Assigning game functions to multimedia keys

[UnYx 0]

Goes anyone know if it's possible to use the multimedia keys for game use ?

It would be great to be able to assign some of the numerous functioons of Arma to them

[Placebo 29]

Isn't such usage dependent on the software your keyboard uses? I don't think ArmA can overtake the usage of such keys, I use a "Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000" and the drivers for that only let me change the multimedia buttons for opening a program/webpage or file, performing a windows command or being disabled.

[UnYx 0]

Isn't such usage dependent on the software your keyboard uses? I don't think ArmA can overtake the usage of such keys, I use a "Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000" and the drivers for that only let me change the multimedia buttons for opening a program/webpage or file, performing a windows command or being disabled.

As far as I understood, there must be some standard behind most of these keyboards : I only tested with Microsoft and Logitech ones, but if you plug it without installing any driver (on a PC with Win XP) the OS will respond if you press the keys but you won't be able to assign another function.

I found some people talking about trying to use these keys in Linux , one said that he caught a group of three key codes from the keyboard when he pressed one of the multimedia keys and another group of three when he released it, while a normal key only throws one key code when pressed (may be one when released, but not sure...).

As these keys are "standard" in MS OSes since XP, may be there is some way to access it at a level over the driver in the directx API or in some SDK?

Edit: I took a look @ MSDN and there are some parts of the following table that make me think that we can get the info the same way as the other key are acquired :

Quote[/b] ]...

DIK_MEDIASELECT

Media Select key, which displays a selection of supported media players on the system

DIK_WEBHOME

DIK_WEBFORWARD

DIK_WEBBACK

...

[trufret 0]

It's allot easier to get a logitech G11/15 or some other keyboard with programmable keys then to try and reassign some windows media ones.

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Get yourself a Logitech G11 Keyboard.

You can create up to 54 custom macros with the 18 extra G-keys.

MfG Lee

[UnYx 0]

It's allot easier to get a logitech G11/15 or some other keyboard with programmable keys then to try and reassign some windows media ones.

Indeed I got such a programmable keyboard, but using macros does not extend the number of keys you can use for functions

Natively catching these extra keys would allow assigning a few more functions directly within Arma (can you tell me how many unused keys there are in your keyboard ? Especially if you use native voip and/or teamspeak and/or a screenshot/video grabber).

What made me think of all this is the Microsoft Game Voice command box: If you forget its painful audio switch, it has a very special feature that I never saw again since then : It adds 7 fully useable keys (directly, you don't even need macros). Beside this, the only program I ever saw using these keys apart the original MS software is Teamspeak

[UnYx 0]

It's not really a solution that allows using the multimedia keys, but finally I soon gonna test another way to add a bunch of mappable keys:

The Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit (a 21 buttons + 2-axis analog mini-stick keypad-like MMI) has a "joystick" mode, in which its 21 buttons are seen by windows as joystick buttons.

There's just an implicit allusion to this possibility in the manual and I hardly found anybody that used it this way, but the info was finally confirmed by Saitek's official support .

I made a test within Arma with my "real" joystick and saw that Arma recognizes the 16 first joystick keys (16 out of the 26 that my joystick has) => it should provide at least 16 more useable keys for mapping the countless functions of Arma .

I ordered a PGCU and should test it soon; I'll post the result here .

If it works as I think, it would be cool if Arma could cope with more than 16 joystick keys (i.e. at least 5 more = 21 keys would be perfect )