Advice for using UDK with disabilities?

Raptor-chan

Hello!

I know I've posted quite a few (rather silly) questions in regards to UDK. I'm a disabled user (cerebral palsy/hydrocephalus). I struggle using the program from a physical perspective. I don't have good use of my arms/hands (although I'm not paralyzed). What can I do to make UDK easier to use? Any insight/tips/help would be greatly appreciated. I know this sounds a bit personal, but I'm learning the program as part of my bachelor's degree (not currently taking classes). Thank you very much in advance! ^_^

Eric Chadwick

I wonder if using a stylus and a tablet might work better? I've been using a tablet to paint on terrains, and to do mesh painting, and it works fairly well. I had only one problem with it... Disable left-drag movement in perspective view?

r4ptur3

^

we have a guy at work who does that -- he seems to like it more than mouse + keyboard

blankslatejoe

I fear that the tablet might be just as difficult as the mouse for you...UDK isn't really built with disability usability in mind, but there's a few things you might be able to try:


-maybe use snapping to help you move objects in finer increments with the mouse? Likewise, you can manually type in movement values a lot to help with the small movements (when you select an object you can hit f4 to see its properties, and in the movement tab you can manually type in locations..I THINK you can even type in equations...like +10 will adjust the object ten units forward in that direction, whereas if you just type '10' it'll pop the object to wherever 'absolute 10' is on that axis. You can even type in more elaborate math and it'll try and resolve it...which is kinda useless, but neat.


-if you select an object and hit the 'home' key your camera will snap to it, iirc (makes moving around the map involve way less mousework). you can hop around a map by selection+home pretty easily this way ( I just wish there was a way to lock the camera orbit around a selected object!)

-you might find selecting objects by the scene manager + the home key trick an ok alternative to basic navigation. You can also TAG objects so theyre easier to pick out of that list.

-the material editor involves a lot of mousework, but you can add HLSL code there...so if you're brave when it comes to learning some scripting you might find coding to be easier than dealing with the node-based connections


Goodluck man..that's not gonna be an easy road, but we're here to help if you have more questions!

Ace-Angel

Try and see if your tablet's drivers and options can be changed. You should be able to change the tablet setting specifically for UDK to 'Mouse' setting, this will make is less janky and flying all over the place and easier to work on.

Lastly, there are Palm/Hand keyboards. They aren't really keyboard per se, but more like a collection of button that fit in the comfort of your hand and can be strapped on, you can map most used functions to them.

Also, if you don't have any leg problems, you could look into one of those fancy smancy PC Pedals, on which you can map some extra keys to make it use out it.

These are more physical stuff I know of, the others covered pretty much everything else as far as I know.

Cheers!

sprunghunt

you should be able to use a space pilot pro with UDK. I've seen people using one and it might help:

http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacepilot-pro.html

Malrick2

You can use an xbox 360 controller when actually testing the game in the viewport, and also for controlling cameras for recording. I dont think you can control the basic editing functions of udk with it though

alfalfasprossen

with which movements do you have problems regarding udk?
keep in mind that you have multiple ways of moving the camera inside the viewports.

the drag for movement option was already mentioned. you still have to move the mouse a lot though when flying around in 3d space.
you can use RMB + WASD-keys to fly
you can press L-key (i think) down and you get the Maya-camera controls while holding it.

cptSwing

This one of those great little examples of PC's over-all helpful nature.