Oh yeah my numbers were for me and my discrete Zelda style game.
I forgot about the gyro. I feel like tilt shifting through different sets of controls (bags?) is kind of a cool idea. Eg right tilt changes the regular buttons to something else and left tilt could do the same. I can’t think of a reason why I’d have 33 button presses, but hey whatever.
The steam controller seems like it gates the deeper control methods which makes the obvious easy to use while still keeping the not so obvious accessible.
Dunno if it’s relevant to your game or not but you can also set any bind to turbo on press and the turbo interval itself.
The controller, as a piece of hardware, is easy to describe but I think you need to cop or borrow one if only to check out the config software since it’s arguably where most of the power of the device lies.
It’s the MS Sidewinder Dual Strike. It’s not rare or anything, but as a PC pad junkie, I’d been on the lookout for one for years. That ball joint thing in the middle makes the right hand side work as sort of a non-optical Wii remote. Once you get acquainted with the sensitivity, it’s not too bad, but it’s–unsurprisingly–hardly the mouse replacement for shooters it’s billed as.
I spent some time trying to set it up for Max Payne, because that’s one of the games it was marketed along side. Much like all the other late 90s Sidewinder stuff, I’m sure the config program did a better job of this than the default windows joystick options (and also supported that weird standard Sidewinder shift key as a shift key). Quake 1 was pretty playable too, but the joint feels sort of rickety, so I was afraid to really squeeze it too quickly to the limits of its range of motion. To deal with this I cranked the sensitivity way up and tried to maintain some sort of zen-like state of calmness and percussion amid all the chainsaw ogres and leaping demons, rather than whipping the controller around. It’s kind of a cool experience.
Surprisingly the pad’s major problem isn’t the main gimmick though. That weird thumb-print looking left d-pad’s directions are set at this weird off angle and they don’t correspond well to the actual range of movement your thumb has if you’re gripping the thing. It’s totally not the fatal flaw I expected, and no one mentioned that in any of the old reviews.
Microsoft released this alongside another FPS-centric pad called the Freestyle Pro, which I’ve had for a couple years. It’s sort of the proto Sixaxis, as it’s gimmick is a set of tilt sensors. Hell, it even sort of looks like a less pointy version of that Batarang PS3 prototype. It has a more traditional 8 button layout, and I’ve used it sans-senors a couple times when I was too lazy to dig out another pad. It’s way bulkier than standard Sidewinder pads though, and the senors are rough to calibrate (although again, maybe the original software handled this better). There’s also this really weird scroll wheel/throttle thing in the center than I never found a use for.
I’m pretty exited about the Steam controller, since it sounds like it might finally be realizing what MS was grasping at with these two back in '98.
I still think that just replacing the right thumbstick on a Microsoft / Sony controller with a trackball would solve the problem. But I am happy that Valve is at least trying. Not sure what we need a touchpad on the left for, instead of just having an analog stick. I guess to appease the lefties? That they added more buttons in places where you can push them without lifting your thumbs from where they belong, makes me very happy though. Face buttons deserve to die. I also find analog triggers with clicks at the end totally worthless and annoying as fuck, and would’ve greatly preferred a scrollwheel instead. But I don’t get to design controllers (un?)fortunately.
Yeah, I was too negative. I hope the Steam controller will be a huge success and put some pressure on Sony and Microsoft to finally unfuck their controllers.
The issue with putting an actual, honest-to-god trackball in a controller is that you’ve basically turned the thing into a time bomb and the you would probably have to build it with the consideration that people would want to replace just the trackball. The right stick is a pretty brute force-y, inelegant solution but it gets the job done. People are used to it too, if the teeth gnashing from the Steam controller’s launch is any indication (which, yes, the thing is totally fucking weird as shit when you first use it).
It’s definitely an input that gives the more you’re willing to fuck around with it. I for one am just in love with the gyro for aiming adjustment (which is also something I’ve come around to with the Wii U; if the Gamepad wasn’t a battery-hungry monster with a screen, it’d probably be perfect and Splatoon is the ultimate, standardized proof-of-concept for gyro aiming, but whoops, now there’s a visible high-end market for crazy-ass controllers like the Xbone Elite and also Nintendo).
I had the Saturn Zero Tech, but it only supported the steering wheel, and not the 3D control pad, which meant that it didn’t support analog gas and brake (the triggers just engaged when pushed half way). I always wanted to get the PS1 version, but then I ended up using an Ultra Racer instead. Played lots of Ridge Racer and Ray Tracers with it, and liked it a lot more than my neGcon (never a fan of those hard to press analog buttons). IIRC all those paddle games (like Arkanoid and Pucchi Carat) are negCon compatible too.
When we were young men and mouse-aim was new in PC games, my friend and I thought trackball mice were unbeatable (though perhaps in that era, they were?)
what’s the best control scheme for flight sims if i don’t have a stick? back in the MS CFS days i used to do arrow keys for stick input, spacebar/etc for guns. is that still the story or is there some advanced Keyboard Tech I should know about
I just grabbed a Wii U Pro Controller to PC USB adapter (for my recent Steam purchases): Amazon link. The adapter recognizes Nintendo controllers as XBox controllers, so you don’t have to mess with .ini files or anything. I’ve since played a bit of Undertale, Megal Slug, and Ori and the Blind Forest – so far so good.
Mildly interesting: the default bindings match the XBox buttons by letter rather than position. My brain seems to prefer this, but I’m not sure how well it’ll do with a game that’s had more muscle memory committed to it.
