New control pad

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697...,1926402,00.asp

For $35 this looks interesting. . .I'll probably still gonna go with the g15 keyboard one day, but thought I'd pass this along.

Are the Z-boards any good? I toook a look at them a while back, but never ordered one.

For the most part a standard keyboard works well for me. But in certain games the ability to send voice commands etc.. are a bit cumbersome with a normal keyboard.

Drix loves the Zboard, but another buddy of mine Skorch absolutely hated it. I think they are a bit clunky personally. I think it certain types of games like RPG and RTS, they could come in handy, but in a FPS, it seems a little wierd.

As for the round keyboard you pointed out Doc, I am sold. Not only will it bring everything in closer, it will allow me to have more room to use my mouse. As it stands, I am somewhat cramped for mouse space.

Nice find..... So, when you getting yours?

I tried the Z-board, Pal tried it, and so did Lexx. I'm not using it, and Pal has teh Logitech g15. . .not sure what Lexx is using at the moment. I found the buttons that that used for the WASD keys to be stiff and awkward because they're oversized. Neat idea, but not for me.

I looked at the Wolfclaw II keyboard a very long time.

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/wolfclaw/

But in the end I didn't get it. The new Wolfclaw gamepad looks nice. . .it'll probably be under $30 street price, and you can get use whatever cool keyboard you want for everyday use. Looks like the best of both worlds.

When I scrape together the money, I'm probably gonna get a Logitech g15. I think it's important to just have a comfortable keyboard. I like the see-thru lighted keys for late-night gaming, it has macro keys you can program, and a cool LED display that can be programmed to display different things, like game info in BF2, who's talking on Teamspeak, and many other things that ppl are busy working on. . .the g15 community develops for it like ppl develop mods for BF2.

As for the Zboard I have one sitting here. It is not a bad concept at all. I did not find the keys as uncomfortable as DocJon did. All in all I actually liked it. The one thing that drove me crazy though was having to change the board out to play games. This in itself was not that bad but it was still one extra thing to do. It did get a bit old some days.

When the game mode board was finally on it was fine for games but you cannot type normally very easily as the key layout is all straight and not normal on the right hand side. Trying to type to someone, while rare, was a pain.

I also had a few problems with the thing not recognizing that I changed keyboards so you had to go back and play with it sometimes having to reboot the computer because of it. This was fairly rare as long as I remember to change keyboards and let it recognize it BEFORE I launched the games 😉

I think the biggest bitch is that is still has such potential. If they released another key insert with it that had the keys a but different size and layout wise and made the right hand side more like a normal keyboard it would really be cool. That would be so easy to do for them as well. Just the insert past. They release ones for other games but they all seem to just be variations on a theme, not a better layout they could do better.

I REALLY love my Logitech G15 and would recommend that to everyone at this time.

You know using the voice control again I think is the way to go if you do not mind talking to your computer! 😉

It really frees up all those little commands that you need a ton of keys around you to do normally. I have this down to the point that I really only need keys for moving around. All the other stuff like parachute, weapons selection, opening the map screen, zooming the map screen, opening the squad screen etc.. is all voice.

DocJon and I even have it set up so I just say the words “say thanks” or “say sorry” and it does it for us. I have it set up for all the commo rose commands. I found a post that allowed us to add keyboard equivalents for moving around the commo rose screen that you normally do with a mouse. We assigned the numpad keys 8 for up, for left, 6 for right, 2 for down and 5 for select as well as 0 for right click, if you wanted o do specific spotting like boats etc… Once that is done you could set up a macro with the G15 for those commands so you hit one key instead of the mouse etc… We used voice for it instead. I tell you when you are in the middle of a fight it is nice to not have to mess around sometimes, just say what you want and it does it. I have been using voice control for games for many years. I used it for all he UT series including the stand alone ones. It was a lot easier for me to just say 8-ball and have it selected out real fast 😉
It is faster than using the mouse wheel to scroll down the weapons list and select them.

Then again maybe it is just me. I am really into voice control. I am into anything that involves technology. I am an Uber geek, just ask DocJon or Lexx. If it is cool and gadgetry, I am into it.. 😉

I have my house in the beginning stages of home automation. I would be further along but $$$ is tight right now. I can pick up any phone in the house and turn lights on and off by voice as well as get phone messages, and all kinds of cool stuff like movie listings, weather reports, jokes. It is endless. It also works from a mic in the living room so you do not have to use a phone. Some day I will have open air mics in all my rooms so that you simply ask the house for what ever without even using the phone.

I can even control my entire MP3 collection this way. It is VERY cool.
I just say open music. The I say play Eagles music and it does it. I can call up any music by song name, album title or genera, anything that is tagged.

I even went one step further and put this on a laptop that I can run in the car and I have a mic in the visor. So I can drive around and call up MP3’s by voice while driving. Works GREAT. One thing I hate is trying to select different types of music while driving.

I am into weird things I guess.. I really need a life huh??? 😉

Paladin wrote:use a phone. Some day I will have open air mics in all my rooms so that you simply ask the house for what ever without even using the phone.

LMAO. I can see it now,.. "Computer, at the first sound of sex, turn down the lights, start the lowlight cameras, and when I'm finished, save it and send it to my webpage! "

😉

you forgot the part about starting the cheesy 70's porn music 🙂

Okay! I now know better than to dweeb here.

Atomm wrote:Drix loves the Zboard, but another buddy of mine Skorch absolutely hated it. I think they are a bit clunky personally. I think it certain types of games like RPG and RTS, they could come in handy, but in a FPS, it seems a little wierd.

As Atomm stated, I really enjoy mine. And I actually like the keys, and being able to swap them. Course using a regular keyboard now drives me insane (well, for gaming anyway). Main reason being that the "W" key is not lined up fully like a set of arrow keys. And I find that making the set a little larger, combined with the layout kleeps me from entering unwanted commands nearly as often as I did when I was playing with a raw keyboard.

The round board is an insteresting idea, but I'm not so sure I like it. Keys are all so jammed together, and the placement of several of the letters would cause me to error. Course I've not used one, so I don't have much room to talk. It's likely work great for a lot of players. For now I'll stick with my Zboard.

I've been thinking about this voice command stuff. You say it allows you to do things easier and faster, yet I still manage to PWND JOOZ N00BS!

So, if I start using this voice stuff, I can be ultra L33T!

Where do I find this software again? :twisted:

There's also the nostromo n52 pad. I've one for a while, but you have to be dedicated to setting it up and getting used to another keypad. Some in my CTF team really swear by it.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage...oduct_Id=157024

Paladin wrote:Okay! I now know better than to dweeb here.

Sry, could not help myself. Reminded me too much of some porno sites touting webcams. 🙂

Atomm wrote:I've been thinking about this voice command stuff. You say it allows you to do things easier and faster, yet I still manage to PWND JOOZ N00BS!

So, if I start using this voice stuff, I can be ultra L33T!

Where do I find this software again? :twisted:

http://www.dwvac.com/download.htm

As for being l33t, well, it. . .well, I was going to make a joke, but yeah, I think it's helped me. Like I said before, I keep my hands in battle-ready position while spotting, asking for rides, voting/saying yes/no, etc etc. I'm only caught off-guard when eating/drinking. 🙂

It's not a miracle, but it's one more weapon in the arsenal.

lexx wrote:

Paladin wrote:Okay! I now know better than to dweeb here.

Sry, could not help myself. Reminded me too much of some porno sites touting webcams. 🙂

I am used to you being a jerk Lexx so no worries. 🙂
I just should know better than to give you any little thing to use against me as ammo 😉

I just like to dweeb on various things. As you know I am into many various things, as I have no real life, and I like to talk about things like this. Remember the days when we used to dweeb on tech stuff and go to computer fairs, seems so long ago now.

You know me Master of all trades, Jack of none. 😉

Atomm wrote:I've been thinking about this voice command stuff. You say it allows you to do things easier and faster, yet I still manage to PWND JOOZ N00BS!

So, if I start using this voice stuff, I can be ultra L33T!

Where do I find this software again? :twisted:

I would not say it will be a night and day difference in your gaming. In other words it won’t make you score doubly better just because of it. Skill is skill, lag is lag..

What it does do though is free you up from the more mundane controls so you do not have to be as distracted. It can save time when in a pinch. One example I am noticing is when I have my AT out and someone jumps out of the APC I am trying to destroy to come after me, I can yell “gun” and have the game switch me to that while I am moving quickly away. It changes weapons for me so I can move and then fire without being distracted in my movements, having to hit key or using the mouse wheel, to select another weapon.

Okay so I do have a close easy to hit key that always chooses the primary weapon but what if it was the reverse? Sometimes I have my DAO out and a jeep is rolling in very fast to run me down, I can yell rocket while getting the hell out of the way and then fire and hopefully, patch not withstanding, destroy it. I do not have a fast key for the AT rocket. I just cannot select the rocket fast enough before voice control.

It just takes away that distraction of having to hit keys other than your movement ones. I even have commands to do the things that take time otherwise like saying yes or no. Those commands were on the other side of my keyboard , pg up and pg down, and were a pain to have to hit those. Now you just say “say yes” works for voting and punishing as well.

Another good example of how it can really help is when you spot or do commo rose commands. Normally if you see a guy running after you close up you simply cannot stop to spot him as you need to move out of the way and fire at him. Well with the voice I can yell spotted while still moving left or right out of the line of fire. It simply can get you killed when you take that split second to hit the commo rose key and then fire to spot him. Usually you just do not bother. Now you can spot and go after him all at the same time to alert the others in case he kills you first.

The best reason to use it that it is frekin cool! Isn’t that enough 😉

commo rose?

The commo rose is the thing you bring up when you press "Q" in BF2. Not sure where the name came from exactly, but it fits.

Comatose?

:wallbang:

Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Camelion

Pear pimples for hairy fishnuts?

Paladin wrote:
DocJon and I even have it set up so I just say the words “say thanks” or “say sorry” and it does it for us. I have it set up for all the commo rose commands. I found a post that allowed us to add keyboard equivalents  for moving around the commo rose screen that you normally do with a mouse. We assigned the numpad keys 8 for up,  for left, 6 for right, 2 for down and 5 for select as well as 0 for right click, if you wanted o do specific spotting like boats etc…   Once that is done you could set up a macro with the G15 for those commands so you hit one key instead of the mouse etc… We used voice for it instead.

Can you show me how you did the commo rose commands? I couldn't find anything to bind these to the keyboard.

Why yes we can! 😉

This was VERY hard to find and is not documented anyplace except one that I found.
Unsure EA wants you doing this but is does not affect the game in anyway at all so I am unsure why.

This is useful for people without voice control as well as you can set up a one key macro to do commands.

You simply need to edit your controls.ini file. Now there is one small trick to this. Edit this while the game is not running (DA) and make sure after you add these lines, you make the file READ ONLY. You will have to do this as BF2 wants to remove these lines when you run it. We have been using this for awhile now with no problems whatsoever.

Okay edit your control.ini file and add these lines to the section entitled
ControlMap.create defaultGameControlMap

Now paste this at the END of that section or it may not work.

ControlMap.addKeysToAxisMapping c_GIMouseLookX IDFKeyboard IDKey_Numpad6 IDKey_Numpad4 1
ControlMap.addKeysToAxisMapping c_GIMouseLookY IDFKeyboard IDKey_Numpad2 IDKey_Numpad8 1
ControlMap.addKeyToTriggerMapping c_GIOk IDFKeyboard IDKey_Numpad5 0 1
ControlMap.addKeyToTriggerMapping c_GIAltOk IDFKeyboard IDKey_Numpad0 0 1

Then, as I said above, make the file read only.

When you run the game you can now hit q like normal but now use the 8(up) 2(down) 4(left) 6(right) 5(select)

You can also use 0(right click select for specific spotting like boats etc.. we do not use this much)

Now just assign in your voice software to make the

q key set to down.

Then select the commands for each thing you want to do like give me a ride. Should be right then up up select or something like that. I am at work so am unsure of the commands as it is now but use the up, down, left and right the same as you would move the mouse in the commo rose.

The use the 5 for select and then make the q key go up.

Use the lest keys for each command. I use the pg up and dwn for yes and no so it is one less thing commo rose wise.

cool. Thanks. I may have more questions later when I can mess with this again.

Sarge, you still using the voice stuff? How is it working out?

My Parents sent me money for my birthday. You think they would understand if I told them bought me a strange round single handed keyboard?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16823146002

I hope I get it before FNF's..... :-)

That thing looks pretty cool. No, I'm not using the voice stuff anymore. I tried it for a few days and it kept issuing randome commands on me so I got rid of it.

You should give it a try again, it really does not give too many false positives unless you talk a lot while NOT pressing the TS talk key. Did you tell the software to NOT listen when you press the key you use to push to talk in TS?

I have had mine do a few things if I cough or yell while in game but those are usually solved by changing the command. My knife used to get selected easily for some reason so I changed it to "pull knife" and now it works only when I tell it to. Using multiple commands for commands like that fixes the issue. I put the word say in front of all the commo rose commands so I have to say "say yes", "Say spotted" or “say pickup” for gimmie a ride.

Also in your software requires voice training so you may want to re-train it. I think DocJon stopped using his as well.

Oh well I like it all in all but I do use the keyboard a lot still. I will always have the voice running as it really does help for some commands.

Dweeb dweeb dweeb…

I think the problem is that I talk to myself too much while playing and the software thinks that I want it to do something when actually I am just complaining or saying "Take that, mo-fo!" or something.

I did have it set to ignore when I had the TS push to talk set. Some of it may be a memory issue in that I am running less than Docs recommended 2GB and my PC just can't keep up with everything as there seemed to always be a lag between when I said something and when it was executed - sometimes a few seconds.

Sarge wrote:I think the problem is that I talk to myself too much while playing and the software thinks that I want it to do something when actually I am just complaining or saying "Take that, mo-fo!" or something.

I did have it set to ignore when I had the TS push to talk set. Some of it may be a memory issue in that I am running less than Docs recommended 2GB and my PC just can't keep up with everything as there seemed to always be a lag between when I said something and when it was executed - sometimes a few seconds.

The Commo-rose commands are a little slow, there's about a 1/5 second delay in between each keypress, and it can be 4 or 5 keypresses for some commands.

I had problems with the 'knife' command. . .if I sighed, it apparently though I'd said 'knife', so I changed teh command to STAB.

I told you how to reduce false positives, did you try moving the sliders in the 'Speech' settings inthe control panel?

I'm not using the speech recognition right now either, as my 30-day trial is up, and I'm not wanting to spend the $10 on it right now. I am gonna register it eventually though. The guy did a nice job, is very responsice to questions/problems, and heck, I can spend $10 at McDonalds if I'm really hungry!

yeah, I messed with the sensitivity settings, did a couple of training rounds and still was having trouble. I would say "knife" and it wouldn't do anything for 2-3 seconds, then switch. I just lost patience trying to fiddle with it. Maybe I'll try again in a bit.

See if you can "borrow" a copy of game commander 3. I only have GC2 but did not want to pay the $25 for the update. I do want to get 3 sometime. It is a nice program and works well with no training. This is what I use. Maybe it would behave differently for you.

So Atomm, how's the new controller?

To be honest, I am not sure. I am still trying to get use to it.

The biggest problem so far has been the remapping of keys I've frequently used to other keys. I have moved a few keys so I get better finger placement. I have to think before using the key and it's slowing me down a bit. On a side note, I map all my games the same way, so it's throwing me in other games too.

Another issue is the key layout. It's completely foreign to me. It's almost like learning a new language. After 20 years of Qwerty, I don't have to "think" about key placement anymore. With this thing, I do.

The last issue I am having is finger memory vs actual memory. Ever remember someones telephone number by dialing it on a keypad, but if someone asked you what the number was, you would have to pick up a phone and go through the dial motions? That's the problem I am having with the weapon keys. I can't tell you what number the grenades are or the normal gun. I just move a finger and it's there.

With this new keyboard, the number arc is slightly different, so right now I have to actually look down, punch a key and look up to see what weapon I picked. Of course, this is not the fault of the new keyboard. It's just the way I learned things.

So, am I better gamer? No way.... Do I like it? I think I do, but I need more time to get back to my "don't think, just do it" style of play I have grown use to. Once I can get to that point, I will be able to tell if it actually made me a better player.

We can certainly tell you "don't think" when you game. ;-)

:lies:

Atomm wrote:Another issue is the key layout. It's completely foreign to me. It's almost like learning a new language. After 20 years of Qwerty, I don't have to "think" about key placement anymore. With this thing, I do.

Qwerty. Exact reason I prefer my zboard. minimal learning curve. But if you like the new board, more power to you Atomm.

Well, it LOOKS cool. If the keys are comfortable to use, and comfortable to reach, stick with it, you'll get it with time. when you do, you may want to pick up a spare, just so all that adjustment doesn't go for nothing when the pad dies and you find they're discontinued. . . :shock:

I hate my keyboard. It's a Logitech "Internet Navigator" keyboard. I love Logitech mice, but this damn keyboard is clunky. The keys are hard to push down if you don't hit them right in the center. Figure my next keyboard will be the Logitech g15. Looks and feels much nicer, has backlit keys for night gaming, and has that geeky LCD screen. 8)

By the time I get around to picking one up, they might even have a new and improved model out. Or maybe I'll hit the lottery and get this one when it comes out.

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/

Atomm, how's your game pad? It was the Wolf Claw, right? I have a friend who is having some carpal tunnel issues, and she wanted to know what you think of it, and how the macro functions were on it. A few lines on this subject, when you have time, would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

I wish I could give you a straight answer Doc. But, then I wouldn't be me.... ;-)

The learning curve is steeper than I initially thought. I still can't tell you where 50% of the keys are.

Even though the function keys are in a semi-circle, it doesn't feel natural. I find myself looking down any time I want to change positions in a vehicle.

I also have some CT issues. I don't know if it helps in that area.

What I do like about it is the ability to put my keyboard on the left, my mouse on the right and my joystick front and center. I also seem to have more room for my mouse. That is a huge plus.

I think I need to completely reconsider the way I have my keys mapped and try to make it work for me, rather than trying to fit my old mappings into the existing setup. Does that make sense?

Overall, I like it, but I'm not sure if it has helped or hurt me. When a new game is released and I use it from the start, I may get a better feel for it.