Killer Instinct: How to Change the Keyboard Controls

This guide describes in detail how to change the keyboard controls, allowing you to assign individual controls for the UI and the game, assign multiple keys to the same action, and to use controller-only function of the right stick (it is needed for LP+LK shortcuts, i.e. etc.). All changes are made through the game configuration file and most of the guide has already been provided by the developers, more details about the developers’ comments and the method itself further.

 

Foreword

Usually, fighting games that aren’t very old allow you to customize buttons for a grab individually, but in KI there was no such key for the keyboard at all, while it was present for the controller (albeit without the option for remapping). As it turned out, the game files provide the possibility of such customization and, apparently, the developers are not against such edits,

# if you want to customize your binds and sensitivity, please make another file
# called binds_pc_user.cfg and put it in your gameassets or intermediate assets
# it will be applied on top of these, overriding them. This file is for
# the default binds that all users should have.
# the last three columns are min, max, scale so alter the final number if you’d like it to be less sensitive.

# If one wants keyboard controls, you can reference this!

Further I will reiterate some of developers’ comments and will add personal examples for editing the configuration file.

The Guide

You need to open your game folder (Steam\SteamApps\common\Killer Instinct), then copy the file binds_pc and rename it to binds_pc_user (both file formats must be .cfg)
Next, you should open the file binds_pc_user.cfg and clear its contents or simply delete everything up to the comments (comments are marked with “#” in the beginning of the line).
Binds are added by the following template:

setbind 0 Action Device_Type 0 Button -1.0 1.0 1.0

The last three digits are responsible for the pressure sensitivity, for the keyboard it makes no sense to set anything other than “-1.0 1.0 1.0”. For other devices it is better to look at the sensitivity settings for the button from the original file.
You can view all the options for Actions in the file itself, in this guide I will show only the primary ones in the Example section.
Button options are given in the original file, not everything is listed for the keyboard, but the main algorithm for it is “KEY_” + Name

Example

# "COMMAND_UI_START" is "Enter"/"Space" on keyboard by default. Changed to "Enter" and "Z"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_START       KEYBOARD   0 KEY_RETURN      -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_START       KEYBOARD   0 KEY_Z      -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "COMMAND_UI_SELECT" is "Enter" on keyboard by default. Changed to "Enter" and "Z"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_SELECT       KEYBOARD   0 KEY_RETURN      -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_SELECT       KEYBOARD   0 KEY_Z      -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "COMMAND_UI_BACK" is "ESC" on keyboard by default. Changed to "ESC" and "X"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_BACK        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_ESC         -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_BACK        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_X         -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "COMMAND_UI_LT" is "1" on keyboard by default. Changed to "2"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_LT        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_2        -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "COMMAND_UI_RT" is "2" on keyboard by default. Changed to "3"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_RT        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_3        -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "COMMAND_UI_DELETE" is "LCtrl" on keyboard by default. Changed to "1" (here two actions are combined which allows to restart training with one button)
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_START        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_1        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_DELETE        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_1        -1.0 1.0 1.0
# Fix for Right Stick binds (LIGHT_PUNCH, MEDIUM_PUNCH, HEAVY_PUNCH)
setbind 0 COMMAND_PUNCH        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD7        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_KICK        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD4        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_BLOCK        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD1        -1.0 1.0 1.0
# Fix for Right Stick binds (LIGHT_KICK, MEDIUM_KICK, HEAVY_KICK)
setbind 0 COMMAND_JUMP        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD8        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_USE        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD5        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_INVENTORY        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD2        -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "RSTICK_LEFT" is Nothing on keyboard by default. Changed to "Numpad6"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_RSTICK_LEFT        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD6        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_KICK        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD6        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_USE        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD6        -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "RSTICK_RIGHT" is Nothing on keyboard by default. Changed to "Numpad3"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_RSTICK_RIGHT        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD3        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_KICK        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD3        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_USE        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD3        -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "RSTICK_UP" is Nothing on keyboard by default. Changed to "Numpad9"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_RSTICK_UP        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD9        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_BLOCK        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD9        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_INVENTORY        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_NUMPAD9        -1.0 1.0 1.0
# "RSTICK_DOWN" is Nothing on keyboard by default. Changed to "E"
setbind 0 COMMAND_UI_RSTICK_DOWN        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_E        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_PUNCH        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_E        -1.0 1.0 1.0
setbind 0 COMMAND_JUMP        KEYBOARD   0 KEY_E        -1.0 1.0 1.0

After editing and saving the file

This is an important part. After you have changed and saved binds_pc_user.cfg, it is necessary to restart the game, after which you’ll need to go to the control settings menu and click the “Default” button, if you will not do this – most of the buttons will not be changed. Don’t forget to save the new controls. If you will use contents of the Example from the section above, then, after returning control settings to the “Default” state, you will be able to configure all the buttons without losing the settings transferred from the Right Stick (keys Numpad9, Numpad6, Numpad3, E), because settings for those buttons are considered secondary and will not be overwritten the usual way.

Thanks to Japanese Schoolgirl for his great guide on How to Change the Keyboard Controls, all credit to his effort. you can also read the original guide from Steam Community. enjoy the game.

About Robins Chew

I'm Robins, who love to play the mobile games from Google Play, I will share the gift codes in this website, if you also love mobile games, come play with me. Besides, I will also play some video games relresed from Steam.

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