CaSTaway GP feedback

[skeezix]

Skeezix,

Few suggestions, some things that have been annoying me

While in keyboard more i noticed that the R & L dont do anything. Would it be possible to make it that pressing R takes you to mouse and pressing L takes you to Joystick control... and a similar type of control switching in other modes?

I noticed R in mouse mode takes you to cursor mode, ive never needed this myself so im guessing its there for a specific game??

Reason i think this would be good is there are quite a few games that require mouse and keyboard, or joystick and keyboard, so being able to switch quickly between the 3 would be very very helpfull. For those that need cursor mode in there... hmmmm, maybe a switch to change joystick with cursor and vice versa??

Yeah, toggles are handy.. we just need to determine the best setup.

ie: The first few releases, where the left shoulder cycled through modes.. didn't work. I'm hooked on the menu now, but the keyboard/mouse toggle is super handy for Dungeon Master (and maybe Captive, etc). I use it a lot ot "hit any key", too.

But I don't want to get back to shoulder-cycling-modes, since that turned out not to work really well for us all..

So mouse -> cursor -> mouse is pretty damned handy in DM.

Joystick -> keyboard -> joystick could be good, since no overlap with the above.. could just add right shoulder to toggle between the two.

The trick is mouse -> keyboard.. since that overlaps the two above. Could have left-shoulder cycle through that pairing.... but that'd get weird, using two shoudlers lie that for that. Wouldn't it?

jeff

 

[Mark1970]

Okay, okay.. wheres the movie file?

I'd love to see it

How did the screen turnout? I'd like to get a nice screenshot of Xenon2 and Dungeon Master running on the GP32, to put on the website.. (somehow, screenshots from the emu aren't as cool . If you've got anythign, post or email me  (skeezix@skeleton.org)

The speed of the keyboard movement corresponds directly with busy-ness of the emulated ST. IF we poll for input all the time, it slows the emu down. So we poll for input when the ST thinks its a good idea (sort of), and if the machine is "really busy", it slows dowen the poll requests, so you get a sluggish keyboard. I might fiddle with it, but I like that iots zero-speed-hit right now

As of 007, you can open the virtual keyboard, and theres no slowdown at all!

jeff

Jeff, I´ll ´post´ it tonight, my time.

I am at work right now, trying to be this psychiatrist in training and at the same time lurking around this board from time to time. It keeps a person sane. Hihi

It´s a really crappy movie but it´s the actual movie that made my friend decide to get the FLU GP. I´ll try to make some more ´nice ones´. I got this halogen desklamp that makes the gp32 screen reflect rather nicely. But hey I don´t have a FLU version.

Cheers, and keep up the work.

 

[skeezix]

Cool, Mark, I'd really appreciate anything you (or anyone else!) can come up with. Just email 'em over (or however you like to post 'em). I'll put a link to them on the site, with credits. Will be cool to show off to some distance friends of mine who've been curious

Psychiatry.. my wife wishes she'd gone into that field rather than software development. Good luck!

jeff

 

[Bonks]

Seems to me that the 3 main control methods (Mouse/joystick/cursor) usually need to have some 'keyboard' control at some point or another, so if each could be toggled to the keyboard and back, that would be cool.

why dont you make the L button purely toggles to keyboard for all other controls.... effectivly like other EMUs out there where you hit L and you get the keyboard and only the keyboard, then switching it back off goes back to your previous selection, this means you could do away with keyboard from the menu (this would by my prefered system ). Then you can keep the mouse/cursor toggle like you have now on the R button just the way you like it

something like that, just an instant access keyboard is all we'd need for tidyness (or make keyboard the top option )

 

[tapsel]

Bonks idea is simple but genius.
Nobody needs toggling between "mouse - cursor - joy" apart from the menu way But it's a pain in the ass
to always open the keyboard via menu just to hit the legendary ANY-key.

L-Button should open keyboard, with keyboard focus on middle SPC, this would be my favourite. (Middle SPC, since
this is the button you use the most to skip menu screens, and it's near to Return and Escape.)

 

[skeezix]

Hmm, okay. That coudl be do-able. So right-shoulder is for mode-sdpecific-option (which happens to be spacebar for joystick mode, and mouse/cursor toggle for those modes). And then left-shoudler would be "toggle keyboard", sort of liek how frameskip is.. you'd go to keyboard, and pressing again woudl go back.

Hmm. OKay, I'll think about it

jeff

 

[ldaneels]

Actually, adding the the L button thing, I think that cycling from keyboard to joystick to keyboard... would be great. Just like you do with the R button.
This way you don't have to change the controls in the menu a thousand times (after so many games tested, this would almost become a must...)

Loic

 

[Bonks]

skeezix, thats how Frodo works, and it works really well, like i said a lot of games require you to maybe enter your name, or press F1 for a language or change view ect, so regardless of what other mode your using, insta-keyboard would be fantastic (least to me )

Cheers

 

[stickofjoy]

I agree.

 

[Mark1970]

Skeezix,
Well here it is that wretched little video file, don't pay any attention to the complete lack of detail, resolution and horrible camerawork. Actually not worth showing anyone, but hey it made one guy decide to get a gp32!
Cheers, Mark


Link to 'THE' videofile

 

[A600]

Hmm, okay. That coudl be do-able. So right-shoulder is for mode-sdpecific-option (which happens to be spacebar for joystick mode, and mouse/cursor toggle for those modes). And then left-shoudler would be "toggle keyboard", sort of liek how frameskip is.. you'd go to keyboard, and pressing again woudl go back.

Hmm. OKay, I'll think about it

jeff

A best and faster solution would be press right shoulder + cursor dir --> changes mode and left shoulder for mode-specific-option.

There are 4 input modes, so for example:

R + Up -> Cursor
R + Down -> Keyboard
R + Left -> Joystick
R + Right -> Mouse

 

[skeezix]

Yeah I've thought of that, too.. left-shoulder + direction to assign a mode. I guess right shoudler would be better, since d-=pad + button same time woudl make you drop your unit

Hmmmm. button+direction is probably screwy though.. hard for people to get right at the right time. ie: Sometimes when thigs are busy and you have to wait a moment for the button to register, it'd be a drag to hold that. IF we can cover it with simpe toggles, that'd be the best I think.

jeff

 

[skeezix]

Skeezix,
Well here it is that wretched little video file, don't pay any attention to the complete lack of detail, resolution and horrible camerawork. Actually not worth showing anyone, but hey it made one guy decide to get a gp32!
Cheers, Mark


Link to 'THE' videofile

We can try and see your playing style now

Any chance you've got a non-RealMovie format one? (like an mpeg, avi, etc)? At home I don't have any real media stuff, since its spyware and being a software author means I can't go near spyware (not that I like it anyway

Or anyone know how to convert .rm files into .avi/.mpeg, etc?

jeff

 

[Mark1970]

Jeff,
Put the avi file divx 4.xx version below it. Playing style is non existant since I was fiddling with the camera and my desklight to adhoc make a little movie for a friend not fit for other use...hehehe
Check out the file divx style.
Cheers, Mark

 

[A600]

Hmmmm. button+direction is probably screwy though.. hard for people to get right at the right time. ie: Sometimes when thigs are busy and you have to wait a moment for the button to register, it'd be a drag to hold that. IF we can cover it with simpe toggles, that'd be the best I think.

jeff

With the current method Sierra adventures aren't very playable.

 

[skeezix]

Hmmmm. button+direction is probably screwy though.. hard for people to get right at the right time. ie: Sometimes when thigs are busy and you have to wait a moment for the button to register, it'd be a drag to hold that. IF we can cover it with simpe toggles, that'd be the best I think.

jeff

With the current method Sierra adventures aren't very playable.

... but you can use Sarien to play them natively, no?

Text adventures just aren't the cup of tea for gp32

jeff

 

[Bonks]

Yeah I've thought of that, too.. left-shoulder + direction to assign a mode. I guess right shoudler would be better, since d-=pad + button same time woudl make you drop your unit

Thing with that tho.... is there any point making it so complicated?

How many games are there that use 3 control methods? maybe im wrong, but to me a game would use a main control (joystick/mouse) and occasionally the keyboard (changing views in B17, entering your name in Snooker or Stunt car, skipping them crack screens, selecting some game options ect), but do any use mouse, joystick and keyboard??

Still think smackin L to bring up insta keyboard would be best allround, less footery than pressing R/L then a direction

just my opinion, not trying to start a fight

 

[tk2001]

skeezix,

I don't know if this has been suggested before but is there any way you could center the screen so that it is dead in the middle - as opposed to having a big border at the bottom of the screen?

Great emulator btw and keep up the good work.

 

[skeezix]

skeezix,

I don't know if this has been suggested before but is there any way you could center the screen so that it is dead in the middle - as opposed to having a big border at the bottom of the screen?

Great emulator btw and keep up the good work.

Currently I've got the virtual keyboard at the bottom of the screen; if it were to render on the emulated ST screen at all, then it would have to redraw every frame, or skip rendering parts of the ST screen if the keyboard is present. Right now I can render the keyboard, then leave it alone and keep emulating the ST (no speed loss), since theres no clobbering.

jeff

 

[A600]

With the current method Sierra adventures aren't very playable.

... but you can use Sarien to play them natively, no?
[/quote]

Only AGI games and without sound