Main > Main Forum
CP Layout - any thoughts?
MNW:
OK - took the feedback from my previous post and put this CP Layout together (thanks to everyone for their thoughts). I think it is pretty standard, and one of my goals is to keep the CP a reasonable size.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
markronz:
Seems pretty decent. I see from your button placement that you're fighting the old symmetry bug that I always fight with. If you're slanting the buttons in different directions simply for looks, I'm not sure it's worth it. If you play in player 1's spot, and then friends come over and you are suddenly playing player 2's spot, the different button placement might be a little confusing. Well, not confusing, but it would be a slight adjustment. For myself, I would want both sides to be identical placements, so that it's the same experience no matter which spot you're playing it. But again, that's your call.
And like we talked about, those two buttons above the trackball might be ok, you know, provided they are not an Exit or Reset button which you might accidentally hit in Golden Tee or the like.
And about the size, as much as I can stare at your layout and think it looks fine, the only way you will know if it's comfortable is to make a test control panel. You can use cardboard or whatever you need to do. Then have two people stand up by it and see if you can both comfortably stand by each other and reach the controls and all that.
FWIW, this is what my control panel ended up looking like
MNW:
Oops, I put this layout together at work (damn you arcadecontrols.com!), and made a last minute adjustment, but forgot to switch the buttons on the right hand side. Thanks for the catch. Here is what I meant to post.
I also moved the spinner over to the left to try to minimize the interference with the Track Ball. My thoughts on this are that the buttons by the spinner wouldn't be active when using the Track Ball, so any accidental contact with those buttons shouldn't cause problems.
markronz:
Looks ok to me then! Just test er out and see if you like the size.
VanillaGorilla:
What if you did something like this? You could eliminate 2 buttons, because now the spinner and p1 joy could share buttons. It also clears away the area above the trackball, so you wont smash your fingers on the spinner, or the screen, with more follow-through clearance. It sucks reaching over everything to use the spinner, your arms will drag and catch the controls behind it, its just not comfortable. You wont have perfect symmetry in your layout, visually speaking, but ergonomically I think this would be superior without sacrificing much aesthetic.