21.1 Game Controller Characteristics
Here are the important characteristics of game controllers:
- Type
-
The first game controllers were joystick
controllers, which are still popular and still most
appropriate for playing flight simulator and air combat games. Some
are marginally usable for some driving, racing, action/adventure, and
sports games. Steering wheel
controllers, many of which include foot pedals,
are ideal for driving/racing games and some flight simulators, but
ill suited to other games. Gamepad
controllers are
suitable for action games, including first-person shooters, sports,
and most arcade-style games.
- Number of axes
-
An axis is a line drawn through the center
of the joystick (or the D-pad on a gamepad) that defines the
directions that one can move by manipulating the controls. All
controllers have an
x-axis (side to side movement) and a
y-axis (front to back). Some controllers
add a z-axis (up and down) and/or a
throttle axis. Depending on the
controller type, the third and/or fourth axes may also be called a
yoke control or rudder
control, for their intended function, or a
twist control, for the method used to activate
the axis.
- Throttle
-
The throttle is a variable input, present on
most joysticks and some gamepads, and normally assigned to the third
or fourth axis on the controller. The throttle is usually used to
control vehicle speed, and may be a slider, wheel, pedal, or
variable-pull trigger, depending on the controller.
- Response type
-
Motion along
an axis can be tracked in two ways. Proportional
response (common with joysticks) offers finer
control, because small stick movement results in small incremental
movement on screen. Non-proportional
response (common with gamepads) is
all-or-nothing—any movement of the control along an axis
results in full motion on that axis, offering faster response at the
expense of fine control. Some controllers are programmable to allow
choosing between proportional and non-proportional modes.
- Number of buttons
-
All controllers have buttons, which are momentary-on switches used to
fire weapons and perform similar on/off functions. Pure analog
controllers are limited to two or four buttons by the gameport
itself. Digital controllers and the Microsoft DirectInput API allow
using any number of buttons.
- Hat switch
-
A hat switch, sometimes called a POV
hat, a Point of View hat, or
just a hat, is called that because it usually
resides on the head of the joystick, where it's
easily manipulated by the thumb. The hat switch is a directional
rocker switch (usually four-way, but sometimes eight-way) that allows
you to rapidly change your point of view to face front, rear, left,
or right. Games that do not support POV may use the hat to provide
four extra buttons.
- Force feedback
-
Recent high-end game controllers have
force-feedback technology, which uses
small servo motors built into the game controller itself to provide
physical feedback under the control of game software designed to use
force feedback. For example, with a force-feedback joystick, as you
pull a 7G turn you feel the joystick jerk and jitter as the aircraft
control surfaces lose laminar flow, but as you extend to gain
airspeed, the controls settle down again. When you come up on the six
of a bandit and begin hosing him down with your 30mm rotary cannon,
the joystick stutters as the gun recoils.
Well-implemented force feedback greatly enhances the ambiance of
games that support it properly, but the quality of force-feedback
hardware varies greatly between controllers. Even more important,
games vary greatly in how well they integrate force feedback.
Well-designed games use it elegantly to make the game more immersive.
Many games, however, have simply grafted on minimal force-feedback
support, and use it in only the most basic ways. This problem seems
to be disappearing as new releases of such games usually make better
use of force feedback. The only real drawback to force feedback is
that it is expensive. A $50 controller without force feedback might
cost $100 with it. Interestingly, this same technology (in much
enhanced form) is used in current fly-by-wire combat aircraft.
- Programmability
-
All current game controllers include DirectInput drivers or are
compatible with standard Windows 9X drivers. A DirectInput-compliant
controller can be programmed within any DirectInput-compliant game.
However, DirectInput provides only basic functionality, so many
controllers come with their own programming software that provides
extended functionality, including:
- Cross-game commonality
-
By default, games may use different
buttons for similar purposes. For example, one air combat game may
use button 1 to fire guns, button 2 to launch a Sidewinder, and
button 3 to launch a Sparrow. Another air combat game may offer
similar weapons selection, but use different buttons. Programmable
game controllers allow you to redefine button functions so that the
same button performs similar actions in different games.
- Stored profiles
-
Many modern game controllers are quite
flexible and may be used with diverse games. Optimal controller
configuration for one game, however, may be less desirable for
another. Better game controllers can store multiple groups of
configuration settings, called
macros or
profiles, that allow you to quickly
load whichever settings are most appropriate for the game
you're about to play, rather than having to
reprogram the controller manually each time. Most such controllers
come with predefined settings for various popular games.
- Interface
-
Analog game controllers connect to the gameport. Digital game
controllers connect to the gameport or to a USB port. Analog
controllers are obsolete, although millions of them are still in
service. Analog controllers provide limited functionality, require
frequent calibration, and using them degrades system performance.
Digital game controllers provide greater functionality, seldom or
never require calibration, and do not degrade system performance, so
all game controller development now focuses on digital, and in
particular on USB.
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