Supporting MouseX1, MouseX2, Right Mouse button etc. (third-party solutions welcome)

[Max Is Back]

Hi guys. Let me start off by saying that I understand features such as MouseX1 and MouseX2 didn't exist when Postal was originally written so it's no surprise they're unsupported in the game (I was surprised, however, that it doesn't seem possible to remap the right mouse button - I'm pretty sure that's existed for a lot longer that Postal).

Anyway, I can generally work these sorts of things very easily with tools such as GlovePIE, which allow you to map special keys (including buttons on WiiMotes and all sorts of other exotic controllers) to regular keyboard keys or mouse buttons. So whenever I find a game that doesn't support, for example MouseX1 and X2, it's generally very easy to reassign these to regular keyboard keys that are supported by the game. For example, I may remap the keyboard's standard "X" and "Y" keys to MouseX1 and X2, so when I press MouseX1 it actually registers as a keypress for the regular X key on the keyboard. Then when i set up the controls in-game, I simply hit "Mouse X1" and the actual control it assigns is the X key. It's a simple enough concept and generally works very well.

However, when trying to do this for Postal, it doesn't recognise any of my custom mappings. Other tools do (e.g. open Notepad, hit MouseX1 and an X character is printed). It also works in the Steam overlay. But it doesn't seem to have any effect when I try to configure Postal's keyboard controls or use them in game. I know this is an old game so maybe it goes right back to the bad old days of scancodes an all that malarkey?

So my first question: any idea how I can do this with third-party software such as GloavePIE (AutoHotKey is a similar program I'll haven't tried, but somehow I doubt it will do anything different to GloavePIE)?

Any my second question, more for the devs than anything, is are you intending on patching support in for this at any point i time? PC gamers really need their X1 and X2 buttons. we don't have 20 or so readily available buttons to hand like console gamers do.

Thanks for your help, I'd love to stay and cht for longer but I've got to run - with scissors

Somehow that tired gag never gets boring! Best emoticon ever, 10/10, would emoticate again.

Cheers -- Max

[marLeo]

Push!

I'm pretty sure that you could configure the mouse buttons in the original - at least the LMB, RMB and middle mouse. Unfortunately for me this doesn't work with the Steam version. Everytime I try to change the button nothing happens and changing it in the .ini file doesn't work either.

It would be really good if this problem gets fixed or left and right strafe implemented. I want to put strafe on the RMB like in the past.

I might have to try JoyToKey and bind a key to the RMB and see if that works. But it wouldn't be a good solution.

[Max Is Back]

I think you're right - I actually went back to my original boxed version to test it out because I was sure that at least LMB, MMB and RMB were all mappable. And sure enough they were!

I also tried the same thing as you on the Steam version - editing the ini file directly. Unfortunately I got the same result as you did. And here's a crazy thing - this only happened once, but during one of my many tests I entered the mouse button config and found that I couldn't even map th LMB! That's definitly not right!

This all leads me to think that it's a genuine bug - not being able to map RMB is strange enough, but not being able to map LMB is just plain wrong! Admittedly this only happened once, but it still points to a definite bug.

In my original post I mentioned AutoHotKey but hadn't tested it. I've now had the chance to test it and it actually works! Here's the script I'm using:

#NoEnv         ; Recommended for performance and forward-compatibility.
#Warn          ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for best performance and reliability.

#IfWinActive, Postal Plus ; Only enable when Postal is running/active
{
  <!Backspace::Suspend  ; LeftAlt + Backspace = toggles script on/off
  XButton1::NumpadMult  ; XButton1 = NumpadMult
  XButton2::NumpadDiv   ; XButton2 = NumpadDiv
  RButton::NumpadDel    ; Right MB = NumpadDel
}

This maps XButton1 to Numpad Multiply, XButton2 to Numpad Divide and RMB to Numpad Del (you can change the bindings to suit, I just used some random keys that were unlikey to be used by anything else). With this script running in AutoHotKey, you should be able to enter the keyboard settings (since the mouse buttons are now emulating the keyboard), select "Strafe" and click the right mouse button. If it's worked, the entry will be filled in with "Numpad Del" since that's the key we've assigned to RMB.

It works, but I agree this is a bug that should be fixed instead of worked around.

Thanks for your input, I was starting to get worried that I was the only person experiencing this. Now I know that other people have had the same behaviour, if the RWS devs don't spot this post I'll raise it with them and see if they can do anything about it.

PS: I use RMB for strafe as well, can't play the game without it!!

Thanks again, good gaming!

[marLeo]

Thanks for the script. Gonna try it out.