[EL 1.0888] Game hangs when trying to bind POV hats to certain functions *FIXED*

[Pixel Of Life]

Specs:

• Ryzen 5 3600
  Windows 10 2004, build 19041.508
  16GB DDR4-3200
  Nvidia RTX 2070 Super, driver 460.79

The game hangs when I try to bind the POV hats on my VKB Gladiator NXT joystick or my Thrustmaster TWCS throttle to certain functions. It seems like the 20% throttle binding or anything that comes before it on the key/button settings page is fine, while 30% or anything that comes after it triggers the hang, but I can't be sure since I haven't tried all the bindings.

I don't recall having this issue when I last played the game (many months, maybe a year ago) but I was using a Thrustmaster T16000M joystick back then. However, I tried the game without the Gladiator plugged in and the throttle's POV hat still triggers the hang so I don't think it's a hardware issue.

Let me know if there's any other info I can provide.

[Vice]

Very strange and certainly not expected. I don't recall that being reported before. And you're right, it's not likely a hardware issue, but something on the software side of things. I've read around the net a bit and found a few others reporting the same issue in other games, both old and new (StarLancer and Star Wars: Squadrons). Not sure what the cause may be as it would take something like a driver issue, invalid value, or problem with the DirectInput interface to cause something like that. For the TWCS throttle at least, there was this driver update link provided in a thread related to Star Wars: Squadrons that solved a freezing issue with that device:

https://support.thrustmaster.com/en/pro ... rottle-en/

After updating the driver, you could try the throttle just by itself to see if the issue is solved on that side of things. As for the Gladiator, I haven't been able to find as much information or a solution. Their official download page for firmware updates and other software is available here: https://vkbcontrollers.com/?page_id=4609 So I'd recommend trying that first. I did read a thread on their forum where a user had trouble in a game, but switching USB ports, then launching the game seemed to work for them. If this is the Steam version of the game, it would also be good to check to make sure the Steam input control system is set to off for the game. Beyond that, it may require contacting VKB to determine what may be happening between their device and the game's DI control interface. You can use this program to test the game's input system much faster without having to launch the entire game:

https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlega ... Config.zip )

Place it in the save data folder (default location is \Documents\EvochronLegacy), not the install folder. The program will display the actual signals it is receiving for all devices it is able to detect through Windows. And if it freezes while you test, you can simply terminate and restart the program quickly to test further after making changes.

As Evochron may be migrating to an entirely different development framework (depending on testing results) that is shared with Arvoch Alliance SE, I would also be curious to learn if you encounter the same problem with that game. A free demo is available here to try: https://www.starwraith.com/arvochalliance/downloads.htm

[Marvin]

Probably not related but my son was having problems setting up his HOTAS last night. He discovered it was a conflict with Steam options. I wasn't paying much attention but I think he Googled the problem and found the answer. If you're using Steam to launch the game, I can ask him how he fixed his problem.

[Vice]

Update on this issue: I think I managed to duplicate it and have confirmed that there can be a game-side fix. To try that, simply download the file available here:

https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlega ... 10888b.zip

Extract the PCK file it contains, then replace the existing file in the install folder ('\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Evochron Legacy' for the Steam version or '\sw3dg\EvochronLegacy' for the direct download version) with this file. Then launch and test the game for changes.

[Pixel Of Life]

I couldn't get the JoystickConfig application to work, I copied it to Documents/EvochronLegacy but nothing happens when I try to start it, even if I do it as admin.

However, I did try the following things and they didn't help:

• Updating the firmware for the throttle and stick as well as my VKB T.Rudder pedals
  Turning off Steam's input system for the game
  Verifying integrity of the game cache
  Trying with the throttle only
  Trying with the throttle and my old T16000M but with the Gladiator and the pedals unplugged
  Trying with a vJoy virtual controller that has a POV hat

Another odd thing I noticed when experimenting with the hats: binding a hat to some things causes other bindings to disappear and become un-clickable. Here I've bound the hat to 10% throttle and the bindings for 20%, 30% and 40% disappeared. Un-binding it makes the other ones show up again. It seems totally random, sometimes it only makes one binding disappear and sometimes it can be up to 3 or 4.



Finally, I tried the Arvoch Alliance demo and it, too, hangs when binding the hats to certain things.

[Vice]

Ok, did that patch I posted above remedy the issue at all? If some other problem persists, you may need to delete or rename the 'keymap8.sw' file in the '\Documents\EvochronLegacy' folder and try remapping again as that file may have gotten corrupted if some binding values do not appear in the list.

[Pixel Of Life]

Update on this issue: I think I managed to duplicate it and have confirmed that there can be a game-side fix. To try that, simply download the file available here:

https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlega ... 10888b.zip

Extract the PCK file it contains, then replace the existing file in the install folder ('\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Evochron Legacy' for the Steam version or '\sw3dg\EvochronLegacy' for the direct download version) with this file. Then launch and test the game for changes.

Oh wow, it seems to be working! Thanks! What did you change?

[Vice]

Excellent, glad that worked. I changed the way the game receives and handles the input signals for that range of mapping indexes. The initial problem also had an additional side effect of potentially not responding even if the POV/HAT/button was mapped once in-game. Took a while to hunt down and was related to something else I had been exploring for another user a few months ago. Should now be sorted entirely though, so I'll roll it out as a quick patch update for both the download version and Steam version.

[Pixel Of Life]

Update: So I've now done more than just a quick test and while it fixed some of the bindings, it didn't fix all of them. I tried all of the bindings using the hat on the Gladiator and everything up to the end of the 2nd page works, everything from the start of the 3rd page up to and including "Decrease IDS Throttle Scale" has the same issues (the first two can be bound but do the disappearing thing, the rest just cause a hang), and the last 5 bindings also work. All of the bindings that work on the Gladiator also work on the throttle, and while I didn't also test all the bad bindings on the throttle, the first and last bindings that have issues are the same on both controllers.

Sorry to bother you again, I really should've checked more thoroughly before getting excited

[Vice]

Ok, I'll likely need to explore it further then. If you back up the 'keymap8.sw' file, then remove it, relaunch the game, then try mapping those same inputs, does the same thing happen? Should be fixable one way or another.

[Pixel Of Life]

Yes, the test where I tried all of the bindings one by one was done using clean settings, I deleted the entire EvochronLegacy folder before testing.

[Vice]

Ok, lets give this build a try:

https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlega ... 10888c.zip

Effectively the same problem, just in a different part of the game's button input codebase. I checked it out and it worked pretty well for me and seems to align with the previous changes for the series of indexes as well.

[Pixel Of Life]

Okay, the new build lets me bind either POV hat to any function without hanging, and the weird disappearing bindings thing is also gone. I've been flying around for about 10 minutes testing the functions I bound the hats to and so far everything seems to be working.

[Vice]

Good to hear. I'll plan on rolling out another part II update soon once I run some additional checks.

[Vice]

Update is live, thanks for your help testing and diagnosing this.