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News: Celebrating 30 years of Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters

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Author Topic: Key jammin'  (Read 1769 times)
TigTigger
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Key jammin'
« on: May 30, 2005, 09:50:45 am »

I'm sure this has been talked at great length before, although right now I can't seem to find a topic to add this to.

Anyway... I still don't quite understand the problem with as few as three keys can not be "pressed" at once.  I've found it impossible to come up with 10 keys that both players can use for melee.

I know this problem existed in the PC version, but, is this purely a hardware problem, or what?.  I know I mash a lot of keys at once when I am playing Unreal Tournament, for example, and I've never had a problem.

Thanks in advance!
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Novus
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Re: Key jammin'
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2005, 02:57:50 pm »

Key jamming is a hardware limitation. Basically, most keyboards aren't designed to be used in such a way that many keys are pressed simultaneously.

To simplify the wiring of the keyboard, the keys are connected in a grid-like layout instead of being wired individually. The keyboard controller then deduces the keys that have been pressed from the sets of rows and columns that are active. The wiring pattern used is keyboard-dependent (PC keyboards contain a simple controller).

Consider four keys in a two-by-two matrix:

Code:
A B
C D

If the user presses A, B and C, both rows and both columns are active. However, the same result can be achieved by also pressing D. In other words, if A, B and C are pressed, the keyboard cannot tell whether D is pressed (and usually assumes it isn't pressed).

Real-life keyboards tend to be more complex and special attention is often given to keys that are intended to be used in combination with others, such as [SHIFT], [CTRL] and [ALT]. Your best bet is to assign firing and specials to these keys if possible.
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Megagun
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Re: Key jammin'
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2005, 04:04:43 pm »

I'm quite sure this keyconfig from the original SC2 should do it..

12345
and
nm,./
(shoot, left, right, thrust, special)..

This should work too
123rf
and
,./]'
(left, thrust, right, special, shoot)

With the keyconfigs, try to -at least- put keys next to eachother in a row.. Don't try to come up with a wasd-stye config... It won't work...

If that doesn't work, get yourself an older keyboard (with more complex wiring)....
« Last Edit: May 30, 2005, 04:06:48 pm by Megagun » Logged
TigTigger
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Re: Key jammin'
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2005, 04:46:15 am »

Thanks for everyone's help.

I can get ahold of one of those ancient, clackety IBM keyboards.  Perhaps that will work out better!
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