Many games support both keyboard/mouse and controller input. Many users (myself included) may wish to switch their input method mid-game, but what is the best way of handling this?
There are two potential solutions:
- Have the two input methods combine and reach a consensus (e.g. pressing W on the keyboard while moving the left thumb stick to the left will cause the player to move forward and left)
- Have only one input method work at any given time, but switch automatically depending on what the player most recently used.
Technically there is a third option, which is to have the user manually switch between the two input methods in a menu somewhere. I don’t consider this a real option because the user experience would be terrible.
So, which solution do you think is better and why?
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The consensus solution. The Steam Deck and Steam Controller’s touchpads can result in both mouse and joystick input being used simultaneously. Locking down which input is used prevents this from working as intended.
Accept all inputs. Update on-screen prompts depending on which one was used last.
But be careful with processing those inputs. Team Fortress 2 used to have an exploit where you could move the mouse and tilt a stick and turn twice as fast as you were supposed to be able to.
