Additional Keyboard Mappings (Enhancement #7379?)

[quote=kmontagne]It can be very difficult to manipulate the parameter wheels using the mouse in a VNC viewer.

VNC sessions suffer the same mouse-handling issues that TabletPC's do.

throw this (and the .Net Framework 2.0) onto your 3PC machine, and the experience should greatly improve.

Thanks Quinn! That helps a great deal. If you do not mind sharing could you explain how it works?


Thanks,
Kevin Montagne
kevin (at) litkam (dot) com
www.litkam.com

You might also try ceating a set of user prefs that you import when using VNC. For example set your parameter wheels to the "slowest" response.

Using Shift allows you to hold down multiple "virtual keys" on the front panel. For example hold Shift and click Pig and the pig key will be held down as you move the encoder wheel.

Hope this helps. :)

[quote=kmontagne]could you explain how it works?

as your operating system, Windows is responsible for monitoring various input hardware, such as a mouse, digitizers, head-mounted tracking devices, joysticks, gamepads, etc.; each of these devices have a different method of causing the cursor to move. for example, when a mouse moves up and to the left, it says to Windows, “hey, move the cursor up and a little to the left”, and Windows will move the cursor up and a little to the left; the coordinates communicated by this method are known as relative. a digitizer will react to stylus placement by saying to Windows “hey, put the cursor exactly here”, and Windows will move the cursor exactly there; these coordinates are known as absolute.

it’s not reasonable for every application ever to be written to handle every input method ever, so Windows takes on the responsibility of translating all these coordinate systems and manipulations into a common message that every application understands (this is how everything “just works”).



the problem with the encoder wheels is that 3PC goes out of its way to expect (demand?) relative input. i believe this expectation is to support a feature, where if you click and drag an encoder wheel down, it will continue to turn when it would usually stop because your cursor would have hit the bottom of the screen.

if you’ll notice, when you drag an encoder wheel, your cursor disappears. when you release the mouse button, the cursor is in the exact same place it was when you started dragging, as if it hasn’t moved at all.

this feature has been developed to react to relative input; after each “the mouse has moved” message, 3PC itself will instruct Windows to again move the mouse, but this time it will move back to exactly where it was when you started dragging. 3PC expects subsequent “the mouse has moved” messages to be relative to this initial set of coordinates.



with a relative input device, 3PC will continue to hear “the mouse moved up a little”, will “turn the encoder up a little”, and will re-position the cursor so that the whole process can start over.

with an absolute input device, 3PC will hear “the mouse is exactly here”, will “turn the encoder up some”, and will re-position the cursor so that the whole process can start over.

since Windows can’t, at 3PC’s request, physically take a stylus out of your hand and re-position it to the center of the wheel, the next “we’ve moved” message is going to seem to 3PC that the movement is larger than your average human would expect, because the difference between the relative “up a little” and the absolute “exactly here” can be hundreds or thousands of units.



VNC passes input messages to the remote machine using the absolute coordinate system. 3PC is, by design, incompatible with absolute input devices.

this utility basically tells 3PC what it wants to hear.

happy RFU’ing.

[quote=Marty Postma]Using Shift allows you to hold down multiple "virtual keys" on the front panel.

for everyone's enoyment, the lonestar encoders utility includes a "latching" shift key that can be activated with a stylus.