We cannot emphasize enough the importance of stylus tilt sensing. If your graphics tablet doesn't sense tilt, apart from using right-mouse-button-drag, you can still choose to add a game controller in the mix - a cheap one can be had for under US$10.
In our demo, we use a PS3 controller, because it's also equipped with a tilt sensor that can be used for paper tilt in Expresii.
Since the P3 controller is not native to the Windows OS, we need some third-party software to make it work on the PC: MotionInJoy driver, Better DS3. You first install the MotionInJoy driver, which also comes with its own control mapping tool, but it's better to use the Better DS3 tool for easier mapping.
If your game controller is native to PC, you probably can simply plug and play.
To test the game controller we use Joystick Tester . We map the controller tilt to R and U values as shown in the Joystick Tester .
The following is video showing how it works together:
In our demo, we use a PS3 controller, because it's also equipped with a tilt sensor that can be used for paper tilt in Expresii.
Since the P3 controller is not native to the Windows OS, we need some third-party software to make it work on the PC: MotionInJoy driver, Better DS3. You first install the MotionInJoy driver, which also comes with its own control mapping tool, but it's better to use the Better DS3 tool for easier mapping.
If your game controller is native to PC, you probably can simply plug and play.
To test the game controller we use Joystick Tester . We map the controller tilt to R and U values as shown in the Joystick Tester .
The following is video showing how it works together:
The non-tilt-sensing graphics tablet used was a Huion H420 (US$30). Its three buttons on the panel itself can be mapped to hotkeys of your choice. It's cheap and good, except that the battery compartment gets rusty and gives bad contact now. We have had it for one year only. Another downside is that the hover distance is very little compared to that of a Wacom. But for $30, it's not bad an option for those who on a budget or want a very portable graphics tablet - it's probably the smallest graphics tablet that gives pressure reading!
And in case you also own a PS3 controller, here is the mapping we use. You can first press the 'Auto Fill' button to get a default mapping, and then modify it from there. It's mainly the SixAxis Tilt that needs to be assigned as Right Stick (X, Y).
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