Grawries' Ultimate Guide to AL on PC: Full-Screen with Gamepad Control of Mouse/KB!

[Grawries]

Hi All...

My girlfriend started playing Arcane Legends on her iPhone, and when I found out there was a Chrome version I decided to give it a try.

Here is my complete guide to setting up Arcane Legends to play amazingly well on PC:




1. Download Chrome:



Download Chrome from Google. Trust me, use Chrome, not any other browser. AL is a Chrome application, playing it in any other browser will not work as well, I promise. I also tried Chrome Canary (beta-ish Chrome) but I found AL runs better in plain Chrome:

https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/

Then head over to http://www.arcanelegendsgame.com/ and use the "Available on the Chrome Web Store" link in the top left corner to install the Chrome version of the game.



2. Make AL look amazing in full-screen:



It's fairly easy to get Chrome into full-screen mode, just hit the F11 key. However, an annoying popup appears whenever you mouse near the top of the screen. To get rid of this, run Chrome in Kiosk mode:

- Open your Start Menu and right-click-drag Chrome to your desktop, choosing "Create shortcuts here" from the menu that appears.

- Right click the "Google Chrome" icon you just made on your desktop and choose Properties.

- Change the text in the Target field to the following (note that you may need to edit this if Chrome isn't installed to this path):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -kiosk http://account.spacetimestudios.com/arcanelegends

- Click the General tab near the top of the window and change the text in the box to Arcane Legends. Click OK.

- Note that you need to close out of Chrome completely before using this icon to start Chrome in Kiosk mode. Once it's open, you can still open new tabs with Ctrl-T, but note that AL tends to log you out if you're away from its tab for too long. I think leaving your Options open prevents this.

- Kiosk mode is great, but we want to play at maximum resolution too. So, right-click the Arcane Legends icon on your desktop again and change the Target to:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -kiosk http://account.spacetimestudios.com/...?w=1920&h=1080

- Again note that you may have Chrome somewhere else, eg. just "Program Files" if you are on 32-bit Windows. Also note that you want to set "w=" and "h=" to your monitor's resolution. Find out the resolution by right-clicking your desktop and selecting "Screen Resolution". For example, mine is 1920 x 1080 so my w=1920 and my h=1080. I suggest setting your resolution to the maximum it supports to make AL look as amazing as possible.

- That's all! Just use this icon to start AL and it will open in a beautiful max-res full-screen window!




3. Buy a gamepad:



Using a gamepad for AL is much more finger friendly versus the keyboard controls. I am not aware of a way to remap key bindings for AL, so you're stuck trying to do things like holding down a number key to charge a skill *while* you try to hit W+D to move at an angle. My hands seriously get sore.

Xbox360 controllers are available at a low cost and can be made to work very well with PC. Here is a link to a decent cheap Xbox controller that works well on PC (I'm in Canada and the controller cost me $18 on sale):

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/.../10257054.aspx




4. Make the gamepad work with AL using Xpadder:



Making most gamepads work with AL requires a program called Xpadder. Here is a link to a free version that I got to work with Win7 x64:

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5869-xpadder.html

- In order to make it work, double click the exe to extract the program, I'd recommend putting "C:\Program Files (x86)\" as the location as this is the normal place Windows keeps applications like this.

- Once you have extracted Xpadder, go to the folder it installed to ("C:\Program Files (x86)\xpadder_gamepad_profiler" if you followed the above step).

- Right-click on Xpadder.exe and choose "Properties".

- Click the "Compatibility" tab near the top of the window.

- Click the checkbox beside "Run this program in compatibility mode for:".

- Select "Windows Vista (Service Pack 2)" from the dropdown menu and click OK.

- Right-click Xpadder.exe and choose "Create Shortcut". Drag "Xpadder.exe - Shortcut" to your desktop.

- Now that Xpadder is installed, time to configure your gamepad:

- Double click the new shortcut on your desktop to start Xpadder.

- Click the small button with a picture of a gamepad and choose "New".

- Click the "Image" tab, then click the Open button, then double-click on the "controllerimages" folder.

- In the top right corner of the Open window, click the "Change Your View" button until you see thumbnails for the different files.

- Double-click the file that most closely resembles your controller. For the controller I linked above, I used "GameStop_Xbox_360.Scorpwanna.USA.bmp".

- Click the "Sticks" tab and make sure "Enabled" is unchecked.

- Click the "DPad" tab and make sure "Enabled" is checked.

- Click the "Triggers" tab and make sure "Enabled" is unchecked.

- Click the "Buttons" tab. Press each button you want to use in AL. A box for each will appear over the picture as you press them.

- Click the "Finish" tab, then click the "Close" button on this tab (not the X button on the window).

- Click the gamepad button again and click "Save".

- Click the button with a picture of a document on it to the right of the gamepad button and click "New".

- Press each button on your gamepad to light up the associated box. Click on each box and then press the key you want associated with that button.

- Here is my mapping (although I am considering swapping Right Bumper and A to give my finger a break). Obviously you can customize this however you prefer:

A - 1 (Skill 1)
B - 2 (Skill 2)
X - 3 (Skill 3)
Y - 4 (Skill 4)
Left Bumper - Esc (Close Window)
Right Bumper - Space (Attack/Interact)
Start Button - Q (Health Potion)
Back Button - E (Mana Potion)
Press Right Stick - 5 (Pet Ability)
Dpad Up - W (Move Up)
Dpad Down - S (Move Down)
Dpad Left - A (Move Left)
Dpad Right - D (Move Right)

- Click the Document-looking button again and click Save, name the file "Arcane Legends".

- Click the X in the top right corner of the Xpadder window and it will coninue running in your System Tray (the area with little icons by your clock in Windows).

- To shut down Xpadder, right click the icon in the System Tray and choose "Close".

- You're done! Xpadder should now control your toon in AL!

edit: You can also use PS3 controllers with PC and with Android. Here are a couple of links to help PS3 people (thanks fritzce):

http://gizmodo.com/5130521/use-your-...ers-on-your-pc
http://lifehacker.com/5829738/remain...-android-games

5. Use your gamepad to control the mouse using Joystick 2 Mouse:



After starting to play with the gamepad, I realized that many functions in AL really require either touchpad or mouse input. So... I searched around and found this program called "Joystick 2 Mouse":

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...-2-Mouse.shtml

- Install the program and start it up. You may want to uncheck "Launch On Startup" if you prefer to run the program manually when you play AL.

- Make sure "Microsoft PC-joystick driver" is selected in the "Joysticks Profiles Assignments" menu.

- Click the "Profiles" tab near the top of the window. Make sure "Joystick" is "Microsoft PC-joystick driver".

- Under "The Shift Buttons", click each button in the right pane and click Remove, until the right pane is empty.

- Under "Actions Assignment", select each Button or function. For anything with an Action, change it to "<<None>>".

- For my gamepad, I set "Left Stick Pressed" to left click my mouse. To do this, I set Button 9 to Theme "Mouse" and Action "Left Mouse Button". Note this may be different for your gamepad/joystick.

- To figure out button mappings, go to Start -> Control Panel -> Devices and Printers -> Right-click your gamepad and choose "Game Controller Settings" -> Properties. This will allow you to press each joystick button/function to see what the setting is called (eg. Z-axis left/right = triggers).

- I also set my triggers to zoom in and out. To do this I set "Left Z Axis" to Theme "Mouse Wheel" and Action "Scroll Up", and "Right Z Axis" to "Scroll Down".

- Click the Apply button. Click the "Save As" button, then name the file "Mouse Only" and click the "Save" button.

- Click the "Joysticks" tab near the top, then click the "Change" button. Double-click the "Mouse Only" file you just made.

- Click "OK" at the bottom of the Window. Like Xmapper, Joystick 2 Mouse now lives in your System Tray and can be closed by right-clicking its icon in the tray.

- You should now be able to move your mouse using your left stick, left-click by pushing the left stick, and scroll with the mousewheel using the triggers.




6. Being able to type with your gamepad:



I realized with mouse control I was a lot closer to AL perfection, but I still couldn't chat or type commands. Then I realized Windows includes an on-screen keyboard.

- Open your start menu and type "keyboard" into the search box, and the first result should be "On-Screen Keyboard". I suggest right-clicking it and choosing "Pin to Start Menu" for easy opening later.

- Open On-Screen keyboard and you will see a little keyboard appear. I suggest dragging the keyboard edges until it is as small as possible and locating it in the bottom right corner of your screen as it interferes with AL the least here.

- On-Screen Keyboard has semi-working "always on top" functionality, meaning it should stay on top of your Chrome window while you are playing AL. To make it look nicer, download and install "Peek Through":

http://www.lukepaynesoftware.com/projects/peek-through/

- Run Peek Through, switch to On-Screen Keyboard, and press Windows Key + A. This should make the window transparent... looks way nicer, doesn't it?

- I'm experimenting with mapping Right Trigger to "Alt-Tab" in Joystick 2 Mouse so that I can hide On-Screen Keyboard when I'm not using it, but I haven't worked the kinks out yet. I had to go to the Actions tab in Joystick 2 Mouse and create a new Action that did Hold-Alt + Hit-Tab. As I said, just sort of experimental so I'm not really going into much more detail here.

- You may also want to click the Options button on the keyboard and uncheck "Use click sound".

- That's it! You should now have a snazzy semi-opaque keyboard in the bottom right of your AL window while playing. Pretty sweet.




7. Use your TV:



If you have a decent TV and haven't bothered hooking your computer up to it, this is a good chance to try it out. I am posting this guide in early January so check for post-holiday deals, 40-something inch TV's are pretty cheap these days.

Here is a link to a LifeHacker article that will teach you how to connect your PC/Apple to your TV:

http://lifehacker.com/5811209/how-to...-for-beginners



Well, that's my guide! I hope this helps people enjoy AL on PC to the maximum level. Many of the techniques in this guide can also be applied to other games as well.

Note that I run up-to-date ESET Antivirus and no threats were detected downloading or using any of these programs. That being said, use these programs at your own risk!

Also, I wrote the guide on a Windows 7 Pro x64 desktop PC and the PDP gamepad I mentioned above. Your experience may differ and stuff.


Thanks to the following authors/threads for providing information/images used in this guide, as well as any others I may have forgotten to mention:

http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...-exit-dropdown
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...nds-PC-players
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...ames-on-the-pc
http://lifehacker.com/5965503/peek-t...e-window-below
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Contr...ck-39938.shtml