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View Full Version : PC Constant Gaze: A Programmable Controller Endeavor



Mieh
Jul 10, 2008, 08:44 PM
Let me preface all of this by saying My basic controls 'do' work as intended, this anomaly does not affect manual game play movements for my system.

This post concerns a trick I've been trying to program into my controller via it's official software.




For the longest time I've been thinking on how my character's gaze soon reverts back to neutral after leaving the camera control stick stationery. For aesthetic purposes I've always wanted the ability to hold a gaze in a certain direction for a much longer length of time.




So far, I believe the most logical method to accomplishing this effect is to program a set of small camera axis movement commands to a controller button.

This suggestion would play out like the following:

[spoiler-box]


Player adjusts camera view to desired gaze direction
Player hits L3 button
L3 Button commands camera axis to move slightly left and right in equal increments, refreshing the gaze on each tweak
Camera does not move very much from center of gaze
Gaze direction is retained
Continues for a preset period of time, then stops

[/spoiler-box]




The Logitech Dual Action USB Controller (a PS2-layout PC controller, the one I am currently using) is programmable in some sense, but does not work very well with Axis commands that aren't bound to a keyboard key (such as WADS) as tested with PSU on my system.


I am unwilling to program my controller to a keyboard-only scheme to make use of keyboard keys in my tactics, though I am more than willing to set two keyboard keys to camera panning keys and to program commands through them. Unfortunately, I've been unable to configure keyboard keys to camera movement while retaining full controller camera compatibility thus far.





o o o o





When programming axis movement, the icon shown with each axis movement appears to be similar to a flight stick style controller, rather than a PS2 style controller. Any commands programmed with axis movements behave erratically. Upon attempting to record a short movement axis tap and then return to neutral (of which should stop my character), rather than stopping my character keeps running in that direction.


It is possible that Logitech's drivers are not well suited to programming axis commands in general, and feasible that this effect can in no way be accomplished due to these limitations. If anyone has had success in recording timed, unbound axis movements for fighter, FPS, or any other game or genre with any controller type using either the official or any unofficial controller programmer that may exist, Please let me know that I may come closer to accomplishing a fixed gaze in PSU.




It is also possible that PSU does not handle programmed axis commands very well, especially in light of below:



Commands containing Right Axis movements have no effect in PSU while commands containing Left Axis movements control both the player and the camera for my system.



Curiously, in order for PSU to register my camera commands, I needed to set the camera up-down and left-right settings in PSU's Game Pad Configuration to the Z-Axis, rather than the Y-Axis. As to whether or not this is a contributor to the right-left axis anomaly mentioned above, I do not know, though would love to find out.





Now I am currently using the most recent driver version for the Logitech Dual Action PS2 Controller, so updating to the latest driver should not be an instant fix for this.





o o o o





I am looking for any automated method with which I can accomplish a gaze in a constant direction, from purchasing another controller to adopting another technique except for programming my controller to a keyboard-only scheme as mentioned above.


I 'am' aware it's possible to feign this effect by tweaking the camera intermittently myself, though this occupies a hand, and as Swordfish adequately puts it:
"You know how hard it is to type with 1 ****in hand?"





o o o o





Thank you for bearing with this horrendously lengthy post.


Please help, I need your help to move forward.


~Mieh