Translation exponent option

[choosenone]

What is a translation exponent option, and how does it work?

[toysrme]

The in-game programming takes the joystick output (which is linear) and translates it beyond linear. This means for a given throw the joystick will tend to be slower around the center and ramp up to 100% faster the farther you move away from center. This gives you finer control near center (by requiring larger movements for the same throw) while the throw at the outer limits is still limited to 100%.
That's alot of confusing (if you dont read it carefully) words that describe this simple picture:

Both top out at 100%
Exponential deadens the throw around center.
(It can also do the opposite, but that's not found often in regards to joysticks.)




The exponential settings tries to mimic that output so that when you sweep your mouse, the input is nice and even.




Same thing in R/C aircraft. You get yourself a very hot full 3D plane and it's so hot you have trouble with regular flying. You use exponential to tame the beast around center sticks.

[rtmoose]

nice answer but you dont offer any examples of application..

how does the actual value affect the feel of ingame acceleration?

what value shoudl we set it to if we want a straight linear throw?

i want my mouse crosshairs to move the same distance no matter what speed i move my mouse.

thanks

[Don]

The in-game programming takes the joystick output (which is linear) and translates it beyond linear. This means for a given throw the joystick will tend to be slower around the center and ramp up to 100% faster the farther you move away from center. This gives you finer control near center (by requiring larger movements for the same throw) while the throw at the outer limits is still limited to 100%.
That's alot of confusing (if you dont read it carefully) words that describe this simple picture:

Both top out at 100%
Exponential deadens the throw around center.
(It can also do the opposite, but that's not found often in regards to joysticks.)




The exponential settings tries to mimic that output so that when you sweep your mouse, the input is nice and even.




Same thing in R/C aircraft. You get yourself a very hot full 3D plane and it's so hot you have trouble with regular flying. You use exponential to tame the beast around center sticks.

you are a human encyclopedia.  did you draw that graph yourself?

[rtmoose]

aww cMON..

heellllpppp!!

[Don]

aww cMON..

heellllpppp!!

TRANSLATION EXPONENT. Perhaps the mothership of settings and a CRITICAL part of setting correctly. Basically, getting this setting right can make or break a config. Even with a slightly larger deadzone that's got some jump to it, if your translation is screwy your game will be too.

What does it do? It combats the evil power known as "look acceleration" that developers put in games that assists gamers using thumbsticks to be able to aim easier by slowly accelerating and speeding up. This makes tracking easier if you are using a controller.

But guess what? YOU ARE USING A XIM 360 and you don't want none of that!

Translation exponent is a sort of offset that fights the acceleration and smooths out your mouse movements so you don't feel the acceleration as much or if at all. Much debate on this hot hot hot item and you too, will realize the importance of it.


Not sure what to put in? I seem to have a magic number of about .35 here. You can start out with this and then tweak it later after you assign your keys and get all your settings plugged in to test.

- NEW 02-24-09 The closer you get to 1.0 the closer you get to a 1:1 movement. You can try .35 as a starting point and boost it up. Lately I have tried going from .75 (what ships default with Xim360) and going down from there. Gears of War 2 seems to respond better to a .75 translation rather than a .35, but other games are reverse in my opinion of course.



Taken from: http://xim3.com/community/index.php?topic=1069.0



If you had read http://xim3.com/community/index.php?topic=1796.0, you would have found all the information you need about the Translation exponent.  Ironically, the article is titled, "READ ME FIRST BEFORE POSTING."

[rtmoose]

i did read that article.. i posted because it all seems to apply to a xim360.. whereas im using a xim1 on ps3.. and it only talked about how the exponent tries to counter the accel effect, but doesnt give examples of values..

from your answer it seems that if i want a straight linear movement with NO accel i want to go with a exponent of 1.0..

is that correct?

[toysrme]

Also xim1 & xim2's  TL's are reversed. .25 on xim2 = .75 on xim1.

[rtmoose]

ok can someone confirm.. if i want no accel to go with a TL exp of 1.0?

[mist4fun]

Every game engine is different. That's why the TE is adjustable, and not set and locked to 1. Expect to use a different TE in each game.

[Don]

Every game engine is different. That's why the TE is adjustable, and not set and locked to 1. Expect to use a different TE in each game.

Yup, just experiment with different values until you find something that you are comfortable with. 

[toysrme]

25-40% exponential on joystick controls is common from R/C programmable radios to video game joysticks.