Joystick options

[hailstorm 4]

this is probably too late to make any effect on Arma, but even so it should be something that at least makes it into ArmA II - the ability to define more options for joysticks - currently, you have the ability to have it defined as 'enabled/disabled', and the ability to define each button - problem is, the simplicity in this setup leads to several problems with using such a device in-game:

- the inability to adjust the sensitivity settings of the stick. while modern sticks have their own external setup programs which you can tweak, in arma the default setting seems to be too sensitive close to the floating zone, and not enough in the outer reaches of the stick axis' - people who like to fly fast and low in jets will know what i mean (the incessant fear that you may push the stick a millimeter too much and suddenly pitch the nose into the ground). anyway, players having the ability to define how sensitive they want the stick (without the trial and error of editing the setup files in wordpad with debatable success) is probably a good idea.

- the ability to define how big the 'floating zone' around the stick center is (i.e, the area around the stick that the game defines as 'neutral' input). As it is, if a joystick leans forward about half a centimeter (within the joystick's own floating zone) due to something like it's weight or design, ArmA registers it as input. the only way around such a conflict at the moment is to prop it up in such a way it sits perfectly centered when not in use, which is pretty damn annoying.

- the ability to (re)calibrate a joystick in-game.

- the option to define what classes of vehicles the stick will register for. for the player, for example, to have the choice of making the stick register only for helicopters and planes, and not land vehicles and ships (individually), would work great. currently, if someone has a joystick enabled, it will start to move and/or turn ANY vehicle the player boards, because it is receiving an input from the stick(the result of the abovementioned lack of being able to define floating zone and sensitivity).

this one's a bit different, but i'd like to see a change into how mixing inputs from different peripherals is received in the game. right now, when the program receives two different movement commands, it tends to add them together, and then produce a net result - eg, placing full collective/throttle on the stick and then opposite collective/throttle when flying a helicopter, for instance, will result in the helicopter entering a hover [1+(-1)=0]. the same seems to go for steering inputs, pitch settings, etc, causing the player to fiddle with several separate (duplicate) controls to get a desired result. a better idea would be for it to determine the latest control input to take precedence over the last - eg. if a keyboard command came though, it would take immediate authority, and not be considered alongside any former commands.

these were just a couple of things i thought needed a bit of looking into, because it seems to be an area in controls that seems to have been somewhat overlooked so far - a joystick is a precision instrument, like a mouse, and really it needs the ability to be individually tweaked in order to get the most out of it.

[.kju 3245]

Isn't the ArmA 2 - SUGGESTIONS forum a better place to post it?

[KeyCat 131]

- the inability to adjust the sensitivity settings of the stick.

While I agree that things could have been improved there actually is a way to adjust/tweak the joystick sensitivity in ArmA by editing your XXXX.ArmAProfile.

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">

Joystick settings

joystickSensitivity[]={0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,1.000000,1.000000,

0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,1.000000,1.000000};

Number are sensitivity for each of the following inputs:

AXIS_X AXIS_Y AXIS_Z ROT_X ROT_Y ROT_Z SLIDER_1 SLIDER_2

First eight values are for positive part of axis, last eigtht for the negative.

Value is transformed as:

value = pow(raw_value,1/sensitivity).

/KC