To Andrew Regarding Analog Movement

Howdy Andrew,

Thanks for the great information in response to Huns' posting. Analog control was to be part of my discussion at the SLCC.

If you are indeed going ahead with development sooner rather than later I wanted to type up a quick view of where I am at today controlling Second Life via a gamepad since my request was going to be a simple plea for an analog alternative to WASD.

If you can grab an Xbox 360 Controller for Windows from Best Buy for $50, pick up a copy of Pinnacle Game Profiler (http://www.pinnaclegameprofiler.com) if you want to bang out a quick profile for yourself. Using this setup I can do most of my interaction with Second Life with just the controller. Until I need to chat or precisely control the build tools, the controller works better than the keyboard:

1. Left stick mapped to WASD
   
2. Right stick mapped to the mouse
   
3. Left Trigger mapped to right mouse click
   
4. Right Trigger mapped to left mouse click
   
5. Left and Right bumpers mapped to the mouse wheel
   
6. Left stick button to toggle "Always Run"
   
7. Up on the D-Pad mapped to PgUp
   
8. Down on the D-Pad mapped to PgDn
   
9. Left on the D-Pad to strafe left
   
10. Right on the D-Pad to strafe right
    
11. Back button mapped to the Map
    
12. Start Button mapped to ESC
    

I can't reember my current face buttons assignments at the moment, but they do correspond to most of the universal toolbar needs (inventory et al.)

I actually have shown a few oldbies some tricks with this setup such as crouch-walking (hold down on the D-Pad and move with the left stick). Flight with D-Pad and stick is much easier to deal with than the keyboard, but as Huns points out, true analog movement support as a Preferences option would really improve precise avatar walking, flying, and even building.

This same controller is part of the updated DirectInput controls in case you use them in the Windows client.

Good luck!

Thanks for the overview Clubside. There are probably a few Lindens who would find the controller setup interesting, so I'll try to point them at this thread.

The analog control, should I ever get to it, would initially apply only to the avatar motion. Using an anlog joystick for building didn't occur to me until now, but I'm sure it could be done in a good way somehow.