1
I find myself answering a lot of these (Especially the mouse side buttons one) again and again, so if I could get a sticky here, that would be great.
Commonly encountered problems
The "Extra" buttons (Side buttons etc) on my mouse do not work in MWO / None of the options I program in my mouse software work in MWO.
First, see Issue 2 for a primer on how MWO sees mouse buttons 4 and 5.
Secondly - be aware that in Windows there are only 5 mouse buttons - LMB, RMB, MMB (Mouse wheel click), XBUTTON1 (Side button 1), XBUTTON2.
If your mouse has more than 5 buttons, it should come with software to let you program it. You may be able to set which buttons are the 2 side buttons, but some of them will need to be mapped to keys to have any function in MWO.
Once you are confident that the output is good, you should also check Issue 1. This may be what is causing MWO to not receive keystrokes from your mouse software.
How do I bind Zoom to Mouse Wheel?
If your mouse software does not support this (And many don't), you can use this Autohotkey macro (Right click, save as).
Joypad control (eg movement) does not behave as expected.
Whilst a joypad in the left hand may seem like a good way of controlling speed and legs, there are some rather large pitfalls.
Firstly, the aperture (the hole the stick sits in) of a joypad thumbstick is round, whereas a traditional joystick is square. This means that a joypad is physically incapable of reporting 100% up, 100% left whereas a normal stick is. The upshot of this in MWO is that with a thumbstick, it is impossible to turn at at all at 100% speed, or move at all at 100% turn.
Secondly, the throttle is mapped in "absolute" mode, meaning you have to hold the stick forwards to move forwards at full speed. It is not possible to make the thumbstick throttle behave in "relative" mode (full forward is accelerate at the maximum rate, centered is no change in speed).
I have written software to address both of these issues and it is available here. Not really worth the bother though for two reasons:
1) Currently with analog throttle, if you open the map, you stop
2) With such a small throw on the stick, it is very difficult to accelerate without turning or turn without accelerating. Deadzones help, but not enough IMHO.
Chain Fire mode does not fire at the expected speed
In MWO, if you have 4 weapons in a group in chain fire mode, and hold the fire button, it does not fire at (Weapon rate of fire / Number of weapons), it fires at a predetermined rate.
There is currently no way to solve this without the use of 3rd party software (Or clicking manually).
Either use the software that came with your mouse, or my Fire Control macro.
My macro does not work
Likely to be issue 3
Is there a way to toggle a weapon (eg TAG or Machine guns)?
Again, use my Fire Control macro.
Issue List.
Issue 1: MWO runs as Administrator
This can cause problems because if one application (eg your mouse software) sends a keystroke to another application (MWO) that is running as admin - unless the sending software is running as admin (or UAC - User Account Control is off) then the keystroke will not get sent.
Solution 1: Turn off UAC
Instructions here.
This is probably the simplest way to test if this is your issue. If it is, and you want to keep UAC on, then turn UAC back on and use solution 2.
Solution 2: Set the sending program to run as Administrator
First, you need to find out the sending application.
For example, if this is your mouse, then you need to find the application that handles your mouse configuration.
1) Make sure your mouse software (or whatever it is that is sending the keys) is running
2) CTRL-ALT-DEL and start the task manager
3) If it is in the "Applications" list, right click -> Go To Process, skip to step 5
4) Find the application in the Processes list
5) Right click the process -> Open File Location
Executable files in this folder should be your mouse software. For each one, you may have to right-click -> Properties and In the "Compatibility" tab, tick "Run this program as an administrator". You may need to reboot after.
Issue 2: MWO does not recognize "Browser Back" and "Browser Forward" keys.
By default, many mice with side buttons default to sending "Browser Back" and "Browser Forward" instead of "Mouse Button 4 and 5".
Many games cope with this, but MWO does not.
Solution: Configure mouse
Open the software that came with your mouse and look for options for these buttons.
For Logitech and many other mice, the setting you want is "Generic Button".
If you do not have software that came with your mouse, let me know and I might be able to help you.
Issue 3: MWO does not properly recognize keyboard events of less than 50ms in duration
If there is less than 50 milliseconds between the key down event and the key up event, then MWO will not perform an action bound to that key, but will display that key in a chat box etc.
Diagnosing:
If for example you have a mouse side button set to press "1", then do the following in Mechlab:
1) Click the "Add Friend" button
2) Press the side button - if 1 appears the game is receiving the keystroke.
3) Check that 1 is bound to Weapon Group 1 in options
4) Drop into Training Grounds and see if pressing the button fires weapon group 1
5) If it doesn't fire, then this is likely your problem
Solution: Use a duration of longer than 50ms
If you have used your mouse software to send a single key press and you are getting this issue, that is a new one on me - please let me know if you get this and what make of mouse you have.
Most likely you will run into this issue only if you are trying to use a macro (sequence of keystrokes). In that case, your software should support delays, so ensuring 50ms between down and up should be possible.
If you are using the macroing language Autohotkey, putting this line at the start of your script should fix it:
SetKeyDelay, 0, 50
MWO also works best with AHK if you add this line:
SendMode, Event
Edited by evilC, 10 August 2013 - 06:33 AM.
