Joysticks...

Anyone using them? Anyone want them to be implemented properly?

I'm using something called joy2key to allow rudimentary joystick control of my helecopter. Makes flying about 10 times more fun I would say. I think JS's would be of most use in space though.

MA seemed to imply it would happen shortly after space version 1.0 .... but nothing yet though - which is sorta lame really. I expect the guys at Theryon wars will be wanting joysticks - surely?

Wistrel

 

attitude? altitude maybe?

I've made my own joystick controller for space now anyhow - its ace fun! :D. Its still using joy2key for some of the ground based stuff but thats just cause I've been too lazy to properly finish it off yet.

Really should get round to making it standalone/configurable really... Maybe then other people could use it

Wistrel

 

er.... I know the old internet adage, "pics - or it didn't happen" but actually its a little difficult to screen shot as er... there isn't a lot to see.... um... it talks...? if that's any use? I made a funky computer voice thing to announce which control mode its in ^_^. I can describe what it does though if that is any good?

I have 2 analogue joysticks, an ancient one that has 2 axis and 2 buttons and a snazzy new usb one (cyborg v1 I think).

So on the new one, in "space mode", the forward/backward axis tips the ship down and up and you can rotate the stick to rotate the ship left and right. (these are like the normal space mouse controls and are analogue) When you let go, the ship flies straight. Moving the stick left and right controls the roll/rotation of the ship (digital - i tried "faking" analogue but it didn't really work) and there is a throttle that I use to turn on (er can't turn off, just have to move backwards) the "keep moving forward" thing.

The other old joystick controls (digitally) the move forward, backwards, and slide left and right functionality. It has a trigger button that drops the ship down and another on top that moves the ship up.

On the new joystick there is also a "hat" stick. This controls the "view": forward looks down, back=look up, left=look left, right= look right. Letting go, restores the view to straight forward. This works in 1st and third person mode view mode. When "looking around" it is still possible to move (frwd, bkwd,left+right slide, up/down) the ship using the old stick (no angular control in other words). This is fun for watching yourself fly over the space stations for example).

The new stick has 5 buttons on top and a trigger for firing your gun (I don't have a gun >_<). They control:

- toggle for 1st and third person mode
- toggle for mouse pointer (trigger then becomes left click) [this is button 7 actually on the stick]
- keep going forward button
- free look mode
- change seats (also turns off engine - kinda fun for "parking" upside down on the side of space stations)
- change between "atmospheric" and "zero g" control modes. (cue funky, annoying maybe? computer voice ^_^)

When holding down the "free look" button, the old joystick allows you to look around as if you were naturally turning your head (this disables other controls). Again this works nicely in both 1st and third person mode.

When in "atmospheric" control mode the new joystick movement basically just maps to WASD for ground based vehicles. You can turn them either by moving it left/right or twisting the stick. If you are say, flying a quadwing (ie maybe you just entered a planets atmosphere and switched control modes) left/right slides you left and right (ie banks the craft) and twisting will rotate you left and right. Using the hat is a bit like just normal mouse camera positioning that we are used to when we use vehicles on planets.

It might sound a bit of a faff and I guess a lot of people would wonder why I bothered.... mainly cause I hated the "mouse as a joystick" hack MA put in space. Its really a lot of fun though using the 2 sticks to fly around!

Ideally I'd like to make it available for others to use.... its not really very configurable at the moment though, so wouldn't be any use unless someone had the same joystick setup as me.

Hope that wasn't too dull to read

Wistrel

 

What do you have?

 

hmm internet says it doesn't with win7 but then again it would say that about my ancient one too... there are ways ;)

​

 

I have an old soundcard in the PC.

I have a little "pack" I guess of stuff to get old joystick port going on win7
(note I'm on 32bit don't think there is a chance with 64bit) basically old drivers that work with the gameport and something that reinstates the gamecontroller thing in control panel. Can link I think if you like

address was:

http://forums.creative.com/t5/Windo...-07-07-2009/m-p/386462?view=by_date_ascending
it seems that doesn't work now though... maybe google can help or I can send the file if anyone knows of someplace I can put things online?
Wistrel

 

can you put 32 bit drivers on a 64bit OS? I didn't think that was possible?

Anyhow someone asked for a pic so I did a controls diagram

to be honest, that's not a totally comprehensive explanation of what it does. For example, in zero-g mode, the hat switch jumps back to a forward view when you let go which isn't the case in atmospheric mode. There were a whole bunch of fiddly little problems to work through too, (to do with making sure things didn't go wrong when switching between looking and steering) that I won't go into. Also it isn't finished yet either... still using joy2key for some of the planet based controls.

 

yeh I think modern stuff should work
that cyborg stick I have probably works with 64bit. It was about £15