[sldev] adding support for a new input device to the SL viewer

[Negroponte J. Rabit]

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:46:53 +0200
Maurizio de Pascale <mdepascale at dii.unisi.it> wrote:

> I'm working at adding support to the SL viewer for a new input device.
> the short term goal, in order to learn how the input system is
> designed, is to just replace the mouse (actually provide a non
> mutually exclusive alternative).
> the long term goal is to have the new device controlling operations
> not handled by the mouse.

This is what I've just started looking into.  I recently acquired a
set of 3D modeling devices, basically a large 'keypad' with
controllable LEDs in each key and another box with 8 high-resolution
sensing knobs.  I can currently send knob changes as XML-RPC to an
in-world script but that's slow so I'm interested in putting some code
into the client that somehow is able to communicate more fluidly with
in-world scripts.  

I suggested on the Linden feature request forum that they could provide 
a general device input menu that lets you map perhaps different types of
game controller inputs as 'input channels' which can be received by scripts 
in-world, as either boolean states or integer values.  I suggested it could
support standard game controllers as well as MIDI devices, where one could
say use sliders from a Fostex VM200 console to control stage-lighting in-
game.  The possibilities are pretty endless, but my suggestion didn't get
as many votes as I hoped it would. :)

Bunny Brewster