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View Full Version : Google Earth - keystroke issue



magullo
November 12th, 2005, 11:45 AM
Hi all,

Google Earth promises to be a great HTPC toy. Unfortunately, trying to use the keyboard navigation controls via girder from my Marmitek XC10 remote is proving harder than expected.

I bought Girder a year ago and I've been experimenting with it to the point where I am now writing my own windows / HTML HTPC OSD / interface, including coding in javascript, Lua and whatnot. So I'd say I am not exactly a newbie. But clearly not an expert either.

The issue is the following: I am trying to control the Google Earth application with my remote using the keystrokes specified in this page:

http://www.keyhole.com/GoogleEarthHelp/KeyboardControls/Viewer_Navigation.htm

The app does accept without fault some keystrokes - such as F11, which toggles full-screen on and off.

But when it comes to navigating, the application "mostly" refuses to respond to these commands. I say mostly becasue it seems to accept them in random circumstances. I.e. setting a command to send a LEFT keystroke will stop a rotating earth and might move it a notch or two, but then it stops responding, whether the same action with the keyboard will stop the rotattion and start a fluid pan. If the viw is not moving automatically, the keypresses have generally no effect. Sometimes 1 seems to randomly "reach" the app and the map move a tad. And then back to nothing.

In one instance, sending an "r" keystroke did not start a fluid animation to reset the compass points (as the key does), but by hitting the same button repeatedly would advance that same animation frame by frame.

So it would seem as if GE is using a way to read keyboard input which is not totally compatible with how girder sends it ...

BTW, I've played with antirepeat times, button down and button down repeat, etc. to no avail.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

magullo
November 12th, 2005, 12:39 PM
Ok, so I spent 4 hours researching this issue, wrote the above message and 5 mins later hit on the following thread:

http://www.promixis.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11462

The DirectInput plugin seems to be the way to send the keystrokes with google earth. The result is somehwhet jerky..