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cubytes's avatar
cubytes
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11 years ago

dual analog sticks controlling direct leg manipulation?

Hey Forum,

quick question:

has there ever been a game or demo or hack since the invention of dual analog sticks that leverages the analog sticks to directly control leg movement of the virtual character you are playing as in some fashion?

by direct leg manipulation i mean;
-tilt left stick forward to take a step forward with the left leg
-tilt right joystick forward shortly after releasing left joystick to take a step forward with the right leg
-continue to alternate the sticks one after another to continue to move forward
-the frequency of how you alternate the sticks determines your locomotion speed.

*well it wont be exactly 1:1; more like a little nudge here and a little nudge there but you get the idea.

i have not been able to find any game that has ever tried it. so it might be a very bad idea...

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  • cubytes's avatar
    cubytes
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    11 years ago
    i can think of three ways to make this work...

    stop motion animation



    like cids mini game but in first person perspective;fast forward to 4:09

    and a more complex way would be to leverage motion capture and procedural animation techniques




    imagine there was a cog-wheel that controls the throttling of these sequences of animations by rotating. bump tilt or nudge the left analog stick forward to rotate said cog-wheel by X thus driving the sequences of motion capture animations through one and a half steps. nudge the right analog stick forward to rotate the cog-wheel by X (only if left analog stick is centered or receding back to the center) to move forward another step and a half.

    another way to prototype this:
    -map forward locomotion to both analog sticks exactly the same way
    -you could move forward with either the left stick or the right stick (just not both at the same time)
    -then limit the amount of steps you can take with each joystick
    -in that you can only take 2 step with left stick and your character will stop
    -and the opposite is true as well you can only take two steps with the right stick and your character will stop
    -then practice doing the alternating patters to continuously move forward without getting stopped by the step limiting mechanic

    how does it feel?

    sure there will be a bit of a learning curve. but there is a learning curve to using the analog sticks to move around in 3D space as well. so that shouldn't automatically mean this is a "bad idea". we just learned it years ago. that's why it feels natural to us. but there is most definitely a learning curve to it. load up skyrim or any FPS hand a controller to an elderly person and be like this analog stick moves you and this one allows you look around. here you try it. i guarantee they will have issues moving around in 3D space unless they happen to be professional heavy equipment operators....

    with that said

    what i am most interested in is not how it feels to just walk forwards or backwards (hell you can even side step with this) but how this applies to rotation in VR games. in order to rotate with this control scheme you would have to bump one analog stick up and the other down at the same time to fast turn. or gently nudge them in opposite directions to turn slowly. if you dont hit them at the same time you will just move forwards or backwards instead. the timing must be precise....