Menu Navigation On Pandora

[SNESFAN]

I had idea about 6-8 months ago for menu transverseing. I've decided to keep it to myself up untill now, I've seen ideas for nub as mouse and dpad navigation on the OS and menus and whatnot. But after seeing how fluid the nubs are, why no ideas for rotary wheel navigation with the nubs? clockwise= down counter= up

One of my favorite aspects of my Sonos player, 1st gen iPod, & logitech trackball is the rotary wheel navigation for browsing menus (expecially large amounts of content) webpages etc etc...

alright, that's all I got.

 

[mali]

I really like the idea I'm used to circular scrolling on touchpads, so rotary nub scrolling would be very intuitive for me.

Edit:
Btw, the N900 uses circular gesture for zooming.

 

[Awakening]

That would give more precision in lists then simply pointing in the direction you want. Interesting idea

 

[kuru]

Wha... When i hear of a radial menu I think of somethibng like it's used in Neverwinter Nights. Well you used a mouse there but I'm positive this would work like a charm here, too. You start in the center and choose your options by "nubbing" in a certain angle. I read up, think those things are called pie menus.

What the OP is suggesting sound like I have to nipple around the nubs in circles to make a normal list scroll up and down. If that's what you mean I'd prefer a disc with a static center that actually let's you turn it like a wheel.

 

[dflemstr]

Interesting ideas... Once the Pandora is released, I will add nub support to Panorama, and then I'll create some themes that abuse them like hell. A radial menu sounds perfect for that kinda thing.

 

[SNESFAN]

yea the static menu with circle of options was another idea I had around the same time since you will be keeping the nub held with one hand to choose the option and engageing the option with the other hand , a or b button possibly. Have the static menu on the left nub, and a rotary scroll on the right nub and it is more of just a pageup pagedown function.

 

[Grench]

Wha... When i hear of a radial menu I think of somethibng like it's used in Neverwinter Nights. Well you used a mouse there but I'm positive this would work like a charm here, too. You start in the center and choose your options by "nubbing" in a certain angle. I read up, think those things are called pie menus.

What the OP is suggesting sound like I have to nipple around the nubs in circles to make a normal list scroll up and down. If that's what you mean I'd prefer a disc with a static center that actually let's you turn it like a wheel.

Also look up the Tapwave Zodiac. It had an analog controller and used radial menus quite well. With the dual sticks on the Pandora, you could have 16 possibilities of directories or applications from the top menu / desktop. Pretty much take the 16 most used items from the desktop and put them on two wheels. If one is a directory/folder/etc... have it open the same way, top 16, etc... Should be REAL fast for navigating around to commonly used apps.

I really wish it were possible to get the NWN Linux binary ported to ARM. Yes, there is a Linux binary - I use it. NWN's use of radial menus + mouse pointer would be perfect for the dual analog Pandora. I even tried to contact Bioware and Atari - I'm nobody so I doubt my attempts were even read by a human. At one time, Tapwave had NWN as a marque game (in development) for the Zodiac console. So there -is- history of them attempting port to a handheld device. The Zodiac had no where near the power needed to run the game right.

So, yes, radial menus would be a huge plus in my book - It would be a perfect third alternative for those of us who don't want to use a Windows sytle start-programs-otherprograms-theothermenu-program-run menus and are not big on a neo-geo style scroll through available games menu system. Radial menus would be a fast, efficient and clean interface. IMHO - YMMV

 

[Kaze0110]

Come to think of it, I've never heard mention one way or another on the matter.
Do the analog nubs "click in" akin to the R3 and L3 buttons respectively on an xbox 360 controller?

I know so few people that actually use those keys, but I myself use them persistently whenever I've got a chance to.
Let alone if it were a mappable key to make emulators more intuitive to 3d controller buttons' locations.
(Like the underneath Z on the 64)

 

[kuru]

Do the analog nubs "click in" akin to the R3 and L3 buttons respectively on an xbox 360 controller?

The nubs don't click.

Also look up the Tapwave Zodiac. It had an analog controller and used radial menus quite well. With the dual sticks on the Pandora, you could have 16 possibilities of directories or applications from the top menu / desktop.

Given ample onscreen estate for the menu and a responsive and precise nub it would be a piece of cake to make more subdivisions in the pie menu. Pun intended. I've seen it work with lots of entries in Battlefield II, hope I remember that right.

edit: C&C pie menu with 12 entries

 

[strider_mt2k]

Interesting idea.

Kind of like Hyperspin?

 

[Kaze0110]

Do the analog nubs "click in" akin to the R3 and L3 buttons respectively on an xbox 360 controller?

The nubs don't click.

Good to know. Thank you, fellow Pandorador.

 

[WizardStan]

Do the analog nubs "click in" akin to the R3 and L3 buttons respectively on an xbox 360 controller?

The nubs don't click.

Good to know. Thank you, fellow Pandorador.

History time!
As I recall, the original design called for them to be clickable. The nubs were standard off the shelf parts so there was no fear of not being able to get them. And then the company went out of business.
OpenPandora couldn't find a suitable replacement even though a lot of options were investigated, so they went with a custom design. Unfortunately, making a nub with the right feel AND a clickable button was going to cost too much, so it was removed. And then that company went out of business.
Fortunately, they had another company that could make them from the designs, and so they did, and now everything is happy. Right up until the day before delivery of the second batch worth of nubs is scheduled when the current company goes out of business.

This is one of the few major things I hope is reinvestigated for Pandora 2 in a couple years: clickable nubs. No change to the case required, just a different set of controls.

 

[cobaltage]

I'd like to request that we stop production in order to design the Pandora with hand cranks, one on each side.