[RFE] more control modes for multitouch trackpads and Magic Mouse

[Brazilian Joe]

Several vendors now employ multitouch trackpads. Apple also has the Magic Mouse, which has a multi touch interface on its top.

I found out the hard way that the MM is incompatible with several games because it is not an actual scroll-wheel mouse.

the MM has the following distinguishing features:

You can't right-click and left-click simultaneously. Thus, mechanics common in FPS games such as <hold RMB to aim> + <click LMB to shoot> just don't work, and never will.

Vertical swipe gesture is a hypersensitive vertical scroll, thus mechanics (again, common in FPS) like scroll to switch weapons get messed up, because you fly through your whole inventory, and then some, in a single swipe.

There is a fantastic unusued interface though: the multitouch.

You can conceivably use it as a substitute for the joystick, to control the ship steering, while the mouse motion controls the reticule aiming, or vice versa.

Granted, that would require some training to move both things simultaneously with one hand, but it may be possible.

Another venue I think is worth exploring is, if at all possible, to use trackpad + mouse as two separate pointers/input controls. Usually the computer treats the trackpad and the mouse as controllers of a single entity, the mouse pointer. But if it is possible to access both input data separately, that would open up possibilities on control schemes. Even more so if we can use Trackpad + MagicMouse + MagicMouseMultiTouch.

Have you explored this possibility? Is it doable?

[Maarschalk]

It should be possible as long as there is software written to handle this.....

[Brazilian Joe]

I have found some proof-of-concept code for Mac.
Granted, it's not Windows. It's not as straightforward as capturing events, the guy enumerates the input devices and reads the individual data of the trackpad and mouse separately. It then interprets the touchs to try to identify gestures such as e.g. pinch, then fires an event where appropriate.

Regardless of this being feasible on Windows or not, I think that it would be interesting to have the option of treating a trackpad as a joystick. The farther you are from the center, the harder you turn for that direction.
Also, it would be interesting to have the trackpad represent the screen boundaries, and the place you have the finger on the trackpad is where the targeting reticule lies, as another control option.