remap along with the other controls.  The key that P2 needs to press to join (numpad4) isn't an output on my keyboard encoder.
The game actually would have perfect keyboard support if it would just remap the accept and back buttons along with the fight moves assigned to the same key.

I encourage everyone to send NetherRealm studio and ask them to make this change:
http://www.netherrealm.com/contact

Gonna have some free time tomorrow and might poke around with a hex editor.

I might go ahead and use key-wiz uploader to change my key-wiz outputs to match the game's default keys when the game is launched.
I'd still like to find a solution that works for everyone though.

[Fursphere]

Hyperlaunch 3 can do on the fly per game keyboard remapping.....

[BadMouth]

Hyperlaunch 3 can do on the fly per game keyboard remapping.....

If Autohotkey doesn't work, then Hyperlaunch isn't going to work.
(It's like MAME, getting input directly from the device and unaffected by any Windows programs)

[Fursphere]

You're probably right.  I'll have to look and see how HL3 does it.

[BadMouth]

I have the controls working perfectly by using KeyWiz uploader to change the KeyWiz outputs to match the game defaults.
While it's nice to be able to play the game, the tutorials are confusing as hell because it is displaying keys on screen that are neither the ones on my labels nor the keys that those buttons normally post.  When given a command on-screen, I have to look at a various references to figure out which buttons or direction it is asking me to press.

It works, but I'm not real happy with this as a long-term solution.

Not going to go into too much depth since not many people have this game yet, and they may or may not be using a key wiz, here is the ahk script I'm using:

Code: [Select]

Run, KeyWiz_Uploader3W7.exe /A /P A /L

ESC::
Winclose, INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US
Run, KeyWiz_Uploader3W7.exe /A /P C

Exitapp
returnThe command line broken down:
KeyWiz_Uploader3W7.exe /A /P A /L
/A= auto mode, /P A= load profile A, /L=launch associated app
Adding /S to the end will prevent the uploader app from being visible.

I'm a little confused of how the profile file named default works.  It seems to change.
I ended up having to load profile C on exit instead to get the default keys back.
The script is in the key wiz uploader folder so I didn't have to specify a full path.

While it would be better to have the script wait until the user shuts down the game properly, that would require the script run a loop to test for it, which might negatively impact the performance of the game since I'm not exactly on bleeding edge hardware.  Even if not, I'm too lazy to do it properly right now.

EDIT: After playing a bit, it appears the game contains quick time events in which it will flash the correct key which you must press.   
This makes the game that much more confusing to play with a different mapping and without xbox button labels.

[Howard_Casto]

Well again, assuming that the game is like MKKE (which judging by how many tools I have that also work with this game it is)....

There are three button packages, one for the 360 pad, one for a generic gamepad, and one for the keyboard.  There is some scripting inside the packages that controls how the icons are drawn on the screen. Keyboard icons, unfortunately are mostly drawn on the fly.  The default is the 360 icons. 

If I never press anything with the keyboard and instead use cheat engine to simulate pressing start by directly manipulating the memory region, the 360 icons are used.... there are only like 6 of those, it would be easy to edit them. 

So yeah, writing something that completely takes over the input code would fix this issue.  Shoot there are FK LK, ect icons already in these packages, it might be possible to just rename them. 

[Fursphere]

I got it d/l and installed. Here is what the game set my video settings at. I have to say, it looks really pretty and there is zero lag or shutter. The encoders were worth there $. Makes setting up games like this a breeze.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

You've made me a believer.  For the cabinet I'm planning on building - I'm going to use those encoders (Unless I find something better...  but so far they're like the only thing that "just works" and you don't have to mess with it).  I have no problem setting up all my emulators to use joystick/gamepad inputs into of keyboard inputs.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Been reading this topic all the way through, thanks to TheManuel contacting me.  It's very frustrating to say the least!  I wish game developers would focus on supporting more keyboards... Sigh.  When I first posted the SFIV hack I thought it would only be Capcom games that had this issue.  It's sad to hear they are all jumping on the 360 bandwagon.

That said, I did mess around with it a bit last night (I got it on sale this weekend for $25).   And I feel I'm pretty experienced in getting this stuff to work.  MKK was a bit challenging, but it did work after beating it down a bit.

Here are some differences that I noticed between the two when trying to change your keyboard controls to other keys not used in the x360.ini file.  (This is required in order to get the Xinput hack to work.  P.S. - SFIV, etc allowed you to clear all the keys and save.  Both MKK and Injustice do not allow this.  Perhaps they can update it so that you can while they are at it.)

MKK:
-  You can set both 1 and 2 players to the same non-used keys.  Makes it a lot easier when finding unused keys since you can repeat the keys to not "use them all up".
-  When assigning keys, both the keyboard and ipac controls work to input the assigned key.

IGAU:
-  You CANNOT set both 1 and 2 players to the same non-used keys.  So it's a pain to find out what keys you are not using.
-  When assigning keys, ONLY the keyboard works.  Controls (ipac) are DEAD.  If you exit the program and go into notepad the controls work fine (ipac).  I can't even assign keys using my arcade controls!  THAT was frustrating!    I'm going to try unplugging my USB keyboard to see if it helps.  P.S. - I'm old school, so my iPac has a PS/2 input.

Thought I'd mention that I contacted Netherrealms by using their form on their website as BadMouth suggested.  But I also noticed they had an e-mail address as well for attaching screenshots, etc:
info@netherrealm.com

Also, thought I'd mention that I re-posted the SFIV hack a while back with updates to the .inis to support ipacs right out of the box.  That's the version that I'm using successfully with MKK, but it doesn't seem to work with Injustice.  You can grab it here:  http://files.arcadecontrols.com/details.php?image_id=3656&sessionid=s6c8uonc0c0i6ob0mgqude0c66

Thought it might be worth mentioning this post.  They talk about a launcher in steam and renaming files.  Thought you guys might want to look into it:  http://steamcommunity.com/app/213610/discussions/0/882966056561112468/

Last but not least, I read somewhere that you can drop the .ini file and the .dll file into the \Steam\bin folder and ALL games would see it.  Can't remember where I read that though.  I think it may have been on the Steam forums, but not sure.

DeLuSioNaL29

[Fursphere]

Been reading this topic all the way through, thanks to TheManuel contacting me.  It's very frustrating to say the least!  I wish game developers would focus on supporting more keyboards... Sigh.  When I first posted the SFIV hack I thought it would only be Capcom games that had this issue.  It's sad to hear they are all jumping on the 360 bandwagon.

I have to disagree here.  Keyboards are not gaming devices (unless you're a hardcore first person shooter guy...  but that's a separate argument).  I think we're the ones stuck in the dark ages.

The SteamOS / Steam Box is coming.  Value/Steam have made HUGE efforts into making PC gaming more accessible.  "Big Picture" mode, soon a SteamBOX "console" system.  Hell, they even designed a gamepad controller (I'm willing to bet it'll be XInput friendly too). 

[Howard_Casto]

Lol steam box is doa... it'll never catch on.  360 controllers (and I'm guessing now xb1 controllers) and xinput are here to stay though. 

Again, I hate to disagree, but Microsoft has done far more to streamline gaming with xinput and the easy portability of 360 games to the pc than steam has... if anything the fact that steam requires you to launch games via it, often requiring a net connection for many of them, has been a great detriment to the gaming community.

People that haven't programmed some games wouldn't understand why xinput is so much better so maybe I'll explain....

Prior to it your only option for interfacing to a modern controller was direct input.  Now direct input is deceptively hard to implement.  Hooking up a gamepad and reading it is easy IF you know exactly what kind of gamepad it is... if not then you have to check for and enumerate each component of the gamepad (hat switch, axis, buttons ect).  Even after that's done you have to deal with joystick IDs which are not intuitive to deal with, depending upon the os.  Forget about force-feedback, it's a mess and is setup differently depending upon the controller type.

With Xinput all of that is gone.  You know what buttons and joysticks the game has because it's a 360 controller.  Even if you didn't (or are using a specialty controller) xinput is setup in such a way that missing axis/ect just send back "off" in their report.  Not only that but you know the physical layout of the device... so the default mapping will actually make sense in-game.  Rumble is also easy... it's a one line command.  Joystick id enumeration is also gone.. the hardware takes care of it and now you have player 1- player 4's joystick.  Now I'll be the first to admit that it has it's limitations, primarily with force feedback, but it makes things so much easier.... I can understand why it's been so widely adopted.

I'm rambling though.... I just want people to understand WHY things are moving towards xinput.     

Regardless I do agree, we are the odd men out in this one. 

That being said the NRS games don't have a problem with keyboards, they support those just fine, rather it's an issue with hardcoded inputs.... I don't even understand why the navigation inputs are hardcoded when you can remap everything else. 

[BadMouth]

When assigning keys, ONLY the keyboard works.  Controls (ipac) are DEAD.  If you exit the program and go into notepad the controls work fine (ipac).  I can't even assign keys using my arcade controls!  THAT was frustrating!    I'm going to try unplugging my USB keyboard to see if it helps.  P.S. - I'm old school, so my iPac has a PS/2 input.

At the beginning when it asks you to press the spacebar, press G (probably P2 joystick right) on your encoder.
While the arrow keys of P1's joystick will navigate the main menus, Only A,S,D, & W will navigate the control mapping screen.
You can get by with A and S, usually P2's first two buttons.  You'll need the T key to clear the entry before mapping a new one.
I wasn't using that input and had to hook up an extra button to it.
Clear it, press G to select it, then press the key you want to assign.


I like my old PS2 encoder.  It just seems like a more direct method of input.
That said, if I were building this cab over again and knew these games would come out and I'd have steam installed on it, I'd use x360 pad hacks and have all my buttons labeled as x360 buttons.

[Fursphere]

Lol steam box is doa... it'll never catch on.  360 controllers (and I'm guessing now xb1 controllers) and xinput are here to stay though. 

I do have serious doubts about the SteamBox as well.  Its a Linux based "console" (PC).  So for native Linux games - great (the list is growing, but its still tiny) - but for all the Windows games you still need a Windows PC to stream from?  Ya...   so gaming system that requires two PCs, not one.   Even hardcore games are going to be asking themselves why they have to buy two systems instead of just one.

But its more of a political statement than anything.  Pushing PC games to get on a unified control method.