[Thaeris]

Keyboard/mouse is way more precise and flexible. It's just a bit less immersive.

Like Hell it is. I tried using a gamepad once and found it less immersive because I was so pissed off with how slippery my ship handled. I prefer absolute control of my craft with the keyboard. Simple, crude, effective.

To my knowledge, QuantumDelta use the keyboard most of the time, switching only to the mouse for precision aiming. I do the same.

Before I had a stick, this is also exactly what I did. I must say, however, that neither just the mouse or the keyboard are completely satisfying for flight control. The mouse is oddly coded for FS, and using the numpad (goodness help you if you don't have one...) is really touchy for super-agile fighters. The stick has the unfortunate condition that getting the dead-zone out and maximizing your resonsiveness (which would be ideal) also degrades control to a degree - it might be ok if FS had an autopilot (so you could disable stick response when it was on)... Perhaps it would be different with Saitek's X-65. Now, if you know an FS fan with $400 to blow...

[Trivial Psychic]

Perhaps it would be different with Saitek's X-65. Now, if you know an FS fan with $400 to blow...

If my wife and I win the lottery this coming Friday, maybe.   

[CP5670]

I have always played FS, Descent and other flying games with a keyboard only. These games have a limited turning speed unlike normal FPSs, which makes a mouse clunky to use for anything but precision aiming.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

When you say "limited turning speed", CP, are you talking about sensitivity?

[Klaustrophobia]

the turn speed is limited by the maneuverability of the fighter.  i.e., flicking the mouse faster won't make it turn faster.

which i found out is actually NOT the case in descent.  increasing sensitivity increases turn rate.

[CP5670]

Yeah, the mouse input schemes in the Descent games try to achieve a middle ground between responsiveness and not altering the gameplay too much. It's still nowhere near as fast and sensitive as standard FPSs though, and you end up having to pick up the mouse all the time when turning.

There is an alternative mouse scheme, the kind used in Freelancer, which gets around this issue and works somewhat better.

[Klaustrophobia]

i use stick in descent also.  i used pure keyboard in d1 a LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNGG time ago before i had a joystick.  i think i was like 7 at the time.  that wasn't so bad, but there weren't nearly as many controls as with freespace.  and i didn't even know about sliding.

[Det. Bullock]

I find descent more similar to a classic FPS, in fact i played it with keyboard and mouse after changing the functions of some keys.
I tried a Joystick at first but controlling the ship was a bit unconfortable.

[Klaustrophobia]

i played decent probably 10 years before any other fps on PC, so i didn't really have any basis of using mouse.  the joystick IS a tad awkward, but i couldn't do mouse with the extra axes in descent.  you can only use 2 on the mouse, and trying to do the extra bank and up/down slide on the keyboard is just too busy. 

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I tried the mouselook option in Descent 3 once. The turn rate was instantaneous, and I understood why mouselooking is usually banned.

[CP5670]

Descent was the first FPS I played and I have always used a keyboard only in it. I was still using a keyboard only for standard FPSs up until about 2000, since I was so used to it by then. I only switched to mouse/keyboard when I started playing UT regularly and realized that keyboard aiming was a significant handicap.

I tried the mouselook option in Descent 3 once. The turn rate was instantaneous, and I understood why mouselooking is usually banned.

That option does screw up the gameplay, but I think D3 had to include it to compete with other FPSs at the time. The Doom clones at the time of D1 and D2 were keyboard based, but when D3 came out mouselooking had become the norm in FPSs.

[chief1983]

Perhaps it would be different with Saitek's X-65. Now, if you know an FS fan with $400 to blow...

If my wife and I win the lottery this coming Friday, maybe.   

If I won the lottery I'd have a set of 8-12 Tesla II pods within a week and have paid someone to get FSO running on them by the end of the summer.

[Cyker]

im currently trying to hack an interface for an old 3d pro plus (same shape as the precision pro but without a usb mode). supposidly its supposed to blink of 3 of the buttons to create a signal packet. after looking at the signaling i realize how impressive the thing was. x and y axes had a 10 bit resolution, i think 8 or 9 bits for the throttle but only 7 for the twist handle. nowadays only high end sticks in the $300-$400 range advertise 10 bit resolution. so far my attempts to read it with an arduino have failed, i think the signal level is 3.3 instead of 5v. arduino makes serial joysticks very easy to make and all you really got to do is get the ppjoy ioctrl example code to write an interface proggie. 

Hey Nuke, did you know about these;

http://www.descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=7090&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=360&sid=8a552579932f7ae616b11b13fb3fb76d

http://descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=12217&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=330&sid=41b9b658fa32955704b3cf7baacf6815

(If this is useful, please make me one!   I can't source the damned parts!  )

[chief1983]

You can still order one from one of the guys on that forum.  I was this close to making my order when I fixed my Precision Pro.

[Nuke]

yea ive seen those, but its a project that found its way to the bottom of the bin. its a real nostalgia piece, so its a shame to throw it away. but id rather make it work on my own.  i know enough about micro controllers to read the signaling off of the stick and convert it to a useable format.

seems theres some new info there. might be useful.

[Cyker]

You can still order one from one of the guys on that forum.  I was this close to making my order when I fixed my Precision Pro.

I don't think you can; KoolBear was going to do another run (I'm still on the list! ) but he has mysteriously disappeared and Grendel hasn't got the time to organize everything.

He's left all the instructions there for people to DIY but there aren't any 'pre-made' ones left AFAIK

However, I didn't realise there was a Mk3 one; My main problem was sourcing a MegaEM and programmer, but using the Teensy should be a lot easier since they will sell you one direct; I think I might have a go at that

I have all the other gubbins  (Breadboard, caps etc.), just need the Teensy and a 15D... (And probably a new soldering iron tip... it's bad when the tip's all black and there's white powdery crap crystallized around the end right? )

[chief1983]

Contact Sickone.  He was the one making the new run.

[Cyker]

Gah! I don't know how I missed that!!  

You rock! *gives chief a manly and totally non-gay hug*

[chief1983]

Me neither, it's the very first post in the forum

[Nuke]

im gonna try porting some the source code to arduino. i already have a pretty good arduino->ppjoy joystick interface. it wont get the same baud rate as the teensy but it should still be good enough. i just have to read through the source to understand how to initialize the electronics on the joystick, and then to read the signals it produces, convert it then send it over the serial port. the teesny is probably cheaper, but i kinda wanted to use hardware i already have and software ive already written to make it work. then again i kinda like teensy, its small, has hardware usb, and you can program it with the arduino ide.