Trying new control schemes

[DogNine 1]

As the title suggests I've been messing around with different ways of controlling (myself?) in game. There have been some absolutely finger twisting control schemes suggested and so I'm exploring some more unusual approaches.

While I realise better minds than mine are trying to figure out better ways of streamlining the controls, I figure experimenting can't hurt!

What I've done so far is simply toggled mouse-look and changed the strafe keys (A&D) into turn keys, which as long as your not in combat, is very immersive I think. The reason I say not in combat is, apart from being a bit wobbly coming to grips with a new movement scheme, due to two things that I'm hoping the community may have answers to (other than use the default keys...:)).

First is using weapon sights when your head is looking away from the weapon, atm pressing your sights key will return your point of view to the weapon (re-centring your view) rather than bringing the weapon to where you are looking. My question; is there a command available that does this (and I'm too dense to see it) or is this something that will have to be modded?

Second is that atm head-look is relative to the orientation of the body, meaning that when you turn your view turns as well. This makes moving and free-looking a little jarring. My question; is there a switch that would change head-look to a pseudo-stabilized view. I understand that this one is likely to require modding.

Now really all this does so far is make head-look a part of the central controls, which can be otherwise done by using TrackIR. I'd like to try this without any extra peripherals, and I'll only really be able to figure out the rest of the controls when the core movement controls are sorted.

Thanks for reading and feel free to poke holes in this approach as it is all wip.

[Gorbachev 1]

Honestly head-look is a nice feature and all but something I can get away with not using on foot entirely. It is really only useful in vehicles - especially aircraft. Any work I've done on the control scheme myself has been to consolidate it into as few keys as possible without losing any abilities.

[SmallBlackSheep 0]

I like the "changed the strafe keys (A&D) into turn keys" idea! I always felt strafing didn't fit into Arma.

I'm afraid both your questions are not possible though without modding or using something like TrackIR. But I'm no expert.

What I changed last night:

- Remove "Hold Breath" from RMB

- Put "Hold Breath" on X

- Put "Up Stance" on Space

- Free Space otherwise

- Remove "Use" from MMB

- Put "Use" on V

- Put "Vault" on Ctrl+Space

- Put "Toggle Sights" on MMB

That way combat is a bit more intuitive, at least for me.

I just wish they'd let us put Stance Adjustment on Ctrl+Mouse Wheel or something.

[DogNine 1]

Thanks for the input.

I agree, that head look is not needed, however I felt that when moving around my observation of the environment was more natural as I was checking around me without having to come out of free-look to change my heading.

I'll give that arrangement a try as well.

[Gorbachev 1]

Eh, can't agree on removal of strafe. You want to turn left and right, that's what the mouse does and much more responsive at that.

[surfer 42]

I wish you could have stance not toggled but rather press and release to crouch. See below!

Edited March 13, 2013 by Surfer

[meester 18]

I personally use the middle mouse button for freelook, not toggle though.

[SmallBlackSheep 0]

I wish you could have stance not toggled but rather press and release to crouch. Wonder if this made it into the wishlist already. Will use an external tool for that otherwise someday.

Removing "hold breath" from zooming makes perfect sense. Will try to combine it with firing ;-) Edit: Tried it, sucks. Holding breath makes sense with aiming. But now I found that I like temporary optics on left mouse better than toggle. Makes a more fluid movement.

what do you use for firing then? RMB?

[doveman 7]

In A2 I moved compass to V (much more convenient than K) and made it toggle-only and used double-C to Vault. I put Hold Breath on Left Ctrl and made Caps Lock "Use Selected Action" (I tried Middle Mouse button for this but found I tended to accidentally scroll whilst clicking it, thus selecting the wrong thing!) as I never need it for VON anyway as I'm always on TS3/Acre Servers. My Sidewinder X4 has six hotkeys down the left edge, so I use some of them for Acre and my mouse side buttons 4 and 5 for TS3/Acre.

[Shaldag 10]

I'm always on TS3/Acre Servers. My Sidewinder X4 has six hotkeys down the left edge, so I use some of them for Acre and my mouse side buttons 4 and 5 for TS3/Acre.

I have the same keyboard could you share a little tute on how to use those keys for Acre. I am new to the game btw.Thanks in advance

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

Do yourself a favor and save up for a Track IR if you are that keen on it.

I find it great to use the Track IR as inf because I can do stuff you otherwise cant. Like going into optics mode and lowering the weapon and looking over it like one dose in real life.

For many other keyboard tweaks you can use AutoHotKey.

The hold and release for kneeling for example is fully possible.

You just make a button scrip that presses the toggle key once when you press it down and once again when you release it. Ingame it will be like a press and release.

I use it for loads of stuff for example:

Ctrl+arrow stance, ctrl+del binos, ctrl+end night vision, ctrl+mousewheel range up down etc... You can go beyond the limits of any game with AutoHotkey key bindings.

[DogNine 1]

Almost need to make a list and review and rate the schemes people suggest! Keep it coming and this may result in an ergonomic arrangement...

Jojo, it looks like that may be the easiest way to do it as it will otherwise require modding but really the whole idea was to try and avoid using another device.

[surfer 42]

Edit: Cleaned up

Installed AHK which finally let me switch off the win key, thanks a lot for that already!

Can you please help me with the kneeling script?

Edited March 13, 2013 by Surfer

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

Can you please help me with the kneeling script?

Sure...

; ******************

; Autohotkey Arma 3.

; ******************

; Script on/off.

$PrintScreen::

Suspend,Toggle

SoundPlay, %A_WinDir%\Media\Speech On.wav

return

; Hold to kneel.

$Rshift::

Send, {x 1}

KeyWait Rshift

Send, {x 1}

return

; Hold to kneel.

$x::

Send, {x 1}

KeyWait x

Send, {x 1}

return

Two examples with default settings ingame.

If you have bound kneeling to another key you must have it as a single key too. For example X.

It wont work if you have kneeling rebound to shift for example, but you can still use shift as your press key though.

Just add X back to to the Up binding in Infantry movements.

Note:

(1)

$ means it tries to ignore other functions on that key.

If $A::B then pressing A will output B, but it will also not trigger what is bound to A ingame. Dosent always work though.

Lets say B ingame is jump and A is shoot. Without $ pressing A in A::B would make you in some games jump and shoot...

(2)

The top part will toggle the script on, green Windows tray icon [H], off ingame with a Windows sound.

Very useful!

(3)

Dont make one file for all your games. Make a Autohotkey file pr game. That way you just launch that file when you want to play that game

without having key conflict issues because of other games. They are just small text files anyway. I store them in a Desktop folder myself. :)

Edited March 13, 2013 by JojoTheSlayer

[tortuosit 486]

Today I was thinking about rebinding "raise weapon" (2xCTRL) and combat stance ("c").

- "c" is too valuable for me because it is easily accessible, but I do not use it too often.

- "2xctrl": Generally ctrl is a bit of a finger twister for me, I don't like it.

My idea was, a) I do not need the numpad-[number] biindings AND b) they are easily reachable from the "mouse hand", while running forward. So I bound "raise weapon toggle" and "combat stance" to numpad numbers.

The free "c" button I use for command mode now, but that may change.

BTW. An observation. Double binding does rarely work.

Before I bound "combat stance toggle" to c and "raise weapon" to 2xc. But that did not work, because it already executes the first c. When doing 2xc, it performs both actions.

Edited March 13, 2013 by tortuosit

[surfer 42]

Jojo, thanks so much for your efforts in helping with the kneeling script! However I found it misfires around 20%, most of the time if you don't wait to finish the kneeling animation. But going this way I discovered my new favorite mode of fluid movement:

- Kneeling toggle on F

- need to toggle off Combat Stance

- bind Turbo to Space

This way you have your weapon steady most of the time and can fluidly change into a running pace and back. Feels great, give it a try! And you can even decide to "walk" outsides or "sneak" if you're inside of buidlings by using the toggle keys W&S together. Only drawback is that leaving the map is always resetting holding your weapon steady to weapon down. So after leaving the map I click right mouse twice.

The second alternative bind I use:

- use right mouse hold for temporary aiming, zooming and holding breath

- use right mouse click just to get in and out of scopes

And here's a new one that requires AHK:

$WheelLeft::

Send, {q 1}

return

$WheelRight::

Send, {e 1}

return

For this I removed temporary leaning and put leaning toggle on Q and E instead. This way I can toggle on leaning in a direction while I'm strafing in the same direction without releasing A and D. You can also still use Q and E as usual.

Jojo, can you point me in the right direction to automate my favorite "Backspace-Commands" like i.e. STEALTH put on Numpad-2?

And what are the Custom Controls for?

Edited March 13, 2013 by Surfer

[doveman 7]

I have the same keyboard could you share a little tute on how to use those keys for Acre. I am new to the game btw.Thanks in advance

Sure, although I don't know if ACRE is working with Arma3 yet but this is how it works with A2OA. ACRE uses a file in your Arma2OA/userconfig/acre folder named acre_keys.hpp to define which keys it uses. In my case I use LShift+LAlt+Q for Interact (assigned to S1), LShift+LAlt+E for Self-Interact (S2), LShift+LAlt+` for Open Radio (S4). Then on S3 and S5 I assign LShift+LAlt+1 (Talk on First Radio) and LShift+LAlt+2 (Talk on Second Radio) which is handy if I'm playing as RTO. I've also assigned Previous Radio ( LShift+LAlt+S) and Next Radio (LAlt+`) to the Prev/Next Track keys at the top of the keyboard. I used to have END (Acre PTT) bound to S3 but found when using two radios it wouldn't necessarily transmit on my Short Range, so it's better to use transmit on first and transmit on second and make sure that the SR is radio1 and LR is radio2.

I've posted the relevant section of acre_keys.hpp below which you can obviously customise to suit and just assign the same keys to the hotkeys. I'm using Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center, which is a bit slicker than the previous app, and you can set App-Specific Settings, so that those keys will only be active when Arma is running. For each hotkey, you need to select "Assign a Key combination" which is down the bottom of the list under Special Commands.

Obviously make sure you don't have the same keys bound to do anything in Arma or TS3 as well or you'll get strange things happening!

class acre_sys_core
{
class Interact 
{
	key = 16; 
	shift = 1;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 1;
};

class InteractSelf 
{
	key = 18; 
	shift = 1;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 1;
};

class PTTRadio	// Talk over radio
{
	key = 207;  	// END (please unbind from your normal PTT key)
	shift = 0;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 0;
};

class PTTRadioAlternate_1	// Talk over radio 2nd radio
{
	key = 2;
	shift = 1;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 1;
};
class PTTRadioAlternate_2	// Talk over radio 3nd radio
{
	key = 3; 
	shift = 1;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 1;
};
class PTTRadioAlternate_3	// Talk over your 4th radio
{
	key = 4; 
	shift = 1;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 1;
};
};

// Quick switch keys for radios
class acre_sys_list
{
class Forward	// Move forward through your radios
{
	key = 41;  	// alt-`
	shift = 0;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 1;
};
class Backward	 // Move backwards through your radios
{
	key = 31;  	// alt-shift-s
	shift = 1;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 1;
};
class OpenRadio	 // Open current radio
{
	key = 41;  	// alt-shift-`
	shift = 1;
	ctrl = 0;
	alt = 1;
};

};

---------- Post added at 13:31 ---------- Previous post was at 13:23 ----------

My idea was, a) I do not need the numpad-[number] biindings AND b) they are easily reachable from the "mouse hand", while running forward. So I bound "raise weapon toggle" and "combat stance" to numpad numbers.

The free "c" button I use for command mode now, but that may change.

BTW. An observation. Double binding does rarely work.

Before I bound "combat stance toggle" to c and "raise weapon" to 2xc. But that did not work, because it already executes the first c. When doing 2xc, it performs both actions.

Yeah, it works OK for some things, like Ctrl to hold breath and 2xCtrl to lower/raise weapon as the first action is a temporary one but something like C for combat stance toggle and 2xC for compass toggle probably would be too fiddly as it would change the combat stance every time you toggled the compass (I imagine, haven't tried it) and so you'd have to press c a third time after toggling the compass to get combat stance back to how it was. Something like Shift or Alt for sprint and 2xShift/Alt for toggle something like Freelook should also be OK as the first action is only a temporary whilst held action.

[tortuosit 486]

Something like Shift or Alt for sprint and 2xShift/Alt for toggle something like Freelook should also be OK as the first action is only a temporary whilst held action.

Thats the point, thanks for pointing this out.

The UI could just help so much more here...

[defk0n_NL 2]

Does anyone know how to stance adjust with ahk?

tried

$^WheelUp::  
Send {Blind}w
return

$^WheelDown::
Send {Blind}s
return

and it wont work.

Wont work also with just mousewheel and holding ctrl down manually.

$WheelUp::  
Send w
return

$WheelDown::
Send w
return

please help me, AHK sux monkey balls

[surfer 42]

I'm no expert but you might want to try:

$WheelUp::

Send {Ctrlw 1}

return

$WheelDown::

Send {Ctrls 1}

return

$WheelLeft::

Send {Ctrla 1}

return

$WheelRight::

Send {Ctrld 1}

return

Only works if Ctrl is your stance modifier and adsw are your movement keys. If it works at all that is ;)

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

Jojo, can you point me in the right direction to automate my favorite "Backspace-Commands" like i.e. STEALTH put on Numpad-2?

And what are the Custom Controls for?

Here is a 1 button Infantry squad script I use for the common stuff. I use VAC besides this for all the other stuff, but some stuff is said so often I rather use a basic one button setup. You will need to reshape it a bit for your own use. Basically I have spacebar set as command mode. The rest is strait forward and similar can be used for other function to adapt any key combos from the command system. Just make sure that its linked to ingame fps. If they dont trigger right you need to increase sleep time. Example 200 = 200miliSec.

The Controls in this scrips is:

Page Down: All Attack Target 2.

(If there is a enemy there will always be a target 2. When current target 2 is killed, press the button again. Simple.)

Ctrl+Page Down: Squad Aggressive mode.

(Makes your squad walk 50m in front of you and break formation if needed to attack enemies outside their engagement range.)

(It prevents a contact from being "you" getting shot first... Rather a dead AI than a dead player.)

Shift+Page Down: Squad Reset.

(Tells them to remove any target, disengage and return for formation next to you. A "After contact" quick order.)

; ******************

; Fast Command Arma 3.

; ******************

; Script on/off.

$PrintScreen::

Suspend,Toggle

SoundPlay, %A_WinDir%\Media\Speech On.wav

return

; Squad Attack Target 2.

$PgDn::

Send, {space}

Sleep 200

Send, 2

Sleep 400

Send, 2

return

; Squad Aggressive mode.

^PgDn::

Send, {space}

Sleep 600

Send, 3

Sleep 300

Send, 5

sleep 600

Send, {Space}

Sleep 600

Send, 1

Sleep 300

Send, 2

return

; Squad Disengage, No Target, Reset.

+PgDn::

Send, {space}

Sleep 600

Send, 2

Sleep 300

Send, 1

sleep 600

Send, {Space}

Sleep 600

Send, 3

Sleep 300

Send, 6

Sleep 600

Send, {Space}

Sleep 600

Send, 1

Sleep 300

Send, 1

return

The idea with this script is:

(A) Start. Manually set what you want. I usually do All-3-7 Scan Horizon and 8-7 Formation Line. Inf squad is then ready.

(B) Then I press Ctrl+Page Down: Aggressive mode. Engage at will and Advance. Inf run 50 in front or me and keep that setup.

© Move into contact and press Page Down. Listen to what my guys says and presses page down when needed until the list is empty, more or less.

(D) Reset the squad. Shift+Page Down. If I am in a hurry I go strait away. Otherwise I do B again if I rather want that or if I have the time I heal my guys etc.

(AutoDanger goes away usually when the target list is empty for a short while.)

Edited March 14, 2013 by JojoTheSlayer

[defk0n_NL 2]

I'm no expert but you might want to try:

$WheelUp::

Send {Ctrlw 1}

return

$WheelDown::

Send {Ctrls 1}

return

$WheelLeft::

Send {Ctrla 1}

return

$WheelRight::

Send {Ctrld 1}

return

Only works if Ctrl is your stance modifier and adsw are your movement keys. If it works at all that is ;)

bump, Arma3 doesnt seem to respond to AHK stanceadjust via mousewheel.

If anyone has a solution please share.

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

bump, Arma3 doesnt seem to respond to AHK stanceadjust via mousewheel.

If anyone has a solution please share.

You have to make sure the script controls dosent conflict with ingame controls in some way so you trigger both.

Mouse wheel works. I use my custom controls with ctrl+mouse wheel up and down for changing range settings on weapons that can.

[defk0n_NL 2]

You have to make sure the script controls dosent conflict with ingame controls in some way so you trigger both.

Mouse wheel works. I use my custom controls with ctrl+mouse wheel up and down for changing range settings on weapons that can.

Well My ctrl is not taken up by anything except Stance Adjust.

Do you think that might be the case?

updated:

GetKeyState, state, LCtrl
if state = D
   $^WheelUp::
   keywait WheelUp 
   Send w
   return

   $^WheelDown::
   keywait WheelDown 
   Send s
   return

[doveman 7]

Well My ctrl is not taken up by anything except Stance Adjust.

Do you think that might be the case?

updated:

GetKeyState, state, LCtrl
if state = D
   $^WheelUp::
   keywait WheelUp 
   Send w
   return

   $^WheelDown::
   keywait WheelDown 
   Send s
   return

That would be better as then the mousewheel can still be used normally when not holding Ctrl. It's not working for me though. I tried changing "GetKeyState, state", LCtrl to "GetKeyState, state, Shift" so it should produce an uppercase W or S when scrolling.

If I change it to

GetKeyState, state, Shift
if state = D
   $^WheelUp::
   Send w
   return

   $^WheelDown::
   Send s
   return

that sort of works. I say sort of because it still only works if I hold down Ctrl, despite specifying Shift (and yes, I've reloaded the script!) Even if I try

GetKeyState, state, Ctrl
if state = D
Pgup::
Send {d}
return

it sends d when I press PgUp when NOT holding Ctrl (when holding Ctrl it just sends Ctrl+PgUp as normal), so it's acting backwards, as if Ctrl is held when it's not.