It's the details that take longest (Part 3)

[Hồng Thất Công]

trackballs

small trackballs

 

[rygD]

I really like that idea.  I don't know how usable it will be for gaming (for some of the same reasons I gave for the touchpad), but I think trackballs are the ideal form of mouse.  I don't think it would be too hard to make them clickable.

 

[_wb_]

I don't like trackballs. I never understood why anyone would like them.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

I don't see the issue with them, I use one with my laptop.

 

[bzar]

Round 2!

 

[thatgui]

trackballs

small trackballs

Question is, are there trackballs, that small, available ?

 

[ekianjo]

I don't like trackballs. I never understood why anyone would like them.

Same here. I hate those. Even more than the thinkpads red thingy. 

trackballs


small trackballs

Question is, are there trackballs, that small, available ?

Yes, but without physical balls - I have seen such a trackball on a Ubuntu mini-machine in Japan, same form factor as the Pandora, and that was pure shite to use. 

 

[matzesu]

Im Fine whit the 3DS Nubs, if whe can use them whitout the Fear  , Miyamoto and his Nintendo Ninjas ditnt stand on the Door from EvilDragons Shop..

 

[Zink]

Hey, ED, you haven't mentioned the hinge in the news. How about that? The Pandora hinge is quite horrible, so I would much appreciate something different in Pyra.

 

[Mr_Loon]

One is the nub that's being used in the 3DS. It has a bigger travel distance, does not need to be soldered (flex cable) and is pretty smooth. But it doesn't have a stick-click.

I'd be more than fine with using the 3DS circle pad for the Pandora nubs, got my 3DS on release day in Europe & the circle pad is still working well.

Never really liked the idea with stick click for the nubs as I always suspected that it would be difficult to move the pointer in a precise manner & click at the same time.

The thing that surprises me is that the 3DS circle pad would be available to a 3rd party, I'm astounded Nintendo does not own the design.

 

[EvilDragon]

The circle pad is not available.

Only the nub itself, without the disc.

We would still use our own disc design on top of that.

 

[Willhelm]

I don't like trackballs. I never understood why anyone would like them.

+1

I could imagine that a trackpoint (This red IBM knob) could be usefull. Please do not attach a trackball to the pandora.

 

[Mr_Loon]

We would still use our own disc design on top of that.

But it could be circular, slightly concave and made out of a pleasantly soft & grippy material right?

 

[Kev2442]

The only thing I'd have to say about this would be please go for something unlike the 360.

I really love this controller, but the sticks just keep on loosening, even after 6 months.

I'm having a hard time calibrating them in every game allowing it, because you don't want a small deadzone when at least 10% of your stick is imprecise.

 

[WizardStan]

Question is, are there trackballs, that small, available ?

YesThis can be mounted overtop of an RGB LED to act as an alert of some kind.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

I don't like trackball at first, but after giving it a try for a while, I like it.  I now use trackball at home and have no issues with it.  I also like trackball on the BB.   Ergonomically for thumb usage, I think it's better than the Pandora nubs as you don't have to fixate your thumb in one spot.  It's good for non-gaming stuff, but not sure for gaming though.  But then the Pandora nubs are not good at gaming neither.

 

[mcobit]

How would you recenter a trackball during gaming?


Maybe good for a mouse replacement but not good as a joystick.

 

[Granitehead]

How would you recenter a trackball during gaming?


Maybe good for a mouse replacement but not good as a joystick.

You can't. Trackballs are only for relative movement, not absolute.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

How would you recenter a trackball during gaming?


Maybe good for a mouse replacement but not good as a joystick.

That why I said it may not be good for gaming ... but _wb_ is not a gamer so I thought he wouldn't mind but he did

 

[asimov-solensan]

I really liked the idea of having nubs with magnetic mechanism, seems to be the most robust option. I really expect this solution is chosen somehow.

About the 3DS I don't have a formed opinion, maybe I used it 5 minutes and I don't remember it for being uncomfortable.

I just hope to forget about the autocalibration whatever option is implemented. And a left nub combined with right trackball (or other mouse like input) would be ok for me.

By the way, the people suggesting an steam controller like touchpad, didn't get the point at all. What that controller had wasn't touchpads in the usual way, they had some kind of feedback (a subtle vibration) that allowed the user to feel how far the thumb was from the centre. Although I want to try such a solution I don't think it fits a device like the Pyra.