Rebind keys on an Xbox 360 controller

A basic guide on how to edit the controls on the Xbox 360 controller for all games in DOOM 3 BFG edition

Intro

So, I decided to install Doom 3 BFG edition for some classic Doom fun but wanted to play with the 360 controller. I was dismayed to find out there was no way to rebind the buttons layout though.

After a few minutes of fiddling around I found a workaround by rebinding the keys individually through console commands. Note that these changes work for all games (1, 2 and 3) and you don't have to do the change separately for each individual game.

Enabling the console

To enable the console you need to add the line “seta com_allowconsole 1” (without quotes) in the default.cfg file in the game's base folder (location: [steam installation folder]\steamapps\common\DOOM 3 BFG Edition\base) by opening it with any text editor. Enabling the console might turn off achievements but once you're finished editing with the console you can re-enable them by turning off the console again. Just delete the extra line you added or change it to “seta com_allowconsole 0”.

While you are in the default.cfg file you may want to add the “com_skipintrovideos 1” line (if you haven't already) which automatically skips the intro videos when you start the game (Bathesda and id logos).

To activate the console, just press the ~ button on your keyboard

Controller keys

Now that you have the console enabled you can edit the keys with the “bind” command. Here's how the game sees each Xbox 360 controller button:

JOY1___________________A
JOY2___________________B
JOY3___________________X
JOY4___________________Y
JOY5___________________left bumper
JOY6___________________right bumper
JOY7___________________left stick pressed
JOY8___________________right stick pressed
JOY9___________________start
JOY10__________________back
JOY_TRIGGER1__________left trigger
JOY_TRIGGER2__________right trigger

Game actions

Here's how the game recognises each action:

_moveup______________jump
_impulse13____________reload
_use_________________use
_impulse15____________previous weapon
_impulse14____________next weapon
_impulse19____________PDA
_impulse16____________Flashlight
_speed_______________run
_movedown____________crouch

As far as I know there's no command for the pause menu so you'd better not change JOY9 (start).

Console command

Now that you know the individual keys and functions you can freely rebind them in the console with the bind command. You do this by typing

bind "[key you want to edit]" "[action you want to assign]"

and then press enter

Example

For example I wanted sprint to be on the left trigger for the classic Doom games which did nothing by default (and holding down the left stick to run is VERY uncomfortable) and since in Doom 3 left trigger is the flash light, I moved it to left stick down. Here's what I did:

1. activate console in the game with ~
2. type (or copy/paste): bind "JOY_TRIGGER1" "_speed"
3. type (or copy/paste): bind "JOY7" "_impulse16"

remember to use the quotes.

Troubleshooting

Once you are happy with your new key binds remember to disable the console to re-enable the achievements by exiting the game and changing the default.cfg file.

If you want to restore the default controls just delete the D3BFGConfig.cfg and consoleHistory.txt files that are in the saves folder (location: [user name]\Saved Games\id Software\DOOM 3 BFG\base). The game will create a new D3BFGConfig.cfg file next time you run it. This basically resets most of the game's settings, if not all of them.

I hope this guide helps. Enjoy!

[JC Denton]

your missing a lot of the impulse commands.

[JC Denton]

can't you just change the controls in the cfg file in base for the 360 controller

[ShinDigPig]

Hey, just leaving this here incase someone has the same problem. I fixed it by going into the console, in DOOM 1, as opposed to in the main menu. I could then rebind the keys and close the game, and turn the console off while retaining the new binds.

[ShinDigPig]

I did
1. activate console in the game with ~
2. type (or copy/paste): bind "JOY_TRIGGER1" "_speed"
3. type (or copy/paste): bind "JOY7" "_impulse16"
As that's exactly what I wanted to do, but I go into DOOM after disabling console, and they aren't sticking. any ideas?

[cowboygeorgy]

Very usefull thanks

[Celebren]

Vagrant, what really baffles my mind is that the Xbox version of DOOM 2 (and maybe DOOM 1 but not sure since I don't own that one) has a far better button layout to the BFG edition. Of course there's this terrible trope of not allowing to rebind they keys on almost any console game which to my opinion is a terrible design decision and needs to change.

Homernoid, you can't bind weapon buttons to the gamepad for the classic games for some reason as far as I know. You can use _impulse 0,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 for DOOM 3 though. I believe _impulse 3 is the shotguns. You can bind them on the D-pad as well. Here's the default values for the D-pad:

bind "JOY_DPAD_RIGHT" "_impulse0"
bind "JOY_DPAD_LEFT" "_impulse12"
bind "JOY_DPAD_UP" "_impulse7"
bind "JOY_DPAD_DOWN" "_impulse10"

[Primeminister_Dumm]

Thanks for this great guide, helped me a lot to get the dpad working for strafing. Any idea how I could bind a button to the shotguns? Binding some _impulseXX doesnt work :(

[Vagrant]

Thumbs up'd. I, like you, absolutely hate sprinting with left joystick click. Worse game design ever that a lot of other devs are doing since it's like COD.

I mean, it's weird. Why would they go all the trouble to make D3 fully customizable and not D1-2?