Severly physically handicapped

Greetings,

I have a friend that I play on-line games with that is severly physically handicapped. Basically he can only play games that only require a mouse to play (one handed). I am too new to SL to give him a legit answer but is it possible to play SL with only a mouse? Are there ways to map enough mouse keys to do it? Does anyone know of anyone who does?

The previous game we were playing, who shall remain unnamed *cough* SWG *cough* ripped away his ability to play and having a virtual world where he can walk and do things is very important to him.

Didn't know where else to ask this.

Thanks
Tristan

I think it's pretty possible to access most features with just a mouse. The only thing I can think of that absolutly requires the keyboard is Chat and IM. Help your friend open an account and jump, fly, swim, bike, teleport, ice skate, dance, parachute and more on in!

Thanks vivi,

I think you're right on what you said. I guess my main concern is actually walking (arrow keys for me) and being able to follow someone with the camera or zoom in on an object (requires the alt key and clicking) which is out of the question for him.

I assume there is a key map control?

My apologies if these questions are obtuse, like I said noob with the controls around here still.

Thanks again
Tristan

what can't be done with only a mouse could likely be done with speech recognition... even CHAT!

EDIT: I was wrong.

For movement: somewhere in the menus you can open up a little box with arrows in it. Click on the arrow does the same as pressing that key.

If he has a specialised mouse with lots of extra buttons, he should be able to map the movement controls to those, or to combinations of the buttons.

You *can* move by clicking on the little popup panel, but it's not very fast compared to the keyboard. Actually, you can theoretically do pretty much anything with the mouse, there are buttons and menu options for everything.

I am always looking for new ways to move around in SL... including alternative devices. Awhile ago, I was wondering about big paddles and foot pedals to walk around, even. Steer with the mouse, press down like gas in a car when you wanna go. Makes sense to me.

These types of controllers are often quite expensive, and unfortunately not very affordable most of the time. Not to mention, hard to find, as I haven't come up with a solid one I'd recommend yet.

If we had something like the "conductor" system in Minority Report, that'd be nice.

If your friend is able to click on his avatar and move the mouse around while holding down the left mouse button, then he can steer his direction. If you can map another convenient control for him to forward movement (if he can hold down right and a side mouse button at same time), then that might work.

Hrmmm that gives me an idea for an experiment, I'm gonna give it a spin.

My experiment succeeded.

I'll explain what I did.

I have a Microsoft Intellimouse Optical.



Not the best modern mouse, by any means (and I am thinking of upgrading), but it has served me relevantly for the last few years.

This mouse has five buttons.
I previously had the side buttons mapped to things like bringing up the Instant Message screen, Chat History, or Inventory. These configurations can easily be done with the Microsoft IntelliPoint drivers. Depending on your specific mouse, this may vary, but here's how I have it currently mapped out:



So what I can do is, click-and-hold on my avatar with the LEFT BUTTON to get mouse steering going. I wiggle around the mouse to change the direction I'm facing. Then, I hold down the LEFT SIDE BUTTON to start walking forward. Too slow? No prob, I either press WHEEL BUTTON to break into a trot (I'm a Torse) or press the RIGHT SIDE BUTTON to get flying, where I can really move quickly. If I want to go back down to earth, I just push that button again, and I'll freefall swiftly.

These are the specifics of what I'm doing, but the principles can be adapted to most modern multibutton mice, including ones especially designed for accessibility.

And it can all be done with one hand.

I been building in SL for months and i only use 1 hand, i can use my left but it will royally kick my ass in the end, its possible, but its kinda awkward at start , persistance is the key.

99% of the time im in SL i use 1 hand, typing and building, 1 thing i miss in SL is autorun , ability to map controlls , took me awhile to figure out how to even "go here" using mouse click.

Hello. There is also a device called the Nostroma Game Pad (N52 I think). It is kind of like a one hand ergonomically craft mini keyboard in shooters and such. I am not sure, but it may be mappable to SL. It would enable quite a high level of commands to be able to be input.

Good Luck

The Windows on screen keyboard , available via Start/Programs/Accessibility, enabled me to chat.

Walking and flying worked okay with the onscreen movement controls on the SL View menu.

A number of people report using the onscreen camera controls by choice rather than from need.

I feel sure that there is a much better on-screen keyboard than the free one included with windows, haven't had time to look them up yet.

My previous attempts to use voice-to-text suffered from very bad speech recognition and it made SL crash, but that was long ago and may have no bearing anymore.

If the person can use their fingers nimbly on their mouse hand they might be able to use a device called the twiddler.

The latest twiddlers are said to be much better than early versions. The twiddler sorts of combines a keyboard and a mouse function in one unit.

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Also, this may be a case where a HUD device could be put to good use - a set or sets of scripted buttons around the perimeter of the SL screen doing various useful things easier than the normal approach.

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SL might find that money and time creating a mouse only interface was well worth it, given that SL can help those with mobility limitations who might also be keyboard impaired a sense of getting about in the world they might not otherwise enjoy.

I am too physically handicapped and love to play SL do to I can do stuff I can not do in RL like walk, and run. I use one hand but I can still use the keyboard but I have to take my hand off the mouse and have to type with just one hand. I still have use of the other one but not that good. I love to see vc soon.

A few years ago i had a client come into the shop i was working in
He was a FPS nut and had recently gone tru a nasty car accident which rendered him paralized from the waist down and his left hand. So i suggested getting a flightstick (im partial to logitech for price vs niceness) and downloading a joystick to keyboard/mouse mapper. (theres quite a few freeware ones on google)

when i got to check it out he had it setup with a really tight callabration (great for twichy games like quake 3 and ect), the tophat (the joystick ontop) setup as the mouse, and the 12 buttons setup, with all kinds of marcos. (some mappers let you hit button combos to make a new button) and the bottem line is altho it was abit clunky at first it quickly became a intuitive way to play 1 handed.

Doesnt help with typing tho, this might but its quite pricey (and only in german layout)
http://www.tastaturen.com/ergebnis.lasso?-token=3344617902533&st=Neu&vo=d&mr=1&sr=8