gamepad vs mouse,, thumbmouse video, :::vs::: high performance fpv rc gimbals>?

[tsmspace]

So,, I just watched this video and since I am also unhappy with pop "gummy" controllers, I am interested in opinions. 

 

 

Everyone is pretty much certain that the mouse wins in First Person Shooters vs. the gamepad, but why is that?? Well,, the mouse has a lot of improvements where the gamepad has lots of compensations. The gamepad sticks are super short, the potentiometers are of average quality, and the resulting precision of the sticks is limited. What the result as for game performance is,, the rates of the game controllers have to be tuned down in order to maintain fine motion precision, and the deadzones have to be quite large. With rc fpv drones,, the solution is longer sticks, higher rates with expo (just like a mouse has), and good materials in construction to lend stability, consistency, etc. So, with a mouse, if you move far all at once, the rates go up a lot, but if you move slow, the cursor moves slow. , this is also true with a joystick, but the max rate has to be turned down because there is very little room in between max and min. With a longer stick, the thumb has to move further to deflect the stick the same amount, so the precision is inherently higher, and the rates can be adjusted accordingly. 

 

Some downsides of the mousy gamepad as shown in the video: , you can no longer push buttons with the thumb. You need extra parts which means gets lost, but further disables the thumb. The entire surface of the gamepad is occupied, so even if you don't need that 2 axis controller for that moment, there still aren't any buttons. 

 

some plus-sides: well,, it's a mouse, and comes built in with decades of mouse improvement in the drivers and gameplay. 

 

some downsides of a normal mouse and keyboard: it has to be mounted in front of you. (well, on a table, which is basically the same as needing a mounting surface). It only has 2 analog axis, which means gameplay needs to be heavily tuned for keys. 

 

some reasons to not care about the performance improvement in games: , well,, you can move your mouse-hand at incredible speed, but if you were to drive a machine remotely, you would simply not be able to expect that kind of performance. For all simulations the rate of movement would be according to the limitations of the machine, and the mouse is honestly not a very intuitive way to interact with such equipment. A stick is very intuitive for machine control simulation, (car gamers love it, for example). 

 

some downsides of a longer stick: it's harder to reach the stick, therefore it would be harder to reach the stick then the buttons etc.,, gamepad usership is greatly improved by having a compact design. With a longer stick you will likewise need a larger range of motion, so it will be harder to keep your other fingers in all kinds of different places. RC pilots have extremely long sticks, which are not necessary for game controllers necessarily, but many rc pilots rely on straps or belly-mounts or a table in order to access their sticks with enough range of motion. Not all rc controllers are so extreme, I flew fpv drones for a few years holding it like a game controller and never had a problem, but I never upgraded to the very very long sticks which high performance pilots often want. in rebuttal, however, gamepad sticks could be lengthened 1/2 inch and result in an enormous increase in precision, and the 1.5 inches that some sticks can be is really unnecessary. 

 

some upsides: you can still have buttons all over the controller. You don't need any extra parts. It won't really change in basic functionality, it's just that the controller will feel a little different. Lots of people wish they had more control over the rates than they do already, even with the shorty sticks. 

 

desired discussion relates to interest in this controller vs. interest in longer sticks, more control over the rates, and whether either will result in equal playing field against keyboard and mouse. 

 

aside: I also put together a custom controller, but for a different reason, I wanted 4 joysticks, thumbs and triggerfingers, in order to play 6dof games. I'm improving and I found it to be very intuitive compared to all other methods, although I admit there are some heavy-hitters in space games that have a lot of equipment I've never tried. Since I am playing a space simulator,, the rates of rotation are limited based on how a machine might be usable, not on the maximum velocity of rotation that a player might still be able to aim at, so I don't ever desire a mouse, and in fact find it counter intuitive to run 6dof on a mouse unless a fair degree of inertial stabilization is used, and I play pure newtonian only, even it means I drive like a newbie in a parking lot. I'm trying to show my own game controller concept in hopes that it will impact the future of 6dof newtonian games, because overall I feel that they are overlooked as a result of there being no intuitive control interface. (for example, it is very intuitive to run first person shooters with mouse and keys,, it is easy right away and never really confusing). I'm really not much of a videographer so this is my best attempt at showing it in action.