EyeMine 2.1.0 release notes

Notes for beta testers.

V2.1.0 is a relatively major update under-the-hood on the side of the EyeMine keyboard, so please do let me know if you find any problems.

There are two major features added:

EyeMine keyboard resizing

EyeMine can now be repositioned and resized freely, in one of two ways

Via the Management console

• Right click on the EyeMine keyboard, and click "Management Console (Settings)".
• In the Visuals tab, there is a "Position" section where you can change:
• Window state (Docked / Floating).
  • When Docked, EyeMine attaches to the edge of your screen, and you can maximise Minecraft to fit perfectly alongside it. This is the default. You can choose to dock to a different edge, and you can scale it by changing dock height.
  • When Floating, EyeMine will sit on top of everything else (including Minecraft). You can change the floating position to put it anywhere on your screen. If you're using this, you may want to turn down the Opacity (in the "LOOK" section) so that the keyboard is semi see-through.

Via mouse control

(You may need someone to help with this as it requires lots of mouse control)

• If EyeMine is docked, you can resize the height by clicking and dragging one of the edges of the keyboard.
• If EyeMine is floating (change in Settings as above) you can move by clicking and dragging on the EyeMine keyboard, or by dragging one of the edges to resize.

Dynamic keyboards

You can now more easily edit keyboards and/or create your own, if you're confident with XML. You may wish to do this if you want to adapt one of the built-in keyboards or try out a beta keyboard you've been sent.

• Right click on the EyeMine keyboard, and click "Management Console (Settings)".
• Change the Startup keyboard to "Custom folder containing dynamic keyboards"
• Click "Create copy of built-in keyboards"
• Select a folder (for instance, "My Documents") where you want the folder of keyboards to live.
• EyeMine will now load keyboards from your personal copy, and you can go into this folder and make changes!

Tips for getting started

• The first thing you may want to try is re-arranging keys on existing keyboards. Just move the DynamicKey chunks into a different order in the file
• You may want to replace a key with a different key from another file. In this case just copy and replace the DynamicKey chunks. Watch out you don't accidentally put too many keys on a keyboard!

Changing what a key does

• If you want a simple key press (pressing and releasing a key to trigger an action) you can just use

    <Text>m</Text>

• If you need more control over how long a key is, or you need a more complicated key like a function key, use

      <KeyDown>F3</KeyDown>
      <Wait>200</Wait>      
      <KeyUp>F3</KeyUp> 

Change the number of milliseconds in Wait to hold a key down for longer.

You can press / hold down multiple keys with different timings to do anything you like. For instance, this key uses "w" and "space" to jump forward.

<DynamicKey>      
      <Label>jump forward</Label>
      <KeyDown>w</KeyDown>      
      <KeyDown>Space</KeyDown>
      <Wait>200</Wait>    
      <KeyUp>Space</KeyUp>   
      <KeyUp>w</KeyUp> 
</DynamicKey>

This key uses "ctrl", "w" and "space" to take a run up before jumping:

<DynamicKey>
      <Label>run-jump</Label>
      <KeyDown>LeftCtrl</KeyDown>   
      <KeyDown>w</KeyDown>      
      <Wait>400</Wait>    
      <KeyDown>Space</KeyDown>
      <Wait>200</Wait>    
      <KeyUp>Space</KeyUp>   
      <KeyUp>w</KeyUp> 
      <KeyUp>LeftCtrl</KeyUp>   
</DynamicKey>

Once you've made changes in an XML file, you need to save the file and allow EyeMine to reload the file. To get the keyboard reloading, you'll need to go to a different keyboard and then return. For instance, go "Back" and then load the keyboard again.

For advanced documentation, see Creating-and-Using-Dynamic-Keyboards on the Optikey wiki.

Feel free to email eyemine@specialeffect.org.uk to get assistance with any keyboards / keys you're attempting to build.