[HN Gopher] How WASD became the standard PC control scheme (2016)
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How WASD became the standard PC control scheme (2016)
Author : ibobev
Score : 37 points
Date : 2024-08-03 20:06 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pcgamer.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pcgamer.com)
| ollin wrote:
| does anyone have links to a canonical implementation of modern-
| style first person controls? I've been looking into this recently
| (both the WASD+mouselook PC version and the corresponding dual-
| stick console/touch version) and the closest I've found so far is
| ID's cl_input.c [0] (used in quake, half life, etc.)
|
| [0] https://github.com/id-Software/Quake-III-
| Arena/blob/master/c...
| jameskilton wrote:
| Yet ESDF is objectively better because it frees up Q, A, Z, and W
| to easily be used for other keybinds. The number of people I've
| seen stretch their pinky down to Left-CTRL for crouch boggles my
| mind. With ESDF, crouch is A!
|
| Yes, this is a very tiny hill on which to die on, but it's my
| hill!
| glitchc wrote:
| And what a hill at that!
| nvy wrote:
| The Tribes series showed me the based way of ESDF
| enlightenment.
|
| WASD is for peasants.
| imp0cat wrote:
| So what exactly do you need the QAZW for? With WASD you still
| have TAB, CAPS, tilde and SHIFT available. Also, crouch is Q,
| jump is E.
| orangea wrote:
| I suppose with ESDF you have the two keys Q and W where
| otherwise only tab would be.
| lupusreal wrote:
| Crouching and jumping are usually performed in combination
| with movement. How do you press Q or E while also using WASD
| freely?
| nvy wrote:
| For run'n'gun games like Quake, nothing really but for games
| with more controls like ArmA or Tribes those extra buttons
| come in handy.
|
| Shield, nade, lean left/right, use item, etc.
| Talanes wrote:
| I have large hands. Left control is the natural resting place
| of my pinky, while reaching A from an ESDF rest requires I
| adjust my whole hand to scrunch my fingers closer.
| gavmor wrote:
| First shooter I played at home was Esoteria, with ESDF.
| pimlottc wrote:
| ESDF is also more natural to touch-typers as it's basically the
| same as the left hand "home position" of ASDF. And it's easy to
| locate without looking, since the F key usually has a raised
| marker on most keyboards.
| throw7 wrote:
| I touch type, but I've always felt WASD more "natural" or
| comfortable for gaming. I've tried ESDF but can't get used to
| it... For me I think it really is that the edge of the
| keyboard helps anchor and give a solid reference for where
| the hand is and those keys at the edge will be easily
| hittable by everyone. Also, a lot of times my pinky awkwardly
| rests inbetween the shift & z.
| orangea wrote:
| On the other hand, the F key has a bump on it on every
| keyboard I've recently come into contact with, which could
| provide an anchor.
| nailer wrote:
| Agreed, but everyone I've ever discussed this matter with has
| called it FEDS vs WADS
| foresto wrote:
| > Yet ESDF is objectively better
|
| Subjectively better.
|
| If I were to switch to ESDF, I would have only one key to the
| right of my index finger in each row, as opposed to two. (I
| have a split keyboard.) You could argue that I would have two
| keys to the left of my pinky finger, but I find that reach more
| difficult.
|
| I would also have a harder time orienting my fingers without
| looking, because I would no longer have the differently-shaped
| keys under my pinky to let me know I was in the right place.
| (The indentation that indicates home position on my F key is
| subtle, and easy to miss when I'm focused on the action in a
| game.)
| admax88qqq wrote:
| Objectively better on a standard non split keyboard then.
| Many games assume non split keyboard for default key bindings
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| No, still subjectively better. There's no such thing as
| objectively better when it comes to control schemes. It's
| all personal preference.
| unshavedyak wrote:
| Funny, haven't seen esdf mention in ages. I used to use ESDF
| exclusively. I eventually gave it up though just due to needing
| to remap it in ever damn game. Plus some wouldn't let me remap,
| which was even more annoying.
| 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
| It is incredible the number of AAA releases which have an
| abysmal rebinding experience. Like they gave the job to the
| intern and nobody attempted to try it once. From tutorials
| which hard code the controls, special modes (driving, UI)
| which only respect the original, etc.
| justin66 wrote:
| > objectively better
|
| There actually _was_ a time when computer scientists at Atari
| studied user interface stuff with game performance in mind. All
| that ended years before WASD, but it's worth pointing out that
| WASD came about as part of a competitive process. It's not like
| anyone's being forced to use something that doesn't work for
| them (except on consoles).
|
| > stretch their pinky down to Left-CTRL for crouch boggles my
| mind. With ESDF, crouch is A!
|
| Because those are the only two conceivable choices...
| MetaWhirledPeas wrote:
| > part of a competitive process
|
| Ehhh, sort of. I think people copied it from Thresh (a famous
| Quake player). It was better than the default, and "good
| enough" for competition. So a lot of people simply copied it
| and never thought about it again, especially after games
| started making it the default.
| orangea wrote:
| You could also just find a way to rebind caps lock, which would
| accomplish more or less the same thing.
| grayrest wrote:
| As an EDSF gamer (blame Tribes) I agree but I've run into
| issues with (IIRC) E, Shift, and Space on keyboards that aren't
| n-key rollover but it's been over a decade since I last owned
| one. So I think that's the reason for WASD.
|
| FWIW, A is dodge for me and V is crouch.
| pdpi wrote:
| ESDF also has the cute advantage that it has your hand resting
| in home row position.
| corysama wrote:
| An issue with EDSF that WASD dodged was that some keyboards had
| groupings that could only register a limited number of key-
| downs simultaneously. I believe EDSF was in one group. But,
| WASD spanned two. So, on those keyboards you could get ignored
| inputs specifically when things were getting frantic.
|
| I've never experienced that myself. Instead, I've been EDSF fo'
| lyfe because I had so many keybinds in HL1 multiplayer they
| surrounded those keys on all sides.
| wileydragonfly wrote:
| Input ghosting. Happens when they don't use a 1 to 1 switch
| matrix. Probably some truth to what you're saying, I could
| see the column/row inputs being different.
| kkfx wrote:
| IMVHO it became a standard because of mere habit and lack of
| variety in keyboards space. Most "gaming keyboards" are just
| variant of a classic PC keyboard with aesthetic elements, "very
| different" keyboards, let's say a Kinesis Advantage _for gaming_
| explicitly targeting gamers essentially does not exists.
|
| We have lost many interesting aspects of keyboards due to this
| lack of variety and substantial interests in design better tools,
| one for instance the parabolic layout meaning instead of having a
| flat base with various profiles in the keycaps having all keycaps
| of the same height but a curved profile under the switches
| allowing free movement of every keycaps. For some languages we
| have dedicated layouts generic and better, none essentially took
| of. We might have many functions keys, the IBM battlecruiser
| offer 24 functions keys since decades, but most prefer selling
| small keyboards at hyper big prices stating they are nicer
| because they are small with less keys and most people believe
| that's better having gazillion of layers and combinations to
| remember instead of moving hands a little bit and so on.
|
| That's is, not much of a fancy story.
| itomato wrote:
| https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-origin-of-the-WASD-control...
|
| I was going to say CP/M, myself.
| shagie wrote:
| Crossfire for the Apple][ series ( https://youtu.be/Vi1Yo13TO28
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossfire_(1981_video_game) ) had
| IJKL for movement and ESDF for shooting.
|
| I do want to say that for some reason, I remember IJKM and ESDX
| for controls though. That was a rather uncomfortable control
| layout (which is why I remember it).
| kentonv wrote:
| I always preferred Q/E to strafe, A/D to turn. But these days,
| almost no games actually let you bind keys to turn anymore. This
| makes me sad.
|
| Of course I use the mouse for precision turning and aiming. But
| if I'm just navigating through a map without interacting with
| anything, turn keys let me do that one-handed, while the other
| hand reaches for a snack or drink!
|
| Unfortunately I'm permanently stuck with the Q/E habit even
| though it's no longer useful... doomed (so to speak) forever to
| waste time rebinding my keys every time I start a new game.
|
| (To streamline things I've made a rule: Whatever is bound to E I
| move to mouse 4, and Q to mouse 5, then I rebind Q/E to strafe.
| Luckily no games have defaults set to mouse 4 or 5 since not
| everyone has 5-button mice. Still, I get really pissed when a
| game decides to have five different independently-configured
| control schemes for different contexts, like "on foot" vs "in a
| vehicle", and I have to go through all of them...)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| (2016)
| Lammy wrote:
| > His answer could be most readily found in Thresh's Quake Bible,
| which describes the WASD formation as an "inverted T."
|
| This is IBM terminology. "Inverted T" was the name for the arrow
| key arrangement on ThinkPads (1992) later adopted by the Apple
| world after the IBM-designed Powerbook 2400c (1997) made their
| layout the new standard for all subsequent
| Powerbooks/iBooks/Macbooks.
|
| It wouldn't surprise me if the term dates all the way back to
| 1984 with the Model M keyboard, but I can't find any reference
| for that (checked Bitsavers etc) besides You Can Tell By The Way
| It Is versus the earlier arrow-less Model F keyboard.
| ronnier wrote:
| I've always played asdf, since quake 1 and until this day. Any
| others? Seems the most natural to me. The majority of the time my
| finger placement is in the most natural position.
| diggan wrote:
| Oh, exotic! :) I could maybe do hjkl thanks to vim muscle-
| memory, but asdf would probably take forever to get used to,
| hard to imagine really.
| radicalbyte wrote:
| I've used the numeric pad for years as it's comfortable and you
| have enough keys to map the common functions of most games. I've
| been experimenting with IJKL because [;'\ isn't acceptable for
| most games. It's OK but [;'\ would have been perfect.
| ggambetta wrote:
| OPQA, who's with me?
| bitwize wrote:
| As you may have guessed from some of my postings here, I'm an
| ESDX man (grew up with a TI-99/4A).
| Zardoz84 wrote:
| I remember the transition from playing with the arrow keys to
| WASD, was in the late 90's. When I was playing Unreal Tournament
| and Quake 3
| jnwatson wrote:
| Dark Castle, released on Macintosh in 1986, had ASDF movement and
| mouse for aiming.
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