How can games have stiff controls?

[stebbinsd]

I can comprehend a lot about how games can be bad.

 

For example, I understand how graphics can suck. It depends on the artistic talent of the graphics designer.

 

I understand how gameplay can be boring and repetitive. I've played god knows how many Super Mario Maker levels that rely on cheap tricks as a substitute for challenge.

 

I can even understand how controls can be counter-intuitive. For example, I've seen AVGN make several comments about how games swapped around the buttons, so that "B" jumps and "A" does other things. That also makes sense.

 

But then, there are games where the controls do what you might expect them to do ... except for when they don't. Perhaps the best example I've ever seen of this is Dark Castle on CDi. The controls were so stiff and wonky that AVGN literally couldn't get passed the first screen in the game!

 

And THAT'S the part I don't get! How can that just be due to lack of skill from the programmer? That doesn't even make sense from a technological perspective. By all accounts, that shouldn't be possible.

 

How can you program a character to react a certain way you press a button ... and then the character simply doesn't react that way when you press the button?!

 

The only time this would make any sense at all, technologically speaking, is if the controls were analog in some way.

 

For example, the PC version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was never intended to be played with a controller. Unlike Skyrim or FO4, it doesn't come with controller support at all. I have tried, in the past, to shoehorn controller compatibility by using Xpadder, but even if I can get used to the idea of holding down the right trigger while I'm in menu mode rather than pressing the "A" button (again, much like the aforementioned "B is jump" issue from AVGN, I can understand the whole point of counter-intuitive controls), there's still problem of my character sometimes moving on his own.

 

This is because the D-stick, being analog, is almost always just a weeeeeeeeeee bit off-center due to gravity. Not enough that a game that actually has controller support would recognize, but enough that Xpadder would register it as being tilted. The PC version of Oblivion wasn't designed to have analog-based movement, where you tilt the D-stick slightly, your character moves slowly, but if you tilt it all the way, he runs; rather, the PC version of Oblivion was only designed to have two movement speeds, which you could toggle, not by tilting the D-stick, but by holding down the shift key. Thus, when Xpadder registers the D-stick being tilted, even slightly, your character is going to move.

 

So I can understand how some analog controls might be stiff.

 

However, this has been a problem long before analog controls became the norm. This is the main reason I'm placing this thread in "Classic Games." I mentioned Dark Castle on CDi, but then there's also games such as Shaq Fu on SNES and Genesis, which is notorious for having some of the stiffest controls of that console generation.

 

How is that even possible? With those controllers, the button is either pressed or it isn't. There's no gravity-based partial tilting that can confuse the game. You're either pressing right on the d-pad to move your character forward ... or you aren't.

 

So at that point, how can the game not react the way it's supposed to when you do the correct input? Does the game just not recognize that the button is being pressed? How is it even technically (as opposed to ... artistically) for a game only recognize a button press on occasion? Unless it's a hardware issue, how can the game - as opposed to the processor or motherboard - just not notice a button press?

 

And we know it's the game that's the problem. After all, if I swap out Shaq Fu for Super Metroid, the game will suddenly start controlling smoothly. So the hardware can't possibly be the problem. And yet ... the game only sometimes recognizes when the button is pressed.

 

It seems to me that the only way that could even be physically possible is if the game actually had an RNG system in place where it would randomly decide whether or not to react upon a certain button press. Like ... if you pressed right on the D-pad, there would only be a 50% chance of the character actually moving right. But that isn't incompetence on the part of the game programmer; that's an intentional design choice. The controls aren't "stiff" in that circumstance; that's the same as the "B is jump" fiasco.

 

So what gives? How is it even possible for a game, by accident rather than design, to have "stiff" or "unresponsive" controls?

[mgrandy]

Mouse and keyboard 5\5

Anolog controller 4/5

Digital controller 3/5

Steering wheel 4\5

 

Mouse/keyboard with a few macros 10\5

 

Enough said been the case for many years since the time of analogue came out.

It also takes a set number of nano secs (nanotime) to reach your device PC2 is the only true connection when it comes to this sort of stuff as that is what its made for

 

y does a gaming mouse have a wire? For this reason .....

 

A lot of it also depends on a game loop and to get graphics to move the computer recalculates the position every few secs just that fast your eyes don't notice the gaps. I'm happy to go into it in more detail if any of the above makes sense

 

Hardware can also help on this front by doing more calcs per sec

 

Let's say you make a game

 

at 1 sec you get your pic

At 1 sec you move control at

At 1.2s your input from USB is received

At 1.3s your screen is refreshed with the new position

 

 

With ps2 connectorter it would take less time

1.1s it would receive the input from ps2

 

Also depending on the game loop depends on how many other instructions it has to do before calculating the next picture if it does not have time it stacks it on the back burner

Edited January 4, 2017 by mgrandy

[mgrandy]

So if it ain't your hardware then most defenatly its going to be the game loop anyway a few thing to Google and read up for ya ;-)

 

Nano time

 

Ps2 connections

 

And game loops

 

O and for the fact that there are many systems no one system is the same that logs on to the game it takes time to optimise the CPU along with the game to do the right calcs at the right time

 

A bit of history for ya too PC ruled the world c64/ amstrad/BBC then along came windows , now how do we make lots of money without having to make people use an unknown keyboard and mouse I know we will give them a controller and you won't have to

Load "James pond"

Run

 

Somewhere along the way they got obsseded with making money of consoles and how they could from games for one set system (plug in and play)

 

And there you have it forgot about a PC game for this reason and now due to the speed of which tech was moving consoles ante now rolling back

Edited January 4, 2017 by mgrandy