Takaji Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 I'm finally at the point where I can stop spending time configuring emulators and move onto the next step in getting my system finished, which is integrating controller mappings into the bezels. I've spent some time in Illustrator making the shape of my generic Steelseries 3GC USB controller, and also making all the buttons on every controller in my system. I plan to put one controller image on each bezel for each system, so you can tell where the buttons from the original game controller are mapped to on the USB controller. At this point I'm looking for feedback... I've got two styles I'm testing, one where the controller is split in half and half of it is on the left bezel and half is on the right. The other style is the full controller, albeit in smaller scale, on one side of the bezel. The obvious tradeoffs are that with the split controller, it's a little strange to need to check both sides of the screen, but with the smaller controller it's harder to read buttons called START and OPTION, for instance. Once this project is finished I will gladly share my Illustrator file with the community Included is my first test done for Atari 2600, using both styles. Which should I proceed forward with? Smaller controller (hires): https://i.imgur.com/OyUt9rX.png Split controller (hires): https://i.imgur.com/F8zCPSr.png Thanks for the input!
marxkemp Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 Good idea. Its not my style, but i would proceed with the full co troller and would put it on the right side of the bezel. Btw did you consider my idea:
Takaji Posted February 11, 2015 Author Posted February 11, 2015 Good idea. Its not my style, but i would proceed with the full co troller and would put it on the right side of the bezel.Btw did you consider my idea: Hey that's pretty nice I'm designing this system so that friends can start playing and know which buttons do what - when I've had people try out my HS setup, they just mash buttons until something does something I'm hoping to eliminate that. If I went with your idea I suppose I'd just need to put a little notice in the bottom like "(X) = Show Controls" or something like that. Is that HyperPause you're using or what? I wonder how well it would work; if people would need to reference it constantly... because when you try and translate more complex controllers like N64 or a 6-button MAME pad to the controller I'm using, you need to get a little creative Thanks for your input!
potts43 Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 Good idea. Its not my style, but i would proceed with the full co troller and would put it on the right side of the bezel.Btw did you consider my idea: How is the controller picture popping up?
potts43 Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 Its a bottomcenter ic or ic menu Yeah my idea was to do just that!
SIMPLYAUSTIN Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 I love the idea.... If you was going to go with controls int he bezel, I would say use split. Given that almost everythine uses Xbox controllers maybe use that image?? However if I was to choose any I would go for the popup version. I know you cant see them on the fly. But you cant get much detail into the one in the bezel. Example.... Its easy to highlight buttons that are working. But to try and identify what button marries up to what the original controllers for some systems may need more information. PS1-2 is easy as the layout is very simular.... but like you said GC, N64, Atari or even arcade games dont make it easy to grab the info you need from just a small box on the side. But maybe a flashing "PRESS HOME BUTTON FOR CONTROLS" would be good so newbs know whats going on Love al this BTW, great work!!! Simply Austin's YouTube
Styphelus Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 Its a bottomcenter ic or ic menu Can you drop that setup of yours on the FTP? I'm still somewhat confused at how you did it. If you could drop an example, that would be great.
potts43 Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34755 Have a read on instruction cards here mate. Then just create a png of your controller to use on one of the positions.
Styphelus Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks a lot man. That is some really good info. Don't know how I missed it. I just gave myself a ton more work to do. Guess Hyperspin will never be over.
potts43 Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks a lot man. That is some really good info. Don't know how I missed it. I just gave myself a ton more work to do. Guess Hyperspin will never be over. It sounds daft but I've never really had chance to play properly yet. Spent months just setting stuff up. I'm now at the stage of getting the game controllers to run the games...hence were at a similar stage Cheers
Takaji Posted February 11, 2015 Author Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks for the comments guys! A few points: - The controller images are actually physically incorporated into the bezels... so they're always there. I didn't want to jump into Instruction Cards just yet because I thought this would be all I need. - I created the outline of my controller profile as a vector image. I didn't know if one existed of the XBOX controller, and I'm also not using an XBOX controller, so I just went with this method. - The issue with adding something like "press [button] to see controller layout" means I need a dedicated button (or combo of buttons) on the controller to access this, which is something I'd prefer to avoid, especially when you start using up most of the buttons on the controller for some systems. One other question - do I need to show the original controller for the system so people know where the buttons originally were, or do you think this is overkill? I think it could end up being a lot of work.
potts43 Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks for the comments guys! A few points:- The controller images are actually physically incorporated into the bezels... so they're always there. I didn't want to jump into Instruction Cards just yet because I thought this would be all I need. - I created the outline of my controller profile as a vector image. I didn't know if one existed of the XBOX controller, and I'm also not using an XBOX controller, so I just went with this method. - The issue with adding something like "press [button] to see controller layout" means I need a dedicated button (or combo of buttons) on the controller to access this, which is something I'd prefer to avoid, especially when you start using up most of the buttons on the controller for some systems. One other question - do I need to show the original controller for the system so people know where the buttons originally were, or do you think this is overkill? I think it could end up being a lot of work. I like the idea of being able to see the original controller. If you used IC cards you could have the original slide in from the left and yours from the right. Or do two bezels you can easily jump from one to the next with HL
Steelkilt Posted February 12, 2015 Posted February 12, 2015 I like your approach to solving the problem that faces those with 10' display HS setups and choose 1 controller for all systems. The main reason I do not use bezels yet, is it still seems like they aren't globally supported - or are very emulator dependent. Granted, I haven't been lurking around as much as I used to, so maybe that is no longer a concern. I like the IC cards way too! Very cool. If you are interested, I was facing a similar problem and decided to add graphics accessible through Hyperpause. Follow link for details. Will be following the thread to see how it develops.
Takaji Posted February 12, 2015 Author Posted February 12, 2015 If you are interested, I was facing a similar problem and decided to add graphics accessible through Hyperpause. Follow link for details. Will be following the thread to see how it develops. Holy smokes, that is leagues better than what I am attempting!! Just one question though, do you find that people are constantly needing to check the controls this way? I imagine a new user constantly needing to reference this screen. That's the one reason I thought permanent images on the screen would be best... Edit: One other question... why are the final images 1062x751? Is there a special reason for that? I think what I might look into is creating an instruction card about the same size as that with an image of the original controller and then buttons from my generic controller. I could put on the bezel "press (button) + (button) to see controls" and then the instruction card could pop up. I think this would be cleanest!
craiganderson Posted February 12, 2015 Posted February 12, 2015 Split controller http://craigandersonthemes.weebly.com/
Takaji Posted February 13, 2015 Author Posted February 13, 2015 After seeing Steelkilt's method, I decided to change mine a little bit. Instead of showing my game controller, instead I'm going to show the original controller for the system, with icons for the buttons on my generic controller. I think this is way more clear than how I had it at first. I'll be working on finding the best victor images of various controllers, so consider this one a placeholder... It's also too complicated (in my opinion) to hide the controller images in HyperPause. You need to open HyperPause, select the image, view it, then exist HyperPause. And I feel like if it was me I could forget what button maps where without constantly seeing the original controller... so I think I'll be sticking with my original method of integrating the controller image into the bezel image. Does anyone know where to find nice high-quality vector-based graphics of game controllers? I attached an example - just ignore the fact that it's an Atari 2600 bezel with a Dreamcast controller Hires: https://i.imgur.com/1eH6Vpp.png
Steelkilt Posted February 14, 2015 Posted February 14, 2015 Looks great! I think this is a fine solution to your problem. Have fun with it! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Takaji Posted February 17, 2015 Author Posted February 17, 2015 Here's the first one done! I'm quite happy with how it turned out... Any comments before I start pumping them out? Highres: https://i.imgur.com/slGgSqn.png
potts43 Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 What does "2 + 3" mean to the user? Are you using an xbox controller?
Takaji Posted February 18, 2015 Author Posted February 18, 2015 What does "2 + 3" mean to the user? Are you using an xbox controller? I'm using a generic controller, where the buttons literally say 2 and 3 on it: http://www.pcgatecomputer.com/images/products/813810012541.jpg
potts43 Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 I'm using a generic controller, where the buttons literally say 2 and 3 on it: http://www.pcgatecomputer.com/images/products/813810012541.jpg Now that makes sense. I'm doing something similar but going to put something on the fade screen showing both controllers and then use the IC bottom center to bring up the pic of controller with game specific controls. I can always have a default bezel with press "key x" to see controls in game or system
Takaji Posted February 18, 2015 Author Posted February 18, 2015 That's a great idea too - I was originally going to do that, but I wanted to reduce the number of key combos you had to know to use the system. For my situation, knowing to press Sel + Start together to exit the game is enough
Steelkilt Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 Are info cards a pain in the butt/supported by most main stream emulators? Just want a general idea should I decide to take it on. Tnx Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
potts43 Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 Are info cards a pain in the butt/supported by most main stream emulators? Just want a general idea should I decide to take it on. TnxSent from my iPad using Tapatalk The only one I'm having issues with at the moment is Nulldc. The module must support bezels. The issue will Nulldc is that the IC's are under the emulator screen not above it - but if your IC's are at the sides rather than in the center they're fine
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.