Page 1 of 5

Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 10:43 am
by Mad Hollander
Current implementation is a button that toggles between high and low sensitivity.

I suggest to implement smother pitch/roll/yaw sensitivity handling and there are some options
1. sensitivity is bound to axis, i.e. rudder or etc
2. two buttons, increase-decrease
3. several steps of sensitivity at single button

The goal is to make possible to easily aim to the target at distance from 20km and more. Currently such distance aiming is affordable only for expensive high precision sticks.

P.S. I'm using 1.79

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 10:52 am
by Cody
Mad Hollander wrote:
... to easily aim to the target at distance from 20km and more. Currently such distance aiming is affordable only for expensive high precision sticks.
I manage fine with my budget 'stick, even at extreme range (and I don't use a sniper hud or any other aid).

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:06 am
by Smivs
As Cody. Budget 'stick and no problem here hitting ships even if outside scanner range, or cloaked when 20k behing me :wink:

Image

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:18 am
by Cody
Was the GG still using the cloak back then? At long range, I reckon it's actually easier to eyeball a cloaked ship.

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 1:05 pm
by Smivs
Yes, it was cloaked, and yes, the 'flickering' does make it a bit easier to see. Still one of my best shots ever though :D

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 1:15 pm
by Cody
Smivs wrote:
Still one of my best shots ever though
Ha! My best shot ever was a kill with the railgun at ~15km.



Apologies to the OP for slightly derailing the thread - not something we indulge in usually. <sniggers>

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 2:52 pm
by Diziet Sma
I have no problem hitting at extreme range with my Saitek Cyborg Evo, which is far from being either expensive, or high precision.. If I'm having trouble, precision-mode is enough to let me give gentle nudges to fine-tune my aim.

If you're having some difficulties with long-range sniping, Mad Hollander, have you tried out the [EliteWiki] SniperLock? Unlike the other 'sniper aides' out there, it gives only very minimal assistance, but might be just the ticket.

(it can also be adjusted to suit your requirements/preferences by editing some script values)
Cody wrote:
Ha! My best shot ever was a kill with the railgun at ~15km.
Now that's impressive.. the RG is not an easy weapon to use at even medium range. 8)

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 3:01 pm
by cim
We do have this potential addition from kanthoney sitting around waiting for a decision - Github request #64 - which makes the joystick optionally non-linear, so full axis would still be full rotation but the sensitivity would be increased near the centre.

If I merge it in to the nightly builds, would you be willing to try it out and make suggestions for calibrating it? There seem to be a few 1.79+joystick users here, which is who we really need to be testing it.

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 3:09 pm
by Zireael
Would the joystick stuffies work for a gamepad, too? I might wrangle an old gamepad from my cousin, but no guarantees it works (my own joystick has been broken for years)

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 3:09 pm
by Diziet Sma
cim wrote:
If I merge it in to the nightly builds, would you be willing to try it out and make suggestions for calibrating it? There seem to be a few 1.79+joystick users here, which is who we really need to be testing it.
Certainly! I've been following the dev discussions via email, and was wondering when that code might make an appearance! 8)

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 3:29 pm
by Cody
Diziet Sma wrote:
Now that's impressive.. the RG is not an easy weapon to use at even medium range.
<grins> For a while, I had the RG mapped to the trigger on my 'stick, so I had no lasers available - I learnt how to use it the hard way!

Oh yeah - I'll be happy to test the toggle too, cim.

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 3:38 pm
by cim
Okay, kanthoney's code is merged and should be in tonight's nightly build.

For now to test it you need to put

Code: Select all

<key>JoystickNonlinear</key>
<real>X</real>
in your GNUStepDefaults file.

X=0 should give the current behaviour except that precision just coming out of the deadzone should be increased a little. X=1 gives the maximum non-linearity. Other values in between also work. Give various settings a go and see how they feel.

If there's significant disagreement on what the value should be between testers then we'll probably keep it at zero for the default, and introduce a configuration slider. If you're all pretty much agreed then we can just set the value to that and leave it as a hidden setting.

Thanks

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:35 am
by Diziet Sma
Zireael wrote:
Would the joystick stuffies work for a gamepad, too? I might wrangle an old gamepad from my cousin, but no guarantees it works (my own joystick has been broken for years)
You might have to hunt up drivers for it (or not, some are fine out of the box - it depends on the make/model) but yes, it should work fine.. we have a number of members using gamepads. The Oolite joystick configuration works with gamepads too.

(and if you're using Windows and are willing to spend $10, there is a truly brilliant configuration/profiler program available. [a free version is also available, but it's 4-5 years old now, lots has been added since then])

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:36 am
by Mad Hollander
Smivs wrote:
As Cody. Budget 'stick and no problem here hitting ships even if outside scanner range, or cloaked when 20k behing me :wink:
Do you use some oxp for that ?

I spent an evening trying to aim at distance >20km Even the smallest movement of the stick causes quite big delta on the screen.

Another question - what is your ship ? I use adder, and it has pitch value 2.2. I guess, if I used Anaconda it would be much easier to aim at such distance.

To me oolite (like any game with joystick) requires features for calibrating the joystick or, at least, smoother change of sensitivity.

Re: Joystick sensitivity toggle

Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:39 am
by Mad Hollander
Diziet Sma wrote:
(and if you're using Windows and are willing to spend $10, there is a truly brilliant configuration/profiler program available. [a free version is also available, but it's 4-5 years old now, lots has been added since then])
Is there such application in the world that can change the sensitivity of the joystick or set different sensitivities for different axises ?