It looks like real joystick support is coming to SecondLife.

Last Thursday, I downloaded #Develop, a free IDE, and started writing my first ever code in C#. I've been working on and off since then, and earlier today, I started sending packets through SLProxy, and controlled Cubey Terra's free variable lift airplane script (stick and throttle) with a joystick. (I had to patch it to accept the joystick inputs first, of course.)

I thought, "Well, that's pretty cool, but what if LL already has something like this in the works?" So I posted in Second Life Answers and Andrew Linden responded that he thought it was a neat idea, and that he and Cube Linden talked about it. Andrew's idea is to have the SL client open a port (which the user would have to turn on in their prefs), and programs on the users' computer could talk to scripts running on the simulator through that port.

I've proposed that the simulator-side code run either as a FIFO, or in a sort of "one-row queue" where any named data gets overwritten if new data with the same name is received. (Details in the Answers thread.)

I haven't decided for certain yet, but I think I will release the joystick proxy (the app that runs on the client's machine and talks to their joystick(s) via DirectX) under a BSD license, meaning it would be open source, and people could compile and mess with it on their own. The SL client-side API would definitely be open. Since the work is being done in C#, it should work on Linux and MacOS X "out of the box," assuming Mono has a working DirectX emulation stack on those platforms. However, I don't have suitable machines for testing this, so I can't help if it's a no-go. (If I make it open-source, some dev who can code on those platforms would have to handle any issues.)

I've talked to a few people about this project, and the most commonly-asked question is: "Will it work with my steering wheel controller?" The answer is that it will work with anything that registers itself with DirectX as being a DirectInput device. So, unless your controller doesn't work with DirectX, the answer is probably yes.

Anyway, there is still a lot of work to be done, so I'm going to keep hammering away at this. If Andrew gets his client-embedded pipeline thinger set up, I would probably switch from SLProxy to that, for various reasons.

Purpose of this thread:
- Gauge interest in this work
- Invite developers to provide feedback on Andrew's proposed system
- Etc.

Download, demo video, and more information here

The brand new Second Life joystick:

http://img.engadget.com/common/images/9264041161650351.JPG?0.5468580639172729

And this one is for the commodore version of SL. Long live the 4bit sims.

looks like SLProxy can be found here

http://www.libsecondlife.org/content/view/13/30/

anyways, yeah, this would be cool

HEH this one is for all that fear change!

Howdy Huns! Your need is obviously different than mine, so I posted my own topic to Answers:

/139/25/130094/1.html

Any new interfaces should be welcome. I am hoping for a more "root" option change in movement because the days of WASD should have long been over. Granular analog movement has been on consoles for nearly a decade while we're still using fixed keystrokes, backing up, readjusting ourselves in a world that cries out for precise control.

I hope you get what you are asking for, and Andrew's enthusiasm is great to see. On a macro level though I hope we simply get the option to feed input from a selected device, like the input dialog from the Source Engine. An I hope adding that support doesn't require throttling of input values. Full stick push produces a slightly faster walk than we have today, scaling through today's walk and down to "stepping lightly" when the stik is barely off center. As a bonus, how about "Always Run" become a sprint with an endurance meter like some developers have had to manually add... oops, I de-rail my own post, looks like I'm an expert at that!

I am not sure if I should link directly, but I have been using a free program called JoyToKey to play SL with a gamepad for a while now. For linux users, there is a similarly named program called Joy2Key, although I have not tested this one personally.

I used the software that came with my Logitech to map it to various things in Second Life, which was fun. (It didn't really use the full analog capabilities, but at least I was flying around with a joystick.) I think Clubside did the same thing with an XBox 360 controller that he had hooked up via USB.


It sounds like it would be useful so I tried it. It's a little tricky, particularly since torque and rotational impulses cannot be applied to avatars (I've filed a bug.) Other than a little logic to "nudge" the avatar out of what appears to be a standstill mode (due to friction or something else I don't know) it seems fairly straightforward to control the forward/backward velocity with an analog stick... now if it was just possible to have that degree of control over it via torque or rotational impulses, I could put together an attachment that would handle the whole nine yards. Might be necessary to take care of rotation by mapping the axis X to hit the right/left arrow keys through JoyToKey or whatever program.

This looks funny from the index...

You know, I never thought of using SLProxy as a way of getting data to MaxMSP until now, as that's been a desire of mine to get some sort of psuedo-MIDI I/O going on with the SL client -- I should seriously be able to jury-rig something out of what's being discussed.

This is good news.

that's....sexy!

so now all the idiots who come to Second Life thinking it's a first person shooter will have even more encouragement..

SL is anything you want it to be.
==Chris

Philip is soooo going to eat one of my 12-hit combos.



(Shh.. Don't tell him about U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,B,A!)

Have you been to Carnage Island?

lol!

Will believe it when Xcite releases a product.

Ahaha! That sticker over the Havok2 thing made me chuckle..

Have you been to DeathMatch Island yet?

We're still under construction there, Huns, but as at Carnage, my team hopes to give you a great battleground. Currently there are three builds in progress that should be ready for the public unveiling of the combat tag, Carnage Island and DeathMatch Island.

DeathMatch Island will feature three different arenas, each partioned from the other and hopefully serving different environmental interests.

1. The "Far Cry" Build - An outdoor jungle map featuring warehouses, research areas, dense and sparse foliage areas, water, bridges and more. This parcel takes up half of the island.
   
2. The "Halo" Build - An indoor map inspired by the Halo 2 map "Warlock". A great, fast-paced action map filled with hiding places, jump spots and plenty of cross-map sight lines.
   
3. The "Counter-Strike" Build - An indoor map supposedly inspired by the Counter-Strike map "cs_italy" (don't quote me on this one!). Featuring twisting streets, markets, bridges and more.
   

The second two maps are also meant to test the effect of occlusion on frame rates for the system.

So yes, break out your controller and blast your friends! And Huns, look for future upgrades to support vehicles (and a full "Battlefield 2"-vibe) so hopefully your extended flight controls will find a home beyond exploring and open-air battles!

I'm sure this is kick ass and alot of work.

But if you want a 1st person shooter why not play BF2 or Halflife or Halo or whatever? Or is this just academic?

EDIT: I'm not asking this to be a dick. I'm just curious.

Joystick? In SL? OMFG!

*swoons directed at Huns* *and Clubside & Andrew & Cube, too*

I'm off to dig thru the deep recesses of my closet for a lost joystick, for one day in the hopefully near future.

What can I do to help you guys out? Not experienced with coding at this level, but anything else I can do, let me know!

Il help by using slow mo on him first and turbo type

Long live WSAD!