Remapping Keys and Fix for Incorrect On-Screen Prompts

The aim of this guide is to show not only how to remap the controls, but also how to fix the screen prompts that display incorrect actions such as the well known Rotate W/S/A/D to Turn Claw Arm prompt. It also contains a fix for the F4 button not skipping to the next song while listening to music in the Utility Rig as well as allowing the second thumb mouse button to display in the on-screen prompts.

Introduction

I recently started playing Lost Planet 3 for the first time and my first impressions were positive. However, like many people I did not like the default key configuration, but the game does not have a great rebinding menu built into it. This led me to search online for a solution, which directed me to the KeyMappings.ini file.

After remapping my controls using this file I noticed that some of the actions I had remapped were still functioning not only with the key I mapped them to, but also with the key they were previously mapped to and the on-screen prompt was showing the previous key. For example in the following picture the [P] key is being shown on screen to pick up an Audio Log. This is after I have remapped the action to the [E] key using the KeyMappings.ini file.

Original Audio Log Prompt:



In this instance both the [E] key and the [P] key could be used to pick up the Audio Log. This led me to question why this is the case and eventually find the answers contained in this guide.

Files Used in this Guide

The following files will be used/referenced in this guide. The file paths are included to make them easier to find if you wish to modify them. I highly suggest making backups of any files you are going to change something in before doing so. This will allow you to use the original file in case something goes wrong that causes issues with the game. All these files can be opened/edited with a text editor such as Notepad. I personally use Notepad++.

LostPlanetInput.ini
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\LostPlanetGame\LostPlanetGame\Config\LostPlanetInput.ini

LostPlanetUI.ini
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\LostPlanetGame\LostPlanetGame\Config\LostPlanetUI.ini

KeyMappings.INI
<Install-folder>\steamapps\common\Lost Planet 3\Binaries\Win32\KeyMappings.INI

LoadingTips.int
<Install-folder>\steamapps\common\Lost Planet 3\LostPlanetGame\Localization\INT\LoadingTips.int

LostPlanetGame.int
<Install-folder>\steamapps\common\Lost Planet 3\LostPlanetGame\Localization\INT\LostPlanetGame.int

Subtitles.int
<Install-folder>\steamapps\common\Lost Planet 3\EngineSP\SPEngine\Localization\INT\Subtitles.int

SPGameUI.int
<Install-folder>\steamapps\common\Lost Planet 3\EngineSP\SPEngine\Localization\INT\SPGameUI.int

Why are Actions Assigned to Multiple Keys After Modifiying KeyMappings.ini?

So why is the action for picking up the Audio Logs in the previous example being mapped to two different keys? Come to find out KeyMappings.ini is not the only file that controls what keys an action is mapped to.

LostPlanetInput.ini also contains key mappings within it and what appears to be happening is every time the game is launched KeyMappings.ini is checked and the mappings contained within get dumped into LostPlanetInput.ini and this is the actual file the game uses for the key mapping. However, if something has been changed it does not always remove/overwrite the previous mappings and instead just adds to them. This is why an action can be assigned to multiple keys even after reassigning them in KeyMappings.ini.

For example here are a few bindings in the original KeyMappings.ini file:

[Commands]

<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Commands.Pickup>=GBA_PickupItem,P,
<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Commands.SwapWeapon>=GBA_DropSwapWeapon,P,
<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Commands.PickupCourier>=GBA_PickupUseCourierItem,P,
<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Commands.PlantBomb>=GBA_PlantBomb,P,


And here are my modified key mappings:

[Commands]

<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Commands.Pickup>=GBA_PickupItem,E,
<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Commands.SwapWeapon>=GBA_DropSwapWeapon,E,
<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Commands.PickupCourier>=GBA_PickupUseCourierItem,E,
<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Commands.PlantBomb>=GBA_PlantBomb,E,

The LostPlanetInput.ini File

As you can see in the original KeyMappings.ini file the [P] key is used for several actions and in my version it is not used at all as everything [P] used to be used for [E] is now used instead. So what's going on with the LostPlanetInput.ini file that's causing these undesirable results? The section of this file we're interested in is at the very bottom of the file under the header: [LostPlanetGame.LPPlayerInput]. The lines we want to look at will be at the very bottom of this section.

The original version should have a line that looks something like this:

Bindings=(Name="P",Command="GBA_PickupItem | GBA_DropSwapWeapon | GBA_PickupUseCourierItem | GBA_PlantBomb", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False, bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False, bIgnoreAlt=False)


The problem is this line does not get deleted from LostPlanetInput.ini after reassigning these actions to the [E] key using KeyBindings.ini. So these actions get assigned to both.

The modified version will have lines that look something like this:

Bindings=(Name="E",Command="GBA_Use | GBA_DoGeneralInteractionOperation | GBA_UsePerk | GBA_DoHackDeployableOperation | GBA_CancelMatinee | GBA_ReviveIncapacitated | GBA_PickupItem | GBA_DropSwapWeapon | GBA_PickupUseCourierItem | GBA_PlantBomb", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

Bindings=(Name="P",Command="GBA_PickupItem | GBA_DropSwapWeapon | GBA_PickupUseCourierItem | GBA_PlantBomb", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False, bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False, bIgnoreAlt=False)


As you can see the PickupItem, DropSwapWeapon, PickupUseCourierItem, and PlantBomb actions are now assigned to both keys. This is why both keys work to pick up the audio logs and why the on-screen prompts are incorrect as it causes the game to have to pick a key to display and in my case it chose the original binding.

The fix for this is to delete the entire line with the bindings for the [P] key. This will then leave only the [E] key as having these actions assigned to it.

After deleting the entry for [P] the prompt should now look like this in game:

New Audio Log Prompt:

Fixing Other Key Binding Issues/Prompts

Now that we know the relationship between KeyMappings.ini and LostPlanetInput.ini my suggestion is if you modify KeyMappings.ini and have any issues with keys not working as intended or prompts being incorrect also search LostPlanetInput.ini and look for any actions that are mapped incorrectly.

There are also prompts that can appear incorrectly due to them not being written correctly in the original files.

For example in the original KeyMappings.ini file, using the default controls, you can see that the action GBA_ChangeAmmo is assigned to the [C] key. This will change back and forth between the standard pistol ammo and the tagger ammo once you acquire it in game.

However, the prompt in the game will display:

HOLD [R] TO SWITCH TO SPECIALTY AMMO


This is because the prompt is written incorrectly within the LostPlanetGame.int file, which we'll talk more about later in this guide. But for now we'll just use this as an example of why some other prompts are incorrect.

The line is written like this in LostPlanetGame.int:

SAMMO=HOLD <InputCallouts:GBA_Reload> TO SWITCH TO SPECIALTY AMMO


The reason the prompt is showing to use the [R] key instead of the [C] key like it should is because this line is saying to show the key for the action GBA_Reload, which is the key that is assigned to reloading the weapons. It should show the key assigned to the action GBA_ChangeAmmo, which in the default control configuration is the [C] key.

It should look like this to accurately reflect how the ammo is switched:

SAMMO=PRESS <InputCallouts:GBA_ChangeAmmo> TO SWITCH TO SPECIALTY AMMO


With this change made the prompt in game will now display the correct key.

It will look like this in game:

PRESS [C] TO SWITCH TO SPECIALTY AMMO


With that sorted out let's take a look at why the prompt to rotate the claw arm on the Utility Rig is displayed incorrectly in game.

The W/A/S/D Prompt

In this section we'll be looking at two files:

LostPlanetUI.ini

LostPlanetGame.int


The first file we won't be changing anything in, just looking at it because I believe a line is this file is the reason the prompt is either incorrect or not being used in the first place. Within LostPlanetUI.ini there is a line under the section [LostPlanetGame.LPGFxMoviePlayerHUD].

It looks like this:

MessageSubstitutions=(OriginalString="<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Tutorials.VSROTATE>", SubstitutionEntries=( (Platform="WIN", SubstituteString="<Strings:LostPlanetGame.Tutorials.VSROTATE_PCKEYBOARD>", bApplyToKeyboard=True ), ))


When playing on PC with a keyboard this line is supposed to cause the string assigned to VSROTATE_PCKEYBOARD under the Tutorials section of the file LostPlanetGame.int to be used in place of the string assigned to VSROTATE. However, it is not working and VSROTATE is still being used instead. I haven't been able to figure out how to get it working, but there is a simple work around.

As mentioned before within LostPlanetGame.int there is a section titled [Tutorials]. The section has entries for VSROTATE and VSROTATE_PCKEYBOARD.

They look like this:

VSROTATE=ROTATE <InputCallouts:GBA_RotateLeftStick> TO TURN CLAW ARM

VSROTATE_PCKEYBOARD=PRESS <InputCallouts:GBA_StruggleButton> TO TURN CLAW ARM


In game this is the prompt I see:



This shows us that the entry for VSROTATE is being displayed instead of VSROTATE_PCKEYBOARD. To fix this we're just going to replace "ROTATE <InputCallouts:GBA_RotateLeftStick> TO TURN CLAW ARM" with "PRESS <InputCallouts:GBA_StruggleButton> TO TURN CLAW ARM". Only instead of using the word PRESS I changed it to TAP because the StruggleButton has to be pressed repeatedly, not just once.

Now the lines will look like this:

VSROTATE=TAP <InputCallouts:GBA_StruggleButton> TO TURN CLAW ARM

VSROTATE_PCKEYBOARD=PRESS <InputCallouts:GBA_StruggleButton> TO TURN CLAW ARM


And the in game prompt will now look like this:

Other On-Screen Prompts

As far as I can tell the majority of, if not all, the prompts seen in the game are contained under the [Tutorials] section of LostPlanetGame.int. I personally didn't like the way many of them were worded so I changed them to my liking by finding the strings under the [Tutorials] section and changing them.

Here are some examples:

Original Piston Prompt:



New Piston Prompt:



Original Weapon Pick Up Prompt:



New Weapon Pick Up Prompt:



If you want to change any of the prompts just look through the [Tutorials] section to find them or use Ctrl+F to search for the one you want to change. You may need to change the action that is to be displayed by the prompt, not just the text surrounding it.

For example here is the original entry for the Piston example above:

LEVER=USE THE <InputCallouts:GBA_Movement> TO PULL UP THE PISTON


This is incorrectly displaying the keys assigned to GBA_Movement, when in game you just have to press whatever key you use to move forward.

By changing the entry to this:

LEVER=PRESS <InputCallouts:GBA_MoveForward> TO PULL UP THE PISTON


It will now correctly display only the key used for moving forward, which in this case is the [W] key as you can see in the second example image above.

Two of the Last Three Files

Ok so we've already gone through 4 of the 7 files I mentioned at the beginning of the guide. Two of them aren't really all that relevant so we'll cover them now. The final file will come up in the last section of the guide.

The two files are:

LoadingTips.int

Subtitles.int


These files contain exactly what they're titled the text that appears during the loading screens and the subtitles respectively. The only thing I'm concerned with in these files is a loading screen tip for the Pistol. In LoadingTips.int this entry can be found under the [Singleplayer LoadingTips] section. In Subtitles.int the entry can be found at the very bottom of the file, 5 lines from the bottom. The reason both have to be changed is because the game pulls from both files to display the loading screen tips. One of them could probably just be deleted instead, but I figured I'd leave it be and just change both.

This is what the original line looks like in both files:

Equip your Pistol by holding down <InputCallouts:GBA_SwitchToPistol>.


This is what I have changed it too:

Equip your Pistol by pressing <InputCallouts:GBA_SwitchToPistol>.


Here's the original tip in game:



And here is the new tip in game:



The key displayed is different Mouse3 vs [C] because I changed the key that switches to the pistol in KeyMappings.ini and LostPlanetInput.ini.

What's Wrong with the Music Player Controls?

Early on in the game when riding in the Utility Rig you get the option to listen to music if you want.

The controls for this are supposed to be:

F2 - Play/Pause
F3 - Skip to Previous Track
F4 - Skip to Next Track


Unfortunately the F4 button doesn't work, it does nothing. The reason for this is found in the LostPlanetInput.ini file. Down towards the bottom of the file under the [LostPlanetGame.LPPlayerInput] section there will be entries for the [F4] key.

They'll look like this:

Bindings=(Name="F4",Command="viewmode lightingonly", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False, bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False, bIgnoreAlt=False)

Bindings=(Name="F4", Command="viewmode detaillighting", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False, bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False, bIgnoreAlt=False)


There is also one further down that looks like this:

Bindings=(Name="F4",Command="exit | GBA_MusicPlayerNext", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=True,bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False, bIgnoreAlt=False)


As you can see in the third entry [F4] is being assigned the action GBA_MusicPlayerNext, which should allow it to be used for skipping to the next track, but it does not work. I was able to get it working making the following changes. I added an entry for [F4] in the first group and reassigned the original two entries to the [F6] and [F8] keys. I also changed the final entry by deleting the "exit" assignment.

The first entries now look like this:

Bindings=(Name="F4", Command="GBA_MusicPlayerNext", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False, bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False, bIgnoreAlt=False)

Bindings=(Name="F6",Command="viewmode lightingonly", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False, bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="viewmode detaillighting", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False, bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)


The last entry now looks like this:

Bindings=(Name="F4",Command="GBA_MusicPlayerNext", Control=False, Shift=False, Alt=False, bIgnoreCtrl=False, bIgnoreShift=False, bIgnoreAlt=False)


There is also a line in KeyMappings.ini that just looks like this:

_exit=exit,F4,


You can see that "exit" is mapped to [F4] in LostPlanetInput.ini in one of the original lines above, but I deleted this line as it doesn't appear to do anything. So I also deleted this line in KeyMappings.ini. With these changes the [F4] key should now work as intended and skip to the next track when listening to music in the Utility Rig.

Why doesn't the Prompt Appear for ThumbMouseButton2?

I always map the two thumb buttons on my mouse to Melee and Grenades if the game has those actions. These buttons are able to be mapped in Lost Planet 3 and they work fine. The bottom of the two is ThumbMouseButton, which I use for Melee. The top of the two is ThumbMouseButton2, which I use for Grenades. These mappings work fine, however the prompt for ThumbMouseButton2 does not appear on screen.

This is what it looks like in game:



As you can see in the picture there is no button prompt shown. This is where the final file, SPGameUI.int, will be useful. We won't be changing anything in this file, it is just helpful to understand what is going on. In this file there is a section titled [PCInputKeysDesc], what we're looking for is towards the bottom of this section.

There should be a line that looks like this:

PCKey_ThumbMouseButton2=(Mouse5)


The text in parenthesis, Mouse5, should be what is displayed within the prompt for throwing grenades, but it isn't. This means something is preventing it from showing up. This is because there is an entry for this button missing in the LostPlanetInput.ini file. Under the section [SPEngine.SPUIDataStore_InputCallOuts] there should be a line for ThumbMouseButton2 similar to the one for ThumbMouseButton, but it's not there.

The entry for ThumbMouseButton looks like this:

RawInputCallOutInfo=(RawInputKey=(InputKeyName="ThumbMouseButton"), PlatformName="PC", MappedText="<Strings:SPGameUI.PCInputKeysDesc.PCKey_ThumbMouseButton>")


There needs to be a line just like this for ThumbMouseButton2 as this is what allows the entry from the SPGameUI.int file to be displayed.

Add this line under the one for ThumbMouseButton:

RawInputCallOutInfo=(RawInputKey=(InputKeyName="ThumbMouseButton2"), PlatformName="PC", MappedText="<Strings:SPGameUI.PCInputKeysDesc.PCKey_ThumbMouseButton2>")


The prompt should now appear correctly when in game.

It should look like this:

Conclusion

Since starting to play Lost Planet 3 several days ago I have already completed it once and started up a new game to play through it again. I really enjoy the atmosphere and world, it reminds me of John Carpenter's The Thing. However, the game's controls/prompts do leave a lot to be desired.

I hope this guide can help others to customize the controls and on-screen prompts to their liking so maybe they will enjoy the game as much as I do. I plan on making my modified files available so they can just be dropped in the folders and used if anyone doesn't want to modify the files themselves. They will obviously have the controls setup the way I like them so some tweaking may be necessary. I'll update the guide when I get them uploaded online.

If you managed to make it all the way to the end of this thank you for reading. It ended up being a little longer than I had intended. If anyone has any questions/suggestions please ask/share I'll try to answer them the best I can and update the guide if needed.

Update: The modified files I use to play the game can now be found here[drive.google.com]. Don't forget to make a backup of the original files before replacing them just in case something doesn't work correctly for some reason. The game also seems to be writing to the config files even when nothing is changed by the user. Making the files mentioned in the guide Read-Only, preventing the game from changing the contents of the files, appears to fix the issue.

[Violet Pilot]

Thank goodness for this. Those keybindings were driving me wild.

[thatsage]

Thanks for including the already fixed files. Great time saver and qol improvement for this surprising gem of a game

[Zach Fett]

The files are already set to read-only, otherwise yeah it resets a few of them. Dunno why it still isn't working.

[got program?]

It looks like the game is re-adding the original bindings in the LostPlanetInput.ini file which is causing the prompts to be incorrect. Oddly I didn't have this happen when I wrote the guide, but it is happening now. Making the files Read-Only prevents the game from changing the files and seems to fix the problem.

[Zach Fett]

Hm, y'know weirdly enough none of these fixes are working for me (other than the "multiple actions on the same keybinding" one). I'm still getting the same W/A/S/D prompt and picking up weapons still says "Swap To". I even tried just using your files but still nothing. Strange, I can't see where else the game would be reading the original lines from..

[Zach Fett]

Thank you for all the work you put into this!

It's pretty wild to see someone else that puts melee and grenades on the exact same side mouse buttons, I thought I was alone on that one.

Any chance you found a way to edit the mouse sensitivity? Especially while aiming, it's very fast. I found a few lines referring to mouse sensitivity in various ini files but none seem to do anything...

[Whale Forever]

thanks, will try this

[JohnDoWrong]

Excellent guide with explanations, pictures, and even modified INI files. Thanks, Ikaros!