[freespace2] Joystick Sensitivity

[James Le Cuirot]

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 11:10:04 +0100 (CET)
Geller Sandor <wildy at petra.hos.u-szeged.hu> wrote:
> 
> [ I looked after the joystick code maybe a year ago, so I hope I
> remember correctly ]
> 
> Analogue joysticks report values between 0 and 255 for every axis,
> where 127 is the center position. Deadzone means that the chosen
> value (0-9) multiplied by 10 gives the dead range of the joystick in
> percents, eg. if you set the sensitivity to 5, then values between 64
> and 192 are considered as the joystick were in the center position,
> and values between 0-63 and 192-255 are scaled as 64 or 192 were the
> center position. It is useful if the joystick reports different
> values in the center position, not only 127.
> 
> Sensitivity is used as some kind of an accelerator. The turning of
> the ship isn't linear - the ship turns very slowly if the joystick is
> near the center position, so you can target very precisely, while the
> ship turns very fast, when the joystick is far from the center.

Thanks for the explanation. I understand that but it doesn't really
help me with my digital gamepad. The keyboard is essentially digital
too but I don't seem to be able to get quite the same amount of control
with the gamepad. I guess the gamepad just has the extremes, 0 and 255
with 127 in the center. Do you think it would it be possible to create
a slight acceleration by only moving the ship by a smaller amount for
the first half a second that the button is held down? Of course, some
people might not like this so it could be made an option?

James