Controller Support for Halo 2

[glowingnissan07]

I want to play Halo 2 with a controller other than an Xbox 360 wired or wireless, because i already have a dual analog Alienware PS2 Controller with USB connection and really dont want to spend the money and would rather hack into Halo to make it work.

I use Pinnacle Profiler, a small program that simply maps keys/combinations to joypad inputs, so really all i need to do is run halo as if im using a keyboard/mouse combo. the problem is when i play it thinks i have an xbox controller in it so the games runs it accordingly, and all the axis are extremely messed up. All i really want to know is if someone has figured out how to disable controller input within the halo game. a setting maybe?

thanks

PS oh btw i dont want to hear any crap about "why are you using a gamepad to play an PC FPS?"

I've already beaten Halo 2 years ago on keyboard and mouse and now want to up the challenge. Plus i love having all the keys mapped easily into your hands, controller style.

 

[glowingnissan07]

BASICALLY

I want to use my gamepad to REPLACE the inputs for my keyboard/mouse without having Halo 2 think im trying to use the xbox controller settings. but theres no "disabled controller use" in the options.

 

[mopar man]

To be honest, most of the helpers on the forum would not say anything like that, I wouldn't think.

Using Google, I came up with this:






Exactly. Nothing. No one else has had a problem very similar to this one, but I will help to try to figure it out. When you say the axi are messed up, what do you mean? Do they do opposite of what they are supposed to?

 

[glowingnissan07]

no. Like I'll push up and the camera will swirl up to the floor and move right, or i push right and and the cermera will swirl left and shift upward. I read somewhere because the 360 controller setup has a special axis system, and i think its a really stupid design choice to make it the only compatible PC gamepad.

If I disable pinnacle, so no keyboard inputs are used, Halo 2 will render my look axis this way: (or something similarly abnoxious)

Up = Right
Down = left
Right = Down
Left = Up

Ive been googling it 4 a day with no luck. I might post this on bungie.net if i have to.

I mean I know the solution, i just dont know how to make it happen. If Halo 2 DOESNT recognize i have a controller plugged in and only a keyboard, it will work flawlessly, because i use Pinnacle to map keys to my gamepad, and not an in game controls setup.

 

[mopar man]

Go into the Halo 2 folder and hope to god it is something like CS:S

You may be able to find a .cfg file containing the controls, and if so, see if you can find one controlling what axis does what. I know in Morrowind, if you were using certain pads, you had to switch the axi around....

Be back on tomorrow, so let me know what happens!

 

[glowingnissan07]

Yeah man there's no .cfg files in the Halo 2 folder. It's a like a closed book complete with lock and key.

There is no setup file or external options app of any kind that i can see, but I did come accross something that may possibly help. In the readme file it mentions extensions you can type (on shortcuts maybe)) to do various things, like

-windowed—Switch for users who want to run in windowed mode. This can also be helpful if a user ends up in a bad resolution state while running in full screen.
-novsync—Advanced switch for users who want better performance.
-monitor:#—Switch to allows users to move the game between monitors when running in full screen.
-nosound—Switch to run the game without audio.

Possibly, like with HL2 theres a list of commands we can use and disable the controller settings. I'll see what i can find.

 

[glowingnissan07]

Unfortunately i was able to find any more "advanced run modes" that were listed in that readme file. Halo 2 VIsta port is basically one without any controllable configurations, and there are no ingame cheats or even a developer's console.

Apparently from what i learned only outside hacking programs (Hex) might be able to accomplish what I need.
On a Halo maps forum they were discussing ways to disable the HUD in Halo 2 Vista.

They talked about something called a "Trainer", but I didnt get a good idea of what that actually was. but with it the below options are possible.

Options
-------

Press F1 Activate Ultra-Armor Defense System
Press F2 Activate Weapon Enhancement Systems
Press F3 Activate Energy Weapon Coolant Systems
Press F4 Activate Grenade Multiplier System
Press F5 Activate Flashlight Modification




In response to: "there is no developer console in Halo 2", user E3p0 said:


are you sure its not in there? im looking in the program right now.. and i see something called..

007F3FE0: 'WriteConsoleW',0

and i was also wondering wtf this is doing in the source code...

0079023C: 'chucky was here! NULL belongs to me!!!!!',0


some other cool things...

007D7770: 'Bungie',0

and lol.. last but not least...

0081C1EC: 'hs_doc.txt',0

all i need to do is change those 0's to .... well i wont get into that. its against the rules to talk about hacking on this forum.




User 'Orange Gecko' also posted this on the forum:



(record_movie <short> <long> <short>)
<frame rate> <seconds> <screen size>

(record_movie_distributed <short> <long> <short> <long> <long>)
<frame rate> <seconds> <screen size> <mod count> <mod index>

(screenshot <string>)
takes a screenshot and saves as <name>.tif

(screenshot_big <short> <string>)
takes an NxN multiple-page screenshot and saves as <name>.tif

(screenshot_big_jittered <short> <string>)
takes an NxN subpixel sampled 640x480 screenshot and saves as <name>.tif

(screenshot_cubemap <string>)
takes a cubemap screenshot and saves as <name>.tif

(hud_show_shield <boolean>)
hides/shows the shield panel

(hud_blink_shield <boolean>)
starts/stops manual blinking of the shield panel

(hud_show_motion_sensor <boolean>)
hides/shows the motion sensor panel

(hud_blink_motion_sensor <boolean>)
starts/stops manual blinking of the motion sensor panel

(hud_show_crosshair <boolean>)
hides/shows the weapon crosshair

(hud_show_ammo <boolean>)
hides/shows the weapon/grenade ammo counter

So.. you just have to either get scripts working, or find some way to acleast use the console (cause I doubt any of these would acualy require dev lol)

that should be all you'd ever need

gotta love hs_doc.txt lol

anyways.. I found a comand that would have rock'd in HCE with newb maps with nuke vehicles and billions of AI

(vehicle_count_bipeds_killed <vehicle>)
returns how many people this vehicle has killed






So I figure if those commands are possible, there hopefully is one to disable controller inputs, although I'm crossing my fingers it isnt one of those things wired to the software, like say, Dual Wielding is.

http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=10727 thats the forum i was checking out.

 

[mopar man]

Oh man, you're awsome! You actually help yourself!

I am not that good at researching, so until I see something I know I can help with, I will just look around for answers.

BTW, thanks to you, I wanna play Halo again... :0

 

[glowingnissan07]

hey man i still need help actually finding the right hack. You have no idea how badly i wanna play Halo 2 with my alienware controller!

 

[mopar man]

Ahh, well, now that you'll probably never see this thread again, you could use a program called JoytoKey, and set the controllers buttons and axi to act like the keyboard and mouse. It's really easy to use, so you shouldn't have any issues.

Google it.

If that doesn't work, as I just read that you've already tried using Pinnacle Profiler, then try plugging it in after you start the game, and running PP?

Just a guess.