BBS 1/BBS#1.iso/document/gb21.arj/CYBERMAN.TXT

Text File | 1994-12-12 | 5.5 KB | 93 lines

CYBERMAN from Logitech
Reviewed by Sir Launcelot du Lake

The Logitech CyberMan is touted as a 3D controller that is ideally suited
to the current rage in first-person perspective 3D environment games, the
most famous of which is Id Software's Doom.  It is built to circumvent
the limitations of the mouse, giving six degrees of freedom that is
supposed to make movement natural and intuitive.  Along with the ability
to move the controller in the X, Y, and Z axes, the CyberMan also allows
actions using pitch, yaw and roll manoeuvres.  It also boasts tactile
feedback, in the form of vibrations made by a small motor powered by two
AA batteries or plugged into an AC adapter.

The CyberMan is also able to coexist with a regular mouse attached to
your system, i.e., with the regular mouse attached to the first serial
port and the CyberMan attached to the second.  However, one would have to
use the CyberMan mouse driver and include the command MOUSE DUAL in the
autoexec.bat file.  The regular mouse driver must be disabled.

How do the different dimensions offered by the CyberMan get translated
into game movements?  Naturally, there will be differences between each
CyberMan compatible game, but generally speaking, the X and Y dimensions
are like the standard mouse movements - two dimensional on a flat
surface.  The Z axis may be used to jump up or crouch down, yaw is used
to rotate the view left or right, roll is used to make left or right
lateral movements, and pitch is used to move forward and back, or to look
up and down.

Is the CyberMan the ultimate device for 3D environment games?  I put the
CyberMan to the acid test by using it to play the full version of two
supported games - Origin's Shadowcaster CD, and SSI's AD&D Ravenloft:
Strahd's Possession.  I also looked at the demo of Bethesda's Terminator:
Rampage and the shareware version of Id's Doom v 1.2, which were included
with the CyberMan (a demo of Shadowcaster and Body Adventure were also
included, the latter a replacement for the delayed Mechwarrior II: The
Clans from Activision).  Although the movements of the CyberMan are
somewhat intuitive, I have to report that the ergonomic functioning of
the device is abysmal.

I have two serious problems with the device.  Firstly, it is well nigh
impossible to pitch forward without inadvertently pressing down on some
of the buttons, and thus setting off whatever those left and/or right
buttons are programmed for in the game.  The middle button is seldom
used, so technically, one can judiciously place the index finger on this
button, but this completely defeats any ergonomic sense.  Most games take
advantage of the extra pitch dimension offered by the CyberMan to use it
for forward/backward movement and the X. Y axes for moving the cursor to
other parts of the screen without affecting movement.  Thus, because one
is unable to pitch comfortably without doing finger contortions in order
to avoid the buttons, one essentially cannot play the game for long as
fatigue will invariably set in.

Secondly, the CyberMan is supposed to be able to function as a standard
mouse if a game does not support it directly.  I tried playing Id's
Wolfenstein 3D with it but couldn't get anywhere because I am unable to
prevent the device from registering a movement along the two dimensional
X, Y axes whenever I try to lift the device and place it back in the
centre.  This is because the CyberMan mousepiece is only given about a
square inch to move around in a depression in the base.  Thus, suppose
one reaches the left side of this square, and one still wants to move
left, it is completely impossible because the moment one attempts to lift
the mousepiece back to the centre or to the right to create more space, a
right movement is registered and the cursor will move back to the right.
Consider what happens when using a regular mouse in this same situation -
the mouse is simply lifted off the pad or surface if there is not enough
room in the intended direction, and then placed back on the surface
without any opposite movement registering during the process.

Apart from these, the vibratory tactile feedback (which usually activates
when the player is hit by a weapon or monster) loses its novelty quickly
and doesn't really add any significant information to the player from
what is already obvious on the screen.  This tactile feature can be
disabled by simply removing the batteries or unplugging the AC adapter.
Making yaw and roll movements can also be quite tiring after a while.

The concept of having six degrees of freedom is inherently intuitive.
Logitech has, however, failed to implement this in an ergonomic and
comfortable way, which is very surprising considering that they have a
good track record in the design of mice and other pointing devices.  I
suspect that the CyberMan fails because it is still inherently a two-
dimensional device, with the other four dimensions implemented while
still anchored to the flat X, Y base.  The breakthrough in 3D controllers
will probably come from a device that works in a true 3D space, where one
can make free flowing movements in  three dimensional space without being
hampered or anchored to any base.  I have seen a prototype of Creative
Technology's forthcoming Aeromouse, and although still rather crude in
terms of the resolution of movement, the direction they have taken seems
to be the logical one.

This review is Copyright (C) 1994 by Sir Launcelot du Lake for GameBytes.
All rights reserved.