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[jkd003]

Tragically keyboards have a input limitation,  my laptop for example can not recognize Left, Up and Space at the same time. So If I wanted a character jump diagonally it seems like I would be out of luck.

What do you guys think about input limitations?
Do you think it has held PC Gaming back?
Is there any way you could overcome it?

I'm actually working on a game right now and I'm debating between taking diagonal jumping out
or leaving a warning when I release the game.

[harkme]

Simplify your controls? I don't know why you need both up and space to jump.

[rivon]

I never really used a keyboard which didn't allow at least 3 or 4 keys at the same time.

[Aloshi]

Try mapping the controls to different keys. It sounds weird, but a lot of the "broken" combinations are key-specific, not key-count-specific. At least, in my experience.

[increpare]

Try mapping the controls to different keys. It sounds weird, but a lot of the "broken" combinations are key-specific, not key-count-specific. At least, in my experience.

yes, but they're also keyboard-specific.

In general, and this is a PRETTY RELIABLE rule of thumb, you can't ever rely on a person ever being able to press down more than two keys at once.

[jkd003]

Simplify your controls? I don't know why you need both up and space to jump.

Welll the character is jumping from wall to wall and I thought it would be nice to have 4 different jumps, a upwards jump(up+S), a drop(down+S) and two angled jump(left+s and up+left+space)   it seemed like a good idea.  

[jkd003]

Try mapping the controls to different keys. It sounds weird, but a lot of the "broken" combinations are key-specific, not key-count-specific. At least, in my experience.

yes, but they're also keyboard-specific.

In general, and this is a PRETTY RELIABLE rule of thumb, you can't ever rely on a person ever being able to press down more than two keys at once.

That sounds like really good advice.
Its a shame, I LIKE pressing down multiple keys.

 But what if you had isometric overhead controls, you would need to hold down 2 keys to move diagonally, plus press a third action key.

[rivon]

AFAIK this problem occurs only when pressing multiple character keys. CTRL, ALT, SHIFT, SPACE etc. all have their own cable/connection so the player should be able to hold up+left+SPACE without a problem.

Otherwise CTRL+ALT+DEL wouldn't work.

[vinheim3]

could this be game engine specific?

I remember a couple time up-leftOrRight-SPACE would not work so I couldn't move diagonally and do an action

In Visual Boy Advance, this always happens, in LoZ: Link's Awakening, you can't move diagonally and swing your sword, it's worse in metroid when you wall climb, extreme annoyance

[jkd003]

AFAIK this problem occurs only when pressing multiple character keys. CTRL, ALT, SHIFT, SPACE etc. all have their own cable/connection so the player should be able to hold up+left+SPACE without a problem.

Otherwise CTRL+ALT+DEL wouldn't work.

Perhaps my laptop is "special"  Up+Space+ (Right or down) works fine but it refuses to recognize Up+Space+Left. I'm really worried this is isn't that unusual.

could this be game engine specific?

I remember a couple time up-leftOrRight-SPACE would not work so I couldn't move diagonally and do an action

In Visual Boy Advance, this always happens, in LoZ: Link's Awakening, you can't move diagonally and swing your sword, it's worse in metroid when you wall climb, extreme annoyance

I plugged in a second keyboard and I didn't find any problems(I'm using gamemaker)

[increpare]

But what if you had isometric overhead controls, you would need to hold down 2 keys to move diagonally, plus press a third action key.

Most isometric games just use single cursor/d-pad directions to move (interpreted at 45 degree rotation one way or the other).

[ThemsAllTook]

This depends on keyboard hardware. One of the selling points of das keyboard is that it can register more individual keypresses than a typical keyboard. Here's some technical info on why this happens, and a Wikipedia article.

[Netsu]

I once read HERE (it was fun to dig this zine up) that on some keyboards it's helpful to use as little rows of keys as possible.

[jkd003]

I once read HERE (it was fun to dig this zine up) that on some keyboards it's helpful to use as little rows of keys as possible.

That's really interesting! Thanks! It seems like the best solution is to simply allow the player to remap their keys because what will work for some won't always work with others. But that's some good advice for determining the defaults!



 

[Core Xii]

It's entirely keyboard dependent, nothing else. Simply put, typing keyboards weren't designed for gaming; When typing you never need to press more than two or three keys at once, so to save costs such keyboards lack the ability to handle more.

There is nothing that you as a game designer can do about it.

Anyone who plays PC games should get a gaming keyboard that doesn't have this restriction. For instance the SteelSeries 7-G can handle all of its keys pressed at once.