Author Topic: Portal control scheme  (Read 19005 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Builderboy

  • Physics Guru
  • Project Author
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *
  • Posts: 5673
  • Rating: +613/-9
  • Would you kindly?
    • View Profile
Portal control scheme
« on: July 09, 2010, 06:50:03 pm »
So I currently have the portal gun set up so that you shoot relative to the 5 key at intervals of 45. But I wanted to get other peoples oppinions and ideas about this, should I keep it at 45?  Should I try to get 22.5 degrees by using multiple keys?  Is there any other ideas you guys can think of?

Offline calcdude84se

  • Needs Motivation
  • LV11 Super Veteran (Next: 3000)
  • ***********
  • Posts: 2272
  • Rating: +78/-13
  • Wondering where their free time went...
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2010, 06:53:17 pm »
It may be worth it if it doesn't slow it down to much. An alternate control scheme would be to be able to rotate the direction in which you fire, like the PC game (with the ability to quickly jump to any multiple of 45 degrees for convenience)
"People think computers will keep them from making mistakes. They're wrong. With computers you make mistakes faster."
-Adam Osborne
Spoiler For "PartesOS links":
I'll put it online when it does something.

Offline nemo

  • LV9 Veteran (Next: 1337)
  • *********
  • Posts: 1203
  • Rating: +95/-11
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2010, 06:56:47 pm »
i think you should do it if it's fairly easy to implement. would it be possibly to have the user press a button, and you go into a mode where you can shoot at any angle? so you press a button, then a line appears above the characters head, and when you press the right arrow key it moves a couple degrees clockwise, and the left key makes it go counterclockwise. then the user presses a button and a portal is fired in that direction? if you can't do that/feel it's unnecessary, i'd definitely go for trying 22.5 degree angles.


Offline Builderboy

  • Physics Guru
  • Project Author
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *
  • Posts: 5673
  • Rating: +613/-9
  • Would you kindly?
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2010, 06:58:35 pm »
The only problem I can think of with muli key press is that either there would have to be a delay in the portal shoot (since both keys might not be pressed at *exactly* the same time) or launch the portal upon release of a key, not a launch

and as for the variable angle idea, the reason I am hesitent is because you often times need to be able to shoot portals quickly in mid air and indont want there to be too long of an aiming time

Offline calcdude84se

  • Needs Motivation
  • LV11 Super Veteran (Next: 3000)
  • ***********
  • Posts: 2272
  • Rating: +78/-13
  • Wondering where their free time went...
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2010, 07:01:12 pm »
^ I suggested having variable angles but a way to quickly aim to any multiple of 45 degrees, which hybridizes those approaches. :P
« Last Edit: July 09, 2010, 07:02:05 pm by calcdude84se »
"People think computers will keep them from making mistakes. They're wrong. With computers you make mistakes faster."
-Adam Osborne
Spoiler For "PartesOS links":
I'll put it online when it does something.

Offline Builderboy

  • Physics Guru
  • Project Author
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *
  • Posts: 5673
  • Rating: +613/-9
  • Would you kindly?
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2010, 07:04:55 pm »
That means that you lose fideliy in the air then tho right?

Offline calcdude84se

  • Needs Motivation
  • LV11 Super Veteran (Next: 3000)
  • ***********
  • Posts: 2272
  • Rating: +78/-13
  • Wondering where their free time went...
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2010, 07:11:59 pm »
What do you mean? You can just keep the angle the same when falling through a portal.
(This (harder to aim) has annoyed me in the PC game, but then again, it's better more realistic to the original IMO)
"People think computers will keep them from making mistakes. They're wrong. With computers you make mistakes faster."
-Adam Osborne
Spoiler For "PartesOS links":
I'll put it online when it does something.

Offline nemo

  • LV9 Veteran (Next: 1337)
  • *********
  • Posts: 1203
  • Rating: +95/-11
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2010, 07:13:56 pm »
perhaps have a line emanating from the character constantly, showing where the next portal is going? the keypad would function as usual, so no matter where the line is pointing, if you press 8 the line jumps to 0 degrees, or pointing upwards. then you could press the addition button to make it move a little clockwise, and subtraction counterclockwise? or use the paranthesis buttons to control counter/clockwise.

new-ish idea:

you have a line that controls where your next portal goes.
( = move counterclockwise couple degrees
) = move clockwise couple degrees.
1-9 = move to corresponding angle and auto-fire a portal.
???? = fire portal


Offline Builderboy

  • Physics Guru
  • Project Author
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *
  • Posts: 5673
  • Rating: +613/-9
  • Would you kindly?
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2010, 07:18:24 pm »
I'm thinking more on difficult levels where you may need to shoot more than one portal within a short Mmount of time and while flying through the air ect... Also I would have to seenif I could even get variable degrees working in thenfirst place.  I shall need to run some tests...  

So really we are boiling down to either 22.5 accuracy, or 45 jumping with variable degrees with other keys.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

  • Clacualters are teh gr33t
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV15 Omnimagician (Next: --)
  • *
  • Posts: 55941
  • Rating: +3154/-232
  • CodeWalrus founder & retired Omnimaga founder
    • View Profile
    • Dream of Omnimaga Music
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #9 on: July 09, 2010, 07:46:47 pm »
I think it is fine as it is, but it wouldn't hurt to try 22.5 accuracy
Dream of Omnimaga

Offline thepenguin77

  • z80 Assembly Master
  • LV10 31337 u53r (Next: 2000)
  • **********
  • Posts: 1594
  • Rating: +823/-5
  • The game in my avatar is bit.ly/p0zPWu
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #10 on: July 09, 2010, 10:53:16 pm »
22.5 degree accuracy is really nice once you get the hang of it. In all reality, you probably only need to wait one frame to see if the other key is going to be pressed.
zStart v1.3.013 9-20-2013 
All of my utilities
TI-Connect Help
You can build a statue out of either 1'x1' blocks or 12'x12' blocks. The 1'x1' blocks will take a lot longer, but the final product is worth it.
       -Runer112

Offline Builderboy

  • Physics Guru
  • Project Author
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *
  • Posts: 5673
  • Rating: +613/-9
  • Would you kindly?
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2010, 12:18:46 am »
Yeah I have decided to implement 22.5 degree accracy and see how it feels.  If the delay is noticable or no good then I can simply switch back.  Most of the time anyway you only need 45 degree, adding anything more than 22.5 I think would be overly ecxessive.   What's nice is that you can keep one hand on the arrow keys and one hand on the numpad, with the occasional [2nd] to grab a box.  So we shall see how it works implementing 22.5 then!   

Offline Quigibo

  • The Executioner
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV11 Super Veteran (Next: 3000)
  • *
  • Posts: 2031
  • Rating: +1075/-24
  • I wish real life had a "Save" and "Load" button...
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2010, 12:35:32 am »
You might not need a pause at all if the framerate is low enough.  Personally I am liking the 45 degrees right now.  Even with a pause, I find it difficult to press 2 buttons at once with the same finger unless you're dragging your finger around like a touch pad which is not how portal would use it.  Especially if you design puzzles where the 22.5 degrees is a necessity to solve then it could get frustrating.

In addition, I think it would be cool to have another button like the decimal point also pick up crates so that way its more ergonomic and you can move, fire a portal, and release a box easily at the same time.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2010, 12:35:58 am by Quigibo »
___Axe_Parser___
Today the calculator, tomorrow the world!

Offline Builderboy

  • Physics Guru
  • Project Author
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *
  • Posts: 5673
  • Rating: +613/-9
  • Would you kindly?
    • View Profile
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2010, 01:29:30 am »
Well I currently am getting a framerate of 33 frames per second so it's very probable that I may have to have a delay for multiple frames. I'll quickly test it out and if it's no good I will stick to 45, since it's intuitive and easy to use.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

  • Clacualters are teh gr33t
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV15 Omnimagician (Next: --)
  • *
  • Posts: 55941
  • Rating: +3154/-232
  • CodeWalrus founder & retired Omnimaga founder
    • View Profile
    • Dream of Omnimaga Music
Re: Portal control scheme
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2010, 02:37:42 pm »
I personally had no issues with 45, except maybe when trying to shoot a portal from a great distance with precision it was harder
Dream of Omnimaga