Release 1.90 - new feature not in release notes?

[RockDoctor]

I recently installed v1.90 and found this feature on my (as-standard) HUD : a new "compass"-like object between the short-range scanner and the roll/pitch indicators. I've posted an image on BOX, but the link seems to not be working - or I've forgotten the correct ju-ju for "img=https://app.box.com/s/qpntqriqbomu7v3hulsxtt6ykpakptd5]/img".
The only changes I've seen (and this may be my eyes, not it's behaviour) is that it's brightness changes from time to time, but I can't figure out what it's trying to communicate.
Ideas, anyone? Including the code-wallahs.

[Nite Owl]

Joystick Sensitivity Indicator if memory serves - removed it from my H.U.D. of choice a long while ago so any info beyond that is beyond me.

[another_commander]

Yup, stick sensitivity indicator. Not a new feature, it's been there for ages, maybe from 1.74 or so.

[Cholmondely]

Yup, stick sensitivity indicator. Not a new feature, it's been there for ages, maybe from 1.74 or so.

From elsewhere:

This is the joystick sensitivity indicator. If your joystick is in precision mode (there is a button setting for this in the game's stick setup), this is green, otherwise it is gray. If you don't have a joystick connected, it doesn't show up.

I'll bung this in the wiki page on joysticks! And link it up as seems sensible.

Am I correct in presuming that this is now a toggle-switch for joysticks rather than a modifier for keyboard direction controls (if that's the right use of the jargon!).

[Reval]

FWIW, I find this indicator (plus the roll/pitch bars) utterly pointless, and have banished them permanently from my own GETTER HUD. Things are a lot less cluttered (and probably smoother) without them, and their removal allowed me to insert a digital speed readout in their place - something which most players, I imagine, would have a lot more use for...

[another_commander]

Am I correct in presuming that this is now a toggle-switch for joysticks rather than a modifier for keyboard direction controls (if that's the right use of the jargon!).

Yes, this has always been a joystick button toggle switch and is a separate thing from the Ctrl key that is used for keyboard precision mode.

[Cholmondely]

Am I correct in presuming that this is now a toggle-switch for joysticks rather than a modifier for keyboard direction controls (if that's the right use of the jargon!).

Yes, this has always been a joystick button toggle switch and is a separate thing from the Ctrl key that is used for keyboard precision mode.

There is now a section on this in http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Joysticks_and_Gamepads. Comments welcome!

[montana05]

There is now a section on this in http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Joysticks_and_Gamepads. Comments welcome!

Good job, your wiki pages are getting better and better.

[Cholmondely]

There is now a section on this in http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Joysticks_and_Gamepads. Comments welcome!

Good job, your wiki pages are getting better and better.

Thank you for the compliment! Any ideas as to how I can improve it?

[RockDoctor]

Joystick Sensitivity Indicator if memory serves - removed it from my H.U.D. of choice a long while ago so any info beyond that is beyond me.

Hmmm, I wonder what prompted that to appear. I've not had a joystick since ... 1995?

[Cholmondely]

Joystick Sensitivity Indicator if memory serves - removed it from my H.U.D. of choice a long while ago so any info beyond that is beyond me.

Hmmm, I wonder what prompted that to appear. I've not had a joystick since ... 1995?

Did you ever work out why it appeared? Was it something else plugged into the USB?

[RockDoctor]

Did you ever work out why it appeared? Was it something else plugged into the USB?

Blind stag (no-eye deer).
Once I'd worked out how joysticks worked back in the 90s and realised that the circuitry wouldn't work for what I wanted to do, they went into the junk pile and I've never brought one since. That was with the about 15-pin standard density D-type connector ; I was still treating the new "USB" interface with the traditional "let someone else cut their fingers on the bleeding edge" caution. I'm not even sure if I <i>had</i> a computer with a USB card in it then - I remember considering PC-Card network or USB cards for my laptop, and deciding against it at about the same time.
Boring enterprise HP laptop - I can't see any reason for it to have something that masquerades as a joystick, either in the base machine, or in it's expansion base.
Lightbulb goes on! Windows System Info (because I'm booted into Windows today), search for "joystick", ... and it crashes? No, just takes forever. Gawd, this takes me back to the years of wondering why the easiest way to get a CD drive into an ISA/ PCI system was to drop in a sound card for some insane reason. Annnnd ... according to Windoze, I have no joystick. Which is unsurprising, since I don't have a joystick - unless that "clitoris mouse" thing masquerades as one by the light of the Lavian Moon.
I remember now why I tried to do things in DOS, in the days of my youth. Delving into Windows hardware makes me feel "you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike". And I'm wondering who pilfered my copy of the Pink Shirt Book and other bench references when we moved offices while I was in Friesland.
Oh well, weird stuff happens. Shrug and move on. It's not actually breaking anything.