Learning can be fun

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jacojerb
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Learning can be fun

#1

Post by jacojerb »

This is mostly a show-and-tell type thing. I wanna brag :P

I've always been kinda intimidated by programming. The closest I've gotten to programming is building very complex things in LittleBigPlanet 2 (Not sure how close it actually is, but I really made some very complex things, involving hundreds (Not exaggerating) of connections between if, not, and, or, xor gates, timers, emitters, sensors, which I'm sure at least can translate to programming... Am I optimistic about the level of my achievement in LittleBigPlanet btw?), and even there, the frustration of the thing simply not working and having to look for the problem has given me many headaches, and I'm sure it's much worse if it's all text based...

Anyway, where I was going with this, despite my lack of programming knowledge, I consider myself great at making things work on a PC.

A week ago, I moved into a new house. In my old house, we used my TV as the TV (I won a TV once...). Now we moved in with my gran, who has a TV. So now I can put my TV in my room. It's right infront of my bed, which is really nice. But, I decided, screw keyboard and mouse.

A while ago, I wanted to use my PS3 controller with my PC for the purpose of gaming. It probably worked about 4 times, before the program I used to do it, motioninjoy, started giving problems. I kinda just left it at that, keyboard and mouse was fine. Now I was here and resumed my quest to use the PS3 controller

It's probably worth mentioning, most things these days can't really use PS3 controllers, or any generic USB controller, and only really recognise Xbox controllers. Had to get an emulator. A simple google search, most things point to motioninjoy, which simply didn't work for me. Even downloading a fresh installer, trying 3 different versions, nothing worked. Eventually I googled "using PS3 controller with PC no motioninjoy", I stumbled upon a thread where people actually said how rubish motioninjoy is, and gave me an alternative

This new program is a looot simpler, install and it works. One thing motioninjoy had, that this new program didn't have (Just searched for the name of the program... Every exe is simply SCP, which I know is also a site people write scary stories in, so I dono... If anyone is really interested, I can attempt to find out more), is the ability to map the buttons to specific other buttons, which is really unnecessary. I just want Windows to treat it like an xbox controller, which is what SCP does

So, now that I had that set up, I thought I could just go play a game. So I opened one of my favourite games, which I vaguely remembered had controller support, The binding of isaac. Upon closer inspection, it, in fact, simply pointed to a program used to make a controller do keyboard keys, namely JoyToKey. Installed it, and set it up to play the game. Was fun. But that program I found had a lot more potential than playing binding of isaac

I started setting up the program to play an Goat Simulator, and found out that it can translate how far you push the analog stick into a number (-265 to 265 for both x and y value), and can use that to tell how fast to move the mouse. I was very impressed, previously expecting it to only do up, down, left or right

So I finished setting up this profile, only to learn that goat simulator doesn't require it to be played with a controller. I then edited that profile to be for general desktop use, but I kept the name "goat mode" xD

After that, well, set up that profile with a lot of possibilities, such as:
-switching to a blank profile for when I go into games, using select. This blank profile only has one command, namely select, which goes back into goat mode
-switching tabs in chrome, and closing them
-scrolling up, down, left and right, using the right analog stick
-left click, right click, middle mouse button
-zooming in and out (Very useful while laying back in bed)

After that, I was getting comfortable. Laying back in bed, browsing FB and Zafur using a PS3 controller, listening to music, when it started irratating me that I need to switch to my media player to skip songs. My keyboard has multimedia keys after all...

After some searching, I found a program called "AutoHotKey", which I could use to make any button do what a multimedia key does. Sadly, it involved coding. So today, I wrote my first four keys of code:
"Joy9::Send {Media_Prev}
Joy10::Send {Media_Next}

2Joy9::Send {Media_Prev}
2Joy10::Send {Media_Next} "

(Note: 2 controllers. And the one on charge is usually number one, a problem I've worked around instead of trying to fix)

So now I can lay back in bed, doing most things with my playstaytion controller. Only time I have to get up is to type something, or make the occasional edit to the things I have set up (and even that I've done a few time wirelessly).



In the last week, I spent more time making things work than actually doing things. Not just all that up there, had to set up a network too (Been to many lans, so I'm not bad with that, but making it wireless and setting up my stepdad's "Firewall", as he calls it (Basically a mini PC thing. He worked for baracuda networking, so I assume that things main purpose is networking), was a challenge), Set up two sound systems (One that ended up missing a cable I need to find now, so I'm on headphones for the time being), and did a lot of studying (matric preparatory exams). But I have to say... After all the effort, laying back, gaming, browsing, everything with my PS3 controller is all the more sweet. It has been a lot of effort, but I truly enjoyed it

On a final point, I now have to open 3 programs every time I turn on my computer (1 for xbox controller emulation, one for keyboard keys, one for the two media keys), so... Is there a way to start them up on startup? I read online something about a "Start Menu" folder, which I'm supposed to put shortcuts in, but access is denied. How can I start them on startup?



I just realised how much I typed... If you read all of it, thanks a lot ^^ I really had fun doing all this, and feel a sense of achievement. And it'd be nice if someone other than myself could see this as somewhat cool
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Re: Learning can be fun

#2

Post by Leeward »

I have a few comments...

Firstly, kudos to you for installing and setting up everything by yourself, it's a great feeling of accomplishment and you deserve to brag.

To Google something and exclude a term, just search "this that -notThis -notThat". :)

AutoHotKey is a good one, I've used it before to circumvent my trackball's lack of a wheel in a game that required one by mapping its PgUp and PgDn buttons to MWUp and MWDn.

For an auto load on startup in Windows, you can copy a shortcut into Start > Programs > Startup, but if that doesn't work you can go Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks and add an item there manually. If you don't have access to that either it must be because your user isn't set as an Administrator; talk to whoever is to either make the changes or set yours as an admin.

If you want to start coding but are intimidated by blocks of text, try Alice before tackling a "real" language. I've said it before but I think it's worth mentioning again: Python is easy to learn, has a buttload of tutorials available, and has a massive amount of built-in functionality and libraries, including GUIs, 3D modules, plotters, matrix handlers and much more.
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Re: Learning can be fun

#3

Post by jacojerb »

Fuck my life... after all this effort, I somehow managed to break my computer. Now I need to find a friend who's willing to let me turn their flash drive into a boot disc, seeing as my dvd rom is broken...
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Re: Learning can be fun

#4

Post by jacojerb »

Also, I'm the only user of the pc. I have administrator privileges. And after this... Fuck programming
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Re: Learning can be fun

#5

Post by Leeward »

How did you manage that? Surely a key re-mapper couldn't mess up your entire OS? Try safe mode first and see if uninstalling one of the things you just installed helps?
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Re: Learning can be fun

#6

Post by jacojerb »

Can't even do that... getting an error 13. Something about an invalid boot format... I dono. Shut down fine last night. Won't start up windows again. Need a boot disc...
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Re: Learning can be fun

#7

Post by Leeward »

What version of Windows are you running?
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Re: Learning can be fun

#8

Post by Dire wolf »

sounds like you lost maybe the mbr of your drive easy to fix hard to explain try booting in safe mode if it doesn't boot yes FORMAT will be the way to go
come to think of it i haven't formatted in like 4 years lol
your dvd rom may be a common issue allot have... most common is that it wont open if there is no disc inside it... this you can fix with just using a pin to force eject it and then putting in the disc if its a reading issue you may consider buying a new one they are not that expensive
this is why i have made a custom windows boot flash for myself that already have the drivers and all apps i use pre installed so i only load that to Format saves on time and the issue of re downloading everything etc i would suggest you also make one for yourself after you did a clean format
This is your life, good to the last drop
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Re: Learning can be fun

#9

Post by Dire wolf »

and remember the thing about IT its always fun even though it can drive you insane
LOL Weakness comes from sanity
Finding the solution to a problem makes you feel like you accomplice sumthing and you will feel proud of it... can remember when i created my first domain on my server i sat for days scratching my head almost pulling out my hair till i got it right
and i was proud when i got it up and running
just bite your lip and keep at it till you get the results you want
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Re: Learning can be fun

#10

Post by jacojerb »

Windows 7

I already said, can't even boot in safe mode. Upon reading up online, I found its something about a corrupt startup sequence or something. So I definitely need a boot disc. Having one of my friends make one for me.
And my dvd rom broke, cause a dvd once got stuck in it, used the force eject and it just broke the whole thing... I do want to get a new one, but I can't affort it
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Re: Learning can be fun

#11

Post by Leeward »

Borrow one from another PC?
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Re: Learning can be fun

#12

Post by jacojerb »

Got a startup disc on a flash drive. Launched startup repair. No problems found. Restored my PC to a previous state. Didn't work... I'm running out of options. Either formal and lose my data, hope I can find a friend willing to let me store my data on his hard drive, or buy a new hard drive and load windows on it...

Isn't there some kind of place where you can hire a terrabyte of hard drive space while you format and reinstall windows

After typing all that ^, my stepdad called. Said something about a dirty install, so I don't have to lose my data... gonna read up on it now
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Re: Learning can be fun

#13

Post by Leeward »

Windows 7 can make a clean install and dump everything that used to be on the hard drive into a C:/Windows.old folder, that's probably what he means.

Also just borrow an external HD to store everything temporarily if you really need to format.
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Re: Learning can be fun

#14

Post by jacojerb »

Success! Typing this from my computer. And all my stuff is safely in a windows.old folder...

Used internet explorer for one thing it's good at: downloading a different browser (Apparently I didn't have a Chrome installer on my PC). Installing graphics drivers (Everything looks terrible), and then I'll need to do a bunch of other stuff... But I didn't lose my stuff :D

So back on the original topic... I learnt things xD
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Re: Learning can be fun

#15

Post by Leeward »

Glad to hear everything worked out and that you're taking it as learning experience. :P
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