Will the Connexion 3D series of device and drivers include Direct-X functionality or programmability in the near future?
Ideal features for development on the PC platform would include...
- - The ability to map the axis of the device to Direct-X axis
- The ability to tweak the sensitivity of each axis independently
- The ability to "tell" the device to perform a keystroke depending on it's orientation on a regular frequency, increasing when the device is set to 90% or more of it's possible orientation on a given half of an axis
-The ability for "profile changes" to be sent via software flags to the driver. For example, if a "vehicle 1" trigger is activated, the profile changes accordingly to match the trigger and then when the "vehicle 1" trigger ceases, the behavior of the device returns to normal
And now I'll explain why I asked.
Since the device is intended to control "3d worlds", wouldn't it make sense for the device to be able to function with various PC gaming titles? (Especially with the due turn of new game-engines and dropping hardware prices which will signal the coming age of the PC as things in the console world begin to slow down -- and thus the cycle begins anew)
Let's be perfectly honest: Unless you're pointing to shoot at things, gaming on the PC can be a profoundly painful experience unless you dish out for a throttle and stick or a huge donut that sits on your desk and gives everyone the general impression you spend your Sunday afternoons collecting speeding tickets with the same glee as someone with a lotto scratch-card.
"Imagine drinking six bottles of mad-dog twenty twenty and then going off to pilot a light aircraft baring a cargo of hippopotomi".
The infamous Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Escapist Magazine's "Zero Punctuation" on Crysis' vehicle sections
These wonder-gadgets from far-away lands would well and truly be the dog's bollocks and solve a million problems with the PC gaming platform if people knew about them and games made effective use of them.
Working with a developer, 3D Connexions and Logitech have the oppertunity to create a major interface paradigm that shifts the standard of interface for various game titles to a level that directly competes with the systems used by console gamers today, to blind you with market speak but to be perfectly honest: I would pay good money for that as a gamer and as a developer.
There would be problems to overcome (namely convincing gamers that their fingers do not rest upon the W, S, A and D keys for all eternity, as they have for the last 18 years) but these could probably be managed by packaging the device with a mouse that packs more buttons than the inside of a fighter-jet. Preferebly something a bit like the MX-1000 only with that big empty bit at the thumb-rest actually used for something productive.
Or perhaps, the future is a bit stranger and scarier: Intergrating this strange mushroom shaped tool of such grace with the mouse itself, allowing the player to maneuver with both their fingers and wrist simultaniously.
It's your call. Go talk to your marketing or development teams and go do something amazing, assuming you actually read this enormous wall of text I just produced.
I look forward to some discussion.
The OsakanOne,
Managing Director of his own free time