• Registered: 2007-03-08
  • Posts: 4

Topic: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

I've tried a number of on-screen keyboards over the years, when it comes to games they all seem to have one devastating flaw; no emulation of a constant pressure stroke. That is to say, you can't push a key and hold it down, actions that rely on this functionality are impossible. The area of gaming where this is most apparent is movement, seeing as toon/avatar/gamepiece control in many games relies on the user pushing and holding the cursor, number pad or wasd configuration, movement becomes difficult if not impossible. If you can't move in a game then you can't... well you can't really play it at all.

Does anyone know of an on-screen keyboard that in fact will emulate a costant pressure stroke, or perhaps some other software solution? Failing that, does anyone know of any coding issues that prevent such software being developed?

Anyway, hi. I'm david, a spinal muscular atrophy sufferer and gamer from way back. Recent years have seen the accumulation of more and more issues with playing games, so my interest in investigating my options has increased.

  • From: Leicestershire
  • Registered: 2006-12-08
  • Posts: 16

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Horrible, isn't it? I can't see any reason why OSKs don't have this as an option.

  • Registered: 2006-02-03
  • Posts: 294

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Can't see any reason why you can't have a toggle key on/off option, as you'd use with CAPS LOCK. Sorry don't know of any available solution, but there needs to be one I agree.

  • From: Nottingham England
  • Registered: 2006-07-10
  • Posts: 97

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Hi all.

Don't know if this is going to help, but I had a good look at "autohotkey" the other day. It is a software suite that allows you to create keyboard macros and mouse functions and a whole lot more. It really is quite a stunning program. And it's free!

You can read all about it and download it from the following site.

http://www.autohotkey.com/

I have not played with it yet but it looks like it can do almost anything, there is even a program called "Window Spy" that tells you where the mouse pointer is on the screen at any moment - and a load of other stuff too.

Best regards,

Geoff
LEPMIS

GeoffH's Website

  • Registered: 2007-03-08
  • Posts: 4

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Hmmm, a quick browse through the documentation tells me that building some kind of on-screen game cursor may indeed be possible. It's been quite a time since I've played with any scripting of any kind but this looks like something I can get my head around.

Great find, thanks for pointing it out.

  • Aero
  • New member
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  • Registered: 2007-03-09
  • Posts: 3

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Hi all
Not directly on topic....but I`ll take the chance :)
I`ve gotten a little hooked on a game called Myst online:Uru live, and a big part of this game is based on chatting.
Searched for on-screen keyboards with some kind of word prediction that supports games and chatting, but no luck so far.
Mouse controlled keyboard will do it for me.

Any experiences on this will be greatly appreciated!

  • Registered: 2007-03-08
  • Posts: 4

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

I use Click-N-Type whilst playing World of Warcraft, it has a word prediction function and it's free.

  • Aero
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-03-09
  • Posts: 3

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Thx :)

  • Registered: 2006-02-03
  • Posts: 294

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Might these be of any help?

http://www.lakefolks.org/cnt/
http://www.oatsoft.org/

  • Registered: 2006-02-03
  • Posts: 294

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Not overly encouraging news I'm afraid:

"under most conditions a Virtual Key Code can't be sent to a target until the mouse button is released anyway.  You also loose the ability to "slide off" a mistaken mouse-down on a key." from Lake software

Still feel that there must be a way around this - e.g. using the SPACE bar instead of a mouse click...

Barrie
www.oneswitch.org.uk

  • From: Nottingham England
  • Registered: 2006-07-10
  • Posts: 97

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

There is an on screen keyboard called WIVIK. It allows you to do DWELL selection, ie all you have to do is pause over a key on its OSK and that key is sent to the active program

http://www.wivik.com/

You can get something similar from Sensory Software although I haven't tried it.

http://www.sensorysoftware.com/software … index.html

There must be others, try looking for "dwell select"

Geoff
LEPMIS

GeoffH's Website

  • Registered: 2007-03-08
  • Posts: 4

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

From http://www.sensorysoftware.com/software … ndex.html:

Dwelling is resting the mouse over one area of the screen for a specified time. The dwell click software allows you to perform left-click, right-click and double clicks, and even drag things around the screen.

Thanks, but this is not the functionality I'm looking for. What I want to be able to do is mouse-click an osk key, hold the mouse button down and have the system respond as though I were holding down the actual key. Dwell clicking, whilst an extremely important function for many, is of no use to me.

  • From: Nottingham England
  • Registered: 2006-07-10
  • Posts: 97

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

So, you want to be able to re-assign say the left click button to pretend to be a keyboard key by clicking on the letter on an OSK, and then every time you left click, it sends that letter - until you select a different letter on the OSK. Have I got that right?

Re reading your original message, no I haven't. You want the key to repeat if you hold down the left mouse button over a particualr letter?  I am reasonably certain that this is an option in WIVIK, I will check tomorrow.

Geoff.

GeoffH's Website

  • From: Nottingham England
  • Registered: 2006-07-10
  • Posts: 97

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

I have looked at WIVIK today. It will auto repeat on a key, but you have to be in DWELL select mode. You can make the actual dwell time very short, and the auto repeat very quick, but it will do it all the time, you have to position the pointer off of the keys to stop the auto repeat. Its probably only a partial solution.

I suspect your best bet is to make one yourself with autohotkey or somesuch, but it might be worth talking to Sensory Software or WIVIK.

Best of luck,

Geoff.

GeoffH's Website

  • Registered: 2006-02-03
  • Posts: 294

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

Dasher is worth a look here:

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/

dasher

Very unique style of text entry.

  • Registered: 2007-06-26
  • Posts: 5

Re: OSKs, the problem with... (also, "hi!")

I seem to recall My-t-mouse AT aka Onscreen would let me click and hold down arrow keys and they would repeat, albeit a bit buggily. It however is not free. They have a demo I think.
http://www.imgpresents.com/demo.htm

Actually, I also remember bugging the benevolent author of Click'n'Type about adding the repeating keys feature. He did it, too. Very nice guy.
http://www.lakefolks.org/cnt/

I thought I should update this post to mention that GameCommander allows you to trigger a key being held down by voice command. For example assigning "walk north" to hold down the N key, and "stop" to releasing it.

gc setup 1gc setup 2

http://www.gamecommander.com/

Last edited by mrfish (2007-07-05 19:42:08)