Unusual control systems

[ríomhaire]

So as I posted in the purchases thread I recently acquired a Dualshock 3 (PS3) controller for my PC for platformers and such, using software called MotionInJoy to control it. I have just learned that it also supports the PS3 Move and Navigation controllers, which may sound useless at first, but as the two controllers are separate wireless entities so you can set it up with the Navigation controller, which looks like this:

in your left hand and your gaming mouse in your right. Analogue movement and mouse aiming. Sounds like it might be more comfortable than WASD to me. Here's a video of someone doing it:

What does everyone think?




Also, seeing as I said systems I'll add videos of the Razor Hydra in Novint Falcon:

 

[bobtheskull]

Always liked the idea of the Hydra... not sure how I'd cope with it though. I still get confused with WASD when I get into high stress situations sometimes. And Wii controllers just piss me off. I think the controller/mouse combo would fry my limited brain

I have a Nostromo, which is awesome, and that seems about as far as I'll manage.

 

[sanman]

I remember seeing this video awhile back, which involved the Kinect, Wiimote, and VR glasses:

Pretty unusual setup, but the results allow some exciting possibilities.

Here's somebody playing Skyrim using Sony's new HMZ-T1 video headset, TrackIR & Kinect :

If this VR-headset stuff starts to show up in gaming, then I'm there!

 

[ríomhaire]

Despite the music and visuals the game in that first video actually looks fun. I think the second video is fake though.

 

[sanman]

Well, if I could make my own controls, I would want to include a lightgun. I think the lightgun is the most natural way to play shooter games. The mouse and keyboard are too artificial.

But I'm not sure how you could get a lightgun and a VR headset to work together. The VR headset saves having to use a big screen, but meanwhile the lightgun wants a big screen to aim at. I guess if you can use IR for head-tracking on the headset, then you could use IR for the gun tracking/aim like Wiimote does. But Wiimote is not perfectly precise, and I think any hardcore gamer is going to want a perfectly precise lightgun, not one where the aim is messed up. What's needed is a way to improve lightgun precision, because once you get your lightgun accurate enough, then hooter games will be a joy to play.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Say hello to mech combat game Steel Battalion for the original Xbox Hueg.

 

[sanman]

But WTF happened with Steel Battlion 2?

What kind of morons try to shove motion-detection into a game, just for the sake of being hip and motion-gamey?
They should have used the original controller with this thing. No sense scrapping that huge-ass controller, just to replace it with Kinect. Even a virtual console is not as cool as a real console.

 

[sanman]

Take a look at this - it's a wrist-band gadget that picks up your neural signals, allowing them to be used to manipulate a robotic hand:

http://www.technicamix.com/2011/10/19/7-unbelievable-medical-gadgets/

I wish something like this could be used as a game controller. I can picture lots of games that would benefit from your being able to control a virtual hand onscreen.

Just imagine this wristband also measuring pulse rate and blood pressure, and transmitting everything wirelessly to your console and PC.

 

[Krynn72]

I can picture lots of games that would benefit from your being able to control a virtual hand onscreen.

The problem would be depth perception. It'd have to be used in conjunction with a vastly improved 3D rendering system.

 

[sanman]

Well, I've read reviews on Sony's HMZ-T1 headset, stating how good the quality of its 3D is - some people have said you could almost reach out and touch some objects. Perhaps these things would be very good complementary technologies to use in conjunction together.

I don't know that anyone has a good VR-glove out there on the market. Anyone heard of anything promising?