Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => FreeSpace & FreeSpace Open Support => Topic started by: Sushi on April 02, 2009, 05:42:08 pm

Title: Virtual joystick?
Post by: Sushi on April 02, 2009, 05:42:08 pm
Hi! Is there any way to get a "virtual joystick" in FS2 that functions similar to the one in Allegiance or Freelancer? I hate having to constantly pick up my mouse in order to keep my ship turning.

In other words, I want to be able to move my mouse to the left, and have my ship keep turning left until I move the mouse back to center. And so on.

Is this possible in FS2Open? Or am I going to have to muck around with an extra piece of software to get this sort of functionality? (If that is the only choice, any suggestions?)
Title: Re: Virtual joystick?
Post by: Jeff Vader on April 04, 2009, 05:12:09 pm
If it is there, no one has ever told me about it. You could try bribing a coder with beer and see if someone could do something about it. Not sure how difficult it would be to implement, though.
Title: Re: Virtual joystick?
Post by: Herra Tohtori on April 04, 2009, 05:51:55 pm
Well it can be done via scripting at least.
/me will have to link Wanderer to this topic when he sees him next time... if he hasn't noticed this by then.

My personal experience is that it's less useful than you would think. If you learn to control the ship optimally with a mouse, you can do like a 720 degree turn ona a Hercjust moving the mouse in one direction. The key is not to move the mouse any faster than the ship turns, that just makes you lose table space faster.

Of course, high sensitivity mouse helps. A lot. But I have just a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2000, which cost like 20 euros, and it works just fine...
Title: Re: Virtual joystick?
Post by: Sushi on April 04, 2009, 06:27:33 pm
Right now, I'm using PPJoy's virtual joystick driver as a temporary solution. Not perfect (no key to "return to center", no visual indication of where you are pointing), but it works.

I've implemented a virtual joystick in my own mini-space-sim game, and that was easy. I'm sure it would be harder to add into an existing codebase. I may try anyway though. :)

Since I've recently rediscovered the joys of modern FS2 this weekend, my mod TODO list has grown alarmingly fast...