WASD is Too Cramped - Time For New Gaming Input

[swillfly]

I'm not sure why this trend took off as the de facto standard either. Quite possibly due to convenience (at first) because those keys are all adjacent and laziness to change it later.

My hands aren't big mitts yet WASD setup is too close together for my comfort. I typically bind E forward, C back, S strafe left, and F strafe right instead because it allows me to cover each key with a finger/thumb and isn't -as- cramped. Not perfect but neither are regular keyboards for gaming. The most comfortable key binding scheme I've used (not as much for fps but other games) involves binding QWER for the fingers and thumb reserved for SPACEBAR and lower keys.

Do people just use 3 fingers for WASD (ring, middle, & index)? Or maybe people cover every key with WASD by tucking their thumb up under scrunched and arched fingers?

The ideal input IMHO would be a hand-sized fitted neoprene resting pad with sensors under the digit areas and additional sensors (for more key bindings & shifters) to the left or right of the hand pad indents. I thought about wireless IR or visual sensors as input but dismissed it as twitches/etc. would register as false-positive keystrokes. And wearing an input glove seems restrictive and sweaty.

What are your preferred keyboard input bindings or alternative input ideas?

** Also, this isn't for controllers. Controllers are a wholly different can of input worms.

[Mathius]

Publicado originalmente por Zekiran:

^^ I absolutely cannot use ergo keyboards. I am very ... animated when I type, for my talk of learning properly I do a lot more crossing over of keys then some folks probably should. Though not as much as I used to. But that's impossible for an ergo because the keys are way too far apart. Maybe that WOULD be the right solution, OP.

I see absolutely no difference. There was zero adjustment period for me to use it and it puts my wrists at the proper angles.

I have no idea what you're talking about crossing over keys though, so I couldn't say. I was taught actual typing in high school, where you work from the home keys. That's why the F & J on many keyboards have little dimples or raised dots to show you where to put your hands.

[Zekiran]

Publicado originalmente por Crazy Tiger:

Typewriters. Found one in the attic at a friends house not so long ago, my and his kids were like "WTF is that, that looks ancient.".

God, bite me. I learned on a Sears manual - not even electric, but a MANUAL.

I still own it. Weighs like... twice what my computer tower does lol. You can hear me typing through the house on any keyboard and I tend to destroy keys pretty hard while gaming :D

What I mean with crossing keys - I'll hit T with either my left OR right finger depending on what I've just used with the other hand. T and Y, G and H, some of those central keys I'll just hit with whatever is closest.

[𝕎𝔸𝕃𝕋𝔼ℝ]

It's not cramped for me and I'm too used to it now

[swillfly]

Publicado originalmente por Crazy Tiger:

Typewriters. Found one in the attic at a friends house not so long ago, my and his kids were like "WTF is that, that looks ancient.".

lol - As ancient as I am.. When I was in high school they had typewriting classes on real typewriters that were huge, heavy, and loud.

[swillfly]

Publicado originalmente por Zekiran:

Any game that doesn't have key binding is a poor game..

Very true and yet I recently purchased some games that didn't have rebindings (Sheltered -> deserves WTFaward). My first thought when I come across those is WTF?! And then I'm hunting online all over for mods/.ini edits that allow binding keys.

[Crazy Tiger]

Publicado originalmente por swillfly:

Publicado originalmente por Crazy Tiger:

Typewriters. Found one in the attic at a friends house not so long ago, my and his kids were like "WTF is that, that looks ancient.".

lol - As ancient as I am.. When I was in high school they had typewriting classes on real typewriters that were huge, heavy, and loud.

Hehehe, I learned typing on one back in the 80s before we had a computer. Always love how my kids react to stuff like that. Not to long ago in a museum there was this phone booth with a dial phone. My kids looked at it and couldn't figure out how it worked.

Publicado originalmente por swillfly:

Publicado originalmente por Zekiran:

Any game that doesn't have key binding is a poor game..

Very true and yet I recently purchased some games that didn't have rebindings. My first thought when I come across those is WTF?! And then I'm hunting online all over for mods/.ini edits that allow binding keys.

Totally agree that key rebinding is a must. Sometimes in games I come across a crouch on C which cannot be rebinded to Left Shift. I hate that, I want *my* configuration.

[TVMAN]

Publicado originalmente por swillfly:

Do people just use 3 fingers for WASD (ring, middle, & index)?

Yes, with the thumb on space.

[swillfly]

Publicado originalmente por TVMAN:

Publicado originalmente por swillfly:

Do people just use 3 fingers for WASD (ring, middle, & index)?

Yes, with the thumb on space.

That is much more reasonable than tucking the thumb under to cover S. I found personally that my hand would sometimes drift either up, down, or right laterally. Instead of moving whatever direction I would be pressing whatever invald keystroke because my hand was positioned over the wrong keys. That and the discomfort made me immediately rebind all keys upon game install routine years ago.

[Iron Phoenix]

WASD you say?

Key re binding is one of the benefits we have but also there are a great many different keyboards to cater for all tastes and spacing between keys.


Personally for me, if I am using mouse keyboard controls I use the boring old right hand for the mouse and as OP mentions my left hand is the three fingers for WSAD, with the middle finger switching between W and S as needed and my other two fingers resting one on the A and one on the D.


My thumb rests on the space bar regardless of if it is needed or not but in shooters I tend to also have my smallest finger reserved for left shift / ctrl often for duck and jump.


My regular pointing finger may also be used on E and or F optionally and often R as I love manual reloading of guns for some reason.
I tend to use mouse wheel for weapon selection and right mouse button for zoom options alt fire etc.



But consider:
Once upon a time in the 8 bit computer age, it was Q, A,O, P and space.
Or - Q, Z, I, P space as the cool kids used.

But then again the concept of a seemingly 3 dimensional explorable world would have been an alien concept to me on a humble zx spectrum.
A mouse was not required to "mouse look" or change perspective in any way as most of the games controls were literally - up, down, left, right, and fire for the Q A O P and spacebar respectively?



Its an interesting point though, these days the "standard control layout" on a keyboard is still essentially representing four directions - only the keys that were once up or down now often represent forwards and backwards movement in a 3D world.

[Zekiran]

Publicado originalmente por fauxtronic:

Publicado originalmente por Zekiran:

^^ I absolutely cannot use ergo keyboards. I am very ... animated when I type, for my talk of learning properly I do a lot more crossing over of keys then some folks probably should. Though not as much as I used to. But that's impossible for an ergo because the keys are way too far apart. Maybe that WOULD be the right solution, OP.

I can use them but I'm not a fan either. I just feel like I'm trying to type with an accordion.

[Mr Blonde]

Why not change the movement keys in game to suit your needs? I can’t think of a game that doesn’t let you

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

use DSAW ?

[Z i o ⚡]

Publicado originalmente por swillfly:

Do people just use 3 fingers for WASD (ring, middle, & index)? Or maybe people cover every key with WASD by tucking their thumb up under scrunched and arched fingers?

Just the first 3 fingers for the wasd and I think it started in the early 2000s. It's more convenient than using the arrows or numpad because it lets you use your right hand for other things like the mouse, unless you're left handed. When using the wasd my middle finger easily can choose w or s. Index finger presses d. Ring finger presses a.

[WhiteKitt]

get a proper keyboard

[linis]

If I'm reading the discussion correctly, you're playing an older game that forces WSAD.

There's an old version of software that I have called "JoyToKey". I mostly just use it for games that don't have controller support, but I could also use this for games that don't allow rebinding keyboard keys.

Not sure if you've tried these kinds of compatibility software sorts yet, but might be worth a shot~