Problems regarding mouse "lock" and bindings

electroshock · Post by **electroshock** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:37 pm

Recently I reinstalled the game, but I'm having a few problems.

Firstly, the game won't let me bind the "use" function to the right mouse button. Apparently this is because the official 1.2 patch "fixed" a bug that the binding produced by making the binding impossible. Anyone know a workaround?

Secondly, when I move around my mouse sometimes "locks" into a position, not allowing me to use mouselook, and making my character carry on moving in whichever direction she was moving when the "lock" kicked in. This "lock" only lasts for a couple of seconds before I'm allowed to control my character again, but its very annoying and disruptive.

For reference, in addition to the official 1.2 patch, I'm also using the unofficial 1.8 patch.

Thanks in advance for any help.

defiler556 · Post by **defiler556** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:28 pm

I've been having exactly the same problems lately. Both the mouse not responding and whatever direction key seemingly "sticking," forcing your character to walk in the last direction you were headed, regardless of whatever key you're currently hitting. It lasts anywhere to 2-5 seconds, happening as you travel.
I've tried clean installs, versions retail 1.1, then patched to 1.2, and unnoficial 1.9 -2.1, each tested seperately, all with the same problem. I have a very capable computer, amd 64 3000, radeon x800, gig of ram.
I love this game to death, and this problem has rendered it almost unplayable.
I have a hunch that the unofficial patch 2.0 introduced this, however I installed it after a very long bout of not playing the game. And subsequent uninstalls should have cleared up.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

defiler556 · Post by **defiler556** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:14 pm

good news

I seem to have resolved the problem. I now only seldom experience the lockup my machine is under heavy stress.

This one is a strange one but it seems to help. Load up Vampire, and when you're at the main menu, ctrl+alt+del to get back to your desktop and bring up task manager. Go to the "processes" tab, find Vampire, right click on it and set it's priority to "belownormal".
Unfortunately, it seems that I have to do this every time I play to avoid the problem. Overall a small price to pay for this game though.

*edit* After testing, it seems that only the above fixes the problem. The other changes may help performance, but seem to have no effect on the mouse and key lock problem I've been having.

Information on changing your machine's pagefile, depending on how much ram you have. First post on the page, #76. It explains the ideal amount of virtual memory you should be running. Link below.
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetvampir ... 543953&p=6

Disabling antialiasing and anisotrophic filtering on the video card seems to have helped some people with performance issues.

Do check out the tech support section of planet vampire, they have quite an extensive list of problems and fixes.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:15 pm

Yer all spoilt

Actually, I get this all the time. Have for over a year now, and on two different computers to boot. When it happens, check the three lights on the right top of your keyboard to see if they are blinking in unison. If so, hitting escape to get to the menu and escape again to get out of it will clear the situation. I've done it so often it's practically a reflex now, but it can restore control to you instantly if you are in a sticky situation where you really *need* to have control. Nothing worse than stomping head-first into a vampire that's beating the living tar out of you.
That priority trick is interesting. If changing the priority fixes the situation, that suggests something else on the computer has spun out. In the task manager, you might want to order the list by CPU usage and click on the "Show processes for all users" box to see if something is racing.
Pay close attention to the trick with the page file, too. If something is getting you buried deep in your paging file, you've got bigger fish to fry.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:02 am

You guys consider listing your mouse brands and drivers to help Isolate the problem?

If your doing fresh installs do you get this with the unpatched versions, ie no Offical or Unoffical patches?

I highly doubt the Unoffical patch has anything to do with it, since it doesnt not have and affect on hard coding, only on dialogues, Python files that control quest and spelling errors.

electroshock · Post by **electroshock** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:44 am

This one is a strange one but it seems to help. Load up Vampire, and when you're at the main menu, ctrl+alt+del to get back to your desktop and bring up task manager. Go to the "processes" tab, find Vampire, right click on it and set it's priority to "belownormal".
Unfortunately, it seems that I have to do this every time I play to avoid the problem. Overall a small price to pay for this game though.

Thanks. Worked on my PC, too.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:42 pm

[QUOTE=Acleacius]You guys consider listing your mouse brands and drivers to help Isolate the problem?

If your doing fresh installs do you get this with the unpatched versions, ie no Offical or Unoffical patches?

I highly doubt the Unoffical patch has anything to do with it, since it doesnt not have and affect on hard coding, only on dialogues, Python files that control quest and spelling errors.[/QUOTE]

Three different mice, three different keyboards, two different computers. Drivers are the default drivers for a 104 key standard keyboard and wheel-mouse for Windows XP. I think the problem is actually my KVM switch.

defiler556 · Post by **defiler556** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:50 pm

[QUOTE=Acleacius]You guys consider listing your mouse brands and drivers to help Isolate the problem?

If your doing fresh installs do you get this with the unpatched versions, ie no Offical or Unoffical patches?
[/QUOTE]
Using a microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical, along with some HP keyboard, unknown model, possibly the Multimedia usb.

I have gotten this problem with all versions, patched, unpatched, official or unnofficial.

[QUOTE=yrthwyndandfyre]That priority trick is interesting. If changing the priority fixes the situation, that suggests something else on the computer has spun out. In the task manager, you might want to order the list by CPU usage and click on the "Show processes for all users" box to see if something is racing.[/QUOTE]
Absolutely nothing is running in the background other than necessary processes. Nothing out of place.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:25 pm

So far the only common thing I see seems to be you are all using MS mouse?

Humm.

Since I use Logitech, I am not sure what are the newest drivers for MS mouse?

What about you guys motherboard chipset, think that could be the same as well , maybe need to upgrade a BIOS or 4 in 1 Drivers (if VIA)?

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:20 am

its not ms mouse thats the problem. i use an optical ms mouse (although it is 4 years old now) and have never updated the mouse drivers and it works fine.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:17 am

Not saying it is the mouse but if it is not working now it could be a driver conflict.
Well at least so far no one with a Logitech has posted.

I am just going by the facts/info being posted.

Mind posting your driver version, even if your not intrested it could possibly help others?

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:30 am

my mouse driver is by microsoft from the 1st July 2001 and is version 5.1.2600.0 and my mouse is a microsoft usb wheel mouse optical.

defiler556 · Post by **defiler556** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:15 pm

Exactly the same mouse and drivers as mr_sir. My mobo is a Abit KN8 Ultra. Up to date BIOS, dated 11/11/05.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 6:45 pm

[QUOTE=Acleacius]So far the only common thing I see seems to be you are all using MS mouse?
[/QUOTE]
Microsoft Opto-electrical and optical, PS-2 and USB, and Logitech optical USB-2. I forgot that the Logitech didn't use a Microsoft mouse driver.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 9:23 pm

Well there does seem to be a newer version of MS mouse drivers available 5.2**** .

Only thing I can tell is if you want to use the 1.2 patch version, which did provide some defiante improvments like cleaning up the horrible looking cutscences and some minor performance issues, try upgrading your mouse drivers to the current versions, unless you can think of a reason not too.

Thou if you are just using 1.2 to fix the broken Johansson Quest at the Vamp Hunter Compund, then backup up your saves and reinstall because the Unoffical patch does a much better job, so you do not need the Offical 1.2 patch.

If you are going to use the Offical patch the proper order the Unoffical patch should be put on top of/after the Offical patch.

Has anyone notice if you have these problems is it possible related to a sound issue/studder or is it just durning battles or only during city Hubs, anything in common/repeatable?

If you have not try you can try turning off (untick) Enviromental Sound which is know to have performance problems.