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!
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
> Yet ESDF is objectively better [...] crouch is A!
I think you've forgotten the hardware limitations (rollover/ghosting) that usually made it objectively worse instead, where "A" often wouldn't behave the same as ctrl or shift when multiple keys are being held down.
Being able to strafe while holding crouch is a handicap.
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…
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.
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.
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.
Disagree. If I put my pinky on A for ESDF then I have to rotate my wrist enough such that pressing E is uncomfortable. The natural resting place for my pinky with WASD is on shift, not tab. CTRL is trivial to reach. Tab is more awkward.
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.
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.
Shift is can be another interesting key to hit. Many non-US keyboards have an extra key between shift and z (or whatever letter takes to place of z in a particular region. Not only are you reaching further to hit the shift key, but the size of the target is not much larger than a normal key.
In countries like Canada, life is even more fun. Most keyboards are of the US variety, yet many laptops come with the multi-lingual variant. Better get used to two keyboard layouts if you're using WASD with shift/control.
I've been using ESDF (well, .oeu now that I'm using the Dvorak layout, but details) since I was using Azerty keyboards. A (Q on Azerty) for jump, C (J on Dvorak) for crouch, Z (; on Dvorak) for walk, and I've got enough reach for plenty of other keys.
Got started doing that when I played Bungie's Oni, which required editing an INI file to rebind keys.
Back in the early 90s, WASD was sitting the furthest from the arrow keys. Me and a friend would both sit behind the computer, playing a multiplayer game (Wacky Wheels, at least). We could sit next to each other. The person with WASD was at disadvantage because we were used to arrow keys, and the person who sat behind arrow keys had an easier view on the (CRT) screen and far our small hands the WASD were further away from the table, so the right side was all in all way more comfortable. But there was one caveat. To drift, you'd push space bar, and you could smash that space bar to make the other person go drift, meaning (it did a 90 degrees) you could time your shot with it. I'm sure with single player, space bar was used to drift. So I assume it was also like that in multiplayer, but I am not sure for which player it was set up. Because some games changed the layout in such a way that the keys of one player were more near each other, and the keys of the other player as well. Instead of merely adding the other keybinds, they'd say OK you have insert and del as keybinds instead of ctrl and alt. That type of stuff.
Later on, we got a mouse (or, well: to be honest I already had one but it wasn't used as much as in later days), and the mouse was easiest to use in the right hand. So in the Windows 9x era (or well, even DOS, as Dune 2, C&C, WC2 I played in MSDOS) the mouse would be at the right side. And then you would use keybinds / choring with the left hand mostly. But the right side was using the mouse. Especially in 3D FPS this would turn out to be ace (such as Quake 2). Plus, also, the most weight on typing is on left qwerty hand. So the movement with one hand typing while keeping using mouse (small amounts of typing) is easiest from left hand being on left side of qwerty keyboard.
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.
> 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.
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).
I remember a lot of Apple ][ games using keyboard letters for controls. It bothered me, because having a ][gs I had actual arrow keys.
As for Doom and then Quake, I used the arrow keys and then Del+End for strafing. In Doom you actually went sqrt(2) faster by running diagonally with strafing, and could even outrun rockets (or run ahead of them to where they were going to hit, in big open levels).
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...)
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.
I don't know how much of a problem this was in the rest of the FPS world, but in the Descent world in 96, 97, 98 - when keyboard only was a common choice, at least for beginners - there was trouble with keyboards detecting all the necessary combinations of keystrokes. You'd hold down an A and a W and it couldn't see D presses or releases at all. It varied a lot by the particular keys and the particular keyboard. I'd often react to getting a new keyboard by shifting my familiar config around until I found a spot where all the needed independent keys would register.
They still advertise 10 key rollover keyboards today. I feel like they're more common, but perhaps I have just always insisted on having one.
I've always wondered if it was a problem for other communities. I certainly think it was a contributing factor to why no default control scheme emerged in the Descent world, and even very top pilots used an astonishing array of very different methods.
A serious drawback of the standard WASD configuration for me is the need to move the middle finger to switch between forward and reverse. This adds latency, and can be a source of error. In games that rely a lot on accurate timing and quick reactions, I generally avoid this. There is a tradeoff, of course, but in the extreme case of a very simple and twitchy game, I like to map up/down/left/right to sit under pointer and middle finger on each hand. This seems like a lot of a geeky departure from intuitive arrow keys for a dubious benefit, and I don't often see others do it. But I can't help but wonder if FPS design and history is informed by better reactivity along that strafe axis. Or perhaps it really is the best design - you do tend to dodge perpendicular to where you're looking.
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Yes, this is a very tiny hill on which to die on, but it's my hill!
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.)
FWIW, A is dodge for me and V is crouch.
I think you've forgotten the hardware limitations (rollover/ghosting) that usually made it objectively worse instead, where "A" often wouldn't behave the same as ctrl or shift when multiple keys are being held down.
Being able to strafe while holding crouch is a handicap.
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…
2600 and 5200 controllers say otherwise.
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.
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.
In countries like Canada, life is even more fun. Most keyboards are of the US variety, yet many laptops come with the multi-lingual variant. Better get used to two keyboard layouts if you're using WASD with shift/control.
Got started doing that when I played Bungie's Oni, which required editing an INI file to rebind keys.
I instead use D as the use key in all games, X for reload, V for crouch etc.
I find it much more ergonomic to have the three fingers on the same row.
And L Ctrl is not a stretch at all. Although for some reason I usually bind L Alt to crouch...
Shield, nade, lean left/right, use item, etc.
WASD is for peasants.
/s
I do use the palm though, it is weird, lol
Later on, we got a mouse (or, well: to be honest I already had one but it wasn't used as much as in later days), and the mouse was easiest to use in the right hand. So in the Windows 9x era (or well, even DOS, as Dune 2, C&C, WC2 I played in MSDOS) the mouse would be at the right side. And then you would use keybinds / choring with the left hand mostly. But the right side was using the mouse. Especially in 3D FPS this would turn out to be ace (such as Quake 2). Plus, also, the most weight on typing is on left qwerty hand. So the movement with one hand typing while keeping using mouse (small amounts of typing) is easiest from left hand being on left side of qwerty keyboard.
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.
Deleted Comment
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.
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).
As for Doom and then Quake, I used the arrow keys and then Del+End for strafing. In Doom you actually went sqrt(2) faster by running diagonally with strafing, and could even outrun rockets (or run ahead of them to where they were going to hit, in big open levels).
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...)
They still advertise 10 key rollover keyboards today. I feel like they're more common, but perhaps I have just always insisted on having one.
I've always wondered if it was a problem for other communities. I certainly think it was a contributing factor to why no default control scheme emerged in the Descent world, and even very top pilots used an astonishing array of very different methods.
A serious drawback of the standard WASD configuration for me is the need to move the middle finger to switch between forward and reverse. This adds latency, and can be a source of error. In games that rely a lot on accurate timing and quick reactions, I generally avoid this. There is a tradeoff, of course, but in the extreme case of a very simple and twitchy game, I like to map up/down/left/right to sit under pointer and middle finger on each hand. This seems like a lot of a geeky departure from intuitive arrow keys for a dubious benefit, and I don't often see others do it. But I can't help but wonder if FPS design and history is informed by better reactivity along that strafe axis. Or perhaps it really is the best design - you do tend to dodge perpendicular to where you're looking.