Forums » General

Keyboard layouts for 3D flight?

12»
Dec 27, 2009 xxcn link
Hi,

I'm very new to VO, and I didn't find another thread discussing this. During my short experience i experimented with layouts for controlling the ship in space. This is what I'm currently trying to hardwire into my fingers:

http://1024.cjb.net/files/layout.png

forward/back → e/d
strafe left/right → s/w
strafe up/down → r/f
rotate cw/ccw → q/a

Not intuitive, but I have one finger per column of keys, and i never have to press both left/right or forward/reverse at the same time.

What layouts do you use? Care to share? Here's a Gimp template:
http://1024.cjb.net/files/layout.xcf

(How do you add links here? Embed images? Message Board help?)
Dec 27, 2009 shlimazel link
I use w-s for acceleration, a-d for horizontal strafing, q-e for vertical strafing, and r-f for rolling. It's just a slight alteration of the default layout.
Dec 27, 2009 peytros link
my sekret will be out now!

w-s forward/back
q-a left/right
r/f up/down
e/3 roll
4 autoaim
2 flight assist
Dec 27, 2009 Snax_28 link
Keyboard:

w/s: Forward/Back
a/d: Strafe left/right
q/e: Roll left/right

Mouse:

Back/forward buttons (4/5 I think): Strafe down/up
Mouse wheel button (3): Flight assist toggle
Change program (6?): Auto aim toggle
Dec 27, 2009 KeeperOfCookiez link
I use-

w/s: up/down
q/e: rolls
a/d: side strafes
f: backwards
<space>: fowards
r: flight assist on/off
Dec 27, 2009 Aleksey link
w/s: up/down
a/d: left/right
r/f: forward/backward
q/e: rolls
mousewheel: cycling through Accel -1000/-500/0/500/1000 (r/f also resets this to Accel 0)
mousewheel click: autoaim toggle

(FA always off)
Dec 27, 2009 Niki link
default controls! whoop whoop!
Dec 27, 2009 Surbius link
D to the E to the F to the A to the U to the L to the T
Dec 27, 2009 ladron link
Your keyboard is broken. Most noticeably, the Ctrl and capslock keys are swapped. Fixing that will allow more flexibility in flight control layouts.

wasd for lateral strafes
tab/space for forward/back strafes
f for autobrakes
Ctrl for turbo

Roll, turn, fire, activate, aa toggle, select targets, etc with joystick.

If I'm using rails or flying a moth, I replace the joystick with a mouse.
Dec 27, 2009 xxcn link
True, Caps Lock is in the way. But isn't that a default keyboard layout? I've never seen one where Caps Lock is at the lower left ...
Dec 27, 2009 genka link
w/s/W/S for vertial strafing
a/d/A/D for horizontal strafing
q/e/Q/E for rotating 'bout
r/f/R/F for my own little thrust stepping bind that switches between nine levels of +accelerate

Plus I re-bound t to "none" to avoid saying things like "rrrrrrrrddddssdsdsdeeee"

Besides that, I use the arrow keys to turn the ship, c to shoot, v to keep shooting when I let go. I used to play with a laptop.
Dec 27, 2009 ladron link
Dec 30, 2009 pirren link
Wow, Sun's keyboard :) Do you use Sun's PC, Ladron?

Some of my controls:
w/s: up/down
a/d: left/right
q/e: forward/backward
z/x: rolls
r: select nearest enemy
Dec 30, 2009 toshiro link
I experimented with diagonal strafes for a while, but due to my severe lack in scripting kung-fu, I never got far.

Default for me, with certain keys bound to my mouse buttons. But I am planning on trying out a HOTAS system Soon™.
Dec 30, 2009 ladron link
Out of curiosity, why would you want diagonal strafes? What's wrong with holding strafes in two directions?
Dec 31, 2009 DivisionByZero link
I use the default keyboard layout and just got used to it. I did set mouse wheel up to toggle FA and mouse wheel down to toggle AA though.
Jan 01, 2010 DarBar link
Keyboard:

q+e roll
a+d strafe left/right
w+s strafe up/down
r+f accel/decel

Mouse:
MWHEELUP Next in front
MWHEELDOWN Cycle Targets (targetless)
LMBUTTON primary fire
RMBUTTON secondary
MMBUTTON teritary
XMBUTTON1 Toggle Flight Assist

my old mouse had a bunch more buttons on it, which were useful, but that got stolen with mah laptop...
damnit

har
Jan 04, 2010 Libelnon link
I used to use the defaults until I got into PvP and started powerstrafing, which I discovered often trying to use r/f for vertical strafes got in the way. I play mouse/keyboard with the folowing strafe pattern:

w/s vertical strafe
a/d horizontal strafe
q/e rolls
r/f throttle
<space> stop

and ' to change between physics and flight assist (although I powerstrafe in F/A mode)
Jan 04, 2010 Nihm link
I use the defualt settings with "c" set to turbo instead of tab.
I use control to togge auto-aim and alt to toggle F/A.
Jan 04, 2010 diqrtvpe link
r/f up/down
d/g left/right
z/space thrust/reverse
e/t roll

Everything is done without having to move my hand that much, and all degrees of freedom are easily reached at the same time. I don't roll a lot.