World of Warcraft

[jwick]

I'm not a World of Warcraft player, but I did create a profile while developing and testing 3DxWare 10, to see if our solution could drive it.

We had to make some changes as a result. It became clear that WoW couldn't handle quickly pressing and releasing keyboard keys. Therefore we added an option to Press And Hold down keys.

I also created a bunch of macros to do WoW specific things that I thought might be useful in the average WoW session. Not being a player, these are just a guess:

Open Chat Box
Toggle UI
Cycle Enemies
Abilities
Spellbook
World Map Pane
Volume Up/Down/Mute
Next Camera
Attack Target

What I needed was, a button to get me out of the water

The axes are set to:

Left/Right = Q/E (Strafe Left/Right)
Forward/Backward = W/S (Move Character Forward/Backward)
Up/Down = Space/X (Jump/Sit)
Rotate Left/Right = D/A (Turn Character Left/Right)

All the axes are PressAndHold. I adjusted the individual axis Thresholds as needed to keep the character from accidentally doing the wrong thing (like sitting when I was trying to run).

The profile is at: http://www.3dconnexion.com/profiles/WorldOfWarcraft.xml

I'm sure there is room for improvement. Let us know what you do with it.

Edit: use link to the 3Dx profile file repository

[Durahl]

Mhh... Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts to the turn left/right and look up/down axes. That's something I didn't think about when I did my WoW testing profile.
Will the Movement speed up the more I move the Controller into a direction using a Movement Shortcut bound to Press and Hold?

Personally I "solved" this attempt by binding a 2D Mouse to it + Right Mouse Button Checkbox selected so the Camera would follow the Mouse.
Downside on this one is you might end up with accidently having targets selected when passing over them and combating if possible.
Hunter: "Ma'am! I have to apologize but as of recent I have the uncontrollable urge to shoot people I look at."
Ghost: "I'm fine, my gear was red anyway and the Spirit Healer is nearby."

Maybe I should try assigning a Joystick to it once I'm home. Thinking out of the box might solve some problems.

Just realised how awesome the new driver is for games like Supreme Commander or RTS Games with lots of camera freedom.
Can't wait to get home doing a Config file. This btw. brings back Memories for the Microsoft Sidewinder Strategic Commander ( I rarely used... *sigh* )

[Aeodwrath]

Please can someone tell me if this device does definitely work in WoW before i go and blow a hundred quid on it. How easy is it to set up?

[Durahl]

If World of Warcraft is your sole reason to buy the SpacePilot PRO then I'd suggest to better get a Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard or the Belkin Nostromo one I lol at competion censoring as I'm unable to post the name of the device.

Anyway... With the new Beta Driver you can bind any Shortcut to its Buttons and the Pug but keep in Mind that, unlike the G13 or similiar, censored, devices designed for gaming, the placement of buttons is quite awkward for gaming.
Another issue is that the alternate Buttons Function ( pressing them for like a second+ ) is quite a drawback in gaming which leaves you with literally half the buttons the SpacePilot PRO usually offers.

So if it's just for show at the next LAN, go ahead.
If it's for flight simulations, maybe.
If it's for FPS ( and MMO's ), no way.
This though is just a personal opinion.

[Aeodwrath]

Thanks for the reply. I was mainly interested in the basic navigator for use instead of the movement keystrokes and using my right hand for spells and targeting with the mouse or number pad.

[mikey]

hello, ive been very interested in this hardware for a few years but didnt want to buy one if it didnt do what i wanted of course, I have stiff fingers and cant press buttons for straffe whilst pressing buttons for spells etc. What id like to do is use the navigator in my right hand for movement e.g press forward-go forward and so on, would it do this ok?,how about mouse pointer target spells? how would i do that, feed back appreciated

tia mike

[mikey]

Im probably just going to buy one ,im sure i could get it to do what i want, theres 1 clip on youtube with a guy using a spacenavigator,it must be possible!!

[mikey]

Got my navigator on thursday,used the profile by jwick(thankyou),works nicely,just upped the sensitivity a little and hey presto,now ive just to figure out if the right button on the navigator could be used to toggle between keyboard emulation and 2d mouse for clicking on quests etc !

[Hypersonic]

Unless you bind SpaceNavigator's rotations to keyboard turns that is, rather than binding to mouse turns with the right mouse button checked. But keyboard turns are only one rotation speed.

Maybe 3DConnexion would influence Blizzard at the awesome possibilities of utilizing the SpaceNavigator joystick inputs for complete and ultra smooth character movement control in one hand, while at the same time the other hand using the mouse to click on targets in the 3d world and to click on icons on the spell bar in the 2D icon overlay.

Right now it doesn't use joystick at all, the SpaceNavigator has to emulate keyboard or mouse to interact with WoW.

[jwick]

I think they did a prototype, but it never got released. That does mean that there is code written, possibly hidden.

Unfortunately, 3Dconnexion doesn't have much (any) pull with these game companies. YOU, though, being a paying customer have a tremendous amount of pull.

I suggest you take your excellent idea to their forums or whatever method they use to get feedback from their customers. The environment does cry out for analog controller support. It might be easier for them to justify it now that the 3Dx device can work with generic joystick code.

[Hypersonic]

I will try. Posts often get buried on thier forums, possibly unread. But the effort would be worth it if they did implement it!

It would be an ideal game for it. The 2D mouse could be used to select a target, then the 2D mouse hand could quickly move to the keypad for instant access to the multitude of spells one can cast (Wow has alot of spells!) All the while the user will be retaining full control of the character's movements very fluidly with the 3Dmouse/joystick hand.

[jwick]

That would be a terrific user experience. True two handed interaction in WoW.

[RolandPf67]

I have been waiting of something like this for years, now i coud use my SpaceNavigator beside 3d-modelling.
The profile works fine, but still for me the left and right control feel a bit insensitive as normaly you woud use the mouse to do that.
So i reconfigured the profile and used the mouse emulation, and made it possible with the tilt to look up and down.
One implication on that is as you normaly have to click on "free" place on the screen to turn, so you might have to give you normal mouse a slight kick to have it on free place so it will not activate some item arround you.
The other thing that might be diffrent from the normal expirence is that the push and turn do not work at the same time. That for me looks like a limitation of the driver (but still it's awesome) so you are better with using autorun as often as possible.
You might have saved me from getting the carpal tunnel syndrome

[RolandPf67]

So hier noch ein etwas verbesserters Profil.

[3dboy]

hi,

could u show more details of movement keystrokes and using my right hand for spells and targeting with the mouse or number pad?

thanks