Posted August 22, 2022
panteric: As far as I know you can use any controller with the DOS version. As for Windows version the Xinput has issues. I am using a Gravis or other controllers that don't use axis for the L2 - R2 or Trigger. The game can't detect axis for trigger use cause there was nothing like that back then. Maybe there's a fix but I am not quite sure you'll find one.
Yep, DOS version has the highest compatibility due to not using any of the original game's controller support. The newest release's xinput option allows all buttons to be mapped (LT/RT to run/block by default). For maximum compatibility (mainly issues with DS4/DS5 pads), it maps all inputs to the keyboard. You can adjust the mapping in xidi.ini. The release also includes a new DirectInput wrapper that maps the dpad to the analog stick if no stick input is detected. If the player uses the stick, it is treated more like an arcade stick with a pretty long throw. If anyone uses the analog stick to play and finds it harder to play, I can decrease this built-in dead zone. It does not take care of mapping analog buttons yet. I plan on open sourcing this as a lot of games have issues with modern pads.
PowergloveNinja: As great as the bug fixes are, why do you use " TCP/IP Netplay"? It just plain doesn't work at all. Always crashes the game upon connection. Is there a single person who can get that working? I have yet to find any info on that. Can't even find info on the guy who created it. No posts, no videos, nada. I've been trying to get that working for over a year no with the same crashes repeatedly and no progress.
I first relesed this patch in 2004 and the TCP/IP specific patch was written in 2008. So, not a lot of info around from back then. In 2012, I removed all networking due to desync issues with it. While trying to make the DOS internet play work, I noticed that TCP/IP networking was fine with Windows 10. That is when I added it back. I suspect you were experiencing an immediate desync and the game was not waiting for the other player to connect to the host. Once the client tried, the game crashed. The self-adjusting framerate control code was probably at odds with networking support. I've reverted the framerate control code and TCP/IP patch to the last versions that were known to be working together. I just played a bit here without issue. Let me know if that fixes it for you.
As Metalmucil alluded to, there have been some other recent changes to the patch:
*Custom wrapper to map dpad to analog stick
*Added deadzone for analog sticks
*Rolled back Windows framerate patch to version 3.33
*Rolled back Windows TCP/IP patch to version 3.33
*Added error if no DirectDraw wrapper is detected
*Fixed Xinput defaults
*Made Xinput optional
*Map Left & Right trigger in DOS version
*Windows fullscreen mode launcher
*Option to copy additional files from GOG install
*Tweaked default DOSBox options
*Fixed keyboard config for DOS version
Thanks to everyone that tested!
Post edited August 22, 2022 by CheesusWept