11th September 2006, 1:01 PM
Yes, it CAN.
Here's how
"If trigger axis = 255 then lock mode
else zoom = triggeraxis"
It's not hard. It's actually very simple programming.
I can program mouse input so that if you roll it under a certain speed it's normal mouse pointer controlls but above a certain speed opens a program. I can program a computer joystick so that if you press it all the way to the left it exist a program. These aren't tough tricks. If it's assigned a variable number, and an analog axis is assigned such a number (it gets converted to digital eventually), then you can do whatever you want with that number.
You actually have to think of an analog switch as a massive series of potential switches. Rather than just "one button", think of it as (in the case of a typical joystick on a PC) 255 different buttons for either direction. As far as the programming is concerned, that's what we are dealing with.
You can program it being tilted to register as "234" to do something totally different from tilting it to "255".
Look at the touch screen. In the end that's basically a combination of two axis itself, but that can be converted to all manner of different functions. Click and drag here and you have a rainbow bridge, but click here and you have a menu option.
This stuff is done all the time, though usually not for games. After the input, it's all the programming.
Here's how
"If trigger axis = 255 then lock mode
else zoom = triggeraxis"
It's not hard. It's actually very simple programming.
I can program mouse input so that if you roll it under a certain speed it's normal mouse pointer controlls but above a certain speed opens a program. I can program a computer joystick so that if you press it all the way to the left it exist a program. These aren't tough tricks. If it's assigned a variable number, and an analog axis is assigned such a number (it gets converted to digital eventually), then you can do whatever you want with that number.
You actually have to think of an analog switch as a massive series of potential switches. Rather than just "one button", think of it as (in the case of a typical joystick on a PC) 255 different buttons for either direction. As far as the programming is concerned, that's what we are dealing with.
You can program it being tilted to register as "234" to do something totally different from tilting it to "255".
Look at the touch screen. In the end that's basically a combination of two axis itself, but that can be converted to all manner of different functions. Click and drag here and you have a rainbow bridge, but click here and you have a menu option.
This stuff is done all the time, though usually not for games. After the input, it's all the programming.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)