By adjusting Steam's default DOSBox configuration we can improve the Vanilla display, sound, and performance of the game. I'll also explain how to setup the game for WASD + Mouse look by removing the standard movement controls of the mouse vertical axis and mapping it to keyboard commands. This will give you a more modern control feel for a Vanilla install.

Open the installed DOSBox config file in your Steam game directory. It should be located in ~\base\heretic.conf

Increase the available memory in DOSBox. The default is 16. This is useful if you are experiencing choppiness during gameplay.

Use a scaler to improve the pixelated look. The default is none. I find "hq3x" to offer the best compromise of sharpness and smoothing.

Disable PC Speaker if you are not using it. The default is on.

Disable Joystick support if you are not using it. The default is on.

Allow DOSBox to determine the language layout of the keyboard. Default is none.

Out-of-the-box the configuration is setup to use a Soundblaster 16 emulation. You might want to experiment with Gravis UltraSound or General Midi for improved sound.

If you'd like to use Gravis UltraSound emulation you will need to locate the GUS files to be configured in DOSBox. For more information on setting up Gravis Ultrasound in DOSBox I recommend this discussion over on Vogons[www.vogons.org]

Once you have the files, modify DOSBox Config. Configure the GUS files in the [gus] section:

Mount the GUS files by adding the following in the [autoexec] section to the directory specified above:
The first portion defines what drive will be mounted inside DOSBox, which is G: for this example. The path to be mounted will be the path to files on your machine, which is C:\GUS\ULTRASND411 for this example.

Begin by running the SETUP.EXE in DOSBox. The easiest way is to drag the SETUP.EXE file in the "base" folder onto dosbox.exe. When you save your changes the result will be updates made to the HERETIC.CFG file. If you understand the settings you can modify the cfg directly and bypass the Setup interface. I recommend taking a backup of this file in-case you need to rollback to the defaults.

Select the "Choose Music Sound Card" setting. The default is set to "Sound Blaster". I recommend experimenting with Gravis UltraSound or General Midi for better music. This is totally subjective to your preference so experiment and decide which of these 3 sounds best to you.

If you choose "General Midi" then port 330 is fine. If you choose "Gravis UltraSound" you will not need to choose a port.

In Setup, select the "Choose Sound FX Card". If you chose "General Midi" for music I recommend using "Sound Blaster" for the FX. If you choose "Sound Blaster" for the FX, choose your Port, IRQ, and DMA settings according to the sbbase,irq, and dma settings in the [sblaster] section of the config, respectively.

If you chose "Gravis UltraSound" for music, well, then you'd better choose it for FX as well. :)

You'll be asked to choose the number of sound FX to mix. The default is 3. I recommend increasing this to the maximum of 8, which should be no trouble for DOSBox.

Finally, choose the "Save & Launch Heretic" option. Quit Heretic and DOSbox.

Heretic like many early DOS games did not default to a WASD control scheme and had very limited mouse configuration. You cannot change or disable the standard behavior of the forward/backward movement tied to mouse along it's vertical Y axis. Let's start by making the basic changes to facilitate WASD.

Run SETUP.EXE in DOSBox. Select "Controller Type" and choose accordingly. Next, choose "Configure Controller" and choose "Keyboard".



Move Forward = W
Move Backward = S
Strafe Left = A
Strafe Right = D

I recommend updating the Inventory Left & Right buttons to Q & E, or Q & Z for better keyboard control of these options. In the next section I'll explain how to tie these to the mouse scroll wheel.

I also recommend updating the Look buttons if you'd like to tie the up & down to the mouse vertical axis, which I'll explain in the next section. Due to how we'll emulate the buttons I don't recommend using the default of the "Delete". Instead choose "Page Up" for Up and "Page Down" for down, but you won't be using the buttons.

Once you're done with your changes press F10 to save your changes. You shouldn't need to change Mouse configuration defaults. Choose "Save & Launch Heretic" to save and quit.

Download a DOS command program called Novert[www.doomworld.com] that disables the vertical Y axis commands of the mouse within DOSBox. In the next section we will fix what the Y axis does in a windows program outside of DOSBox.

Extract the .com file to the "base" folder.

Update the DOSBox conf to run Novert. In the [autoexec] section add:

Use a windows program called GlovePIE[glovepie.software.informer.com] to configure mouse inputs to emulate keyboard commands.

NOTE: Unfortunately this program has recently (as of 2016) been abandoned. If you have another program that will allow mouse buttons to emulate keyboard commands feel free to use it instead. Be sure to scan your download for malware as there are no longer official download sites for GlovePIE. You may try FreePIE[andersmalmgren.github.io] as an alternative.

Extract the GlovePIE files to any location, i.e. C:\Apps\GlovePIE

Open PIEFree.exe and paste in the following scripts:

I mentioned before how I recommended changing the Look keys to not use the "Delete" key. That's due to potential hazards of having a program emulate the delete key outside of DOSBox while GlovePIE is running.

Adjust the keys according to what you choose for Look Up & Down keys and Inventory Left & Right. Reverse the equations for PageUp and PageDown to invert your look controls. Here I've chosen to have Right-click emulate the select and use inventory button "Enter".

Save the script to your ~\GlovePIE\MouseScripts\ folder as "Heretic.pie". Close GlovePIE.

In your Steam game folder edit "heretic.bat". Add the following statement at the top of the .bat file and adjust the paths accordingly.

You can now launch your game from the batch file and will open GlovePIE and begin running your custom script.

Unfortunately this will not modify the Steam game launch to begin running your custom GlovePIE script. If you would like to launch your game from Steam you will need to make sure GlovePIE is already open and running your script.

NOTE: When you exit Heretic you will want to make sure you stop & exit GlovePIE. Be careful what you emulate with GlovePIE since it will cause odd behavior outside of DOSBox while a script is running.

Now you're all set to use your mouse to look up and down, and standard left & right, within the game!