Always on top window utility// Testing ability after applying settings.

[Floydblank]

I have had Pinnacle since MW3 came out and activision decided not to support 360 controller for computer even though black ops supported it, which put me in a bad mood. But when I found Pinnacle I was amazed at the settings options that it gives and instead of wanting to send multiple angry emails and posts to activision I now want to thank them for making me research other avenues which lead me to pinnacle, the only free tial program I have downloaded and then actualy purchased. Even though it is wonderful software of course there are always areas to improve. Now someone like myself pinnacle is alot to take on at first alot of research to understand some of the options and how they affect game play of course trial and error. So I think it is pretty crutial for advances in the way of a testing ability to try out the new settings you have chosen quickly and efficently not having to run game then sit in room for match to start then not have a real ability to test out what changes you have made too busy in match. Granted I know this program is for many other games besides just MW3 and it would be very extensive programing to even be able to have testing abilities for one game but maybe then applying the ability for always on top window for pinnacle so that during any game play you can make make chnges to settings while in match not having to leave game make couple changes go into to game leave game........... . You know or even possibly making it very very very simple to create multiple profiles and swap between them, granted I know we are able to do this now but it is difficult for me you have to nav through like three different windows and by the time im getting back to the second window im lost. So a little more user friendly with the hotkeys, it seems every game i have that has ability for hot keys it takes forever to get one hotkey with a few actions on it to either work properly or at all and this could very well be user error I wont denie that but I might not be a genious or even way computer savy but im not an idiot either so im sure there are plenty out there with same concerns. Anyway thank you for creating a great program and I look forward to any advances that might take place in future.

[Pinnacle [Rob]]

Hi, I'm glad to hear you like the software so much! As for a testing "always on top" window, it is not that simple. Most games (especially "big" games like the ones most people are playing, ie COD games) use DirectDraw and that will draw right over an window that is marked as "always on top"... so while you may know of programs like Notepad++ or others that have "always on top" abilities, if you start a game like COD you'll see it disappears. Instead you need an "overlay" window, which involves injecting the window into the game's DirectDraw itself, and without getting into a big explanation, that is A LOT more difficult than a standard "always on top" window. I actually have code for it, but it's gonna take a lot of development time to really make useful and there are just so many other things I'm trying to get done that are much lower-hanging fruit. So the overlay concept will be included one day, but it's pretty far down the line yet...

I have been thinking of other ways to put your profile into a "debug mode" that would allow you to tweak your profile can find the settings you want so that will probably be here long before the overlay... although I can't say when, maybe not too long but there are still a lot of other things in line to be done next. One of those things (although this may not definitively happen before the "debug mode") is a re-design of the interface to make things much more intuitive for new users, and that will include make it a little easier to access changes and not have so many different windows but a clearer single-window design. That's gonna take time too though... so there are things that will be here in time.