Oolite Bulletins

avder wrote:

As in how much can you move the stick before you feel the mechanism that centers it giving you resistance and how close to fully centered is it after you release it.

On my Evo, in the 'neutral' position, the inverted cone under the spring can move approx 2mm side-to-side (translates into about 10mm at the top of the stick) before the game registers movement - I'm guessing this is what you mean by 'slop'.

avder wrote:

And by deadzone I mean how much do you have to move the stick from its center before it registers movement.

Then you're using the term in a different way than most people. Some sticks are 'noisy', and send spurious signals whilst in the 'neutral' position - for instance, my Evo does this on the x axis and the throttle 'off' position. "Deadzone" refers to setting a small region around the 'neutral' position where the PC/game will ignore movement inputs, thus cancelling out the spurious signals.

Your definition fits more closely to what I mentioned above about slop.

avder wrote:

It's only $30 on Amazon though.

If it was only $30 in the UK, I'd probably buy another one - but it's close to double that here.

picked up mine for about $20AUD second hand. very little slop as the guy didnt use it more than a few times before packing it away.
it also has twist for yaw9 yes cody i know you dont like yaw...lol).

spud42 wrote:

... it also has twist for yaw9 yes cody i know you dont like yaw...

<chortles> Not in this game! I picked my 3D Pro up for £20 new (it was on special offer) - at that price, it was a snip.

Logitech extreme 3d Pro here, about 8 years old.
(it's Hat switch has 8 settings btw).

In the first year it was very precise (even took strength to move bigger distances) , but this was changed when the rubber between the base and the stick got a lot less tight.
On windows i had to use a profile to set a deadzone to alow easy centering, on linux the deadzone in the standard joystick driver was enough for most games.


Before Oolite got joystick profiles, the precision switch allowed good finetuning on a cobra III or other stable gun platforms.
For more sensitive ships it was harder.

My oolite profile (all axes) now has a deadzone of 0.0500 , range 2.0 and sensitivty 1.00 .

I've flown a pitviper II and Fer de Lance 3G+ with turrets without problems.

Despite it's age and frequent use, i only have noticed 3 flaws :

The joystick is plugged in permanently, upon first use after booting the pc, the twist axis is not centered.
twisting the stick left and right solves this and it keeps working fine unitl next cold boot.
I suspect it's a driver issue.

The throttle is a bit erratic in the lowest 1/3 of it's range.
speed keeps increasing / decreasing slightly, usually i can find a spot where it's stable though.
This appears to be an issue within the joystick, probably mechanical.

One of the buttons on the base (the one i used to have fuel injection on) doesn't always respond correctly.

Diziet Sma wrote:

avder wrote:

As in how much can you move the stick before you feel the mechanism that centers it giving you resistance and how close to fully centered is it after you release it.

On my Evo, in the 'neutral' position, the inverted cone under the spring can move approx 2mm side-to-side (translates into about 10mm at the top of the stick) before the game registers movement - I'm guessing this is what you mean by 'slop'.

avder wrote:

And by deadzone I mean how much do you have to move the stick from its center before it registers movement.

Then you're using the term in a different way than most people. Some sticks are 'noisy', and send spurious signals whilst in the 'neutral' position - for instance, my Evo does this on the x axis and the throttle 'off' position. "Deadzone" refers to setting a small region around the 'neutral' position where the PC/game will ignore movement inputs, thus cancelling out the spurious signals.

Your definition fits more closely to what I mentioned above about slop.

The inverted cone on mine has the same behavior. I'm considering various ways to perhaps make them fit better.

And yeah, that's pretty much the definition of deadzone, yeah. And I maintain that mine has none, which requires me to set them either in the drivers or in game because of the fact that that inverted cone cant get the stick perfectly centered. There's no noise on any of the axes on mine, except perhaps the last 15% of the throttle before it's flush with the stick again.

If I could get that inverted cone to center right, the Evo would more or less become a perfect joystick.

Anyway.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Does anyone have any experience with the current cyborg budget sticks like the fly 5 and the V1? Both look like they would add exactly one more button equivalent directly on the stick over the Evo, and does either of them center more tightly than the evo? That is, does the inverted disc fit extremely snug, or can it move a mm or two while "centered"?

Hi,

I have been trying to get "hacked" spectrum versions of Elite to work on my PC for a long time and failed miserably - so what a stroke of luck when I found Oolite.

I started my days of computing when my school purchased a zx81 - the headmaster even cut a ribbon for its inaugral "switch on" - i spent a whole parents open evening typing in a multi page program that wait for it........... gave a fully functioning cribbage board.

I went all out and got a zx81 for home with a 16k ram pack (how was I ever going to fill that!) - i upgrade to a real keyboard fitted to a box made out of scaffold boards at some point.

The spectrum soon came on the scene, followed by an Amstrad CPC464, an Atari ST and a commodore amiga.

I cant tell you which one I started Elite on, but i spent most of my adolescence and early teens playing it. I also played wing commander and frontier but I always reverted back to Elite for some reason. So glad I found Oolite, downloaded it yesterday morning and played solid all day - I have a PS4,PS3 and Xbox 360 all gathering dust (until fallout 4 is released) - it shows the old phrase rings true "they dont make em like they used to"

I am looking forward to getting myself back into the swing of things like the good old days - I seem to remember being brilliant at the game but i doubt I really was!

Welcome aboard, Commander!

Welcome aboard, navyreg1970!

Good to have you aboard, Commander.

Always the width of a hand beween your hull and the docking bay, commander.

navyreg1970 wrote:

Hi,

I have been trying to get "hacked" spectrum versions of Elite to work on my PC for a long time and failed miserably - so what a stroke of luck when I found Oolite.

Hey! I get to quote Navy-reg 1970 at someone! Does this mean I'm an officer?

Welcome to the world of Oolite, NR70! Incidentally, there is a version of traditional Elite engineered for the PC, re-released (it had been taken offline due to legal issues for a while) for the 30th anniversary by Ian Bell (yes, that Ian Bell) and Christian Pinder: http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/thirty/index.htm It works a treat and is the ultimate in retro. How-ever! Oolite still has a leg up on it for versatility.

Either way, may your lasers never grow soggy and may your adversaries vent drive plasma embarrassingly in the station aegis! Welcome!

Hi!

I am proudly flying a Cobra Mk3 worth 133000 Cr towards the sun of Riredi to scoop some fuel, Heading for the Boa constrictor. I've been playing the native Version for Hours now and i just can't stop. So i thought i register on this Board scince i've allready got usefull hints here serveral times.
As a kid i played the PC-Version of Elite Plus untill the constrictor Mission, realizing that it wasn't completely implemented. Anyhow, scince oolite starts with the constrictor mission i get the old thrill out of it.
Thank the developers for reviving this classic, i am glad to be a Member of this Board.

Hi, OldThrashbarg, welcome! Glad to have you aboard.

Hi OldThrashbarg, and welcome. Good to have you aboard.