Overlay cursor ( something like this would be great)

[cybin]

Over on reddit I saw someone linked this video : https://youtu.be/nNbWYWlK8I8?t=287

The link should bring you to timestamp 4:30 but it doesn't appear to work :S

I thought I'd share it here because it would be nice to have this sort of feature available in the controller configuration tool. Cheers

[DaMu]

Just to understand, this "Overlay cursor" we'll call it, is a second cursor controlled by another stick that sets a position for the mouse to jump to when an action (like a button press) is performed?

The application in the video is very promising for isometric RTS games, but I'm not sure how it can be possible in Steam. We'd have to run in Big Picture Mode, just like the Touch/Radial/Scroll Menu, to have a phantom cursor which Steam generates on the top of the game, in response to a set analog input. And it sounds like this complements the Mouse Region or Joystick Mouse settings, can't quite be independent otherwise you'd use the actual Mouse cursor.

That, and hope that other games don't mistake the mouse jumping behavior caused by a cheating device. :/

[cybin]

I don't think it would have to be tied to the other mouse input, but I'd assume that you'd need to set cursor to the "overlay cursor" position each time you activate an ability. Probably would need to temporarily disable the joystick cursor while that happens.

[ugafan]

This is cool. I'd like to see it as an input option.

[Simaus Masaqer]

Or better - to any kind "mouse input" there should be an advanced option for setting it up as "virtual"/"overlay" mouse. And then it would be easy to combine any other input as a trigger for using the position of such virtual cursor.

[cybin]

@Simaus Masaqer I'm not sure what you mean.

I was thinking that if there were a virtual cursor, an option could be added to the "move cursor" button, which uses virtual cursor instead of setting a permanent location.
Then I could bind X to move cursor to virtual cursor position, and have it return when the button is released.
The problem we would have is that the joystick would still be a mouse region and it might override our move cursor settings.

[Simaus Masaqer]

@cybin Ok, so I'll try to explain it better.

For many input options in Steam Input you can open "additional options" where more options are included (usually not so common, but still helpful). And I mean, in this submenu Valve could put some kind of a checkbox that would switch functionality of any mouse-like input (like mouse, mouse region, etc.) to a virtual/overlay one. Then, this cursor could appear on a screen in a way like touch is detected in Steam Overlay (while writing on a Steam Keyboard on a Steam Controller), just a circle with gradient inside. But this cursor would be controlled in a way just like the main input control has been set (mouse, mouse region, and so on).

Moreover, you can at this point bind combined inputs to define different one results. Right stick could be just a right stick, BUT it could be also a mouse region while, for example, left bumper is held. At this point, I can imagine the following bindings for hack'n'slash games:

Left stick:
- mouse region with small range, just around a player's character
- simultaneously entering input of holding left mouse button while moving a stick, BUT...
- it'll be disabled for a time when you press right trigger

Right stick or touch panel:
- mouse or mouse region with big radius
- checked as virtual/overlay one, BUT...
- it'll become physical one (by unchecking the mentioned option) when you press right trigger AND it'll use the position of a virtual/overlay cursor

This way you can freely move around, move virtual/overlay cursor around the screen, and when needed you can click on a target to attack it or use any skill in designated position.

I hope you understand what I mean, if not I guess I'll go for GIMP, take a several screenshots and visualize some concepts of this idea... xd

[cybin]

@ Simaus Masaqer - That is quite clear, thanks for the explanation.

As a bit of an extension of the idea, and drawing back to a previous post of mine - It would would be really great to allow the overlay cursor to be the center point of a real mouse region. In this case, the left stick could be the overlay cursor setup with a small to medium size region, and the right stick would be a region as well, but would control the actual in-game cursor. The in-game region would move around the overlay cursor's position using the right stick, as the left stick controls the virtual centerpoint of the right stick's region.

Again, thanks for the detailed explanation, it seems like a good way to do it and I hadn't considered that. Cheers

[lyndonguitar]

This would be a nice option to have. a "phantom" cursor. This will be nice for games like Diablo, Dota (valve's own!) and RTS games for example.