Does Tasker have a place in PC games?
One of the most important differences between console games and PC games for me is mods. Some of the biggest titles out there, like Skyrim, support mods that end up evolving the games in ways that make the mod-less console counterparts frankly seem like half finished demos in comparison. With all the mods available for such games though, I wonder if there’s not a place in there somewhere for a Tasker plug-in.
I’ve often wondered what the possibilities would be if someone made mods for these games that essentially let Tasker remotely receive information from the games and send commands to them. Imagine AutoRemote where the other device isn’t a device at all, but a game. When something relevant happens in the game, a message is sent to Tasker on the Android device, either making info available as variables or contexts. Actions would allow for sending commands back to the game, allowing for two-way communication.
The usefulness of this would vary depending on the game. For Minecraft, I’ve always imagined a mod that would allow a redstone source to be toggled using Tasker. This would allow for everything from timers for various creations to more advanced things like allowing players on an SMP server to create burglary alarms and whatnot. For a game like Skyrim, you could have a custom scene showing on a tablet while playing, giving you touch screen access to various weapons, spells, potions, and so on. Active quest info could be sent to a variable to be visible without going into the menu all the time, and you could perhaps even have a profile that automatically enabled various defenses when a dragon was nearby (not as useful for stock Skyrim, where dragons are bunnies, but useful for dragon difficulty mods).
The thing is that these and other games have the ability to accept user created mods, so all we really need is a good developer who likes both Tasker and certain games. Second screen apps for games are available commercially for some titles, and I think it’s an interesting thought to be able to create those yourself for games that don’t have them, but support mods.
