Request A Modest Proposal for Touchscreen Nudging on Tablets

While I am thoroughly enjoying TPA on my 360, I am finding myself getting frustrated with the nudging control on the version on my iPad 3. I have three options for nudging, none of them really satisfactory:

• Touchscreen: Doesn't seem to be working properly as I once I nudge right, I can only nudge left, then I can only nudge right, and so on in alternating fashion. But even if that were fixed, I have to either let go of the flipper area (and the iPad itself on that side) to reach the top half of the screen, or else hold my iPad by its sides, which is uncomfortable for me and causes my hands to partially block my view of the table.
• Shake: Any shaking hard enough to get the iPad to register a nudge at all is hard enough for an instant tilt. No good.
• Swipe: Offers better directional nudging, but I still have the problem of having to remove my hands from the flipper area and it takes time to make the appropriate gesture. Nudging should be nearly instantaneous and should not involve having to sacrifice flipper control, just as it is on a real table.

Therefore, I would like to propose a fourth option, in which a set of transparent buttons about the size of the camera and menu option buttons are added to the bottom of the playfield for control. Left and right flip are in the two corners, as these are where the thumbs rest in natural play. Next to them are buttons for nudge left and right (and maybe add an option to invert them so that us purists can nudge right by "hitting" the left side of the table as we would in real life and vice versa). Above the flipper buttons are the nudge up buttons. There are two of them so that diagonal nudges can be done by pressing the up and left/right buttons with thumb and forefinger of either hand easily. Make the buttons 80% or 90% transparent so that the table underneath them can still be easily seen when the buttons are not in use. This would place all the controls in a natural position for tablet users and I think it would greatly improve playability on tablet devices. It would also give you real estate for extra buttons for games that had those features, like Black Knight's Magna-Save buttons, or even MM's troll bombs.

Or if FarSight really wanted to get fancy, there could be a menu option to allow us to resize and reposition the buttons wherever we want, so as to accommodate different hand sizes and control scheme preferences. (Maybe some users have long fingers and would prefer the nudge left/right buttons above the flippers where their index fingers are naturally resting.)

Anyone else think this would be a good control scheme for tablet devices, or am I way off base?

I'm still in the school of thought that the most natural way of nudging is shaking the tablet. It doesn't take up screen space, it doesn't make you release flipper control, it's inuitive and instantaneous and directional. Unfortunately, it needs a major overhaul.

So are you saying use your thumb AND forefinger? all of my fingers are underneath my ipad except my thumbs unless its a lay the ipad down on a desk situation.

Fungi said:

I'm still in the school of thought that the most natural way of nudging is shaking the tablet. It doesn't take up screen space, it doesn't make you release flipper control, it's inuitive and instantaneous and directional. Unfortunately, it needs a major overhaul.

Click to expand...

It's also probably device-dependent, so what makes my iPad work will probably not be ideal for the 18,000 variations of Android tablets.

Kevlar said:

So are you saying use your thumb AND forefinger? all of my fingers are underneath my ipad except my thumbs unless its a lay the ipad down on a desk situation.

Click to expand...

Yes. I already do it now to use the "touchscreen" nudge option, which seems the least of three evils. The difference is that now I have to uncomfortably stretch my finger to reach the top half of the iPad (or else hold the iPad by its sides, which is unnatural and seems like a drop risk), whereas if I had nudge controls next to flipper controls I would not have to do this.

I like that idea but there's still a problem with lifting your thumb off flipper to press nudge button. I think this is how it should be done... If you are holding the flipper then you should be able to just slide your thumb to the nudge button without lifting your thumb off the screen.

I use the "shake" myself and I have to say slapping the side of the iPad gives a decent analogue of doing the same to a real table, but I find it tough to judge how hard to hit and would like a sensitivity control at least. I agree that moving the touch area from the top of the screen to the bottom for a "button" alternative would be better than the top - really you may as well not use it at all if you're choosing that interface.

I agree with Sean re shaking if I had a cabinet to put the iPad in; as of now I end up dropping my iPad most of the time. I guess it's a matter of developing the right feel for it, but anyway...

either way I also agree with sereseven, that idea is good as well. something has to be done to make nudging more accessible on tablets, and this seems like a fairly easy and cheap suggestion to implement for FS.

Nudging with motion control actually worked surprisingly well with the Wii controllers. I haven't tried that option on Android yet; my phone is so light that I imagine I'd be getting tilts all the time, but maybe I'm wrong.

Matt McIrvin said:

Nudging with motion control actually worked surprisingly well with the Wii controllers. I haven't tried that option on Android yet; my phone is so light that I imagine I'd be getting tilts all the time, but maybe I'm wrong.

Click to expand...

This past couple of weeks, I've been hooking up a wiimote via bluetooth (bluez.ime app free) and mapping the button presses to virtual touchscreen presses (GameKeyboard app £1.50ish) for my Android phone. This means you can play with the phone in your left hand and use shake nudging, but with the wiimote in your right hand like a baton and with the benefit of having real buttons to press (I hate touchscreens for gaming). Feels really natural when your playing.
You have to be rooted for Game Keyboard though. See here for details. http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/566-Controller-support-for-Android

One idea I had this week though, (and obviously you can't do this with shake nudging) is, if you touch both left, and right hand nudge buttons simultaneously, could it be made to perform a nudge on the pinball machines front panel (ie a nudge up)?

Matt McIrvin said:

Nudging with motion control actually worked surprisingly well with the Wii controllers.

Click to expand...

I didn't want to go off-topic, but I think the Williams Collection on the Wii had the best controls full-stop both due to the separation of the controller into two bits and the nudge being mapped left-right to both. Hopefully we'll have remote+nunchuk support for the Wii-U version of Pinball Arcade.

The time I can nudge best on the iPad is when the ball is clearly falling down the centre; if it's in an outlane I very rarely can hit it in time to knock the ball the other way. Even so I expect playing a game like Central Park will be a better experience on iPad than Wii because the nudge controll in the Gottlieb Collection was pretty poor on that platform.

Just going through and doing some forum housecleaning and wanted to bump this thread in hopes that someone from Farsight will read it. We desperately need better tablet nudging.

Definitely. Every time I play the game on the PS3 I think "Oh, wow, this is how nudging is supposed to work!"

I HATE that I have to reach up about 5" from where I normally hold the iPad so I can nudge the table. I think I've been successful twice.

Gord Lacey said:

Definitely. Every time I play the game on the PS3 I think "Oh, wow, this is how nudging is supposed to work!"

I HATE that I have to reach up about 5" from where I normally hold the iPad so I can nudge the table. I think I've been successful twice.

Click to expand...

That and the fact that the touchscreen nudging is backwards compared to the consoles and real pinball (hitting the left side of the screen should nudge the table to the right, and vice versa).

yeah totally agree. Nudging is the only reason I'm not purchasing the tables on my Nexus 7. They are OK for a quick 2 min bash, but without proper nudging I can't be competitive. I appreciate the diversity of phone/tablet manufacturers and display sizes makes this a challenge but at least have the option of configurable nudge zones on tablets.

Whilst I could connect my Xbox controller to my nexus 7 using a Micro USB OTG Cable, it defeats the object of having a tablet.

Now especially with BigShot out there. I keep wishing I could nudge "up". Seriously. I shouldn't have to request such a thing.

Having played a lot of FIFA 12 on my iPhone with the advanced controls.

Serenseven I think you are really on to something here. How about 3 buttons per side: Side, diagonal and up. you can tap the buttons any time to simply nudge. However, if you are holding the flipper and slide your thumb on to one of the buttons, it will keep the flipper raised and still nudge how you want, return your thumb and you're all good.

Was also thinking that if you are holding the flipper, you would also be "grabbing" the table (a lot like in real life) and a quick nudge of your thumb or thumbs to either side or upward could move the table (withing constraings of course...cause in my head i'm thinking of a 300 pound table being moved around a room by my thumbs and that's just funny).

My only issue with nudging is why its inverted?

edit just seen jeffs post but its the same for ps3 too, hit left on the stick and the ball goes right, now i know in a real world situation that may make sense, hit the left hand side of the cabinet the ball should move right but with a stick on a controller it makes no sense, also the animation shakes the cabinet to the direction you nudge, hence i feel the ball should go that way right?. Actually im starting to wonder if im making sense lol

immortalmindz said:

My only issue with nudging is why its inverted?

edit just seen jeffs post but its the same for ps3 too, hit left on the stick and the ball goes right, now i know in a real world situation that may make sense, hit the left hand side of the cabinet the ball should move right but with a stick on a controller it makes no sense, also the animation shakes the cabinet to the direction you nudge, hence i feel the ball should go that way right?. Actually im starting to wonder if im making sense lol

Click to expand...

No, it's not inverted on PS3/360. That's the way a real pinball machine is because you're nudging the table, not the ball. So if you nudge the table on the left, it moves the table to the right, and the thus the ball appears to move to the left. I hope that makes sense. It can be a bit confusing to explain, but easier to illustrate. It is however inverted on iOS for some strange reason.

Remember, the ball is more or less frictionless. When you move the table to the right, the ball stays in place (more or less) and the table moves under the ball to the right ( so it might appear that the ball is moving to the left)

Jeff Strong said:

No, it's not inverted on PS3/360. That's the way a real pinball machine is because you're nudging the table, not the ball. So if you nudge the table on the left, it moves the table to the right, and the ball goes to the left. I hope that makes sense. It can be a bit confusing to explain, but easier to illustrate. It is however inverted on iOS for some strange reason.

Click to expand...

Oh okay, i always thought the ball moves in the same way you nudge a cabinet, that explains why im so crap IRL lol