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[Holey Moley]

Holey Moley Website System Administrator Offline

look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology

Holey Moley says,

CONTROLS TUNING PATCH

http://csv.swordofmoonlight.net/SomEx.dll/1.2.2.6.zip

This patch continues to spotfix the controls after the major shakeup of late. It compensates for the uniform "boost" effect intended to get to gait 5 on the diagonals (after converting the square input into a more precise circle) by moving the outer deadzone to 1 if escape_analog_gaits is not set up... if it is  set up, then it must have its final gait set to 1 manually, or your preference.

Basically, it's not safe to expect a controller to go all the way to 1 (my DualShock 3 won't) but after the boost 0.95 becomes more than 1, and so will saturate much sooner. Basically with boost, the artificial safety restriction can be lifted, or needs to be extended to reflect the boost. The speed of this gait is 1, even if it cannot be set to match it.

Without this adjustment the controller will hit top speed sooner, and there is be a large region where the controller can move at full speed. I don't think the DualShock 3 is by any means linear, or a simple change from 0.95 to 1 would not make such a great difference. It's arguable if having a big zone to float in is more comfortable or not. I have no idea, but decided to change this for now, because it maps more evenly.

Secondly, I've rebalanced gait 4's output speed when using do_u2 as suggested by the earlier patch's post. These speed changes don't change the input requirement, but only address the apparent change in speed when crossing these gaits to be more pleasant. Translation: it might feel funny to your thumbs, but should look better to your eyes.

Formerly "Holy Diver" ("Holy") [Holy will be back as soon as I'm back to full form]

[Holey Moley]

Holey Moley Website System Administrator Offline

look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology

Holey Moley says,

YET ANOTHER CONTROLS PATCH

http://csv.swordofmoonlight.net/SomEx.dll/1.2.2.6.zip

I feel like I've gotten no normal work done today, but here is another controls patch, that feels even better, and that I'm pretty excited about.

It's just more tuning, but what I realized is that by fudging the gait output speeds it was possible to increase the default value for the u2_power extension...

With that in mind, I really wanted to make the 1st turning gait feel like it moves at the same speed as the 1st moving gait, so that it feels like there is a unified speed of movement... even if the perception of movement when turning depends much more on how far things are in the distance in front of your, and the feeling of unity breaks down almost immediately as gaits increase... but a feeling can go a long way to blot out a reality.

Plus, I've always wanted slower turning gaits. That was the genesis of u2_power after all. It creates an exponential curve out of the turning speeds, thereby lowering significantly the speeds of the lower gaits, and all gaits, until the final gait.

The problem with increasing the exponent is it effectively increases the distance or separation between the gaits. More separation means the transitions are more jarring. So, what I did by fudging the output speeds is create some breathing room for increasing the exponent.

This patch changes the exponent's default to 1.75, from 1.5. I think this is probably an ideal setting, or close to it. Because the speed is going to match walking speed, which is linear. And a power of 2, tends to be too weird versus moving a thumb more or less linearly resulting in nonlinear turning motions.

In order to achieve this, the transitions had to be less noticeable. I think I want them to be somewhat noticeable. It even helps to have a visible cue of the gait switching over. Notice that "noticeable" means when you are slowly scanning a scene, and changing speed one gait at a time, no quicker than required to transition.

And I can only achieve this by loosening up the spring system that governs it. But I think it feels good, if not better than before. It feels more languid, but that can impart a sense of weight, and it matches the slower turning speed that is now achievable. I just chose a looser value. It changes the feel of crouching/leaning out also, since I'm no longer differentiating between these modes.

FWIW I've always wanted a slower possible turning speed, but have not been able to achieve it for issues with transitioning the gaits. I want it to feel like a light nudge when the gears shift so-to-speak, but not like a kick in the pants, or whiplash.

In order to customize these things, there will need to be a bevy of extensions. But in truth, I think that defaults are the way to go. Because all games should have the same feel. But I can understand if individuals want to change the feel.

There will have to be a new u2 Detail extension to change the stiffness of the spring system. And there probably will need to extensions for controlling both inputs and outputs for gaits. Currently there is just inputs. But I feel like all of this will probably have to wait until there is an easier way to adjust these things (Exselector) without having to close out and start over a game. I'm planning a visualization thing before long, so that you can at least get a feel for how your game controller works. New extensions will likely come with that. In the meantime, games definitely shouldn't mess with these things.

Right now the basic controls feel amazing. The various dashing gaits need some work however in the sideways movement department. I don't have immediate plans to look at that short of a decent game/demo turning up.

Formerly "Holy Diver" ("Holy") [Holy will be back as soon as I'm back to full form]