Not a bad time; time is still a little curnchy but life is looking up
I guess the question right now (to delay you guys? hmm
, is defining what we're talking about.
I think I 'overkilled' it on GP32 .. was a good system, but maybe overdone and over-generalized. (ie: That one could have config files, one autoloaded with a given disk image (same filename as disk image with different extension I think), and it had a key-binding that let it load another config file; so folks could map left-shoulder to go to file 1, and right shoulder to go to file 3, while its on file 2, say, and thus rotate through a series of configs in quick succession, etc. Sick, but maybe overkill
You could also pull up a menu, to pick from a config file in a directory.
So what are we talking here..
1) GP2x and Wiz both (maybe PSP is I'm feeling uppity that day)
2) For Wiz version, fix 'control menu' (joy or mouse or joymouse/etc) to not move instant-fast, so actually usable
3) .....
Do we need to just hit a menu (start -> pick config -> show list from a directory with .cfg extensions say), and pick one?
Do we need auto-load config based on filename?
I forget how I did it on gp32, but I think it was formatted like:
host-key <whitespace> ST-key or Effect <whitespace> effect-option (not applicable for st-keys)
I also had special log to handle shift/caps/etc, but I think I'd like to ignore that; ie: when you hit 'A' key on keyboard its actually 'a'. To get 'A' its shift+'a', but in reality, games wouldn't generally care about the difference of A to a, they just want 'a' (except for Nethack and maybe flight sims which tended to overdo the keybindings.)
So in theory, a config is really just..
key_y st_up
key_x st_a
That sort. Could be some special ones..
key_rtrigger load_config 'foobar.cfg'
key_x set_clockspeed 600
That sort. What special 'effect' bindings would be needed? 'load config file'? Is that useful? Setting clock? Setting frameskip (not needefd for Wiz likely, but whatever.) Loading a floppy? Ejecting Floppy? I'd rather avoid unnecessary ones of course, time being hard to come by and all that.
One note .. I imagine these keybindings would be 'activated' as a control mode; ie: joy or mouse or custom-config, for example. Why? Because the given control modes define what the keys do, so when ytou load a config you're essentially altering the control mode, ie: switching it.
this suggests some effrcts would be control mappings..
key_y joy_up
key_left mouse_moveleft
key_right mouse_clickleft
That sort.
ie: So you could use the config to redo the built in defaults. (ie: The built ins would essentially become default config files.)
So this suggests..
Filename.ctl (say) is a config file that is shown as a control mode .. I'd include a few defaults (if they can be expressed in terms of config files anyway), and
Filename.cfg (say) is a pure config file. (The difference being you want some to show as control modes, and some to be loaded _by_ control modes, in the example above where you have a button that cycles through modes.)
I suppose there could be meta too..
show_title <- show nothing
show_title MyMode 10,30 <- show text MyMode at 10,30, so that you could cycle through your own custom configs and have the current 'mode' shown
Anyway, you see that I can keep going off in space with ideas and options, but probably half of the above is not needed.
So question is..
WHAT IS REALLY NEEDED, AT ITS CORE? I don't want to over do it, and I don't have time to over do it
jeff
