WASD / ESDF Question For PC Gamers

See the rest of my edit :p And I have tried ESDF, like I said, I dont like having my fingers curled up in a typing style when gaming, when gaming I prefer my hands more relaxed, less RSI and all that jazz :p

I dont press ctrl with the tip of my finger, that's what I meant when I said my little finger falls over the windows key. ;)
 
Also, I know what you mean about the ctrl key being the bottom left most key on the blackwidow, it was annoying at first. I do some programming for work (I'm not a programmer, I'm a researcher, which occasionally requires bash scripting, writing latex documents in text editors, octave/matlab scripting to do calculations, gnuplot to do graphs, etc etc) and the macro keys on the blackwidow bothered me at first, these days I'm fine with it.

At my desk at work itself I use a Das Keyboard with Cherry Browns, much quieter and office friendly and I prefer the feel for typing out long documents or slabs of code. I dont do much programming at home these days.

I mostly bought the BW because it was the first mechanical keyboard I could walk into a retail store and test and buy in Australia. Now I sort of regret it because frankly, I prefer my Das much more and since then more retail shops are starting to stock a wider range of mechanical keyboards out here. After using Cherry Browns I dont like the Blues as much anymore.
 
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I use WASD, middle finger on W, because it was the original, popular m/kb configuration. By this point the muscle memory is so tight I couldn't change without some seriously spotty play for a few months.

IMO, ESDF is a superior setup. It has a home row key to help maintain position, it opens up a lot more easily accessible keys for weapon selection, crouching, macros or whatever. I just can't be assed to make the switch.
 
I'm on a Das Ultimate with browns right now. I'm a typing enthusiast which was part of the reason for starting this thread. We all know the "Wax on, wax off" scene from Karate Kid. I think typing is a gamer's wax-on wax-off. (ooo, pithy!)

It makes little sense to have perfected all these typing motions in my work life, and then handicap myself in games by sliding the hand position (and thus my mental map) over by one key.

Occasionally a game doesn't allow remapping and I find this theory confirmed.
 
I use WASF. Ring on W. It spreads my hand out more and gives access to more keys. My middle finger is directly above E and D, so I can hit those fast; generally bind D to crouch.
 
EADF for me.
E-Forward
A-Left
D-Back
F-Right
R-Reload
G-Grenade
Leaves QWS available for other functions depending on the game. For some reason this has always worked for me.
 
awsalick said:
I use WASF. Ring on W. It spreads my hand out more and gives access to more keys. My middle finger is directly above E and D, so I can hit those fast; generally bind D to crouch.
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Holy shit, that's awesome. It's the reverse of my layout. I got about a page and a half into thread when I posted and thought I'd be the weirdo with the somewhat spread out configuration.
 
I use WASD with the ring finger.

WASD with the middle finger I think is worse. You have two fingers devoted to the lowest key density area of the keyboard.
With the ring finger, your index finger can reach as far as the 6 or 7 column comfortably. With the middle finger, you can only reach as far as the 5 or 6 column.

ESDF means I'd have to rebind all my games, and I'd be handicapped on someone else's PC. Also, if you use middle finger on ESDF, you're not increasing the number of keys you can reach with your index finger (compared to WASD ring finger).

I always rebind crouch to V. I've learned from CounterStrike that this allows you to crouchjump using only your thumb.
My PTT key is apostrophe bound on my mousebutton10.
My Use key is usually T
Chat should always be Enter
Reload is usually R or mousebutton4
If there are lean controls, I use Q and E, otherwise I use Q and E for things like weaponswap.
 
OP you make a lot of sense and I'll have to try it but to answer your question, I normally play WASD with middle finger on W.

I'll try it out some time soon.
 
WASD with middle finger on W. Guess I've just never considered anything else.

l00segravel said:
2030usb_us_dvorak_703x289.png
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Now that is just a wacky keyboard layout...and Dvorak to boot! Got to be hard to use a standard layout QWERTY keyboard after getting used to that.
 
When i played counter strike religiously i got used to using the arrow keys. When i stopped playing CS and started playing a huge variety of games i got sick of rebinding for every game i wanted to play so i switched to wasd and have used that since. I still have trouble playing cs unless i use the arrow keys but if i get into CSGO im going to try wasd.
 
For the longest time I played with A/F for strafing (pinky/index) and right click to move forward. That left my hands on the home keys and two fingers free for other actions (duck/backwards/aim down sight/alt fire/etc). How's that for different.

Anyway a year or two ago, in annoyance at some crappy console port that wouldn't let me bind right-click to move forward, I starting using WASD. It stuck and I changed all my other game configs to match. Honestly its not that hard to switch control schemes, takes a few hours of practice to really get it instinctive. Except for that dvorak keyboard, jesus christ.
 
I use RFDG

My pinky is talented

Gives my ring finger things to push when not moving left as well.

Bonus feature is that the bump on the F key lets me find my place without looking at the keyboard.
 
DeathPrincess said:
I am too... Wouldn't the 8456 on the numpad work better? Theres no keys around the arrow keys to replace space and shift etc.?
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8456 here
/ reload
7 9 for switch weapons or lean out of corners
right arrow to use or quick knife
and the rest of arrow keys for quick weaps typically.
enter is walk
0 (ins) crouch
3 drop weapons
* throw grenade
+ talk

etc.
 
ballpoint said:
Almost everyone's reason given for preferring WASD is "I can't reach CTRL in ESDF." ... CTRL is important in WASD, not ESDF.

The point of ESDF is you re-map the WASD default controls around the ESDF cluster. ESDF gives you more keys to work with ... take whatever's bound to CTRL and bind it to one of these newly available keys. If you must use CTRL assign it to a slow command like a spawn menu or inventory, etc. Until then you have not really tried ESDF.

If you love a control set that makes CAPS LOCK and the windows key two of the closest keys, and makes your pinky next to useless (except for your beloved shift/ctrl), then more power to you (noob power).
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1. z is nowhere near big enough to compare to ctrl for the same feel. Feelsbadman
2. pinky is your weakest finger. i minimize its use for that reason.
3. no need to be a nerd raging dick. I DISLIKE YOUR OPINION ON THE INTERNET AND IM GOING TO GET MAD AT YOU AND MAKE FUN OF YOU FOR IT.JPG
 
Like an earlier poster, I also use ASDX, I find holding S while tapping A D to be a lot more comfortable than holding W while taping A D. I've often considered switching to SDFC, but I think it would take too long to adapt.

The actual reason that WASD is so widely used, is due to the matrix of the original IBM keyboards, and the fact that most keyboards produced since, have the same or a similar matrix.

On keyboards with IBM-alike matrices, you can not press any arbitrary combination of keys. But most do allow you to press ctrl, shift, and alt with most combinations of any 2 other keys. ASDF gives ready access to the modifier keys, thus it's widespread use.
 
WASD, ring finger for w,s. pinkie for a, middle for d. index for r,f c v,g,t.

I have really short pinkies.
 
WASD, ring finger on W. How I've always done it since it's based off the home row, just comfortable.

Never realized until this thread people used middle finger for forward. I was slightly worried the first couple pages I was some kind of freak. :D Don't think I could get used to middle finger for forward after so many years with the ring finger.
 
palaciav said:
WASD, ring finger on W. How I've always done it since it's based off the home row, just comfortable.

Never realized until this thread people used middle finger for forward. I was slightly worried the first couple pages I was some kind of freak. :D Don't think I could get used to middle finger for forward after so many years with the ring finger.
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wont you have a hard time moving left while sprinting/crouching if your using ring finger for w?
 
I haven't read much of this thread but I am weird when it comes to my controls, check it out. My arrow keys are for movement, shift is crouch, enter is reload, \ is prone, right control is zoom in, right click is jump, left click is obviously shoot, I use kp_4 for throwing a grenade, kp_ins (0) for my use key - defusing or entering a vehicle, and kp_7 would be for a kill streak or some kind of flash or special grenade. I obviously only play shooters ;) I have seem many people hit the wrong button playing with wasd and I feel that the arrow keys really gives me the edge when it comes to consistency in my gaming.
 
A - Forward
S - Backward
D - Strafe Left
F - Strafe Right
C - Crouch
Z - Prone
Rt Mouse - Zoom
Lt Mouse - Fire
T - Flashlight
G - Grenade
B - Buy / Various

I used ASDF for god knows how long, all the way back to Doom and Quake, Its more natural to me than WASD
 
aintz said:
wont you have a hard time moving left while sprinting/crouching if your using ring finger for w?
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in those instances my middle finger drops over and takes care of WS, and my ring finger takes over A, while the pinkie runs with shift.
 
aintz said:
wont you have a hard time moving left while sprinting/crouching if your using ring finger for w?
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On games where you have to hold crouch rather than toggle it, I'll hit Control with the meat on the joint where my pinky starts. Kind of rotate my entire hand a tad bit to the left.

Roscowgo said:
in those instances my middle finger drops over and takes care of WS, and my ring finger takes over A, while the pinkie runs with shift.
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I honestly can't recall ever having to sprint strafing left and forward, but this is probably what would happen in that instance.
 
9+ year Nostromo n52 user here. I have 2 of them and both have never failed me. It is too difficult (esp on my laptop) and uncomfortable to go back to the keyboard plus I wouldn't know what the keys are since I just create a profile for the game and remember what the button does (I write them down on a chart too). Bonus is I rarely have to remap any in-game keys if I come back to a game years later.
 
I keep seeing everyone say "pinky needs to be close to shift/ctrl keys" as their motivation for using wasd. I honestly don't understand the purpose. I can touch shift perfectly comfortably using esdf, as it's the natural typing position. I set up almost every game the same way...

e = forward
s = left
f = right
d = back
v = voice
r = reload
t = text chat
shift = walk
a = crouch
zxcvbgq = all bindable buttons within comfortable reach and not having to take hand off position.

CTRL is overrated.
 
I have used 4 different configs (WASD, ESDF, RDFG, Arrows) and each one I used to a complete level meaning I was as good as I could get. The best in the end was RDFG however I now use ESDF. The only reason was because of a lack of NKRO back in the days when I settled. And on top of that even though you can get NKRO keyboards now days you will be messed up when you sit at anyone elses keyboard since 99.9% of people just have 2KRO. If you deal with 2KRO you need access with your pinky to the modifier keys otherwise you will just have too many problems with keys not registering. I think this is 1 reason why so many games stuck with WASD because they have no idea what keyboard any person may have and if it is a simple game like most are you dont need alot of keys so it's not worth the risk to move further into the keyboard.

Also one other reason companies do not care is many companies do not even realize the level their game will be played at. Valve is a great example. They built games time and time again that would seem simple but due to bugs or advanced tactics you would need to constantly be pressing many keys. If you played HL2DM you had to push 6 keys almost all the time and there was no way to even do that with 1 hand. Yet valve layed out the keyboard so all 6 of those keys were on the keyboard but if you wanted to be flexible and play hard you had to move at least 1 over to the mouse.

In the end it was all about key density and that was all the more keys you can reach faster the better.

And to answer the OP middle finger was always on forward.
 
ballpoint said:
Listen, don't be dismissive of ESDF. Most people's reason seems to be that they're used to it. Sheep should not be dismissive!

ESDF is the home row. If you have trouble reaching shift from the home row, you must have trouble with typing in general?

ESDF makes it hard for me to reach CTRL easily in gaming. I just bind CTRL to a slow action and use all the extra buttons now in reach (T,G,B) for fast actions.

The main reason I switched from WASD to ESDF, apart from it just feeling more natural to me, is WASD seems to place importance on CAPS LOCK which is something I try to never, ever press.
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Ding, ding, ding.

I'm right there with you, I started using ESDF a few months after getting into FPS games on the PC. UT2k4 was much easier once I had a key for each weapon and was able to find my place back on the home row by feel. Unfortunately the downside of having to rebind your keys really rears it's ugly head when developers can't implement a proper system, BF3 beta obviously comes to mind.
 
I think 2KRO is why I started using right-click for jump and spacebar for crouch back in the day, being a huge Quake 2 & 3 player.

I kinda miss right-click for jump and might go back to it.
 
The argument for WASD modifiers isn't saying they can't access them using ESDF, it's just that it's easier. When I type, I don't need to reach Ctrl that often. When I'm playing, I use it frequently, so WASD let's me rest my pink on Ctrl with ease (Shift is still easy to use in ESDF). With ESDF, I have to reach for Ctrl, so it's slow and gets tiring. I also feel Alt is a lot harder to use, since it moves even further from my thumb and reaching with my pinky requires a rotation of my hand (for me, when using WASD, the Windows key is fortunately the hidden one in no man's land). Modifier access becomes a lot different while gaming than typing, since you want to always keep fingers on the movement cluster.

I like WASD since the modifiers open up a lot more potential key assignments, plus it doesn't require me to reconfigure every single game. Most games don't need that many key assignments, if they do, I've got them with modifiers.
 
WSER. E/R is strafe left/right. It allows your 3 strongest fingers to rest comfortably in a row, and gives you Q-A-D-Z as very easily accessible keys. I use A to reload, while Q/Z/D are game specific. Z is prone in games that have it, and mouse thumb button is crouch.
 
I'm a bit confused as to how modifier keys give you more key assignments than regular keys?
 
ballpoint said:
I'm a bit confused as to how modifier keys give you more key assignments than regular keys?
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R, Shift + R, Ctrl + R, Alt + R, etc lets you use R for a lot of assignments. There are even more if you start using double modifiers.
 
eurin said:
R, Shift + R, Ctrl + R, Alt + R, etc lets you use R for a lot of assignments. There are even more if you start using double modifiers.
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:confused:

But... what game looks at the keyboard that way?

In all games that I'm aware of, pressing Shift+R means you're sending whatever command is attached to shift, and whatever command is attached to R. Pressing shift doesn't change what R does, it just does what shift does.

I can't think of a game that looks at modifier keys the way you describe. I don't play MMOs and it's been a long time since I played RTS, maybe I'm out of touch.
 
ballpoint said:
:confused:

But... what game looks at the keyboard that way?

In all games that I'm aware of, pressing Shift+R means you're sending whatever command is attached to shift, and whatever command is attached to R. Pressing shift doesn't change what R does, it just does what shift does.

I can't think of a game that looks at modifier keys the way you describe. I don't play MMOs and it's been a long time since I played RTS, maybe I'm out of touch.
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MMOs are what I use them for. I really don't run out of keys in other games.
 
Well now I'm talking about something I don't really know, but I'd probably still use ESDF and then bind a mouse button to a modifier key. Best of both worlds. Maybe the pre-set key layout is so elaborate as to make that impractical or overly painful.

eurin said:
MMOs are what I use them for. I really don't run out of keys in other games.
Click to expand...
 
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