[maybe invalid] Turning wheels - very hard without cursor...

[hiben]

Good work.
So, just curious, I mean, newer laser mice aren't too expensive. Is there any advantage to that trackball that makes you still want to use it and go through all of that coding trouble instead of just gettin a new mouse?
Just wondering, I never had one to try gaming with.

I guess this is something that is just personal taste; sure it is no cost factor. For me the greatest benefit of using a trackball is that my arm is completely at rest and I never have to lift up a mouse and reposition it to scroll further away. This also might have something to do with me using several virtual workspaces where I can drag windows to the next screen by moving it over the 'border' of the current workspace. So if I need to go several workspaces I just give the ball a healthy spin and let inertia do the rest...

A trackball is also good for keeping your relatives from messing with your computer...

It's not so easy getting into it at first and it took me a bit to find the right hardware for my hand but I just like this way of pointing if I have to use a cursor. If my trackball 'dies' I am not sure if I switch to a mouse. It isn't manufactured anymore and most of the available devices don't fit so well... maybe I am just a hostage of my preferences... :-)

I'm more a keyboard guy when it comes to work but that does not extend well to first person gaming... :-)

The needed coding part was actually fun here. I was surprised that the game links against so much system libraries and when I spotted the SDL dependency I plotted my evil plan quite fast...

Ironically I found out that once I could see the cursor in game when doing the correct movement I could image to actually learn to do the movement without feedback... (by using the cursor in a sort of training phase)