hi all. i'm looking for a way to invert mouse input on the y axis in apps that
use DirectInput - specifically, in the game Beyond Good & Evil. there's an
in-game option that does this, but it inverts the x-axis as well, which renders
the option unusable. (see this thread [1].)

acceptable answers would either be a setting in the game or windows XP that
controls mouse orientation per-axis, or a program that runs in the background
and inverts the mouse input (per-axis). i've looked for the former, and i doubt
it exists, so the latter is probably your best bet.

the success criteria is pretty simple - download the Beyond Good & Evil demo
[2], apply your answer, and check that you can play with the mouse y axis
inverted and the x axis normal, in both "camera" and "look" modes. if you can,
i'll accept your answer!

background:

i've done a fair amount of research on this, and it's definitely possible...but
i'm not a windows/directx developer, and i'm not quite ready to learn. :P

i've looked through the windows mouse control panel, the registry, etc., and
haven't found anything.

i tried installing Logitech's MouseWare [3,4], which lets you change the mouse's
orientation, and still has effect in DirectInput-based apps (close!), but
doesn't let you change it per-axis (doh). i also tried Kensington MouseWorks
[5], but i don't have a Kensington mouse, so i couldn't use it. (btw, if your
answer requires me to buy a specific mouse, i'll consider it.)

i've tried a number of utilities that let you drive the mouse pointer with a
joystick, and can control the orientation of each axis independently...but they
don't have any effect when you use the mouse itself.

finally, i wrote a script [6] for AutoHotKey [7], a pretty sophisticated
program that lets you script and remap mouse, keyboard, and joystick input. it
inverts the mouse per-axis successfully, but doesn't affect DirectInput apps.

sigh...i just want to play the game already! :P

--
[1] http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=400102&f=401101532&m=286101532&r=396101532#396101532

[2] ftp://ftp.ubisoft.fr/demos/bge/English_Official_Demo_BGE_WIN.zip

[3] http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?countryid=19&languageid=1&page=downloads/software&CRID=1793&contentid=6003

[4] http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/downloads/software/US/EN,CRID=1793,contentid=6003,OSID=1,softwareid=6819

[5] http://www.kensington.com/html/1461.html

[6] http://ryan.barrett.name/invert_mouse.ahk

[7] http://autohotkey.com/

-Ryan
http://ryan.barrett.name/
http://snarfed.org/

---

Clarification of Question by blaize-ga on 15 Oct 2004 18:49 PDT

i originally posted this question to 'Computers > Games', but it went
unanswered for two weeks. so, i'm reposting here in the hopes that
some directx guru can whip up some quick-and-dirty code. thanks in
advance!

hi,

this is to tell you (before time is over) that i am working on it. i
have seen your question some days ago and since then spent several
hours on finding a solution. i have already programmed one approach
but that didn't work well in windows and in directinput it didn't work
at all. but i am confident that my current idea could work some time.
the only problem is that i don't have much time for that.

even if i give up later, i could send you a lot of useful info.

-moritz

hi,

i have got it to work! i now have a mouse driver that is able to
invert one mouse axis on request. it is tested on windows xp with
different ps2 and usb mice. but it should also work on windows 2000
and other mice.

i did not test it with the mentioned game but with some other
directinput games and it works smoothly and well.

the driver is also good to annoy colleagues :)

if someone has other ideas how to change mouse movements on-the-fly,
please tell me. i could think of special functions for people with
disabilities or so.

the driver is available on request.

-moritz (maf-soft)