Using the analog stick for true analog movement (not just 8-direction movement)

[Find]

Hi,

I play Destiny 2 on PC. My goal is to be able to use a controller with my left hand (for movement) and a mouse with my right hand (for aiming). I'm managing to do this to some extent, but I'm experiencing two problems:

1. How can I set up the analog stick of my controller in reWASD so that it allows more than just 8 different movement directions? Currently, there are only 8 different zones the analog stick could be in:


2. When I try to walk, rather than run, I tilt the analog stick only slightly. This allows it to rest in the "L-Stick Low" zone, as reWASD calls it. The walk works fine, but while I'm walking my mouse input will be disabled. I think this has to do with the fact that Destiny does not allow simultaneous input from both controller and mouse - it's as if the controller is identifying itself as a controller when I walk, but a keyboard when I run. I need it to identify as a keyboard always. How do I do this?

[reWASDer]

Hello! Pretty tricky questions, seems we need to check them in game to be sure.

1. reWASD doesn't support more than 8 directions at a time and I'm not sure if any other software or game does. What do you want to get from other non-8 directional stick? More freedom while you move? This is the thing the game manages either with gamepad or with mouse. We are open for any feature request but we need as many details as possible to fulfill your request.

2. That is very confusing. As usual, the games ignore the controller input while the virtual keyboard is working. We will try it in action and will get back to you in a while.

[Find]

1. If you simply plug an xbox controller into your PC without running reWASD and play Destiny with it, you can move in any direction. Typically, most games that use controllers will allow this. It's the fact that reWASD re-maps that analog stick input to WASD keystrokes that causes the restriction to 8 different directions. If you'd like, I have an idea in mind for a way you could update reWASD to allow this. Let me know if you want technical details - it involves something called pulse width modulation. But yeah basically I'd just like more freedom while I move, so that I'm not constrained to only go in 1 of 8 different directions. I'd like to be able to move in any direction; 360 degrees of movement.

2. Yes I agree it's confusing. Destiny is pretty unique in this particular confusion, too. As soon as the game thinks you're using a controller, it disables all mouse input. This is why it's important to me to use a program like reWASD that can convert controller input to keyboard input.

[reWASDer]

Hello!

Thank you for the details, got it. We are planning to add stick pulsation for keyboard mappings in one of the next releases, so stay tuned!

As for keyboard & controller input in Destiny, seems that you need to unmap your whole controller and switch to keyboard-mouse mappings for all inputs. In this case, the game will see those actions only and won't detect the controller itself.

[Find]

Great, looking forward to it!

I did map all controller buttons to keyboard buttons, but the game still disables mouse input when I move at walking speed. Do you know specifically how reWASDd communicates with the game to tell it to move at a walking speed? Because it seems to do it in an analog, controller-based manner.

[Star-Lord]

Hello,

You didn't mention, did you unmap the controller - http://recordit.co/0To08tYBR5?

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I did not unmap the controller, I wasn't aware of that feature. I just looked up what that does and tried it out, and it did indeed fix the problem of the controller disabling the mouse. Thanks!

But now that my analog stick has been unmapped, I've noticed something else that concerns me. I can no longer walk, I can only move at full speed or not at all (in other words, W is either pressed or it is not). This is a really similar disadvantage to the whole being-limited-to-8-different-directions thing. reWASD is clearly great at remapping controller output to keyboard output, but it leaves the controller with the same inherent limitation that the keyboard has: digital movement. Essentially it turns the controller into a differently-shaped keyboard (which is still an improvement, don't get me wrong). But for the sake of being able to use a controller for movement and a mouse for aiming, I'm looking for a program that can convert controller input to keyboard input and emulate analog movement with that keyboard input.

I think reWASDer said that there are plans to add omnidirectional movement in a future release of reWASD. Is that true? And will speed-controllable movement be added as well? If so, any idea when this update might be coming?

[reWASDer]

Great to know that unmap helped

Yes, we are planning to add "pulsation" to the keyboard movements mapped to Stick. That means that while you push a stick a little, the movements are slower. Once the stick is close to the edge, the movements are more rapid. Also, we are planning to add a curve for the pulsation, so you may adjust it how you want and need. Unfortunately, I'm not sure about the exact release date and this feature is not coming with the next release for sure. I hope we will be able to do it close to the end of spring.

[reWASDer]

We have finally managed to check Destiny with reWASD. Well, yes, WASD movements are not convenient in comparison with native stick behavior, so we will be definitely working on the pulsation feature in the next versions.

However, there's one thing you can try right now. You should try to map "Shift" to the High Zone of the Stick. Also, you need to go to in-game settings and switch from toggled running to held running using Shift. Then, you will be able to run once you push the stick to the edge and walk once the stick is in the low or medium position. Hope you will find this tiny tip useful.

[Find]

That is great news. I'm very much looking forward to having that much control over my movement speed. Do you think the update will also allow allow omnidirectional movement? As in, the ability to move in more than just 8 directions?

Thank you, that is a very good suggestion. I think I'm just going to stick with regular keyboard for now though, at least until these "pulsation" updates are released, since I haven't invested in an xbox elite controller yet. I've just been researching this idea to see if it could work, and reWASD seems like it's got great potential once these updates come out. Do you plan on sending out an email or some kind of notification when these updates happen? I'd be happy to be notified.

[reWASDer]

That is great news. I'm very much looking forward to having that much control over my movement speed. Do you think the update will also allow allow omnidirectional movement? As in, the ability to move in more than just 8 directions?

Hm, what are you going to map to the additional directions? The game itself has only 4 keyboard keys to move. We emulate them + the pairs (like W+D), and you can adjust the zone in which your stick behaves as "W" or "D" only and when it turns to "W+D". Of course, the native stick behavior is smoother, but only mouse movements that are analog too work similar.

Thank you, that is a very good suggestion. I think I'm just going to stick with regular keyboard for now though, at least until these "pulsation" updates are released, since I haven't invested in an xbox elite controller yet. I've just been researching this idea to see if it could work, and reWASD seems like it's got great potential once these updates come out. Do you plan on sending out an email or some kind of notification when these updates happen? I'd be happy to be notified.

We send emails to all paid customers who are willing to get the news from us. Also, I will be happy to send you a message here, on the forum, once we are ready to deliver the update should we add your email to our base?

[Find]

Hm, what are you going to map to the additional directions? The game itself has only 4 keyboard keys to move. We emulate them + the pairs (like W+D), and you can adjust the zone in which your stick behaves as "W" or "D" only and when it turns to "W+D". Of course, the native stick behavior is smoother, but only mouse movements that are analog too work similar.

I'm not asking you to create more "zones", what I'm suggesting is that you add a second option for mapping the analog stick where, rather than having any zones at all, it simply emulates true analog stick movement by allowing movement in any direction. I think this would be possible using a digital signal processing technique called "pulse width modulation". Forgive me if you're already familiar with what this is, but I'll explain it: a digital signal can be sent in pulses that have a particular frequency and a particular "duty cycle". The frequency is how often the pulse is repeated, and the duty cycle is what percentage of the time the pulse is high. Pulse width modulation is a technique in which you control the duty cycle of a signal, in order to change its average value. This creates a signal that is technically digital, but behaves as if it were analog. Check out this graphic:

As an example, the above signal could represent the W key that reWASD sends the computer as the analog stick of the controller is tilted further and further forward. When the stick is at rest, you'd have 0% duty cycle. When it's pushed forward a quarter of the way, you'd have 25% duty cycle, etc. So that's how you could use PWM to control speed, if that's not what you're already planning with your "pulsation" update.

As for controlling direction to allow movement in any direction, I'll explain how you could do this using only the WASD keys and PWM through another example: imagine that the analog stick's current position is x=+40%,y=-10%. In this case, reWASD could output the D key (for positive X direction movement) at a duty cycle of 40% and output the S key (for negative Y direction movement) at a duty cycle of 10%. This would (in theory) cause the overall direction of movement to be the exact same as if the controller's analog stick itself was sampled by the computer. And yet we got there by only using the WASD keys. Does all that make sense? Let me know if it doesn't, I'm not sure if I explained my idea very clearly.

We send emails to all paid customers who are willing to get the news from us. Also, I will be happy to send you a message here, on the forum, once we are ready to deliver the update should we add your email to our base?

Yes, please. I'll pm you my email. Thanks!

[reWASDer]

Thank you very much for the explanation. Yes, we thought about something like this and I will certainly let you know once we are ready to release it.

[Find]

No problem. Awesome, thanks!