Swap them all to:
---- N
W------E
-----S
—1
-2—4
—3
I got it!
Well clearly the answer is an X to the right
Here’s a layout I just came up with:
☆ ◇ ❌️ ✔️OMFG BANNED
j/k
How about a controller with only “X” buttons, but each in a different font?
Honestly if they flipped and mirrored it it would be a pretty funny bold move.
In all seriousness I wouldn’t be surprised if this is purely a legal precaution.
Yeah, I was pretty sure it’s a patent, copyright, or trademark thing.
Yep. And even if it wasn’t, different brands are under no obligation to do the same thing - I’d argue that this is different from a keyboard for example where you’d want everyone to stick to QWERTY. The only thing I’d realistically expect to stay consistent is the controller across different generations of the same console - and most brands have done that.
My first PlayStation was the PS3, I had Nintendo consoles and was used to Xbox by that time. First game I played on PS3 was heavy rain. A game heavily littered with QTE’s. Big mistake. I was looking at the controller half the time figuring out which button to press, missed half of them. I’m sure it came natural to some, but my muscle memory learned on ABXY… So its generally me preferred way to play.
Valve has a chance to do something really funny.
They wouldn’t, they use the Xbox layout as that is definitely the most prevalent layout for PCs
this lack of a standard layout is annoying
the xbox style layout, which a lot of pc games such as Hollow Knight expect, is not something im used to, especially with yes and no buttons (a/b) being reversed compared to nintendo switch
and a lot of games dont have good remapping
especially with yes and no buttons (a/b) being reversed compared to nintendo switch
It’s also reversed on Playstation. Games use “X” for “yes” and “O” for “cancel”. But only in the west, it’s reversed in Japan.
“it’s reversed in Japan.”
Honestly, I don’t even really know where they are unless I’m looking at them. The games that show all four face buttons and just highlight the one I need to push are the ones that really work for me.
I don’t have any problem with the PS controller, since the X is a shape, not a letter, but the Xbox layout always fucks me up so bad since it’s become standard for PC games. The Nintendo layout was hardcoded into my brain in 1991 when I played Super Mario World. I don’t think I’ll ever really get used to the Xbox one even though I probably won’t be playing on Nintendo consoles any more.
In the 90’s me being the edgy teenager I “grew out” of Nintendo and switched to PlayStation. So the PS layout was hard coded into my brain for almost the whole decade. Then I switched to PC and it’s now the Xbox layout is in there. To this day I have to draw the PS layout on a piece of paper in front of me when I use emulation until I get used to it again. If I’m playing a N64 game you can map the buttons all you want that Z trigger is irreplaceable.
As someone who grew up with N64, then GameCube, then XBOX 360, thankfully I’ve never had this issue with XBOX controllers. (The N64 had six face buttons and the GameCube put the A button directly in the center.) So when I switched to PC after the 360, the transition was natural.
Which is why the Switch controller always fucks me up, and is one of the reasons why I prefer to play Switch games in an emulator, even though I have the actual console: because I can fix the button layout. (The other reasons being 4K, 120FPS, and mod support. Basically what the OLED Switch should have been from the get go—but isn’t—so I have to resort to emulaton.)
Yeah, Nintendo used that control scheme for the SNES and didn’t come back to it until over 10 years later with the DS. I can at least switch between the bottom button being select and the right button being cancel without too much trouble - the bottom being cancel is not only Nintendo, but Sony Japanese games.
Could be worse, it could be Japan where the purpose of X vs Circle is swapped.
No it’s swapped in the rest of the world PlayStation was released first in Japan. So O for confirm is the OG layout. It makes sense in Japan since in Japanese writing you write down a Circle for Yes, OK or Good or an X for No or Bad.
As someone who learned on that, it is worse (having to switch one way or the other).
This is yet another one of the many reasons Steam is amazing. Not only do they have an abstracted layer that allows devs to insert control mappings that adapt to show your controller preference… but even BETTER, they have an option for “Universal” controller button iconography where they just show the relative position of the face buttons in a diamond layout ❖ where the button indicated is a filled circle ● and the others are outlined ○ - rather than letters like ABXY.
So like this :
…instead of “× or A or B” from PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo (respectively).
Hold up, how do I do this? I literally just mentioned in another comment that my PS controller shows up with XBox buttons and I’d really like to use the neutral one anyways.
On the Deck / Big Picture - it’s under the Controller settings on Steam as seen here :
Another option, if you want to be able to describe them with words instead of pictures, it naming them after the cardinal directions.
This is how those buttons are described in the Linux Kernel gamepad abi
Me already teaching my 6 year old: “press the L button” “Not left on the dpad” “That’s the left stick button” “No not left on the left stick” “Not the left on the right stick” “that’s ZL!”
And now with this suggestion: “No not the left face button either!”
No, let’s not use cardinal directions anymore.
The cardinal directions are north, east, south, and west, as on a map. They are not left, right, up, and down because the cardinal directions are not relative to the observer. The problem of differentiating D-Pad, Stick, shoulder, trigger, etc. can be frustrating too (especially when they are shown on screen as icons with confusingly minor differences instead of text), but that is another matter entirely.
The existence of cardinal directions implies the existence of ordinal directions. But, like, in the sense like numbers have those two forms, not like apparently actually exists where “ordinal directions” are just the in-betweens like northwest.
Our brains process simple symbols objectively faster than words - it’s why when you see a stop sign they all are 🛑s.
Your 🧠 maps the shape 🛑 more rapidly than the word “STOP” which is made up of several letters that you have to first understand, combine, and then remap in your mind internally.
If they made some stop signs purple triangles, there would be more accidents and traffic violations in relation to stop signs. “STOP” is secondary and takes relatively more time to process than “🛑.”
Symbols that represent objects or entire words are a more direct mapping than words composed of multiple letters.
If you’ll permit me to dust off my old game design hat… similar to the principle as to why it was easier to move Mario in any of his 3D games than it was to move your character in the original PS1 versions of Resident Evil…
…Less layers of “mapping.”
In Super Mario 64, you just angle the stick relative to YOUR view to make Mario go “that” way.
Meanwhile in the original Resident Evil games (and other earlier “3D” perspective games pre-Super Mario 64), tilting “up” on the Dual-Shock L-stick made your character go “forward” from THEIR perspective, not yours.
Part of the challenge was being able to quickly “translate” that layer of mapping in your mind.
TL;DR - 🛑 > ”STOP”
I still need to physically move my a to b and x to y on my steam deck, it triggers me
Billionaire Gabe’s corporate cult is so deep on Lemmy. You can’t talk about anything game related before someone busts in sucking Gabe’s dick and shilling steam
This is good UI design, and the fact that Steam hardware is making Linux more common and usable is also very cool.
But Idk, people were rightfully dragging Gabe Newell over his insane fucking yacht.
Appreciating some neat tech stuff, and hating capitalism aren’t mutually exclusive
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Thanks!
It was too good for this world.
