steelattack said:

iga_bobovic said:

No one is testy. Just direct, that is the awesome part of this forum!

No, the awesome part of this forum is that anyone can ask anyone to stop being a dick.

What's all this testy and dick talk?

I was about to put my preorder in for Captain Rainbow at PlayAsia, got totally distracted and filled out the shipping address information all wrong!

I said at the very beginning that maybe it would be helpful to have two separate boards. One for gaming, one for OT shit.

What's that Capt. Rainbow game about, Leo? Does it involve wangs?

iga_bobovic said:

dvader said:

The ideal thing would be to have a wiimote shape and add more buttons, should not really be an issue. Its just so many people are used to the PS/360 type controller that I quickly made up something that keeps that type of design but allows for a sensor.

So you decided to make adjustments to appease some people. Listen Vader Nintendo did that with Twilight Princess. It was everything the fans wanted and yet they complained. The leason, people are retarded, do not listen to them. Same thing applies to your situation.

And they made one of the best games ever made because of it, your point is... the people that complained, well lets say people complain about everything.  Zelda: TP is a masterpiece. Thankfully I will take your advice and not listen to you.

Ohhh snap!

steelattack said:

And at that cameltoe Hingis pic. Haven't noticed it before.

So you guys have noticed it too. I thought I was the only one. By the way I kinda like the disorganized thing here, but I do agree that we need a seperate forum.

P.S. Leo did you just call Nole fugly? You sir have no taste!

hiresdes said:

Omg we can't have a little off topic discussion? Its not like it was taking up the whole board, in case you missed it we just had a big discussion about IR Sensors, Motion Control, and the next generation of consoles. I don't mean to be an asshole, but I thought the whole reason behind this site wasn't just for news, was so that we could engage in some lighthearted discussion free of restrictions...If you want organized, post on GS, thats how I feel.

Stop bitching. Asshole.

Haha, glad to know that others saw the camel's toe, too. Must be really sandy and dry, ya think?

Anyway, more on-topic stuff: The only plausible ways I can think of to make a practical pointer-capable controller are to make it gun-like or wand-shaped (the latter being what the Wii employs). It seems to me that both options have the ability to improve aim and precision, but at the cost of controller complexity in number of buttons or, more generally, functions. This is due to the need for stability as I've mentioned in relation to the above mock-ups. Today's traditional controllers owe their practicality and utility to the fact that they can and do extend into the center from the sides. Functional units (buttons, sticks, d-pads, etc.) can be placed away from the grips without negative consequences because there is another hand holding the controller to keep it steady and in place.

All modern controllers that I am aware of limit the face button layout so that the outer-most functional unit is above the grip on either side, centered or off-center--this is due to our thumbs' flexibility. This provides the outer boundary for functional units on the face of the controller. The inner boundary is, at smallest, as far in as it takes for both thumbs, extended horizontally, to touch (for small controllers); and at greatest, as far in as the thumbs will go without making one reposition one's hand on the grip. However, the issue of comfort further limits functional unit placement. While it could be argued that buttons such as "Start" and "Select" could be placed anywhere on the face, buttons, sticks, etc. should only be placed in regions that are comfortably reached without repositioning of the hand being necessary.

With a split DualShock-style controller, repositioning would likely be necessary to attempt to handle the controller comfortably and well, as I explained previously. With this type of controller, there is that additional contraint on where functional units can be placed. We know that either type of single-hand controller I mentioned (gun or wand) can have at least one functional unit (probably only feasibly a button) on the underside, and the gun-type may have a stick on the upper grip or the face immediately above the grip, but I don't know how well it would work, since it would obstruct any face buttons. So without being able to fathom how such an arrangement on a gun-type would work, we might want to think about how the stick would work on a controller like the one that Rag posted a pic of. In my opinion, the stick's placement is outside of the physical boundary I stipulated above. Finally, I just don't see how a stick would work well at all on a wand-type controller. The kind of grip we use for objects of that shape just doesn't seem like it would comfortably accomodate something sticking a centimeter or so above the surface on any part of the face, which we would be using extensively and moving in all directions.

Even if we solved the stick problem, there would then be the problem of button placement. They must be placed so as to allow for fluid play in speedy games such as Ninja Gaiden. Given the stability issues I talked about with sticks, we should assume that face buttons have the same boundary conditions on a single-hand controller. However, I believe those same boundary conditions rule out button placement such as we have with the 1, 2, "+", and "-" buttons on the Wiimote, and even the d-pad is a little too far away for comfort. I certainly would not have designed the controller in such a way. So there is, ideally, less space for buttons on a wand-type controller than what the Wiimote gives us. And because we need both comfort and quick access, the buttons must lie on the top, facing vertically, since our thumb has to both manage a stick and have quick access to buttons.

All of this reasoning leads me to believe that a stick can not be paired with face buttons on a single-hand controller.

The above makes me think that there is no way to incorporate pointer functionality into the right-hand side of a split traditional-style controller, as the right stick would have nowhere to go. So it looks like it's one or the other, traditional or non-, unless we want to have a traditional controller that splits, as in the previous picture, although I think that would make the right stick useless.

dvader said:

steelattack said:

hiresdes said:

Omg we can't have a little off topic discussion? Its not like it was taking up the whole board, in case you missed it we just had a big discussion about IR Sensors, Motion Control, and the next generation of consoles. I don't mean to be an asshole, but I thought the whole reason behind this site wasn't just for news, was so that we could engage in some lighthearted discussion free of restrictions...If you want organized, post on GS, thats how I feel.

Stop bitching. Asshole.

If the mods could say that at GS it would be such a better place.

(Not that I think hires is an a-hole, your awesome,  just love the funny comment Steel made.)

whatever assholes!

What happened to Insert Coin's new cat? Is he still alive? Was he named Higgins?

steelattack said:

What happened to Insert Coin's new cat? Is he still alive? Was he named Higgins?

I've been wondering the same thing, I need to stay updated on the status of this cat's name.