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schellingb / dosbox-pure

DOSBox Pure is a new fork of DOSBox built for RetroArch/Libretro aiming for simplicity and ease of use.
GNU General Public License v2.0
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US Layout forced on Warcraft games #211

Open daFourch opened 2 years ago

daFourch commented 2 years ago

I'm not sure it's a bug, maybe it's just those games' behaviour. But no matter the keyboard layout chosen in core options, (I have an azerty fr keyboard) thoses games still need to press qwerty layout keys.

If I press "A" on my keyboard, "Q" is detected within the game. Yet, "French" layout is set in core options.

Is there a way to make my A key be recognized as such by the game?

So far, this "problem" occurs with Warcraft 1 & 2 and Dune 2.

Thanks in advance for your support.

schellingb commented 2 years ago

I just tried in Dune 2 with the same result. If I go to the command line the layout is correct but inside the game it just defaults to QWERTY. Same behavior in original DOSBox so I don't think there is much that can be done. In theory there could be a core option to over-override the keyboard layout but it would actually be quite complicated to implement.

daFourch commented 2 years ago

Thanks for you quick answer. What the point of "Keyboard Layout" in the core options then? For games that handle the swap? And for the Dos startup commands?

schellingb commented 2 years ago

I just tried DOOM and things are even worse. The SETUP program uses the selected keyboard layout while in-game things are fixed to US layout. Though that matches my memory of back in the day where I used a QWERTZ keyboard layout and I often Z was used as a key in games thus making things very awkward. Actually I still encounter this on modern PCs. It's never been solved really.

Maybe it's better for performance for DOS games to skip the loaded DOS keyboard layout and access the hardware directly? That's the only explanation I can think of. The problem is in the DOS software, the emulation is "correct" as far as I can tell.

The problem is with special locale keys like à, é, ö etc. which don't exist on a US keyboard. So if the emulator were to force a US keyboard layout in DOS and then do the layout mapping itself, it wouldn't be possible to input these language specific characters anymore.

daFourch commented 2 years ago

Okay so I guess QWERTY layout if the only way to go in US games. For instance, on games such as Populous (or any game where you can enter words), layout is qwerty forced.

Fun fact though, on Karateka, it recognizes FR Layout. This games uses QAZ as for high, middle and low punches and WSX as for high, middle and low kick. So pressing actual A key inputs to a middle punch, which is logical on a US layout, but not logical on a FR AZERTY keyboard. So by setting "US Layout" in Dosbox-pure option, it fixes that.