Oolite Keyboard Controls

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Revision as of 22:06, 15 December 2011 by Jaz (talk | contribs) (Default Key Assignments: added column of alternate keyboard controls used in BBC keyboard)

Default Key Assignments

Key assignments are stored in the file keyconfig.plist. This file, by default, is in the following location:

  • Linux: /usr/lib/GNUstep/Applications/oolite.app/Resources/Config/keyconfig.plist
  • Windows: C:\Oolite\oolite.app\Resources\Config\keyconfig.plist - (was C:\Program Files\Oolite\... before 1.73.x)
  • Mac OS-X: In “Extras” folder, or in Oolite.app/Contents/Resources/Config/keyconfig.plist

++Please Note: All characters in capitals are shift + character, i.e. R = shift + r.++

++Additional: the column labelled BBC, refers to the alternate BBC keyboard controls.++

Action Key Keycode (Dec) Keycode (Hex) BBC Key Notes
Roll Left Left arrow 253 FD ,
Roll Right Right arrow 252 FC .
Pitch Forward Up arrow 255 FF s
Pitch Back Down arrow 254 FE x
Yaw Left , 44 2C Left arrow
Yaw Right . 46 2E Right arrow
Increase Speed w 119 77 Space
Inject Fuel i 105 69 i
Decrease Speed s 115 73 /
Fire Lasers a 97 61 a
Target Missile t 116 74 t
Untarget Missile u 117 75 u
Launch Missile m 109 6D m
Next Missile y 121 79 y Multi-Targeting System required
Activate Ident System r 114 72 r
Cycle forward between targets + 43 2B + Target System Memory Upgrade required
Cycle backward between targets - 45 2D - Target System Memory Upgrade required
Activate ECM e 101 65 e
Launch Escape Pod Esc 27 1B Esc
Energy Bomb Tab 9 09 Tab
Energy Bomb (On the Mac) Tab "\t" 09 Tab
Galactic Hyperspace g 103 67 g
Advanced Navigational Array ^ 94 5E ^ Hold down to activate, release to deactivate
Hyperspace h 104 68 h
Jumpdrive j 106 6A j
Dump Cargo d 100 64 c
Cycle cargo to dump R 82 52 R
Autopilot c 99 63 d
Autodock D 68 44 D
Take a Snapshot * (shift+8) 42 2A * (shift+8) Written to $HOME/oolite-saves
Docking Music Toggle s 115 73 q Only if Docking Computer fitted!
Scanner Zoom z 122 7A z
Map Dump ! (shift+1) 33 21 i
Map Home Home 302 12E O Selects your current system
Comms Log ` 96 60 `
Next Compass Mode \ or # 92 5C \
Display Frame Rate F 70 46 F Displays frame rate, object- and collision-counter and player's pwm-coordinates.
Cycle through external views v 118 76 v
Pause Game p 112 70 p
Toggle Mouse Control M 77 4D M When activated, the mouse becomes a virtual joystick (in full screen mode only). The left mouse button fires and the right re-centres your ship.
Toggle Hud o 111 6F o When activated, the hud toggles between hidden and visible. Useful for screen dumps. Will be added in the 1.76 release. Before it was a fixed debug key. (see 'Debugging Keys' below)
Ask for docking clearance L 76 4C L The targeted station will give you clearance (or not). Carriers might stop when giving clearance.
Dump Target State H 72 48 H Writes a detailed dump of your current target to the logfile. If no target is chosen, the player's state will be dumped. (Only available in test releases.)



Debugging Keys

The following keys only work while you have paused the game by pressing p. Most of them will dump debug-messages to Oolite's logfile. This is highly useful for debugging OXPs or helping to debug Oolite.


Action Key Notes
Entity Dump 0 (zero) Writes a list of all entities in your current system to the logfile. Useful e.g. to find out whether a certain ship exists.
Collision Debug b Enables collision test debugging.
Octree Debug c Enables octree debugging, which will print the line “DEBUG Octrees collide!” in the logfile whenever two objects collide.
Complete Debug d Enables all debug flags.
Shader Debug s Enables shader debug messages.
Entity Boxes x Enables drawing of bounding boxes around all entities in the game.
Planet Textures t Turns on the experimental on-the-fly generation of planet textures. Dock and launch or hyperjump to see the effect. This feature is still under development and may produce unintended results. Therefore it is disabled in Oolite 1.69.1.
Switch off HUD o Switches off the HUD.
End Debugging n Disables all debug flags and the textured planets. Switches the HUD back on.



Changing Key Assignments

If you want to change key assignments don't alter the default file. Instead copy keyconfig.plist into your local AddOns directory:

  • Linux: ~/.Oolite/AddOns
  • Windows (except Vista): C:\Program Files\Oolite\AddOns
  • Windows Vista: C:\Oolite\AddOns
  • Mac OS-X: ~/Library/Application Support/Oolite/AddOns


You can edit keyconfig.plist with any standard text editor. In Oolite 1.65 and earlier, keys are specified as key codes. You'll find a list of Linux keycodes here. Note that Oolite uses decimal values whereas most keycodes are expressed in hexadecimal. This can cause confusion. For example the comma key produces a keycode of 2C (hex) which translates to 44 (decimal), whereas keycode 44 (hex) refers to the uppercase "D" key, which is actually 68 (decimal)! (If you don't have a hex/decimal calculator handy try this table or this online converter.)

In current test releases, key assignments can be specified as text instead.

Classic Elite keyboard controls

In the original BBC version, you could control your ship with the following controls: S and X to dive and climb; < and > (well "," and ".") to roll left and right; and A to fire the lasers.

Here are a couple of download links to grab the keyconfig.plist file that you need to change the keys.

Download one of these files, put it into a Config folder, and put that in your AddOns folder.

Silly Keyboard Tricks

  • Change key_launch_missile to 112. Now you'll need to hit "p" to launch a missile - which also pauses the game. You'll sometimes get a nice snapshot of the departing missile!