Posted March 14, 2023
(If you would prefer to just skip this section, go to the "guide" heading.)
I was compelled to write this guide after having searched far and wide for ways to do what the title suggests myself, and having arrived at the answer of how only through rigorous exploration and spiffy autodidactism. However, I can now happily say that my copy of HIND works with full six degrees of freedom, with my pedals, throttle, and flight stick all acting as the anti-torque, collective, and cyclic respectively. Naturally, there will be some limitations to how this actually works.
Secondly, there have been two other topics which I have been burningly curious in regards to this game, and I can answer both of them:
3dfx upgrade for Hind: This will not work on the GOG version, this will not work on the GOG version, this will NEVER work on the GOG version. This is because the patch for it was designed for Windows 95, not DOS, and has never been intended for use on DOS. Therefore, trying to get it to work on DOSBox is a waste of time. DOSbox does support the use of 3dfx as a renderer via Voodoo or nGlide passtrhough, but only for some titles. Not this one. I believe the version available on oldpcgaming.net is the one for Windows 95, but I cannot be sure, and I won't be attempting to get it work. Additionally, the Voodoo configuration subsection is fully missing from the HIND-specific release of DOSBox.
Hind update version 1.2: This, too, will not work on the GOG version. The GOG version uses a custom coded bypass for the CD mounting issue of the original. It is basically an in-built crack, and I do not know how to circumvent it. Additionally, there is no proof that the patch itself was ever intended to work with the DOS version. We do know that we ostensibly have version 1.0, but we will have to content ourselves with it, unless GOG updates it themselves, I feel like.
This is where something that is very relevant to my guide comes in - the version of DOSBox that ships with HIND is 0.74-2. The current version of DOSBox is 0.74-3, and the most popular guide on how to set up your joystick DOSBox comes from is...DOSBox-X. Which has features that differ from DOSBox 0.74-2. Unsurprisingly.
This has resulted in the revival of a fun bug, which may be specific to HIND: in its current state, when using the 4axis preset (more on that soon), HIND will not recognise the vJoy axis rX as Axis 4. This has been the source of many woes for those who have been trying to set the simulator up using the instructions found on the DOSBox-X site.
Note: I cannot post links for some reason. Please google the applications I name, or message me and I will send you the links.
Step by step guide:
Before I dive in, I want to clarify how this works. So, DOSBox only supports two kinds of joysticks - one with four axes and four buttons, or two with two axes and two buttons each. Due to the aforementioned bug with this specific instance of DOSBox, the 4axis setup will not work. You're welcome to try, but this guide will focus on the 2 joysticks with 2 axes each.
A word of warning, though: Setting up your HOTAS/Joystick for DOSBox will involve hiding/whitelisting HID devices from Windows. Doing so will interfere with the normal operation of your HOTAS. This is not a permanent process, but it will take unplugging and replugging most, if not all, of your devices to ensure normal operation after you are done playing. I keep my entire HOTAS and pedals hooked up to a USB extension box with buttons on it that trivialises the process of connecting/disconnecting things, but you may need to physically unplug things. Don't say I didn't warn you.
1. Install vJoy, JoystickGremlin, and WhiteKnight Auto-Whitelister, in that order. Install ONLY vJoy and Joystick Gremlin, then restart your PC. Without doing so, there is a good chance that vJoy will mix up the device order or not be properly detected by windows.
2. Open up vJoy and make a virtual device by activating it in the "vJoy Config" sub-application. Make sure that you have two controllers, one of which should have two axes and two buttons (so X and Y, and buttons 1 and 2) and the other of which should have three buttons (X and Y, buttons 1 and 2, and ideally a hat). This is so that Joystick Gremlin can tell them apart. Otherwise, it will shit out an error on launch and die.
Note: It is possible to have more than three buttons active in DOSBox per controller. I am running with 7 on one so far, and without any problems. However, it is best to keep it to two and three for the moment, until this works, and then add additional buttons as one goes along.
3. Open up Joystick Gremlin. You should see a series of tabs on the top, each corresponding to your peripherals, one for keyboard, and then one for each vJoy Device, labelled vJoy Device 1 and 2 respectively. Here is what we will be doing: We will be combining your physical peripherals into two virtual peripherals by blending the relevant axes and assigning buttons. So, your side to side motion on your pedals will be axis X on vJoy Device 2, and your back and forth movement on the throttle will be axis Y on the same vJoy Device. That way, you will have those two axes be recognised by DOSBox, for each of the two virtual devices.
4. Open up the device you want to use as your flight stick. In my case, this is my CH Fighterstick. Once there, click on Axis X and press "remap," and make sure that the little window shows it being remapped to vJoy Device 1 axis X. Do the same for axis y. Then, remap button 1 and button 2 to the vJoy device. Lastly - and this is very important - make sure that every unused button or axis of your physical devices is set to NoOp in Joystick Gremlin. This can be selected from the drop-down where you select the remap option. If not performed correctly, DOSBox will detect controllers which you do not intend to use, which will break its device order and prevent you from using your virtual devices.
5. Do the same for vJoy Device 2, this time with whatever you want your throttle and pedals to be.
6. Once you are finished in Joystick Gremlin, save the profile. Do NOT press the gamepad button in the top left to activate it. That comes later. For now, you have a passthrough of your physical devices to a pair of virtual devices.
7. Open up your USB gamepad manager, go to "advanced," and make sure vJoy Device is set to your default controller. It does not matter which one, just any will do. This is a stopgap measure in case the Whitelister makes an error, so that you do not end up binding a controller you won't use by accident since DOSBox is bad at telling you this.
8. Then comes the fun part. Open up Joystick Gremlin again, this time as an administrator, go to the options, and there should be a tab there labelled HIDGuardian. make sure that all of your real, physical devices on that list are checked. Yes, all of them. You are hiding these devices from Windows and DOSBox, because if DOSBox sees them, it will use them instead because it numbers devices based on a system of divine mathemathics known only to the users of vogons.com.
9. Open up WhiteKnight (which contains HIDGuardian in case you were wondering, like I was when I first did this), the application you have downloaded. Once there, press the install buttons at the bottom, and when that is done, press the "run service" button. WhiteKnight is now running a local website on your system.
10. Then you need to go to this local website. There should be a shortcut in WhiteKnight, and if you cannot find it, there is a link in the forum post from which you downloaded WhiteKnight. Once there, you will see a series of device IDs, including an indicator of which are currently hidden. Press the "hide" button next to each of your physical devices. If you are unsure which device is which (as the names can sometimes be a soup of letters), check the device IDs against what is currently hidden. This is a pain and I recommend using a pen and piece of paper, as this worked for me.
11. Open up the main WhiteKnight screen again and press the "select app" button. Tab over to JoystickGremlin and click the window. Do NOT click anything else. This makes the process ID of JoystickGremlin visible to WhiteKnight. Tab back to WhiteKnight and make sure that the name of the app which can see your physical devices is the same as your profile name in Joystick Gremlin. Then, press the button next to service status until it reads "running."
12. Make sure WhiteKnight remains open. Unplug all your physical devices (at least the ones you want to use and have set to hidden) and unplug the rest. Then, plug the relevant devices back in.
13. Go to Joystick Gremlin and press activate on the top left. Then, open up vJoy monitor. If you did everything right, vJoy Device 1 should have axis movement corresponding to your flight stick.
14. Now open the HIND install folder. This is where we need to do some text file editing, an endeavour for which I recommend notepad++, but any notepad works. Open up the config file. The one for Hind is simply called dosboxHIND.conf. Important note: You need to have launched your game at least once so that it can generate the .conf file.
I was compelled to write this guide after having searched far and wide for ways to do what the title suggests myself, and having arrived at the answer of how only through rigorous exploration and spiffy autodidactism. However, I can now happily say that my copy of HIND works with full six degrees of freedom, with my pedals, throttle, and flight stick all acting as the anti-torque, collective, and cyclic respectively. Naturally, there will be some limitations to how this actually works.
Secondly, there have been two other topics which I have been burningly curious in regards to this game, and I can answer both of them:
3dfx upgrade for Hind: This will not work on the GOG version, this will not work on the GOG version, this will NEVER work on the GOG version. This is because the patch for it was designed for Windows 95, not DOS, and has never been intended for use on DOS. Therefore, trying to get it to work on DOSBox is a waste of time. DOSbox does support the use of 3dfx as a renderer via Voodoo or nGlide passtrhough, but only for some titles. Not this one. I believe the version available on oldpcgaming.net is the one for Windows 95, but I cannot be sure, and I won't be attempting to get it work. Additionally, the Voodoo configuration subsection is fully missing from the HIND-specific release of DOSBox.
Hind update version 1.2: This, too, will not work on the GOG version. The GOG version uses a custom coded bypass for the CD mounting issue of the original. It is basically an in-built crack, and I do not know how to circumvent it. Additionally, there is no proof that the patch itself was ever intended to work with the DOS version. We do know that we ostensibly have version 1.0, but we will have to content ourselves with it, unless GOG updates it themselves, I feel like.
This is where something that is very relevant to my guide comes in - the version of DOSBox that ships with HIND is 0.74-2. The current version of DOSBox is 0.74-3, and the most popular guide on how to set up your joystick DOSBox comes from is...DOSBox-X. Which has features that differ from DOSBox 0.74-2. Unsurprisingly.
This has resulted in the revival of a fun bug, which may be specific to HIND: in its current state, when using the 4axis preset (more on that soon), HIND will not recognise the vJoy axis rX as Axis 4. This has been the source of many woes for those who have been trying to set the simulator up using the instructions found on the DOSBox-X site.
Note: I cannot post links for some reason. Please google the applications I name, or message me and I will send you the links.
Step by step guide:
Before I dive in, I want to clarify how this works. So, DOSBox only supports two kinds of joysticks - one with four axes and four buttons, or two with two axes and two buttons each. Due to the aforementioned bug with this specific instance of DOSBox, the 4axis setup will not work. You're welcome to try, but this guide will focus on the 2 joysticks with 2 axes each.
A word of warning, though: Setting up your HOTAS/Joystick for DOSBox will involve hiding/whitelisting HID devices from Windows. Doing so will interfere with the normal operation of your HOTAS. This is not a permanent process, but it will take unplugging and replugging most, if not all, of your devices to ensure normal operation after you are done playing. I keep my entire HOTAS and pedals hooked up to a USB extension box with buttons on it that trivialises the process of connecting/disconnecting things, but you may need to physically unplug things. Don't say I didn't warn you.
1. Install vJoy, JoystickGremlin, and WhiteKnight Auto-Whitelister, in that order. Install ONLY vJoy and Joystick Gremlin, then restart your PC. Without doing so, there is a good chance that vJoy will mix up the device order or not be properly detected by windows.
2. Open up vJoy and make a virtual device by activating it in the "vJoy Config" sub-application. Make sure that you have two controllers, one of which should have two axes and two buttons (so X and Y, and buttons 1 and 2) and the other of which should have three buttons (X and Y, buttons 1 and 2, and ideally a hat). This is so that Joystick Gremlin can tell them apart. Otherwise, it will shit out an error on launch and die.
Note: It is possible to have more than three buttons active in DOSBox per controller. I am running with 7 on one so far, and without any problems. However, it is best to keep it to two and three for the moment, until this works, and then add additional buttons as one goes along.
3. Open up Joystick Gremlin. You should see a series of tabs on the top, each corresponding to your peripherals, one for keyboard, and then one for each vJoy Device, labelled vJoy Device 1 and 2 respectively. Here is what we will be doing: We will be combining your physical peripherals into two virtual peripherals by blending the relevant axes and assigning buttons. So, your side to side motion on your pedals will be axis X on vJoy Device 2, and your back and forth movement on the throttle will be axis Y on the same vJoy Device. That way, you will have those two axes be recognised by DOSBox, for each of the two virtual devices.
4. Open up the device you want to use as your flight stick. In my case, this is my CH Fighterstick. Once there, click on Axis X and press "remap," and make sure that the little window shows it being remapped to vJoy Device 1 axis X. Do the same for axis y. Then, remap button 1 and button 2 to the vJoy device. Lastly - and this is very important - make sure that every unused button or axis of your physical devices is set to NoOp in Joystick Gremlin. This can be selected from the drop-down where you select the remap option. If not performed correctly, DOSBox will detect controllers which you do not intend to use, which will break its device order and prevent you from using your virtual devices.
5. Do the same for vJoy Device 2, this time with whatever you want your throttle and pedals to be.
6. Once you are finished in Joystick Gremlin, save the profile. Do NOT press the gamepad button in the top left to activate it. That comes later. For now, you have a passthrough of your physical devices to a pair of virtual devices.
7. Open up your USB gamepad manager, go to "advanced," and make sure vJoy Device is set to your default controller. It does not matter which one, just any will do. This is a stopgap measure in case the Whitelister makes an error, so that you do not end up binding a controller you won't use by accident since DOSBox is bad at telling you this.
8. Then comes the fun part. Open up Joystick Gremlin again, this time as an administrator, go to the options, and there should be a tab there labelled HIDGuardian. make sure that all of your real, physical devices on that list are checked. Yes, all of them. You are hiding these devices from Windows and DOSBox, because if DOSBox sees them, it will use them instead because it numbers devices based on a system of divine mathemathics known only to the users of vogons.com.
9. Open up WhiteKnight (which contains HIDGuardian in case you were wondering, like I was when I first did this), the application you have downloaded. Once there, press the install buttons at the bottom, and when that is done, press the "run service" button. WhiteKnight is now running a local website on your system.
10. Then you need to go to this local website. There should be a shortcut in WhiteKnight, and if you cannot find it, there is a link in the forum post from which you downloaded WhiteKnight. Once there, you will see a series of device IDs, including an indicator of which are currently hidden. Press the "hide" button next to each of your physical devices. If you are unsure which device is which (as the names can sometimes be a soup of letters), check the device IDs against what is currently hidden. This is a pain and I recommend using a pen and piece of paper, as this worked for me.
11. Open up the main WhiteKnight screen again and press the "select app" button. Tab over to JoystickGremlin and click the window. Do NOT click anything else. This makes the process ID of JoystickGremlin visible to WhiteKnight. Tab back to WhiteKnight and make sure that the name of the app which can see your physical devices is the same as your profile name in Joystick Gremlin. Then, press the button next to service status until it reads "running."
12. Make sure WhiteKnight remains open. Unplug all your physical devices (at least the ones you want to use and have set to hidden) and unplug the rest. Then, plug the relevant devices back in.
13. Go to Joystick Gremlin and press activate on the top left. Then, open up vJoy monitor. If you did everything right, vJoy Device 1 should have axis movement corresponding to your flight stick.
14. Now open the HIND install folder. This is where we need to do some text file editing, an endeavour for which I recommend notepad++, but any notepad works. Open up the config file. The one for Hind is simply called dosboxHIND.conf. Important note: You need to have launched your game at least once so that it can generate the .conf file.
Post edited March 14, 2023 by 961freekil169