Impressions of A Pyra Prototype (Back in 2017)

[ekianjo]

Yup, this is late to the party, but this might still be worth a read for folks who have never seen a Pyra prototype so far, and who may be inclined to hear some criticism (on the prototype, not the final version) as to what I liked and did not like as much.

https://www.giantpockets.com/impressions-from-a-pyra-prototype/

Of course, things will probably/surely be better with the final version, so treat is as what it is: my thoughts on a prototype.

 

[levi]

Prototype impressions are still welcome as we're still desperate for almost any news we can get our hands on.

BTW, I tried to comment on that article, but my comment didn't appear. Is there some need for approval before they go up, or did I do it wrong?

 

[sebt3]

Hey buddy, what kind of hands do you have ?
I mean I have huge hands, realy huge (since i'm very tall that's to be expected, but my fingers while long are rather thin) yet the buttons doesn't feel too small for me. But maybe you have a manual work which usually enlarge fingers hence my question.
But if you have hand like mine, there something that always bugged me with the pandora, the bottom corners caused strain in my hands, which made me enable to have hour long gaming session (I know small hands dont have the same issue).
I could probably plays hours (never actually played on my proto) on the pyra. The rounder border of theses corners save the pain...
The button I and II doesn't cause me any problem. I can hit them without hitting (A) without a problem. But I guess, ptitSeb would probably hit the A button while trying to reach I or II. And I do agree that small hands wont be able to use these for an actions packed game (too far away from the border).

Finaly yup, the shoulders buttons on my unit (and on ptitSeb's one you've seen) are shitty at best. But that was a known issue for that case revision. ED fixed this since...

 

[levi]

Also, rarely used buttons were near the hinge on Pandora? I guess I do use the number keys slightly less than the letters, but I'd curse every time I had to press a number (or tilde, which is on shift+4 I think). And using the F keys for anything was out of the question - the Pyra having Fn on one of the shoulders should make those a lot more usable.

 

[ptitSeb]

Hey, leave my hands out of this

Also, I think his issue is not the distance of the (I) and (II) button from the edge, but more the size and closeness to the other ones.

 

[Grench]

Yup, this is late to the party, but this might still be worth a read for folks who have never seen a Pyra prototype so far, and who may be inclined to hear some criticism (on the prototype, not the final version) as to what I liked and did not like as much.

https://www.giantpockets.com/impressions-from-a-pyra-prototype/

Of course, things will probably/surely be better with the final version, so treat is as what it is: my thoughts on a prototype.

Assuming you call them R1/R2 and L1/L2, it’s apparently very hard to ever hit such back buttons without pressing the shoulder ones with a single finger. And there is no space whatsoever to fit 2 fingers on the same side, at the same time. So for certain emulators this is going to make things really difficult if you need to press R1 and R2 as separate buttons at the blink of an eye. This was never going to be easy to begin with on something of this size, and sadly my fears were confirmed. I am not sure this is a good solution.

Next time, try using one finger multiple joints.
Hold the unit with your index fingers behind the lid.
Your middle fingers run the shoulder buttons (insert jokes here).
The finger tip runs the inboard shoulders.
The fleshy part between the first & second knuckles runs the outboard (edges/corners) shoulders.
Both buttons on each side can then be chorded by a single finger.

At least that is the theory that I have from playing with the keyboard mule dummy that shipped around. It did not have clickable/functioning shoulders, but the contact points felt right for the above method.

 

[ekianjo]

The fleshy part between the first & second knuckles runs the outboard (edges/corners) shoulders.
Both buttons on each side can then be chorded by a single finger.

I know that it is the theory, I have no issue understanding that. But i think we are fooling ourselves if we believe that it's going to be as practical has having one finger on each button. Your fingerpit has a lot more precision than any joint on your finger, that's why we make tools using fingertips for everything.
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BTW, I tried to comment on that article, but my comment didn't appear. Is there some need for approval before they go up, or did I do it wrong?

All comments go thru pre-approval until you have had several comments already approved. Since I have updated wordpress it may be that it has lost the memory of your previous approvals at some point, but soon enough you should be able to post without any pre-approval necessary.

 

[levi]

Oh, I'm probably using a different email address since I last commented on an article on your site. No worries then, I'll expect the next few comments to take a while to appear now.

 

[ekianjo]

Oh, I'm probably using a different email address since I last commented on an article on your site. No worries then, I'll expect the next few comments to take a while to appear now.

I think the default setting is that after one or two comments are approved, all subsequent comments are automatically approved.

 

[Grench]

I know that it is the theory, I have no issue understanding that. But i think we are fooling ourselves if we believe that it's going to be as practical has having one finger on each button. Your fingerpit has a lot more precision than any joint on your finger, that's why we make tools using fingertips for everything.

Right - I can envision how this could work. The keyboard test mule that I had for a bit did not have functioning shoulder buttons, but quasi-imagination testing on it showed me how it can be a functional and usable design. I can see where ED is going with it - and am anxious to see a fully realized working version. Speaking of the keyboard test mule - that is a story waiting to be written. A collection of strangers from all over the world ship a single non-working device to each other while racking up international shipping fees to test pushing buttons on a silicone rubber keyboard in a piece of plastic for a device that is still in development. Complete with pictures and quotable reviews.
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/test-the-keymat.80259/

Originally my thought had been to have the shoulder buttons be stacked with a triangular profile so that a single finger tip would have the precision needed. Rest your finger over the gap between two keys on a non-island keyboard. If you press/roll your finger to the left it depresses the key on the left, do so to the right it depresses the key on the right. Straight down depresses both. Scale those two buttons down to 10% or so of their X dimension size while roughly retaining their Y dimension, make the tops prism shaped. This would have hypothetically eliminated having a button = device corner. I'm not sure if this would have been mechanically feasible though.

 

[AnimatedFreak]

What do you think about the d-pad? I remember that the one on the Pandora was great, I'm hoping the Pyra will be much of the same

 

[ekianjo]

What do you think about the d-pad? I remember that the one on the Pandora was great, I'm hoping the Pyra will be much of the same

It was pretty much like the Pandora's. I dont think it's been changed, and if it was, I could not tell much difference

 

[Grench]

It was pretty much like the Pandora's. I dont think it's been changed, and if it was, I could not tell much difference

The impressions you had of the d-pad were also likely from a keymat that would pre-date the keymat(s) that were sent around with the keymat test mule. I.e. at some point that article should be updated with experiences using another round of prototypes.

 

[ekianjo]

The impressions you had of the d-pad were also likely from a keymat that would pre-date the keymat(s) that were sent around with the keymat test mule. I.e. at some point that article should be updated with experiences using another round of prototypes.

The point is, the D-Pad was already pretty much perfect on the Pandora, so for me it's no issue if it's about the same on the Pyra.