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Support for More Mouse Buttons?

Jul 01, 2004 Arolte link
Will we see this before final release? I've got a Logitech MX310 and I've got three buttons remaining which I can't bind keys to. It simply registers as LMBUTTON, which is just the left mouse button again. Would it be too time consuming to fix this?

/me shakes fist at joystickers
Jul 01, 2004 Thanquol link
HT, joysticker, laughs @ Arolte
Jul 02, 2004 Ciuciu link
Well.. i got 3 spare buttons on my mx700 ;) ... they might be usefull :)
Jul 02, 2004 Arolte link
I want to assign the shiny middle button behind my scrollwheel to autoaim off. But I can't. Why must it tease me so?!

/me stares at his shiny button and cries
Jul 02, 2004 Eldrad link
I've got a MX500 and all 8 buttons are bound.
When you open up Logitec's app what do you have the button set to?
Jul 02, 2004 Arolte link
I use the native mouse driver for OS X. I've read about problems regarding games and Logitech's drivers, so I declined to install them. All my buttons work for nearly every game I own.
Jul 03, 2004 toshiro link
i agree with arolte. the mouse support under mac os x is lousy at best (usboverdrive x only solves part of the problems). i wonder if apple expects developers to make their own mouse drivers or whether they are planning something like inputsprocket (which was *the* best input device driver i knew on mac os)
Jul 03, 2004 Arolte link
Yes, Input Sprocket ruled! It's a shame it got lost with the switch over to OS X. That had to be the best solution to making controls consistent for every game. No guesswork involved.
Jul 03, 2004 AlienB link
It's your OS, not Vendetta.
Jul 04, 2004 Arolte link
*sigh*

<sarcasm>
Ahhh right. It's my OS. This coming from someone who doesn't even own a Mac.
</sarcasm>

Please avoid posting responses for matters you're unfamiliar with. Thank you.

If I remember correctly one of the devs specifically said that Vendetta currently does not support any more than three buttons on a mouse (including the "middle" or scrollwheel button). So I made this post to inquire about whether this issue be resolved before final release.
Jul 04, 2004 Ciuciu link
If you install that logitech soft all you can doo is to bound other keys (enter for example) to a button.. that is no solution..

In.. for example CS (without logitech soft) i have mouse4 and mouse5 also recognized..
Jul 04, 2004 Arolte link
Yeah, I guess you could just download third party software to trick the mouse buttons into emulating keystrokes. I agree with you in that it's not a very good solution. You not only run the risk of inadvertently pressing the same key on the keyboard, but you'd also have to create a list of configurations for specific applications, if you want to restore the true functionality of your mouse for applications that are unaffected by this issue.

Toshiro, after a little searching I found this:

http://www.zsculpt.com/website/appsutils/hidwizard/hidwizard.html

It's sort of like InputSprocket for OS X but not exactly. I guess it can be helpful in some ways, but it's certainly no substitute. It's going to take more than some freeware/shareware application to get the functionality that InputSprocket provided. Apple needs to step up to the plate and bring InputSprocket back so developers can incorporate them back into the software. Without the official support of Apple, I fear we'll never see an end to this problem.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this thread to be platform specific. Clearly a crossplatform solution must be found either way. And I'm probably droning on and on about possible solutions when it's probably already listed on the dev's to-do list unbeknownst to our knowledge. Still, it doesn't hurt to ask.
Jul 04, 2004 toshiro link
i agree. multibutton-mouse support (for more than 3 buttons & wheel, regardless of application) should be an integral part of any operating system.

now if only someone could gently show apple how dearly macs need input sprocket back to be a gaming device...
Jul 04, 2004 Kuvagh link
Well, Eldrad and I have 8 button mice. He uses the Logitech software, I use USB Overdrive, and we're both fine.

Asp
Jul 04, 2004 toshiro link
hm. overdrive won't work for me for some reason.
even so, overdrive can't do much mor than assign keyboard keys to the buttons, which takes more time than a direct mouse click, i think.

plus, it takes up space on your keyboard (you still have to bind the actions to keys).
Jul 04, 2004 Ciuciu link
/me already use most of mouse buttons in other games...
I don't want to install unnecessary programs and reconfigure everything :(
Jul 04, 2004 Arolte link
This isn't really a response to any of the previous threads. It's more about me rambling on to clarify a few things.

Some games don't allow you to assign actions to the additional mouse buttons regardless of whether you have better drivers installed or not. It's a limitation of the game, not the OS. The alternative, as it's been mentioned by now, is to assign those mouse buttons to keystrokes via a 3rd party application (or drivers, if they support it). Still, it's the responsibility of the game developers to offer that functionality.

When you create your own game engine, as is the case with Vendetta, you need to start from scratch by telling the game code about every possible combination of keystrokes that can be accepted for mapping actions to. I'd imagine it to be a very tedious process (and that's probably an understatement). The reason why it's not such a widespread problem is because most of today's popular games are based on licensed engines of previous games, meaning all that stuff has already been coded in.

So this problem is common with games that involve a brand new engine, where the devs probably didn't have enough time to implement it, or there were technical issues involved. I'm not sure whether there still are libraries, modules, or whatever available that can be integrated into a developing game, to speed up the process of programming all the possible keystrokes. I'm not sure if it's even possible to code a crossplatform version of something like that. I do know, however, that it exists.

For those who don't know, InputSprocket was the Mac OS 8/9 version of this, created by Apple. It was a godsend to Mac game developers and porting companies. It still had to be integrated with the game, but the ease and quickness of doing so gave no excuse for game developers not to do so. It breaks my heart to see that Apple still hasn't brought it back to OS X, and Tiger doesn't seem to show any promise either. It was, and still is, the best thing since sliced bread.