DuckStation per-game controls?

[MapleLeaf]

Is there a way to set game-specific controls? 

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

As I use the qt version of DucksStation, the following applies to the qt version of DuckStation. Maybe something similar applies for the nogui version:

Open duckstation-qt-x64-ReleaseLTCG and go to Settings > Controller Settings. Choose a controller type and set up and save (New...) your profile. Then go to Settings > Games List Settings and point to your ps1 games folder. When your games list is populated right click a game > Properties > User Settings (Input) > Input profile For Bindings. Then select your profile.

Edited July 11, 2021 by Koroth

[MapleLeaf]

18 minutes ago, Koroth said:

Open duckstation-qt-x64-ReleaseLTCG and go to Settings > Controller Settings. Choose a controller type and set up and save (New...) your profile. Then go to Settings > Games List Settings and point to your ps1 games folder. When your games list is populated right click a game > Properties > User Settings (Input) > Input profile For Bindings. Then select your profile.

Ok, I if I understand this correctly....I need to set and save new controller profiles for every single game under: Settings > Controller Settings, then right click the game and select the saved controller profile from: "Input Profile For Bindings". 

Hmm, lots of steps, not exactly convenient, especially if you have a lot of games that you want specific controls for. Was hoping to be able to access and save game-specific controls in-game and have those changes save indefinitely to that title--similar to the way MAME does it. The current controller system doesn't really mesh well with LB as you'll have to take the game out of full screen mode to access the applicable menu(s). 

Thanks for the explanation though. 

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

34 minutes ago, MapleLeaf said:

Ok, I if I understand this correctly....I need to set and save new controller profiles for every single game under: Settings > Controller Settings, then right click the game and select the saved controller profile from: "Input Profile For Bindings". 

As far as I can tell only for the games you want a custom controller config for.

34 minutes ago, MapleLeaf said:

Was hoping to be able to access and save game-specific controls in-game and have those changes save indefinitely to that title--similar to the way MAME does it. The current controller system doesn't really mesh well with LB as you'll have to take the game out of full screen mode to access the applicable menu(s). 

You could set up a hotkey to pull up the menu in-game or use the nogui version for that.

*Edit*

To be clear. You only have to set up your game to use a specific controller config once.

Edited July 11, 2021 by Koroth

[MapleLeaf]

35 minutes ago, Koroth said:

To be clear. You only have to set up your game to use a specific controller config once.

Ok, that sounds better. So if I set a specified config for "FF7" once, the emulator will always remember that game-specific config even if I swap to another game or close the emulator down? That's acceptable lol. 

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

13 minutes ago, MapleLeaf said:

Ok, that sounds better. So if I set a specified config for "FF7" once, the emulator will always remember that game-specific config even if I swap to another game or close the emulator down? That's acceptable lol. 

Yes, that's correct. Just make sure you save your custom config as a new config and give it a name.

Edited July 11, 2021 by Koroth

[MapleLeaf]

Got another question about DuckStation...

Since DuckStation installs some things under Windows "Documents" like memcards and savestates -- if I want to make my LB portable, when I move LB to an external HDD to a new computer, will I need to start over with DuckStation and extract / set it up again? 

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

6 hours ago, MapleLeaf said:

Since DuckStation installs some things under Windows "Documents" like memcards and savestates -- if I want to make my LB portable, when I move LB to an external HDD to a new computer, will I need to start over with DuckStation and extract / set it up again? 

Put a .txt file called portable.txt in your DuckStation folder. Then move the folders from Documents to your existing DuckStation folder.

[MapleLeaf]

On 7/11/2021 at 9:33 PM, Koroth said:

Put a .txt file called portable.txt in your DuckStation folder. Then move the folders from Documents to your existing DuckStation folder.

Don't I need to change some pathing within the DuckStation.exe if I move all of the folders from "Documents" to DuckStation?

Such as: Memory Card Settings > Memory Card Directory > path to the DuckStation folder. I'm pretty sure I'd need to change that? Anything else?

I just don't wanna break things when I move the following folders: cache, cheats, covers, dump, inputprofiles, memcards, savestates, screenshots, shaders, textures etc. 

Although, "bios" and "textures" are duplicate folders that exist in both Documents and Duckstation, so I'll just delete those from Documents because they're empty.

Also, I just noticed an available update upon loading DuckStation, if I move everything and create that .txt file, is it going to create the folders back in Documents again?

Edited July 13, 2021 by MapleLeaf

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

6 hours ago, MapleLeaf said:

Don't I need to change some pathing within the DuckStation.exe if I move all of the folders from "Documents" to DuckStation?

Such as: Memory Card Settings > Memory Card Directory > path to the DuckStation folder. I'm pretty sure I'd need to change that? Anything else?

No. Without portable.txt DuckStation assumes your DuckStation user folders are in Documents. With portable.txt DuckStation assumes the user folders are in the same folder as the executable.

6 hours ago, MapleLeaf said:

I just don't wanna break things when I move the following folders: cache, cheats, covers, dump, inputprofiles, memcards, savestates, screenshots, shaders, textures etc. 

There are more emulators that let you have the user folders in the same folder as the executable via a portable.txt. The presence of portable.txt makes the emulator... well portable.

6 hours ago, MapleLeaf said:

Also, I just noticed an available update upon loading DuckStation, if I move everything and create that .txt file, is it going to create the folders back in Documents again?

No.

First create a portable.txt in your main DuckStation folder. Then start DuckStation. It should create the user folders in the main DuckStation folder. Then exit DuckStation and move (and overwrite) the user folders from Documents to you main DuckStation folder.

Tip. If you're new to an emulator, or unsure of what you are doing. Always make a backup!

Edited July 13, 2021 by Koroth

[MapleLeaf]

What other emulators require a portable text? So far I think DuckStation is the only one I've used that needs one. Currently I use MAME, mednafen, and PPSSPP.

I'll likely emulate NES/Genesis/Super Nintendo/Dreamcast at some point.

Is there a reason why DS isn't automatically portable along with whatever other emulators aren't portable? 

Edited July 24, 2021 by MapleLeaf