7 ms·
No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Touch controls for most games suck (I've tried). Replicating somebody's Xbox controller on the second screen sucks. It's unendingly
by bartread 5y ago
No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!
Touch controls for most games suck (I've tried). Replicating somebody's Xbox controller on the second screen sucks. It's unendingly annoying when you die over and over in a game because your thumb or finger wasn't in quite the right place to fire or move in a particular direction.
Not to mention, the Duo is ####ing expensive: top-end iPhone kind of money for the unlocked variant.
If you really, really want a dual screen console with a second screen, buy a used Nintendo 3DS (get the "new" variant if you can). But, since with the Duo you're sacrificing the second screen to the controller anyway, you may as well go the whole hog and get a single screen portable console with decent physical controls. The Nintendo Switch is a great option, as is a used Playstation Vita. Or, an increasingly viable option if you have a decent single screen phone already, is to buy a Bluetooth game controller that you can clip the phone into as a screen.
I don't know what the writers at The Verge were thinking with this because if you really want to game on the move a Surface Duo is so far from being the best option - unless that's the device you already own - it's unfunny. All of the other options are also hugely cheaper, again, unless you already own the Duo.
I'm not saying the Duo is terrible or anything like that but don't buy one for this. If you have one already and do want a decent gaming experience on it, your best bet is to buy a controller. I imagine an actual Xbox controller, which you might already own, would probably work fine.
- canadianfella 5y ago> Touch controls for most games suck (I've tried) Pubg Mobile controls are amazing.
- partiallypro 5y agoYou can still use a physical controller with this, and it's obviously at a proof of concept phase.
- bartread 5y agoI did mention using a physical controller toward the end of the post. But then it's unclear what the advantage is versus doing that with your existing phone (as I say, unless you already have a Duo).
- megablast 5y agoBigger screen. Better Sound. Is this just not obvious to you??
- bobthepanda 5y agoThe bottom half is the controller, so you really only get a 5.6 in screen. A switch screen is bigger than that, and if sound is your major concern it also docks into an actual TV with audio output. Presumably if you’re playing handheld headphones are no big deal (in contrast, not using headphones just pisses off everyone around you)
- bartread 5y agoNot really, especially because when playing on the move I'm always wearing headphones/earbuds so the device's internal speakers are irrelevant. The screen size issue is marginal at best. You're trading it for a bulkier device: you might prefer that, and that's cool, but it's not an obvious and objective advantage for everyone as a result. (Assuming all things equal and you've chosen the separate controller route: if not you lose the bottom screen anyway, because it's used as the controller.)
- systemvoltage 5y agoNow extend your argument to a large equipment that travels at lethal speeds on 4 wheels. It's gotten so bad that I am surprised they've have kept the steering wheel intact and still analog.
- bartread 5y agoFWIW I 100% agree with you about touch controls in cars. I even considered drawing a parallel between the two but thought my post was already long enough.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y agoAutomotive EE here, touch controls on vehicles are because it’s cheaper than buttons, dials, and switches... by a lot. Not to mention single supplier, remove the testing an validation for the switch bank, remove the firmware and ECU requirements (you didn’t think there was a wire behind that switch or dial did you?), and they don’t need it “done” before the vehicle goes to production (we have tens of thousands of cars in lots waiting forever flashes before they can ship), so if the HVAC dial is buggy, so what? Fix it by the time they hit the dealer for inspection. Everyone designing the car knows that touch is dumb. But marketing and bean counters love it.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y agoSteering wheel is still “analog” in some new cars but it isn’t actually connected to anything. Super crazy that we’re doing a ton of work to make it feel right by adding back in pull and vibration. The goal is to disconnect the wheel from the tie rod because “we know better” for accident avoidance, self driving, and it’ll help with packaging.
- rtpg 5y agoto be fair, you shouldn't be messing with your radio or things like that while driving anyways. Just stop somewhere!
- smolder 5y agoThe Verge made a video about how to build a computer at one point and it was full of laughably bad advice. I'd say they're more of a culture blog than tech experts/analysts. Hardware stories come across as uncritical ads.
- grillvogel 5y agowerent they bankrolled by microsoft? or was that polygon?
- smolder 5y agoI'm not sure. I don't see mention of MS in either sites wikipedia page, or Vox's. They're both under Vox media.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- minimaul 5y ago100% yes. Touch controls suck for gaming because your fingers drift. There's no physical feedback that your fingers are on top of the button and ready to press. It sucks, and I really really hope that this doesn't catch on.
- bartread 5y agoHaha, yeah... well... brace for the impact of a passing but possibly prolonged fad. It happened once before when the iPhone 2G and 3G came out, plus some of the early Samsung Android tablets. I'd say it's likely to go bigger this time simply because high quality, powerful, touch-enabled devices are so much more ubiquitous now. It does remind me of the car touch control fad a bit.
- barbs 5y agoI doubt it will, thankfully. Touch controls have been around for a long time on smartphones so lots of people have already had a chance to see how crappy they are.
- trixie_ 5y agoIt’s not perfect, but for FPS shooters touch aiming is closer to a mouse. I wish there were controllers with the joysticks replaced with touch pads. There was the Steam controller but it’s discontinued. The reason is that like a mouse, movement on a touch pad is final. You don’t need to ‘return to center’ like with a joystick to stop moving. With added gyro assist, aiming is even better. Call of Duty and PubG are pretty good on mobile, the aim speed is better than console and drift is avoided because the screen and controller are one in the same.
- amelius 5y agoYou could put a thin plastic/silicon stencil over the screen, with holes in the places where the buttons are located, which makes it possible to feel where the buttons are.
- macspoofing 5y agoOr you can pair a controller.
- modshatereality 5y agoThe real enemy is latency. Physical switches that trigger an IRQ directly to be handled by the program within microseconds would be ideal for human gaming (edit: or directly reading hardware registers). Everything else is just another weak option, pretending to be a gaming system. Also while I'm on the topic, F microsoft for still preventing me from developing software for their system independently.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y agoThe latency on the proprietary WiFi woth Xbox controllers is best in the industry. The Bluetooth latency is surely minimum connection interval which doe BT5 is what, 7.5ms or so... > be handled by the program within microseconds would be ideal for human gaming Ok, well, for the rest of us humans who aren’t eGaming Professional Athletes staying sharp every moment away from the “the dojo”, I think pairing a controller is probably fine. Yea, microsecond direct register reads though... makes a lot of sense for cloud gaming.
- macspoofing 5y ago>The real enemy is latency You think a cloud-streamed game is going to be hampered by Bluetooth latency?
- cush 5y agoAs someone who bought an mp3 player because I wanted a physical play/pause button, I completely agree. Nothing will ever replace buttons that click, for me.
- passivate 5y agoI wonder if in the future you could have micro-fluid channels underneath the screen where you can pump fluid to create raised bumps for the buttons. I remember seeing a techdemo years ago, but haven't seen it materialize in a product. This seems to be a good fit.
- bartread 5y agoThis is the closest story I found: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-35232827 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-35232827. But I do remember, and I'm sure it was also on the BBC, a piece several years ago where they demonstrated "physical buttons" the the form of reconfigurable raised bumps on a touch screen that was, I think, either on a phone or a small tablet. I just can't find it now unfortunately. If a company could get that to work well, and it was also robust in the face of day to day wear and tear, being dropped, etc. - and of course it wasn't incredibly expensive - I think they'd probably be on to a bit of a winner.
- passivate 5y agohttps://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/new-microfluidics-panel-could-add-physical-buttons-to-a-touch-screen/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/new-microfluidics-pa...
- whatshisface 5y agohttps://la.disneyresearch.com/publication/tactile-rendering-of-3d-features-on-touch-surfaces/ https://la.disneyresearch.com/publication/tactile-rendering-... Disney has been working on this, although their method is different from your proposal.
- passivate 5y agoThis is the one I was thinking of.. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/new-microfluidics-panel-could-add-physical-buttons-to-a-touch-screen/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/new-microfluidics-pa...
- 5y ago