Ryandor.com

I have toying around with another 3d viewer of maps (editor perhaps) as I continue to explore openGL.

I was curious as to the best way to scroll around the map. I am not sure scrollbars make the most sense, as one can rotate or change the perspective they are looking from. One can also do a seperate "movement pad", where one can advance in many different directions.

Ideas on what is a natural way to do such a thing?

Have it so that when you hold down the right mouse button, it scrolls the map instead of moving the cursor. If you allow different perspectives, as in the case of fully-3D stuff, have it rotate the camera instead, and use the WASD and/or arrow keys for movement while the right mouse button is down. Both are easy to implement and are natural for most people who have ever played any modern game.

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Blog: http://www.sydius.org
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Sorry, I have done X-windows too long. The right mouse button is always what I use for pop-up context sensitive menu's. So not an option for me.

Other thoughts?

Left mouse button?

Or require right mouse button plus an additional key, like... CTRL+RMB.
Or go with a non-context-menu implementation.

If you do it that way, make sure to include "dynamic scrolling speed" or whatever, based on how far towards the edge of the window you move the mouse ;P Also, scroll continuously when mouse is moved away from center point, until mouse is moved back or the "scroll map" buttons are released.

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-= Ho Eyo He Hum =-

Or you could just use the arrow keys....that would leave the mouse free to mark locations, use other buttons or perform activities outside the map window.

Perhaps a ctrl+Arrow for a fast scroll or a normal arrow for a slow scroll?

Dev

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"So...if crazy people don't know their crazy...does that mean your only sane if your know your crazy?"

Would be a lot easier to move about with the mouse. And you could have area selection + moving at the same time - just limit the scrolling speed when selecting an area that extends beyond the current view, so it doesn't scroll beyond the area you're trying to mark

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-= Ho Eyo He Hum =-

ok, lot of good feedback, thanks.

For those that are interested, my constraints are:


I don't consider any combination with the right mouse button an option. I personally don't live on a windows environment, and appreciate too much the common uses for the right mouse button (for that matter, I still enjoy the focus policies, and the middle mouse button usage) of most X Window managers. So I dont consider the right mouse button an option. I admit that is my own self imposed constraint.

Arrow keys are good possiblity. If one rotates the map (or changes the view perspective), I suppoe the user would have to understand that (or is one expecting the arrow keys to be a movment based on the current perspective?

The mouse would work, but one must "trigger" the event. I can understand the scrolling when doing a bounding a box (the left mouse is kept down, so one understands that it should scroll when at the widget edge). However, if one just wants to scroll, the mouse by itself, not sure what the simulus would be (one may just be moving the mouse out of the window area to some other window on the screen).

Appreciate ALL the feedback, even those that I may have ruled out (for it did cause me to reconsider at least). Feel free to post if other ideas come to mind.

Are you going to allow for rotation of the camera along any axis? If so, the only way to do it is with the mouse ? else it will just be too annoying to use. It could be event-activated, like you say, based on something other than right clicking. One option might be to hold down CTRL to use the mouse for movement (effectively doing the same thing, but freeing up the right mouse button).

If you only allow movement around the Y (also known as ?Z? in the world of UO) axis, limiting the view considerably, then only using arrow/WASD keys is a very viable alternative. If you do use keyboard keys to handle movement and rotation, movement should ALWAYS be relative to the current perspective! That is just one of those unspoken ?duh? kind of things when it comes to 3D movement ? too many idiots will be confused if you do it any other way, and complain about it being ?broken?? Not that it would be necessarily worse from a technical standpoint to make movement relative to the original orientation (in some ways, you would think that to be more intuitive for a mapping program), but when it comes right down to it, it would just be too awkward.

Oh, and make it scroll the map whenever the mouse moves to the edge of the screen (if it is a full screen app), or else put four big buttons along the entire edge of each side of it, that can be clicked to move in the appropriate direction.

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Blog: http://www.sydius.org
Web: http://www.sydius.net