Improving Controller and UI

[SquireNed]

I know that a lot of this is probably post-1.0, but I just figured I'd try out OpenMW with a controller, and here are some of my immediate take-aways.

First, the user interface is actually really slick for controller, with one exception; it would be nice to have quick confirmations for OK and Cancel prompts; it seems that while right trigger is depressed some effects happen instantaneously (is there a keyboard equivalent for this feature?), but it's still not quite up to par when it comes to selling, which is a pain even with right trigger to manage speed over UI elements. It seems like a bit of a waste, because AFAIK most buttons do nothing when the UI is open. Even just having a element selection button (akin to how pressing tab in a web browser highlights things) would greatly speed up the process, though I'm not sure if that's supported by the system.

Second, is it just my (bargain-bin) controller, or does stuff double-press? I accidentally stole a book when I was walking around Balmora, which is twice as annoying when it takes fifteen seconds to load a save (unrelatedly, is there any way to fit quick-save into the game on a standard 360-controller layout?).

EDIT: I should probably mention that holding the button, instead of tapping, gives me time to remove the cursor before it does its second push, which is part of the reason that I suspect it might be a code thing.

[Ravenwing]

I haven't encountered any double presses when I've tested with my controller, but I only use the controller when I'm testing it specifically. I do have problems with dialogue closing itself and filed a bug report (#3123) for that, but I wonder if it's the same problem. Did you take a book previous to the book you stole? Basically what I found is that different menus seem to remember the last location of your cursor and the button press is handled differently for in-game and in-menu. It may seem like double press because activating the book in-game happens on-press but activating things in-menu happens when you let go of the physical button (hence why you can move the cursor by holding the button down).

In terms of the UI, I would actually prefer something similar to the XBox menu system, which is set up to be a bit more controller friendly, but regardless it would be nice to have some menu specific controls for things like take all and bartering. As you say that would be a post 1.0 though.

[SquireNed]

I haven't encountered any double presses when I've tested with my controller, but I only use the controller when I'm testing it specifically. I do have problems with dialogue closing itself and filed a bug report (#3123) for that, but I wonder if it's the same problem. Did you take a book previous to the book you stole? Basically what I found is that different menus seem to remember the last location of your cursor and the button press is handled differently for in-game and in-menu. It may seem like double press because activating the book in-game happens on-press but activating things in-menu happens when you let go of the physical button (hence why you can move the cursor by holding the button down).

In terms of the UI, I would actually prefer something similar to the XBox menu system, which is set up to be a bit more controller friendly, but regardless it would be nice to have some menu specific controls for things like take all and bartering. As you say that would be a post 1.0 though.

No, I was in dialogue before I accidentally stole the book. In any case, the on-press and on-release thing (what I imagine is happening) is probably undesired behavior; it would be more traditional and less likely to result in undesirable behavior to have the on-press trigger or maybe a combination of both on-press and on-release triggers in both instances. For instance, no matter how quickly I tapped the button, a book would instantly open and close or instantly open and take ("GUARDS!"). That's probably not desirable, and if people don't think to hold the button it'll generate a lot of angst.

[Ravenwing]

No, I was in dialogue before I accidentally stole the book. In any case, the on-press and on-release thing (what I imagine is happening) is probably undesired behavior; it would be more traditional and less likely to result in undesirable behavior to have the on-press trigger or maybe a combination of both on-press and on-release triggers in both instances. For instance, no matter how quickly I tapped the button, a book would instantly open and close or instantly open and take ("GUARDS!"). That's probably not desirable, and if people don't think to hold the button it'll generate a lot of angst.

So I tried this out just now, and I'm pretty certain it's the exact same problem as I was having. It's interesting that it still did it right after dialogue because mine remembers the previous cursor location between both dialogue and reading, and the "goodbye" and "take" buttons are in completely different places. Regardless, I was able to duplicate what you were talking about, so I'll add that to my bug report.

I completely agree this is undesired behavior. I can see why it would be programmed that way though. For instance, if you're activating a dialogue option, but change your mind, it's nice to be able to hold the button down and drag the cursor away. And you also want to keep the previous cursor location, because closing out of bartering and going back to dialogue would be weird if your cursor location reset in between.

I think what's most traditional though is simply having specific controls within menus for controllers and disabling the cursor altogether. Like you said, having specific buttons for confirmations between Ok and Cancel, but also pressing A to select a dialogue option and pressing B to close dialogue.

[Antsan]

Having keys for Accept/Decline would be nice for a keyboard, too. I am used to using the keyboard either way and switching to the mouse for anything else but looking around and attacking is always tedious. I actually prefer to sell a stack of 10 by holding Ctrl and selling individually to doing it as a stack with that box popping up.

[SquireNed]

Having keys for Accept/Decline would be nice for a keyboard, too. I am used to using the keyboard either way and switching to the mouse for anything else but looking around and attacking is always tedious. I actually prefer to sell a stack of 10 by holding Ctrl and selling individually to doing it as a stack with that box popping up.

I actually concur with this. Would it be possible to make it a menu toggle to save my poor left pinkie finger?

[augustt]

Just wanted to add my hopes that someone will add an Xbox-esque ui option post 1.0 - I really appreciate the support as is but navigating the mouse cursor with the analog stick gets tiring after a while and cuts my play sessions shorter than they otherwise would.