turning character with keyboard emulator

[BuckTanner]

A friend uses a keyboard emulator to interface with LOTRO. He has no choice.

The keyboard emulator does not allow him to hold down the arrow keys in order to rotate his characters. In order for him to turn 180 degrees he has to do a virtual "press" of the arrow key 13 times. Each press is sent by sipping and puffing morse code into a straw. It takes a while.

We're both pretty creative but have exhausted all the obvious in game UI avenues we can find.

Anyone have an idea how to solve this problem with a plug-in? We've never written a plug-in so are probably asking someone to write it also.

Thanks

Buck

[unclecid]

have you guys tried contacting Turbine to see if they could help in some way?

[BuckTanner]

i believe he did ... maybe i should do it too.

[Fortunis]

Just an idea:-

Control Panel/keyboard

Key Repeat Settings?

[BuckTanner]

not sure what you mean by repeat key settings but we have tried alias because you can stack commands ... but only "chat" commands ... there is no way (that we have found) to put a command in a chat window that will turn the character.

of course the servers are all down so i can't look in the keyboard map to see what you might be talking about :-) could you be more specific?

[Equendil]

Plugins have no direct access to keyboard input and no control whatsoever over character navigation, so there is nothing plugin developers can do to help I'm afraid. This is something that will have to be handled on the input side of things.

Edit: oops just realized this is a forum for DDO and not LotRO, oh well I expect it's no different.

[Fortunis]

On your desktop-

click START
click CONTROL PANEL
click (double click) KEYBOARD

check the settings.

Is what i mean.

[Equendil]

Keyboard settings are very, very limited, only thing Windows offers is the option to use CTRL/ALT/SHIFT + key in sequences rather than simultaneously and to slow down or disable the repeat rate of keys and filter out repeated keystrokes, that's for people with disabilities using an actual keyboard though.

I would contact the makers of whatever input device your friend is using, if you have not done so. They are the people most able to help and offer solutions.

[BuckTanner]

ok ... checked out the repeat settings ... and as i remember ... the problem with the emulator is you cannot hold down a key ...

but thanks :-)

[Fortunis]

Why does your friend have to use an emulator?... Whats wrong with just the keyboard?

[D.H1cks]

That is an interesting problem.

No plugins will help with this. I also doubt there is anything to be done with in-game settings currently.

The only solution I can think of off hand is a program that could possibly take one key press, and translate it into repeating a different key press. I have no idea if something like this exists or not.

[D.H1cks]

Why does your friend have to use an emulator?... Whats wrong with just the keyboard?

Given the 'puffing into a straw' comment, I can only guess the person has no use of his hands or feet.

[Equendil]

His friend is using a Sip-and-puff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sip-and-puff) device to input morse code, which would be because he cannot use a mechanical device let alone a keyboard. The problem though, is morse code will input individual keystrokes (key down + key up), which does not allow for repeating keys, ideally, his friend would ideally need a custom code to toggle repeating keys, or possibly for this specific issue, a code to issue an arrow-right key-down event and another for arrow-right key-up (or a completely different input device, but that's beyond the scope of this thread).

[unclecid]

have you all also tried contacting the maker of the emulator?

[Fortunis]

Given the 'puffing into a straw' comment, I can only guess the person has no use of his hands or feet.

Ah yes :s.. i shouldve gone back upto the first post and read it properly :(

Without any of us being able to see/run the emulator, it would be hard for us to come up with a solution and i doubt its possible with lotro LUA.

I also agree with unclecid to contact the creators of the emulator and/or maybe theres a compatible program out there that you can use the emulator with to cause a keydown then keyup events. A macro type program.

theres some ive seen in the past like:-

joytokey
mousetokey
Xpadder (nice joypad program)
Macro Express (a more advanced but easy to use program)

to name a few. If the emulator is emulating a key press then a macro type program can be used to see a key press and turn it into something different, including repeating that key 13 times if you wish or make it so it toggles repeat key press on/off, so theres control of how far u want to turn.

[Hyoss]

Why does your friend have to use an emulator?... Whats wrong with just the keyboard?

Please excuse me, but this borders on ignorance. Reading this:

Each press is sent by sipping and puffing morse code into a straw

He is forced to use it, probably because he is not able to use his hands at all with a keyboard.

On Topic:

Perhaps a software like AutoIt can help. You can create keyboard input macros with it that are executed when a particular key kombination is pressed. It should be possible to create a macro that will turn your character 90°/180° and then set up the keyboard emulator to execute the keyboard combination that executes the macro.

Another idea would be to contact the producer/developer of the keyboard emulator and ask them whether a driver/firmware update is available/even possible that would help with your problem.

[Digital_Utopia]

Part of the confusion here is involving using the word "emulator" instead of an alternative device. An emulator is, by its very definition, a piece of software that emulates a piece of hardware. An example of a "keyboard emulator" would be the On Screen Keyboard that ships with Windows. Calling a sip & puff device a keyboard emulator, is like calling a trackball or touchpad a mouse emulator.

That being said, the only solution here is to either a) contact the device manufacturer, or b) look for alternative hardware. Although I'll admit I haven't kept up on alternative input devices for disabled persons - I would like to imagine that there should be some form of head/eye tracking device that could emulate the mouse. If such a device does exist, that would probably be your best bet for this, or any type of game.

As far as other solutions go - all I have to say is good luck. From what I've seen of LotRO, it's very picky about what input it accepts. Obviously this is done to greatly discourage botting/automation, but the end result is that unless what's sending the mouse/keyboard commands is actually a piece of input hardware - it's not going to be recognized. So you would ultimately need a true keyboard emulator in order to do anything via software.


Please excuse me, but this borders on ignorance. Reading this:


He did apologize for missing that part, a good 6 hours before you took him to task ;) A certain saying involving glass houses and stones come to mind :p

[Hyoss]

He did apologize for missing that part, a good 6 hours before you took him to task ;) A certain saying involving glass houses and stones come to mind :p

Yes, I failed to realize that there is a second page of answers when reading his first post. Regarding the saying with glass houses and stones, I should probably get hit by some of the stones for that :(

[Fortunis]

Please excuse me, but this borders on ignorance. Reading this:

He is forced to use it, probably because he is not able to use his hands at all with a keyboard.


Yes this was already replied against and i admitted i didnt read the main post properly/again. So there was no need for your ignorance at the events of this thread.

When conversations happen over days/weeks, it is easy to forget the full facts of the conversation, but i guess its hard to understand that for some people. :P

[Hyoss]

Yes this was already replied against and i admitted i didnt read the main post properly/again. So there was no need for your ignorance at the events of this thread.

When conversations happen over days/weeks, it is easy to forget the full facts of the conversation, but i guess its hard to understand that for some people. :P

I already admitted I deserve punishment myself 0:-) I sincerely am sorry and would like to apologize.

Once again I hope a solution for the OP can be found somehow.