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[pspeed]

I've been looking at adding joystick support to Mythruna recently.  Partly because it would be good to have and partly because I would like it for some other projects that I'm remaining silent on for the moment.

Anyway, I'm curious how many of you out there have game pads.

I bought a few cheaper ones from Amazon to experiment and there appears to be no real standard mapping for the layout of the controls as they relate to what is reported to code.  Thus, I'm interested in (eventually) having some folks run a test app to collect info about their game pads... the more mappings I can look at the better the default control setup will be.

Obviously I will eventually have to support letting the user remap the controls but I'd like the defaults to not be completely stupid... and so far if I set things up for one set of game pads, another will be completely stupid.

I will probably pick up a few different cheap ones in the future... so I'm particularly curious to see what a more expensive game pad reports.  I don't plan to buy any of those.

[FutureB]

iv never used one and probibly never will unless there nesecary for mythruna :p i hadnt achualy heard about them untill know.

[belgariad87]

I have a few of them. If you mean just any old controller that can be used for the computer then i have (i think) 3 different kinds and an older one, but that one has less buttons. I also have a wired xbox 360 controller that i use for some Steam games.

For most games i like just using the mouse and keyboard, mainly because once you're as used to it as i am you can do so much more than on a game pad.

[pspeed]

iv never used one and probibly never will unless there nesecary for mythruna :p i hadnt achualy heard about them untill know.

A player named Timepath (don't know if you ever met him or not) had hacked his client once to use a game pad but was never happy with the mappings.  I think when there is a third person perspective and a lot of action stuff that some people will like the gamepad.

[pspeed]

I have a few of them. If you mean just any old controller that can be used for the computer then i have (i think) 3 different kinds and an older one, but that one has less buttons. I also have a wired xbox 360 controller that i use for some Steam games.

For most games i like just using the mouse and keyboard, mainly because once you're as used to it as i am you can do so much more than on a game pad.

Yeah, for PC RPGs I also prefer the keyboard + mouse.  Still, I get really used to the double analog sticks on console games and I could see how someone might want to play that way.  Especially if there was a working third person perspective.

When I saw how badly it worked for Mythruna "out of the box", I got motivated to try and make it better.  Plus, I'm toying with the idea for a quick side project that would be a more gamepad oriented thing.

[BigredRm]

I use a 360 controller for many games. I love it when it just works but I will sometimes use Pinnacle to map the keys myself. After playing MC on the xbox I maped the PC version with Pinnacle and havent looked back.

[belgariad87]

I agree that in some 3rd person action perspectives it might be a good idea, and maybe you should add it before release... but i don't know if you should take time out *now* to do it...

  not worth the extra wait.

[pspeed]

I agree that in some 3rd person action perspectives it might be a good idea, and maybe you should add it before release... but i don't know if you should take time out *now* to do it...

  not worth the extra wait.

There are a few reasons that kind of add up.  Mostly it was because I've been swamped with my day job but this was something simple I could play with while doing full release builds between testing my full release builds.

Some other things to consider:
-I'm kind of half considering a quick side project that might earn some more cash to help with Mythruna development... it would require joystick support.
-Some of the next things I will have to get working in Mythruna are character animations for the AI (and as a side-effect the player).  Having a working third-person view with proper joystick support makes these animations easier for me to work on... and I figured if I was already adding gamepad support for me then I might as well make it sensible for as many as possible.
-It's been a while since I put out a Mythruna build and there's nothing significant that will be done soon... so sometimes I start looking for some easy wins that might make a small release worthwhile.  Three months is too long for me.

But your point is exactly why I don't want to bother adding a complex button mapping screen or anything... that would be a waste of valuable time right now.

[belgariad87]

Im not sure if you would answer this, but what are all the expenses you have for making mythruna?

[pspeed]

Im not sure if you would answer this, but what are all the expenses you have for making mythruna?

The "hard" expenses are mostly domain registration, hosting, SSL key renewals, etc... I also purchased a computer that is just for the public server, etc..  The accountant takes some money... and I have a bunch of expenses I need to run through my lawyer that I can't afford to pay for yet.

The looser expense is my time... which is where most of my investment is.  And my current situation is such that more money directly impacts the amount of time I can spend on the game from week to week.

[belgariad87]

I feel like i would donate up to 50$ if i knew more of the direction you were going and knew it would be stable... But what guarentee do you have that a side game would get enough attention to be worth it? you would be in a smaller mythruna boat.

[pspeed]

I feel like i would donate up to 50$ if i knew more of the direction you were going and knew it would be stable...

I think my end vision is pretty stable.  There are only a few cutting edge areas that may turn out to be impossible but there are fallback positions in all cases.  Full physics is one of those things... though I have a much better understanding of the risks now than when I started.  It used to be "is proper physics going to even be possible?"  And now it's more "how much will I have to dumb it down not to randomly explode?"

A lot of proper physics is just a short cut to avoid a longer + harder path, though.

But what guarentee do you have that a side game would get enough attention to be worth it? you would be in a smaller mythruna boat.

I don't.  It would have to be a nearly free (for me) effort so that there is no/little risk.  One of the missing pieces was joystick support so I checked that against my priorities and discovered it would be useful for other things so I added it to my short term list.  Other things that potentially move up on the list of priorities that more directly affect Mythruna are character animation and local-only physics effects (particles effects and stuff).  The latter of which naturally leads to be closer to having networked physics also ready to go.  (Physics will probably go through about five phases before it's "done".)  And, by the way, local-only physics is useful for proper character animation.

Anyway, it's mostly a way to focus on shorter term goals because town generation + AI, done properly is long and arduous.  If my life situation were to change tomorrow, I like to know that I have some quick options for potentially quickly jump-starting full time game development... or at least knowing where those lines are.

[Iggyjeckel]

Well as soon as my little pay pall issue fixes itself you have my 25, and how about this, the next good update ill throw in another 25, for every update after I can promise 5 or more. Now I cant say it can stay this way because pay pal hates mw, but I can promise you at least my 25 now, and 25 after, unless life hits me with a bus lol

[pspeed]

Well as soon as my little pay pall issue fixes itself you have my 25, and how about this, the next good update ill throw in another 25, for every update after I can promise 5 or more. Now I cant say it can stay this way because pay pal hates mw, but I can promise you at least my 25 now, and 25 after, unless life hits me with a bus lol

LOL.

[Michael]

I really don't know. Do you plan on using your own custom ones? or use one naturally for computer? May I see an image of one?