Ideas for next Gen Controllers

[Roxor]

The controller has come along way, the left analog is superior to WASD for movement...it's true, an analog stick can have a thousand different forward velocities a keyboard has 2.

In a lot of PC games, the Left Shift is dedicated to Run which can be accomplished by simply applying more pressure to a analog stick.

The Right Analog stick is a joke when compared to the Mouse: auto aiming systems, curving bullets, the fact that Uncharted 3's gun play got brow beaten into submission.

With this in mind, the best next gen console would have a "left side" with a Analog and a clicky D-Pad and the "righ tside" would have to emulate a mouse.

Okay, this is making me think of a couple of roughly cylindrical controllers with straps to go around your hands. One for the left hand with a joystick controlled by the thumb and eight buttons controlled by the fingers. The one for the right hand serving as a 3D motion sensor with a button for each finger and a scroll-wheel under the thumb. Is that about it?

 

[R3VOLU7ION]

I think the only thing I would do to a controller is something similar to the Wii u. It might be the same actually I haven't really looked into it too much. But I would have a touch screen in the middle of the controller (maybe not as big as the Wii u's) which would display the menus constantly. I don't know though, it's just a thought.

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

I think this was discussed years ago when the PS3 first came out, but what about a controller that actively changes temperature depending on the context of the game itself? If you're in a cold area, the controller goes cold. If you're in a hot area or get hurt, the controller heats up. It'd be cool if when you're firing a turret and the gun heats up, the controller gets hotter gradually.

Might post safety risks or seem gimmicky, but when done right, this could enhance immersion. Like motion controls in a way. What do you guys think?

That sounds like a badass idea. Like the rumble feature, but temperature.

I believe they are testing materials that use small electric currents to change how something, such as a smartphone screen feels. If they added those to a controller with the temperature thing above...

epic, and much better than bloody motion controls.

 

[Kyle Meadows]

What really funny here is that you start of by trying to use my language to discredit me. Yes, I said 'a lot.' Big deal. What's dumb is your apparent assumption that it takes no money to add an extensive layer of coding to react in the exact way a control would by precisely detect human movement. This requires first that programmers spend days get the lines perfect, so that bugs and glitches are minimal. Of course, they need human feed back, so then they hire beta testers. These beta testers sometimes need weeks to locate all the bugs, and then they send error reports and fix them, and then retest, retest, and retest. This takes hours. Hours cost money. And all of that on top of developing the core game to work on two different platforms. Fun fact: They cut Future Soldier from the PC. They said because 95% would pirate the game. This implies that they can't afford that profit loss from porting it from consoles. Why is that? Certainly if they hadn't put all those man hours into testing and retesting the Kinect, they may have had incentive to do the PC version. And on top of that, the time and money spent on Kinect, even if it was never going to PC, could have been spent refining other aspects of the game and even adding extra content.

I don't have to rely on your poor language skills to discredit you, however, if you cannot even proof read a forum post how do you expect to proofread schematics on your "prototype"?

When did I ever assume it takes no money to encode a game for Kinect? You try and use words like "cute" towards me as if you think you're coy. Yet you find yourself in a discussion, attempt to make a decent argument for your case, and instead of quoting actual figures to support your side... you simply state, "a lot". Like some 5 year old trying to describe how many jelly beans are in the jar. You seem to have general knowledge of how a game is created, but nothing more you couldn't of learned from checking out Wikipedia. I'm sure it does cost "a lot" of money, but where is your data that proves coding for the Kinect costs the company a tremendous amount more past the INITIAL coding cost?

I see you also do not know the difference between 'imply' and 'in my opinion'. Let me show you a real implication:
Fun Fact: 1 out of 5000 inventions have successful product launches. Black Enterprise, June 1, 1999.
This implies your little invention will fail.

And I really didn't even want to dignify your second paragraph with a response, but here it goes: we've already had facial recognition software. If had it back into the early 2000s. This is fact. And yeah, I can gimmicks gimmicks. How many hard core games are on the Wii? Other than exclusives, not many. How long did it take the first Modern Warfare to hit the Wii? They re-encoded the whole game to Wii motion controls. The games that came out on PS3 have Move 'support.' The ones that were entirely move based did not do well over all. And while Kinect sold well last Christmas, there is a sharp decline in units sold this year. That's a gimmick. A controller you twist to pause to free up buttons on it for maximization? Much less of a gimmick.

Yes we had facial recognition software back then. The first tablet PC was created by Microsoft in 2002 and wasn't really accpect until Steve Jobs brainwashed everyone into thinking he did in 2010. Im sorry, when someone states the obvious but not actually relevant I feel I have too as well.

Sold well last Christmas is an understatement. It sold 8 million units in the first 60 days on the market and shipped 10 million units by March 9, 2011. It won the Guiness World Record for "fastest selling consumer electronics device". [link]http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Kinect-Confirmed-As-Fastest-Selling-Consumer-Electronics-Device/blog/3376939/7691.html[/link]
This implies most people already have one and have not needed to buy a second. As for the gimmick statement, Kinect won T3's "Gadget of the Year" and "Gaming Gadget of the Year", additionally Popular Mechanics ranked it #2 in "The 10 Most Innovative Tech Products of 2011". So forgive me if I'm having a hard time drooling over something that spins to bring up menus...

And you want to talk about hardcore gamers? They hate motion controls. At least, the majority does. Ask an actual hardcore gamer how he feels about the Wii. If he has one, its for the exclusives or entertaining party games. You think they'd be bothered by having more buttons for combos, or more buttons to shoot people with, or buttons to perform actions with? You must think they're fine with standing up and and making movements to get their gun. A lot of us DON'T want that. Ergo, a gimmick. Gamers are always looking for ways to squeeze more from an experience. not all of them want a new one. So I suggest a twist-able controller-- and suddenly I'm wet over it by calling your precious Kinect a gimmick. Even my friends that love the Kinect say its a gimmick.

I know you "hardcore" gamer types. You're right, you dont like anything actually innovative or new. Probably because your intellect cannot handle the pressure of acceptance. Let me take this time to address your comment on CoD MW and Wii. I used to love the CoD series, but its gone downhill. It's become the Madden of FPS. Every single year a new one comes that looks exactly the same as the previous...and every year people act like a miracle happened. Im tired of cookie cutter games and it sickens me they do so well. Why did Nintendo take so long to accept CoD? Because they like to push the limits of their devices. Instead of making extra buttons to bring up menus, they developed 3D technology in a handheld device that doesn't even require glasses. Nintendo doesn't bother as much with fads because they're busy with actually making something new.

I try to use words like cute to be coy, yes. You try to use words like "noob" and "getting wet" like somehow they validate your argument. I'm far from being a hardcore gamer. I have too many games, mostly old and a few new, to be a dedicated hardcore gamer. And when did this go from an idea to an invention? in fact, when did I say I was making jack? Its a gimmick, just like the Kinect is still a gimmick. It will always be a gimmick. It was created and tagged on to the new 360 unit, and shut out owners of the original 360 from access. That's a gimmick. Is it a fancy gimmick? Yes. Hell, the 3DS is based on a Gimmick, and I love that thing to death. Maybe one day it won't be a gimmick. Maybe one day, instead of being an attachment you can buy and then use only once in a while it will be the core of the system. Maybe it'll be a full body setup. Maybe it will evolve well beyond what it is. But its a gimmick now. However, I will agree with you on Call of Duty as a franchise. It has gone to shit. They copy past it and have made the engine to such specifications that they can produce them annually and maximize profits by on slightly upgrading the graphics. The multiplayer also never changes. According to the reports of someone who worked on the third game, the engine is so well polished by now that he referred to it as a 'Porsche,' and not a single line of code obstructed another. Because of its ordered nature they're easier to make. After all, the base engine has been in use since CoD2. I was legitmately let down when MW3 sold well. I thought I heard the industry shoot itself in the foot.

 

[Kyle Meadows]

So, I was playing Skyrim on my PS3. As many of you who own it know, the circle button opens the menu. Well, perhaps it is only because my controller is damaged beyond repair, but I noticed that if I twist it the right way on the right side the menu opens. So then, I had a thought: What if this could be incorporated into a next gen controller? Think guys: to open the menu no longer takes a button. Merely twist either side of the controller. That means every button can be used for an action, thus optimizing the players experience. What do you think? And do you guys have any other ideas?

This already exists my friend, it's called the Razer Hydra. I use this for Skyrim right now and the it's nice for navigating menus because you can just hold the left bumper then tilt your hand to go to whichever menu you need (Tilt up for level up, right for inventory, left for magic and down for map) and there are several other gestures for various actions such as jumping, crouching and sheathing your weapons. It's still early in development and most games you have to use the beta control schemes that sixense releases themselves but when they finally update it so you can update control schemes on the fly it's going to be the best controller for most games out there. It's hard to believe a motion controller can rival a mouse in precision but the hydra honest;y does.

I love you right now. So very much. Is there a link? Can i see it sir? No, don't bother: I SHALL GOOGLE IT AT ONCE.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I like controllers the way they are or rather, the way they were. It looks like motion controls are in and, taking place of traditional game pads. Granted, I like how the Wii-U put the triggers, control cross and, buttons on their tablet. Otherwise, I hope the next PS controller is more like the PS2 controller. As for the next Xbox, I don't worry too much about them. If Kinect becomes then new standard then I'm done with that company. I don't see that as being the case though so hopefully they'll stick to the Xbox Controller-S or, standard 360 control pad.

I miss the Gamecube controller. It made Brawl and, Mario Kart Wii playable for me.

 

[Kyle Meadows]

So, I was playing Skyrim on my PS3. As many of you who own it know, the circle button opens the menu. Well, perhaps it is only because my controller is damaged beyond repair, but I noticed that if I twist it the right way on the right side the menu opens. So then, I had a thought: What if this could be incorporated into a next gen controller? Think guys: to open the menu no longer takes a button. Merely twist either side of the controller. That means every button can be used for an action, thus optimizing the players experience. What do you think? And do you guys have any other ideas?

This already exists my friend, it's called the Razer Hydra. I use this for Skyrim right now and the it's nice for navigating menus because you can just hold the left bumper then tilt your hand to go to whichever menu you need (Tilt up for level up, right for inventory, left for magic and down for map) and there are several other gestures for various actions such as jumping, crouching and sheathing your weapons. It's still early in development and most games you have to use the beta control schemes that sixense releases themselves but when they finally update it so you can update control schemes on the fly it's going to be the best controller for most games out there. It's hard to believe a motion controller can rival a mouse in precision but the hydra honest;y does.

I love you right now. So very much. Is there a link? Can i see it sir? No, don't bother: I SHALL GOOGLE IT AT ONCE.

Now it merely needs to work on the PS3. Can it? Please say it can.

 

[])rStrangelove]

Would love to have a controller jacket with 30+ sensors in it. Every move you do can be recorded and stored as a trigger-shortcut.

So you can decide what move you're doing activates which movement/action in any game you play.

You wanna do a parry in AC with just pointing you right hand upwards? Sure.
You wanna do the exact movement as you see Ezio is doing it in AC? Sure, and good luck with your muscels going numb after an hour.


Thing is: i want freedom to do what i want with a controller. Opensource software all the way.

 

[Solo-Wing]

So, I was playing Skyrim on my PS3. As many of you who own it know, the circle button opens the menu. Well, perhaps it is only because my controller is damaged beyond repair, but I noticed that if I twist it the right way on the right side the menu opens. So then, I had a thought: What if this could be incorporated into a next gen controller? Think guys: to open the menu no longer takes a button. Merely twist either side of the controller. That means every button can be used for an action, thus optimizing the players experience. What do you think? And do you guys have any other ideas?

Do you mean twisting the Controllers handles? I mean it sounds good but I am sure it would be annoying to everybody cause I know for a fact people will always be twisting by accident. Plus that sounds like something that would break really easily.

 

[Mafoobula]

Ooooookay, I'm getting the feeling that people are getting way too damned worked up over what started as a fun little "would this be interesting?" scenario.

OP, I think your idea has some merit. Adding functionality to a controller without adding another couple buttons isn't easy, and I think you've hit on an ideal solution: Don't add buttons, change the buttons that are already on there to do more than be simple buttons.

Now, consider: Is the d-pad all that necessary anymore? I, for one, rather liked the analog nub/pad of the PSP, and I think with the octagonal mold taken from the Gamecube's analog sticks, it would make a fine enough replacement for the d-pad. I know, it's heresy to say such a thing, getting rid of a control mechanism that's been omnipresent since the NES, I just think in this era, we can at the very least improve on the old tried and true design.

 

[Mushroom 118i]

My idea of next-generation controllers: Make the entire thing open-source. Bundle the controller with a DVD containing drivers for all operating systems, the full source code for those drivers, hardware description language implementations of the chips in the controller, and the full schematics of the device.

Way to scare off the casuals, dude. People are scared off by the amount of buttons on current gen controllers, and you think having to set up drivers and including schematics to look at before you can use a controller won't?

 

[Wushu Panda]

I try to use words like cute to be coy, yes. You try to use words like "noob" and "getting wet" like somehow they validate your argument. I'm far from being a hardcore gamer. I have too many games, mostly old and a few new, to be a dedicated hardcore gamer. And when did this go from an idea to an invention? in fact, when did I say I was making jack? Its a gimmick, just like the Kinect is still a gimmick. It will always be a gimmick. It was created and tagged on to the new 360 unit, and shut out owners of the original 360 from access. That's a gimmick. Is it a fancy gimmick? Yes. Hell, the 3DS is based on a Gimmick, and I love that thing to death. Maybe one day it won't be a gimmick. Maybe one day, instead of being an attachment you can buy and then use only once in a while it will be the core of the system. Maybe it'll be a full body setup. Maybe it will evolve well beyond what it is. But its a gimmick now. However, I will agree with you on Call of Duty as a franchise. It has gone to shit. They copy past it and have made the engine to such specifications that they can produce them annually and maximize profits by on slightly upgrading the graphics. The multiplayer also never changes. According to the reports of someone who worked on the third game, the engine is so well polished by now that he referred to it as a 'Porsche,' and not a single line of code obstructed another. Because of its ordered nature they're easier to make. After all, the base engine has been in use since CoD2. I was legitmately let down when MW3 sold well. I thought I heard the industry shoot itself in the foot.

When did this go from idea to invention?

Now, you honestly think I wouldn't take into account the twisting motion being done accidentally? Its called a prototype...

You referred to your "prototype". I suppose I shouldn't be surprised because you've been throwing around quite a few words of which you do not know the actual meaning. A prototype is a physical model, the first model you base production on.

 

[GeorgW]

The future of controllers already exists, the N64. Think about it, it's designed to be used hundreds of years from now when we've all grown another arm!

As for more recent designs, grip is important, but the 360 has that covered rather nicely. I don't care much for built in motion controls like the PS3, it hasn't really been utilised so far, so why should it be now? I guess some sort of tablet like the WiiU is pretty nice, but I'd much prefer something smaller. Perhaps just a little screen with output, but no input, too expensive.

 

[WarCorrespondent]

In my opinion, the perfect controller will come about when Nintendo spends some serious time an thought figuring out everything that was wrong with the GameCube controller, then updates it. Wireless and token but EXTREMELY non-essential motion controls can come too.

 

[Roxor]

My idea of next-generation controllers: Make the entire thing open-source. Bundle the controller with a DVD containing drivers for all operating systems, the full source code for those drivers, hardware description language implementations of the chips in the controller, and the full schematics of the device.

Way to scare off the casuals, dude. People are scared off by the amount of buttons on current gen controllers, and you think having to set up drivers and including schematics to look at before you can use a controller won't?

I never said anything about requiring people to look at the schematics before using the controller. Please pay more attention to what you're reading.

Regarding drivers, I had to install Windows drivers when I bought an Xbox 360 controller to use with my computer. I don't see any reason why users of other operating systems shouldn't get drivers for their OS of choice.

 

[Conor Hildebrandt]

So, I was playing Skyrim on my PS3. As many of you who own it know, the circle button opens the menu. Well, perhaps it is only because my controller is damaged beyond repair, but I noticed that if I twist it the right way on the right side the menu opens. So then, I had a thought: What if this could be incorporated into a next gen controller? Think guys: to open the menu no longer takes a button. Merely twist either side of the controller. That means every button can be used for an action, thus optimizing the players experience. What do you think? And do you guys have any other ideas?

This already exists my friend, it's called the Razer Hydra. I use this for Skyrim right now and the it's nice for navigating menus because you can just hold the left bumper then tilt your hand to go to whichever menu you need (Tilt up for level up, right for inventory, left for magic and down for map) and there are several other gestures for various actions such as jumping, crouching and sheathing your weapons. It's still early in development and most games you have to use the beta control schemes that sixense releases themselves but when they finally update it so you can update control schemes on the fly it's going to be the best controller for most games out there. It's hard to believe a motion controller can rival a mouse in precision but the hydra honest;y does.

I love you right now. So very much. Is there a link? Can i see it sir? No, don't bother: I SHALL GOOGLE IT AT ONCE.

Now it merely needs to work on the PS3. Can it? Please say it can.

Unfortunately no, Razer said that theoretically it is possible for it to work on the PS3/XBox 360 but they would need Sony and/or Microsoft's support to actually implement it and that's doubtful considering they want to sell their own motion controllers

 

[him over there]

The only thing I can think of is having varying pressure for a few buttons like the gamecube controllers triggers. Press lightly to something, press until it clicks to do a variant of what lightly does.