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WASD Replacement

It looks like a decent idea, but I'm thinking eventually you'll be tired of moving your entire hand and arm rather than just using your fingertips as usual. You'd have more fluid control with this thing yet more quickness with WASD.

Looks like it would be awesome for mech warrior though.
 
Looks neat but the main reason I got into computers was that I have 0 hand eye coordination. It took many years to half ass use a mouse. Now you want me move 2 things at once?

Nooooooooooooooo! Input overload!
 
I would be better if it were shaped and functioned more like a mouse. By that I mean you can hold it with your thumb and pinky and use wrist movements to control instead of your whole arm.
 
I tried running a joystick and a mouse when I needed multiple axis control in Descent. It worked pretty well (but this was over 15 years ago).

My FPS controls now are pretty unique - I have strafe left/right bound to the left/right buttons on the mouse. I don't think I could change that easily and adopt this controller. There would be a huge learning curve for me. As an aside, I hate games that won't let me bind the mouse buttons to something other than shoot/aim. I often end up having to do it in the mouse software.
 
I actually used something like this a long time ago. A4 came up with a joystick that was shaped like a throttle and I did use it on my left hand. Except it was designed to be held with the right and was kinda awkward. This is the same thing except designed for the left hand from the start.
 
I see a couple of big problems:

1. There is too much "play" in the joystick when moving from one direction to another. Watch how far the stick has to move going from back to forwards. Your hand is going to get tired and your response time will suffer.

2. The unit will have to be really heavy, or some with some sort of device to "stick" it to your desk. I didn't watch all the videos, but what they showed were "sniping" shots, not times of heavy action (I might have missed some of it though, I skipped through it). I can see heavy action, and going quickly from one direction to another and the stick falling over.


I grew up playing games with joysticks... there is a reason that PC games stuck with keyboards over the joystick for anything other than a flight sim.

This thing reminds me of a ... controller I got a long time ago, the Thrustmaster Fragmaster. It was garbage and I never actually got a single game to work right with it.

http://www.amazon.com/Thrustmaster-FragMaster-Dual-Joystick-Windows/dp/B008ADBUYY
 
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Most joysticks are too stiff to use as a WASD replacement.

Me? I never graduated from Doom to Quake, so I still use the arrow keys. I get around this using my trusty Logitech G700 (7 buttons + 3 mouse keys + middle mouse wheel that goes in/out for two extra inputs). Works surprisingly well.
 
I've been wanting a way to take movement in pc games off my fingers and into my wrist for longer than I can remember. Using your wrist to control movement gives more precision and frees your fingers up for more actions. It's a no-brainer really. This thing is coming close to what's need but misses the mark on a few things like ergonomics and the need to change directions quickly. Would be better as a tilt malechanism rather than a full joystick. Tilt like you see in 3d controller build for CAD and graphic design. I remember seeing g something like this before. It was shaped more like a mouse with buttons for each finger. The mouse shaped part that you placed you hand o to moved around in top of a pad much like a 3ds circle pad pro.
 
I want mental inputs on both my heads. That way, I have it covered as my input has zero lag and can use my own, very personal joystick.

Thanks, I will be here all week. Tip your servers!
 
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all you need is TFGH and some foot pedals if you want some kind of unique setup thats superior in every way to WASD.
 
spaceman said:
I want mental inputs on both my heads. That way, I have it covered as my input has zero lag and can use my own, very personal joystick.

Thanks, I will be here all week. Tip your servers!
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826100006

I doubt you can actually move faster with it but it's probably meant to complement your existing mouse and keyboard controllers, like weapon switching, gadgets, spotting, or other secondary controls so you don't have to look down on the keyboard. Sort of like a mental version of game command (the voice controller)
 
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SeeThruHead said:
That doesnt bring analogue to PC game movement, something console gaming has had for quite a long time.
Click to expand...

But this doesn't give true analog to PC users, as far as what the video demo shows, or even games without native gamepad support (x360 controller enabled, etc.). It only moves the binary control to your wrist and elbow.

Same issue Demon10000 and SeeThruHead point out above. Even if you get used to moving the stick 'just barely' enough to register in any direction, using your wrist/elbow motion is still going to have slower reaction times than what's possible with finger/wrist movement (mouse).

No, the pivot point needs to be in the handheld portion (top of the joystick shaft) for this (or any) device to be an improvement over WASD for binary movement control. Place the pivot there and the movements will emphasize the wrist for all directions (tilt to strafe, roll for forward/backward, 'twist' for turning). And still capable of analog feedback (if software allows).

And to nag a bit...The wrist motions used for gaming with a mouse (for most regular gamers I know, anyway) are fine motor skills. They are very small/precise adjustments that have little to no need for moving the elbow/shoulder. Even further, some (myself and a few I've talked to/seen play) limit their wrist movement and 'push' the mouse with their fingers.
 
Not sure how this is any better than the 3D Mice we have at work set to 2D mode (also looks a lot less responsive as well). I suppose the button positioning is a bit better but that's it; as you have to use all of your fingers to control a 3D mouse.

I never knew about that Strategic Commander, surprised it didn't catch on. Mind, it would never be accepted in modern competitive play so maybe it's better it didn't :D
 
Some of their claims are questionable. Humans are pretty dextrous, yet they claim that larger motions are easier for humans to grapple with and that minute motions are extremely difficult.

Seems to me that no human would achieve 100 WPM+ typing speeds if our fingers were the useless appendages they seem to believe, and that's with our fingers needing to go all over the place to find the right keys. With WASD on a keyboard, your fingers are mostly stationary. The chance of hitting the wrong key? Minute.

Maybe it's a decent product, but I'm turned off by their claims. I don't think any of them hold any water.
 
wonderfield said:
Some of their claims are questionable. Humans are pretty dextrous, yet they claim that larger motions are easier for humans to grapple with and that minute motions are extremely difficult.

Seems to me that no human would achieve 100 WPM+ typing speeds if our fingers were the useless appendages they seem to believe, and that's with our fingers needing to go all over the place to find the right keys. With WASD on a keyboard, your fingers are mostly stationary. The chance of hitting the wrong key? Minute.

Maybe it's a decent product, but I'm turned off by their claims. I don't think any of them hold any water.
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Gross motor skill vs Fine motor skill.
Gross motor skills are naturally more simple/easier to use and can be quicker.

That's why it's easier for people to aim quickly and fine with a mouse(gross motor skill) vs aiming with their thumb using ai joystick (fine motor skill).

Children for example will naturally learn/develop gross motor skills before fine motor skills.
 
Stiler said:
That's why it's easier for people to aim quickly and fine with a mouse(gross motor skill) vs aiming with their thumb using ai joystick (fine motor skill).
Click to expand...
Those are also two very different types of input devices. Joypad/joystick response is integrating (in most implementations), whereas mouse response is non-integrating. This doesn't appear to be significantly different from a keyboard with respect to forward/back/side-to-side movement.
 
Taht's the point though.

You fingers and moving them are fine motor skills. using their entire hand and moving it left/right/up/down (like with a mouse) is gross motor skills. Naturally it comes quicker to move your hand then it does to move each individual finger for specific things.
 
It LOOKS like it would give analog movement (like a joystick) but it's still all or nothing as far as movement goes. I would imagine this would be really awkward to use.
 
Games need to implement analogue movement. Most have the capability as they are setup to use an xbox 360 controller. I have played some games that require little buttons with an xbox 360 controller in my left hand and my mouse in the other. But wrist control > thumb control, and this thing frees up your thumb for 4 or more actions. I wish someone would update the microsoft commander, its much more ergonomic than this thing.

EDIT: in fact i think i'm going to buy a strategic commander off ebay.
 
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I like the idea and at first thought it could work, but after thinking about it, it would not work for "me". I am sure some people might get into this. I can not see having my left arm raised like that for long periods of time. My wrists(or balls of hands) are in a constant state of rest on the desk when using keyboard and mouse. Raising my wrist up in this manner would become tiresome over time. If they made it shorter and none analogish, it would work better. The top part is fine, where the hand sits, but they are concentrating too much on adding more keys on the bottom of it. If they took the hand portion and connected it to the base with a shorter stick so it did not stick up as much, I think it would work.
The example he was stating about being in an ambush and not responding quick enough is one of the reasons WASD works for me. I am wondering if they came up with this because they did not grow up with WASD in games and started out on consoles and moved to PC and did not like the setup.
 
I'll stick with my mouse and keyboard. I use the arrow keys instead of WASD.
 
I used to use the razr n52te for my left hand playing wow. It used the thumb on a controller like joystick for WASD replacement, and had 14 other buttons on a keyboard like layout for my other 4 fingers, giving me massive options for key binding.

I mapped the left most keys to ~,shift, and ctrl. ~ was for talk, and shift and ctrl were combined with the other 11 for other abilities, so I could map up to 33 abilities without any awkward hand movements. In fact my wrist rested comfortably on we'll designed device and I only moved it to the key board to type.

That seems like a better option than the product OP posted. The n52te still had its limitations though: the joystick for the thumb was too long, so movement might not be as quick as needed for competitive FPS. If they shortened it for better response it would be fine, but as it is it works great for casual play.
 
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