A serious question for our intelligent members.

[Jeeba Jabba]

There's something I need to know.


Both the 360 and PS3 have USB ports and support keyboard use in their primary GUIs. It's obvious that these consoles (locked PCs) are capable of mouse/keyboard support in their games (FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS) but what are the policies/politics that keep this from becoming a reality? Fuck. Quake 3 on Dreamcast has full mouse/keyboard support.


Half of these games are made for PC as well, so what's so hard about enlisting some handy drivers' help in enabling mouse/keyboard? Before you say "well, that's how they sell two copies to the same guy," think about the exclusives.

[mrandyk]

I saw an article just within the last couple days about keyboards coming out for the 360 I believe, its so that they can sell you theirs.

[Specially Cork]

Consoles used to be the easy answer to video gaming at home when PCs cost too much. Now everyone and their mother has a computer, so they need a new angle to sell consoles. The answer is to superficially make them as different as possible, to the point where people end up taking sides and looking down on the other.

A console can play at being a PC these days, and vice versa, but it isn't going to happen, because not being something successfully makes you something else. The biggest difference between a 360 and a PC, is simply that one is a 360 and the other is a PC. PCs = keyboard and mouse. Consoles = joypad. PCs = monitors. Consoles = TVs. Everything is swappable in this day and age, but companies will keep these boundaries in order to force a product exist. This is why convergence was so scary back in the day. "If everything does everything, how can I make anything?"

[Jeeba Jabba]

I saw an article just within the last couple days about keyboards coming out for the 360 I believe, its so that they can sell you theirs.

Okay, but any keyboard still works on the 360. You can play FFXI on the 360 with any keyboard.

[pixel]

For me, I'm playing on a 360 for the controller (i.e. CoD: BLOP). If not, I play it on the computer (i.e. Mass Effect).

[not just souLLy now]

It's probably a simple case of 'why spend money on a feature that will only be used by 5% of users at best?'

[Zealous zerotype]

The only game I know of with keyboard/mouse support is unreal tournament on the ps3. IIRC, microsoft won't allow it and sony will, but no one seems to ever do it for whatever fucking reason.

[Quzar]

Another reason: ponder on how many things would actually need to be modified or added (especially in the case of exclusives) in order to support KB/Mouse in terms of HUD, tutorials, QTEs, etc. Many games have a lot of features tied to the colors or letters on the controllers, and it would be weird/unintuitive/invite criticism if keyboard was supported but the on-screen direction still assumed joypad. If this stuff was redone that would entail a relatively large set of additions and modifications.

For cross-platform games that already deal with this issue, there is really no excuse other than exactly what Boney said.

P.S. - Also, what a headache it would be for game makers when a single weird keyboard or mouse refuses to work. Unless M$ or Sony push for such a thing, it's simply not going to happen.

[not just souLLy now]

There is this: http://xim3.com/

[Jeeba Jabba]

There is this: http://xim3.com/

Already tried the Eagle Eye for PS3. Absolute shit.

[Code-Red]

Simply because m/kb players would, in all honesty, dominate most users with controllers. The systems are setup as "flop on the couch and enjoy" consoles... there is competition but it isn't anywhere near as intense as PC gaming. Everyone has to be on equal footing, therefore eliminating m/kb setups.

Same reason modified controllers are frowned upon.

[mankrip]

Very good point. However, is the lowest denominator always worth it?

In the DC era, mouse & keyboard support was a way to motivate people to buy those peripherals.

However, yeah, there's the fact that people on the other side of the network would almost never know which kind of input device we were using, and vice versa; this could make clueless gamers that doesn't know about mouse/keyboard support to just drop of the game altogether due to the seemingly random difficulty imposed upon them.

But this is what databases are for. I really suck at online gaming, but when I played Quake Live online, most times it would put me against players that weren't too much better than me. And I know that if I really wanted to become a pro, I'd need to invest in better equipment, such as a better Internet connection.

So, in the end, maybe it's just laziness on the part of the server administrators. Dunno how PSN or Xbox Live works though.

[Specially Cork]

Us console gamers don't want to "become a pro", we just want to chill out and have some fun.

[melancholy]

Allow me to take this question and flip it for the problem I've had recently: Why in the world do many PC games not have any decent support for controllers? I built a media center just so I could play games with the graphics maxed out, but there are so many games that I have to rely on half functioning fan mods just to get some controller support. I tried to ditch 360 Oblivion for a modded out PC version, only to find there is no controller support at all. Mass Effect 1 and 2 purposely removed controller support. Some mid 2000 games have digital controls only, even though analog sticks have been out for 10 years.

Now luckily games are starting to increasingly support the 360 controller, but I don't understand why some companies continue to remove support in multiplatform games.

[Quzar]

There are a number of programs that take controller inputs and remap them to virtual KB/Mouse devices to solve the problem you're having mel. Sorry, I can't provide any names as I've never used any, but I've seen them mentioned in many emulator discussions.

[Stryfe]

Windows:
- http://www.xpadder.com/
- http://joytokey.webs.com/

Linux:
- http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver ... t-joystick
- http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/xboxdrv/

[pixel]

Windows 7 grief: Why can't I fucking use my original Xbox controller for gaming?! The USB functionality is so fubared/locked down that I can't even use the thing on a virtual machine.

[DanteJay]

Windows 7 grief: Why can't I fucking use my original Xbox controller for gaming?! The USB functionality is so fubared/locked down that I can't even use the thing on a virtual machine.

http://www.redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html This driver works just fine on Windows 7. I've wired my metal DDR arcade pad buttons to two Xbox controllers (one official, one 3rd party) and mapped my buttons in game (Stepmania) and it works flawlessly on Windows 7.

However, the original Xbox controller has 5 wires, whereas standard USB has 4. Here's a simple tutorial on making your own.

Edit: Sorry, forgot the link. XD http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/x ... index_eng2

[pixel]

Windows 7 grief: Why can't I fucking use my original Xbox controller for gaming?! The USB functionality is so fubared/locked down that I can't even use the thing on a virtual machine.

http://www.redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html This driver works just fine on Windows 7. I've wired my metal DDR arcade pad buttons to two Xbox controllers (one official, one 3rd party) and mapped my buttons in game (Stepmania) and it works flawlessly on Windows 7.

However, the original Xbox controller has 5 wires, whereas standard USB has 4. Here's a simple tutorial on making your own.

Sorcery! Which version did you install? Did you install it like a stock driver?

[DanteJay]

Sorcery! Which version did you install? Did you install it like a stock driver?

Go to the download's section, and download XBCDv107 (this is the one I'm currently running). I think I ran the setup before connecting the controller. Once the driver is installed, Windows will recognize it as an Xbox controller.

P.S. I added the link to the tutorial in my previous post.