Disabled but in love with fps!

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Narciss
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2003 5:00 am
Location: Arkansas

Disabled but in love with fps!

Post by Narciss »

First of all ... hello out there!

I have a question or twenty but first allow me to explain a few things ...

I'm 27 ... I cant use or feel my right hand/arm/shoulder ... I play computer games all day ... I play online and as can be obviously guessed, I am at a major disadvantage. Before my wreck I was always the best at nearly every game that I played and now that is just not the case! I have tried several different pieces of hardware to even out the playing field so to speak ... but have come up with zip. I currently use just a mouse that has two extra buttons on it (microsoft intellimouse 1.1). My button config is very confusing and takes several days to try and learn. Anyways ...

My first question is: Would this IR head movement thingy(?), be able to help me? The main game that I play is Raven Shield ... a very realistic and intense fps. I know its a general question but had to ask!

Second question is: Could I use the head movements to control my view and use the keyboard for all my other functions? I realize that has already been answered on the site but I still feel the need to ask!

Third question (and probably the most important): How sensitive is the IR? I would need it to allow me very swift turns ... yet I would also need pretty accurate fine movements for shooting and "sniping".

Fourth question: Is there lag or instant reaction? Better stated would be ... Will it turn and look on-screen the instant I turn my head?

And the fifth and final (for now ) question: If I turn very far to the right to spin my character around ... is there a toggle I can use to reset my head to a natural position without my character moving also?

Thanks much and I'll be looking forward to reading any and all replies!
dazed
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Cymru / Wales
Contact:

Re: Disabled but in love with fps!

Post by dazed »

Lo there...

I lost a hand ages ago and thought it was a great excuse to buy a TiR. Alas i only use it these days in flight sims and driving games that allow for mouselook or have enhanced support. I`ve used it for about two hours in Quake 3 to look around but decided this aint the way to go....trust me!. I found it very useful when they had the keymapping function in it and found it to be great having four extra fingers on your head opening doors and stuff. However it would not work on anything that required you to keep a key down, like move a character forward or lean around corners in Soldier of Fortune. Basically it wont be much use to you now unless you play flightsims. Hopefully they will get somebody to write a keymapping app soon for gamers and to scroll webpages and stuff for disabled peeps.

I play using a mouse/stick/foot buttons combination for FPS gaming. After about an hour i got used to playing this way, but after about a month it became second nature. After 6 years im as good if not better than most peeps. I was probably the only one handed Quake player in the UK Quakeworld league! I have just built my latest foot button gadget using a Saitek Game commander as the donor for hardware and software. At the last count i had 32 key combinations and the full power of the Saitek programmable keymapping functions at my toes. You would not be able to use a joystick whith the top chopped off like i do for moving back/forwards but im sure you could use somewhere else after some thought. How about a mercury tilt switch on a baseball hat? I tried it and it works great. If you need any ideas or more info on the hardware i use to game 'normaly' then let me know. Doing so over ICQ would be less hassle.

Ohh yeah!...some answers to your questions...
1: See above about Quake 3
2: Yes...but you wont in FPS
3: Very sensitive
4: No lag at all
5: You could toggle TiR on/off i suppose (waste of a finger)

dazed
Narciss
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2003 5:00 am
Location: Arkansas

Re: Disabled but in love with fps!

Post by Narciss »

Wow!

Dazed ... did you say that you use your toes?!?!? I might be able to use pedals for my feet ... but buttons for my toes?? You have obviously went down a road that I couldn't hope to follow!

I don't have ICQ but would be willing to dwn-load it for chatting purposes if you would like. Or perhaps if you have a headset (mic and speakers) we could chat in voice. I have roger wilco, teamspeak, and ventrilo. That would be a million times easier as I type slow ... but whichever way you want to go works for me.

As far as your reply about IR ... it still seems like something I might look into. If I could use it to be my mouse ... i.e. aim my character (which in turn aims my weapon's reticule) ... then it sounds like it would work for me. As far as needing it to open doors, lean left and right and such ... thats not what I had been thinking of. My mouse has seven buttons ... left, right, mouse scroll down, mouse scroll up and down, and the two extra buttons this mouse has ... one on the far left and far right. I would rather avoid posting my key bindings here as (believe it or not) I'm trying to make these posts as small as possible!

I could use keyboard keys for everything if I could use the IR for my aiming, which is what my mouse movements are. That alone would give me so many more options than what I have now that I would be the happiest guy in the world!

I'm just trying to comprehend whether I would have enough fine control to be a decent shot and have enough overall control to spin around quickly.

As far as the setup that you personally use, dazed ... it sounds like you know alot more about hardware and things than I. To be truthful ... you kinda lost me in your post. And the reason that I would like to be able o toggle IR on and off would be like this: I'm crouched by a door and I hear footsteps coming from directly behind me ... so I turn my head a fair amount to the right which spins my character 180 degrees ... I see its a friendly but at that exact moment I hear something just a tad to my right ... I would wanna toggle IR off for half an instant so I could get my head back into a normal position before I turn more to the right ... understand?

I may not have explained that the way I wanted but I *think* that it will make sense. Put simply: With a fast on/off toggle ... I wouldn't end up trying to pull off a "beetlejuice" move and spinning my head round' and round'!
dazed
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Cymru / Wales
Contact:

Re: Disabled but in love with fps!

Post by dazed »

quote: Dazed ... did you say that you use your toes?!?!? I might be able to use pedals for my feet ... but buttons for my toes?? You have obviously went down a road that I couldn't hope to follow!Yes, i use both my big toes, the left one to jump and the right to shoot Big toes are just as good as fingers after some practice.

quote: I don't have ICQ but would be willing to dwn-load it for chatting purposes if you would like. Or perhaps if you have a headset (mic and speakers) we could chat in voice. I have roger wilco, teamspeak, and ventrilo. That would be a million times easier as I type slow ... but whichever way you want to go works for me. ICQ would suit me the best. Download ICQlite and not the bloated version. Add 2215907 to your contact list. Dont worry about typing speed as im probably not much faster. Just leave a message if you have a question or an idea and ill get back to you as soon as possible.

quote:I'm just trying to comprehend whether I would have enough fine control to be a decent shot and have enough overall control to spin around quickly. If you can keep your head steady to line up a shot in the middle of some action you might last longer than i did. I just ended up confused and running away to hide

quote:I'm crouched by a door and I hear footsteps coming from directly behind me ... so I turn my head a fair amount to the right which spins my character 180 degrees ... I see its a friendly but at that exact moment I hear something just a tad to my right ... I would wanna toggle IR off for half an instant so I could get my head back into a normal position before I turn more to the right ... understand? Yes i understand and it sounds like there should be no problem. In that situation it might be ok as you have enough time to do things without being under to much pressure. Wait until things are more prolonged though. Say you are out of ammo and just want to get away you might find yourself running down a corridor. Take two left turns and you have to hope you get to turn right twice to straighten out your neck. There would be no time to toggle keys and stuff if there is somebody after you with a shotty. Im not trying to put you off, you will just have to try it out for yourself. Hopefully some more people can explain what they thought after using the TiR with FPS type games.

Another thing that might interest you and consider. I have a friend who has no use at all of his left arm, same as you. He has played Wolfenstein here with the help of my USB CH Pro Pedals and the yaw, brake1 and brake2 axis mapped to keys using the brilliant JoyToKey ( http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA016823/ ). Another gadget for you to consider if your not up to building some hardware....yet.

See you on ICQ!

dazed
flipside168
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2003 5:00 am
Location: Liverpool, England

Re: Disabled but in love with fps!

Post by flipside168 »

Hello Knightmare,

I have a similar problem to yourself, I lost the use of my left hand just as Quake II was released and we all know what that means.....no strafe etc but I now play all sorts of fps games ( I've completed Ghost Recon and the 2 expansion packs ) and play all the top fps (Medal of Honor etc). I tried to mail you to discuss it with you but your email is blocked so I couldn't contact you directly, please feel free to mail me to have a chat...

Thanks,

Phil.
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