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Touchscreen Game Controller?
DARTH25 sent us a review of a fairly clever little
USB touchscreen controller. Think of it as a keyboard where you can move the buttons around and dynamically change graphics. And the "buttons" are a 320x240 12 bit LCD screen.
So switching to the railgun involves pressing the railgun icon on the screen. I'm not sure how well I'd like it for action games but for a lot of
games with many options, this could be really cool. Of course, its windows only, but maybe not for long.
This will not work for most games. Gamers need to keep their eyes on the screen.. no gamer I know ever looks at their controller.
When you have your hands on a traditional controller, the bumpy buttons let you know your hands are in the correct position. You know when you press down, you will hit the right button. Accuracy is everything. With this, you can try to keep your hands in the same position, but the only way to know for sure is to make a mistake or look down. Forget it.
As an example, how often do you start typing with your hands one key to the left or right? You didn't even look at they keyboard, you used the bumpy keys to position your hands.
This looks like a great place to stick toolbars from the gimp, blender, etc... It would be great for getting the clutter off of your main screen and let you fill most of your screen with the actual image. Of course at $250 a pop, you might just want to invest in a bigger monitor.
This could be used for all sorts of things though. You might even program your windowmanager to stick your root menu on the thing so you don't have to find an open spot on your desktop (or have to reach for the F12 key).
Strangely they are marketing this towards games where speed is of the essence. I don't know about you, but averting my eyes from the screen to press a touchpad with no tactile feedback doesn't seem like the way to speed up my game. How long does it take for your finger to learn the position of the "build peon" key anyway?
Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.
I read the internet for the articles.
When you want to see human/machine interfaces designed for real-world high-stress environments, you go look at the military - the contols on fighter aircraft and tanks.
A frag hurts a lot more in real life.
What you'll find is that any control that has a combat function - things like vehicle manoevering, weapons selection, and triggers - are one-button-per-function, tactile-feedback items. Controls for communications and information systems tend to be placed on multi-use displays with changing menus - sometimes iconic, but mostly text.
This little gadget sounds like the latter, not the former. Good for keys and functions not heavily used, but not suitable for rapid action games like Quake and friends.
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Of course, its windows only, but maybe not for long.
Just like your scanner, right?
:)
"No more one handed game play" - I don't think any new device could prevent "one handed game play" if you know what I mean.... Jeez, talk about "lcd smear"...
S.t.e.v.e.
Pseudo-tactile feedback can be achieved with sounds effects and just getting used to the layout. Same thing applies to pretty much every other controller out there.
In addition, you don't (I would not / do not) put time-critical functions on it; those are for your joystick/spaceorb/mouse/trackball/etc where your hand usually stays during melee combat.
I have an advanced form of this: I have a 15" LCD touchscreen computer that is designed to do exactly the same thing. I use a spaceball/trackball combo with the TSC just below the front of my screen and my keyboard below that. I can program the TSC to provide a template with all the menus/controls I need to play a particular game. Primarily, I put non-combat functions on the TSC (like the inventory loadouts and the (V)oice actions in Tribes 2). Switching weapons, firing, throwing grenades, jumping, jetting, etc are on my spaceball/trackball. Pretty soon I will be adding a set of foot switches as well (might as well get the rest of my limbs in on the action); I'll probably assign jumping, jetting, running, etc to those.
-SS "Teach the ignorant, care for the dumb, and punish the stupid."
I almost didn't follow that link because it looked like a certain other URL that I'd rather not click on.
--
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
I can definitely see how it would be useful while beating my monkey in Black & White,
Dude, upgrade to a color monitor already, it's way more realis...
Oh. Wait. You meant the game...
Err, nevermind.
I like the idea of a "configureable" controller, but I want something more tactile than a flat screen.
I know where the A and B buttons are located on my mouse and joystick, not by sight, but by sense of touch. There is a clear, tactile line that seperates them, either by raising or lowering the sides, or by differing textures. An LCD panel won't do that, so I have to LOOK at the controller to figure out where the buttons are, each time I pick it up after drinking / petting the dog / taking a wizz. blech.
I also have the problem of lazy fingers that refuse to interpret visual information. That means that they can't read the controller and, as they are prone to fidgeting between turns, I will lose a lot of game play repeatedly dedicating 0.00000001 second each turn to visually confirming the layout.
This would rock for controlling your mp3 box in the trunk of the car....
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
--Ambrose Bierce
How great would this would this be for flight sims? You could have the whole instrument panel out in front of you...
Personally, I think the coolest use would be to have a terminal open at all times so I could always have it at my disposal.
--The space between my ears was intentionally left blank--
2) The biggest problem with LCD touchpads (this one included) is the absolute lack of tactile feedback. To know which button you are about to press (and to make sure you only hit one) you have to look at the controler. That is time that you spend not looking at the action on the computer screen. Bad idea in a firefight.
The concept is cool though...
Everyone's trying to revamp computer input. From the weird slidy-disks from a while back to the vertical keyboards with the keys on the side. It's quite a barrier to entry, more than most other computer technologies. No matter what kind of computer you're using, chances are you type on a spring-actioned QWERTY keyboard. Perhaps some improvement is needed, because it's a technology that's stagnated in the past few years, but someone's going to have to come up with something damned snazzy before they really start to catch attention. Not to mention the fact that most of these new devices can cost up to hundreds of dollars, where you can get a workable keyboard for $30 at Best Buy... Jeffrey