Keyboard players: How do you move the camera?

Locke64·Apr 29, 2014·4 votes·10,393 views

I've always used a peripheral (Microsoft Strategic Commander) for my left hand instead of the keyboard. It has several buttons mapping to spells, items, etc. and most importantly it can slide to move the camera. Now this peripheral has stopped working on PBE, and if that gets pushed to Live I'll be forced to adjust to using strictly the keyboard and mouse.

Switching from buttons to keys isn't too bad, but I'm at a loss regarding what to do with the camera. How do most keyboard users control the camera? I find that using the mouse (edge of screen) is terribly inefficient as I'd like to be moving and aiming skillshots at the same time. I'm so used to controlling the camera with my left hand, so I tried mapping it to WASD. But now I'm making too many mistakes differentiating camera keys from skill keys. How do you people do it?!?

@RIOT please don't disable controllers on Live, and please re-enable them in PBE...

20 Comments

RiotNoopMoneyMay 1, 20144 votes

Hey Lock, I just got my hands on a Microsoft Strategic Commander today and I was able to get it to work on both Live and PBE. If you're still having trouble with it you might want to try re-installing the driver and remapping the keys from scratch.

For me, I pretty much cut my gaming teeth on RTS games so I tend to use the mouse and spacebar to control my camera. If I were you I'd keep trying LtRandolph's suggestion of camera on WASD and skills on 1234 and see how you find it.

Locke64May 10, 20141 votes

Sorry for the late update, I haven't had a chance lately to try this or play. I installed the driver (v1.3) on another computer along with the PBE client and updated Live to 4.7 (from some pre-S4 version, haven't played on that computer in about a year). MSC didn't work on either client. (It did work outside of the clients though, tested by using it to type in a text document.)

Then I reinstalled the driver on my main computer and remapped keys like you said, and updated both LoL clients, and it's the same as before - Live works, PBE doesn't.

So MSC works with Live on one computer but not on another, and it doesn't work with PBE on either computer.

The computer Live works on is running Windows 7 Professional, the one it doesn't work on is Windows 7 Home Premium, if that's helpful.

RiotNoopMoneyMay 16, 20141 votes

Have you tried checking your keybindings in League of Legends? It's possible that you have different ones for Live and PBE.

Does MSC have application specific keybindings? If so you'll have to set the keybindings for Live and PBE seperately.

Locke64May 16, 20141 votes

LoL keybindings are correct and MSC is application-agnostic. I can't even use the controller to type in the AIR client (e.g. in search fields) so in-game bindings aren't the issue.

To put things in perspective, the software also hasn't worked for several other games (MapleStory, Mabinogi, and I just tried Dawngate last night), but it has worked for others (pretty sure it worked for StarCraft 2 but it's been a while) and it's worked in PBE until just recently. I'll admit it's more likely a problem with the Strategic Engine software than all of these games (though I think at least MapleStory explicitly blocks controllers).

You may find the middle section of this thread informative: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices/IGcXDPi8tsI%5B1-25-false%5D

I'd give up and get a Razer but I have no guarantee that that'll work in all the games I play and I don't play them much anyway so it might end up being a waste of money.

RiotLtRandolphApr 29, 20143 votes

Hey there. I'm not entirely clear what is causing your MSC to not work anymore on PBE, but I'll ask around, and poke around in the code. I'm pretty new here, so no guarantees, but I'll see what I can find. ;-)

As a player, I have always used WASD for camera and 1234 for skills, because I migrated to LoL straight from WoW.

Edit: Apparently I'm not showing up as Red yet. I just joined Gameplay Engineering last week. :-D

ThalesApr 29, 20142 votes

OR MAYBE YOU'RE JUST AN IMPOSTOR!

Welcome; enjoy the codebase.

Locke64Apr 30, 20141 votes

Sweet, thanks. Enjoy your new job!

In the meantime I'll try those keys. Initially it seems like it'd be an awkward stretch, but after playing some games with abilities on ZXCV, I'm finding they're too close to the camera buttons and I keep getting them mixed up, so maybe the distance would be a good thing.

RiotLtRandolphMay 1, 20141 votes

It's definitely now on the radar of the right people. Again no guarantees that we can find a fix, as that's a pretty obscure piece of hardware you've got there, but Riot Has Heard You. ;-)

(And just to be clear, no one here is like "bwahaha I'm going to make MSC not work, just for giggles". In such a complex system, though, it's easy to make an improvement in one place with unpredictable effects elsewhere, which is probably what happened here)

Locke64May 1, 20141 votes

Ah, I'd suspected it might have to do with the recent discussions surrounding third party programs. Glad to hear that's not the case. Thanks again for your help.

You're red now! ^.^

lorewiseApr 29, 20142 votes

Like everything else it just take practice. You may want to play around with your mouse sensitivity as well. I've found it's far easier if you can move your cursor (and the move the screen with it) if you don't have to move your mouse very much.

While playing my mouse rarely moves more than an inch in any direction. If you don't lift and move the mouse and just keep moving it in the direction you want it to go it's going to make your reactions very slow.Meaning it's faster to lift and move, lift and move than it is to just keep pushing. This allows you to quickly nudge the screen and reposition your cursor.

Basically it will look like you're rocking your mouse back and forth in a way.

Hyrum GraffApr 30, 20142 votes

I use my mouse to move my screen. If you end up going this way too, I think in time you'll find yourself having your screen in the right position before fights break out (and in in the case of an emergency, you can always hit space to jump to your champ.

Locke64Apr 30, 20141 votes

Ah yes, learning to use space would probably help quite a bit. I'll try to remember that.

Hyrum GraffMay 1, 20141 votes

I honestly don't use space that much in combat, because as I mentioned my screen is usually correctly positioned in the way the Anarchit3ct described, before the fight starts.

When it IS useful is when I'm roaming from mid to bot and their jungler pops out of a bush, and I need to snap back to fight them instead of watching botlane.

the Anarchit3chtApr 30, 20142 votes

Try not to keep the camera centered on your character when you are engaging the enemy. I tend to keep my champion towards the edge of the screen, with a little bit of room in case someone is going to come up behind me. Or, when I notice them approaching on the minimap, I just tap the space bar to recenter the camera for the time being.

OblongOtterApr 29, 20141 votes

What you do is actually a great idea, I should try that. I think the arrow keys move the camera if that helps you, I just move my mouse to the edges the screen and hope I don't have to walk or use an ability for that brief moment.

HazeyInDaHeadApr 29, 20141 votes

You should try that, or should have, as it sounds like its gonna die off.

To OP:

I really think youre screwed if you dont find some other working peripheral that has a similar feature.

I cant think of any efficient way to move the camera using the KB without sacrificing your casting ability.

Remapping the keys to move the camera like to WASD (though I would avoid using W) is the only idea and youre gonna make mistakes til you get used to it again

Angry MonsterApr 30, 20141 votes

move the camera with your mouse? Like most people.

Why the fuck are you using a controller? Damn xbox kids.

MackleDogeApr 30, 20144 votes

That isn't what that control is. Please educate yourself before you just insult someone for no good reason, that's just entirely uncalled for.

RohirrimRowanMay 1, 20141 votes

I use a Nostromo Gamepad, and I have a button mapped for easy locking/unlocking of the camera. I usually play locked, but switch to unlocked if my HUD is blocking my view, or I'm using a champ with long-range spells. Then I just use the mouse for the most part.

kTGg8TYecZMay 1, 20141 votes

I use ESDF for camera control, QWRT for abilities, AG for summoners, and ZXCV for pings. This lets me rest my fingers on camera keys while having everything else I need neatly arranged around them.