PlanetSide Universe - View Single Post - Controller Support
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Old 2012-04-16, 03:09 AM   [Ignore Me] #10
Magpie
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Re: Controller Support


Yea deffo, I'm gonna be hooking up my Xbox controller soon as beta start, I just find it more relaxing, don't no if you have seen it but here's a nice post from one of the ps2 devs


Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz View Post
Not everyone likes this - it's harder on the hands and wrists for some to use a mouse and keyboard. Twitch games are easier to control with a properly setup pad (there are difficulties - see below). I've played a certain action MMO with both, and boy let me tell you the mouse is MUCH less fun in that case.




This is actually a major failing point of many developers - this is how they map the mouse to the joystick, thinking it helps. It usually has the opposite effect and actually makes the controls much less predictable and usually presents problems (getting STUCK on the wrong target, having extra code to figure out what target you want, which is always wrong at some point).

On other projects I have discussed this at length. In game, the controller has a definite advantage if done right - a mouse has no defined center point, it's all feel - the controller has a defined center point. This can be designed around.

The key is to design the control scheme to fit the device (mouse, keyboard, joystick, controller, foot pedals, whatever). This takes much more time than developers usually spend - it's more about mapping mouse x/y to right joystick, button A to F key and so on.

There are other limitations to keyboards that present a significant problem as well - the number of keys that can be pressed at once, and what the keyboard can tell you about them. All keyboards have limitations, while the controllers actually report each and every button press and pressure accurately. I have one keyboard where if I hold down [A] and [W], I cannot press [G] - it simply doesn't register. There are many places to find this out, but all keyboards have a particular setup that just won't work.

The job of the UI designers is to understand all of this and set up a system that allows everyone to have a great experience interacting with all aspects of the game. We make choices, and at some point we will definitely get the default setting wrong -I know this. I read the interwebs
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