ZDoom Controller Recommended Mapping

KN4THX

As sacrilegious as it may be, I'd like to configure Heretic and the like to a controller. I'd forgotten how many buttons exist in this game compared to Doom and was curious about what buttons people feel are necessary as I was almost overwhelmed trying to pick and choose.

I literally haven't picked up Heretic in 15 or more years and wow was I amazed at all of the button options. What functions does everyone consider "necessary" for good game play on a PS3/Xbox controller? Its going to be Doom I+2, Heretic, Hexen, and Hexen II if I still have it lying around. I know Doom I/II doesn't require much so mainly the latter three games are my concerns.

I had some issues with the PS3 controller not wanting to map certain functions as well. The buttons would map for other functions but for example the Primary Fire function would not allow me to assign controller buttons while other functions took them just fine.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Edit: This didn't start out as a problem post, just a suggestion post, not sure if it should be in this section at this point.

mediamogul

@thedatacereal

Seeing as how I mostly use ZDoom for 'Brutal Doom', all of the decisions I made were to facilitate that. I'm working from memory, but outside of the modifier buttons I use to access and navigate the menus, I believe my control setup is:

Left Analog: Movement
Right Analog: POV
DPad Up: Throw Grenade
Dpad Down: Reload Weapon
Dpad Left: Cycle Weapon Back
Dpad Right: Cycle Weapon Forward
L1 Button: Fire Left-handed Weapon/Left Punch
R1 Button: Fire Right-handed Weapon/Right Punch
B Button: Kick
A Button: Jump
Y Button: Cycle Inventory Back
X Button: Cycle Inventory Forward
L3 Button: Toggle Run
R3 Button: Toggle Crouch
Select Button: Map
Start Button: Taunt

KN4THX

@mediamogul Thanks that helps! I am having trouble getting Heretic to map the right trigger on my PS3 controller. I select the Fire button and depress the right trigger and it acts like it recognized the input (deselects the input mode) but it never shows the trigger as an acceptable input though other buttons will show up. I thought maybe it was because the button was already mapped to something else but that doesn't seem to be an issue with other buttons being used twice. Any ideas what may cause this? I have the controller enabled and it shows PS3 Controller listed in the actual game menu. Not sure if you've tried Heretic or not, or if all games with ZDoom will act the same.

mediamogul

@thedatacereal said in ZDoom Controller Recommended Mapping:

Any ideas what may cause this?

It could be an issue with the driver. Is it just the right trigger, or will the left not map either?

KN4THX

@mediamogul Trying to bind the bottom 'X' button to USE or MOVE FORWARD (yes, I know, just a test :)) doesn't set the bind but it detects the button press and backs out of the active bind without actually binding. RIGHT TRIGGER (joy10) does the same for FIRE but can be bound to secondary fire. This happens for many of the control options. It's throwing me for a loop why certain buttons can be bound for only certain things. I'd understand if it was all or none.

Ok, I never proceeded before because I didn't see any reason to if binds weren't taking, but in the middle of typing this I decided to see what in-game actions did and sheesh, they seem to work.

Weirdest thing but I'll take it. Now the hard part of determining which functions to leave off the controller. Forgot there is an inventory system in this one.

I appreciate the help as always.

edmaul69

@thedatacereal here is how i do it on my ps3 controller. Im ripping off @mediamogul ‘s list. I added R2 and L2 as i prefer them for triggers.

Left Analog: Movement
Right Analog: POV
DPad Up:
Dpad Down:
Dpad Left: Cycle Inventory Back
Dpad Right: Cycle Inventory Forward
L1 Button: Throw Grenade
R1 Button: Reload Weapon
L2 Button: Fire Left-handed Weapon/Left Punch
R2 Button: Fire Right-handed Weapon/Right Punch
B Button: Kick
A Button: Jump
Y Button: Cycle Weapon Back
X Button: Cycle Weapon Forward
L3 Button: Toggle Run
R3 Button: Toggle Crouch
Select Button: Map
Start Button: Taunt

mediamogul

@thedatacereal said in ZDoom Controller Recommended Mapping:

It's throwing me for a loop why certain buttons can be bound for only certain things. I'd understand if it was all or none.

These inconsistencies, scattered throughout various software, are why I mostly key-map everything on my controllers. Thinking on it here, I believe I actually key-map everything except for the RetroArch cores which have always proven to behave very reliably for controller input. Granted, key-mapping can be an involved process and I'm not directly advocating that as a solution to you, but in certain situations, with some controllers, I've found it to be a pretty reliable nuclear option.

KN4THX

@edmaul69 Awesome, thanks! That config for Brutal Doom looks great and after reading about that mod I definitely want to add it to my setup. I'm thinking I may stick to a keyboard for Heretic as having to use the right analog for specific features seems to be too sensitive and there are too many necessary features to boot try to include them.

@mediamogul By keymapping are you referring to literally mapping keys to the keyboard or just manually editing the cfg file? I could see that second method being very easy once you are familiar with your particular controller and knowing what your tastes are.

edmaul69

@thedatacereal brutal doom and project brutality mods are awesome. Heretic and hexen games are some of the few that it doesnt work on.

mediamogul

@thedatacereal said in ZDoom Controller Recommended Mapping:

By keymapping are you referring to literally mapping keys to the keyboard or just manually editing the cfg file? I could see that second method being very easy once you are familiar with your particular controller and knowing what your tastes are.

I was actually referring to key-mapping a controller, such as mapping the 'Enter' keyboard key to a controller's 'Start' button. Afterwards, the software just thinks your using a keyboard. Aside from RetroArch, most of the available software in RetroPie tends to behave more predictably with keyboard input. You also have more flexibility in setup. For example, I run 32 systems and have every non-RetroArch emulator set to mirror the RetroArch commands. So everything I use exits with 'Select+Start', brings up a menu with 'Select+X', takes a screenshot with 'Select+Y' ...etc.

KN4THX

@mediamogul Yes, that's what I was getting at, I left some important words out of my reply :/. Do you just use xboxdrv for this or do you recommend another utility? I had looked at the xboxdrv option for dos games before when I saw a guide you posted but hadn't pursued it as I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick with my ps3 controllers yet and was ordering a new controller every two weeks for testing. If that's the method you still use I have some questions about that procedure I'd like to ask.

mediamogul

@thedatacereal said in ZDoom Controller Recommended Mapping:

Do you just use xboxdrv for this or do you recommend another utility?

I use xboxdrv personally, as it has the most options available. However, Linux Joystick Mapper also has a solid feature set.

If that's the method you still use...

It's still roughly the same method. I've improved it over time to allow both automatic and manual map selection, as well as dynamic mapping based on whatever controller I have plugged in. My setup also waits to start the maps until the Runcommand menu has disappeared so that it can be navigated when active. I never added that stuff to the guide due to it already being pretty complex.

... I have some questions about that procedure I'd like to ask.

Ask away.

KN4THX

@mediamogul Actually, rereading the documentation answered my questions so far. It was a lot to take in at first but makes perfect sense once I put it all in order in my head. Thanks for the great write-up!

mediamogul

@thedatacereal

Not a problem. If you run into any trouble, just let me know.