Is Microsoft… the Good Guy? - Xbox Adaptive Controller #Helpful Post

hen it comes to human bodies there's no

such thing as normal so how do you

design something like a game controller

that's meant to offer the highest

performance possible to as many people

as possible do you just kind of take the

average well actually yeah that happens

pretty often but if you do that you're

naturally going to end up with a design

that a lot of people really like I'm

particularly fond of this one but that

others simply cannot use at all

thankfully Microsoft has given us

another option the Xbox adaptive

controller is not specifically designed

for anyone so that it can be used by

everyone

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okay so here I am I've got my adaptive

controller and I'm connected to my Xbox

one

it's got wireless capabilities but it

also comes with a nine foot USB cable

that can plug into this USB type-c port

that is also used for charging so the

big d-pad here is for navigation and

then I also have the menu view and Xbox

buttons up here as usual but then like

other than that there's not really a lot

going on here I mean I've got these two

big black buttons here that are labeled

a and B which actually have like pretty

nice tactile feedback and click

reasonably consistently no matter where

you press them but like so what am I

expected to play with just two buttons

and a d-pad Tetris blades of Steel it's

like an S layout okay

okay cool so this is sort of usable I've

got my accelerator I've got my brake

I've got but there's some issues like

press white or rewind I don't have that

I can't press handbrake or like yeah

look behind me or or really much of

anything

so then odds are you'll want a few more

buttons than this luckily Microsoft has

given us a few options the easiest of

which is called copilot this actually

lets you use your adaptive controller

and a conventional Xbox controller

together as one player so for example if

you have more mobility on one side than

the other then you can use a mixed grip

or you can even have a friend operate

one controller while you operate the

other one okay so here we go then so

have the joystick so all skier yeah yes

I'm gonna do gas and braking so then

you'd be able to rewind if I was like yo

I wanna I want to see that again oh

that's pretty cool no no I got this I

got this I got you fast

yeah whatever screw these guys Oh

so that's actually pretty cool

but the real power of the adaptive

controller comes here each of these

three-and-a-half millimeter ports back

here corresponds to a button that you

would find on a conventional Xbox

controller and there are actually two

extra ones that are confusingly labeled

as X 1 and X 2 so you end up with the X

DX 1 DX 2 and the X Box let me tell you

no one needs that many X's but I don't

know it then again this was designed by

the same people what brung you Xbox Xbox

360 and Xbox one anyway

here's how it works if I want to be able

to press Y I just plug in another switch

like for example this one the adaptive

controller works seamlessly with most

input devices that have this

three-and-a-half millimeter connection

type and that's really important because

there is such a wide range of ability

within the gaming community and the

perfect setup for you might not be the

perfect setup for the next person cool

so let's take a look then through a

handful of the different switch types

that you could use to build your unique

set up so this one right here is kind of

your basic buddy button in gator green

so we've also got though this pillo

button this one's cool

so it's actually cushioned to make it

comfortable to press with your head or

with your cheek you can actually hear it

actuate there we've also got this guy

right here this is called a wobble

switch and you can activate it a couple

of different ways so you can swipe in

any of four directions or press it down

and this one right here is an ultra

light switch is actually designed to be

worn and you can see here it requires

very little force to actuate so if you

have it on the back of your finger or

something and you push to gain something

you would activate it quite easily then

there's the little candy corn proximity

sensor which can be activated without

even actually touching it just by

getting very very close finally this guy

right here is a foot pedal that's

actually typically marketed towards

transcribers but see I mentioned this

before it does work with our adaptive

controller because it uses exactly the

same connector okay

so I've got all my different options

here I guess I'm gonna start playing

some Mortal Kombat excel okay so if I

don't have any accessories at all all I

pretty much have is punch other more

different punch forward back jump and

Crouch which is clearly well I don't

haha but it's not gonna get me too far

I'm just sticking with the epitaph boom

okay so this is enough to beat an easy

computer player especially with you know

remapping these two buttons to the you

know to things you want to do the most

often but I can't even block so it's

obviously not ideal now let's kick it up

a notch starting with a foot pedal so I

want this on what why okay I've got this

plugs in but like people now where do I

even put it okay let's go with here and

this is crazy like I'm all of a sudden

realizing just how many buttons there

are on an Xbox controller like even if I

only give myself four buttons here the

adaptive controller is a hundred bucks

the foot pedal is 25 and the buddy

button is another $65 so we're at just

shy of $200 and we still haven't even a

mounted all of this stuff or be attached

enough buttons to issue even half of the

total number of commands fortunately

though we don't have to add one button

at a time so the adaptive controller

also has USB ports on both the left and

the right hand side so I could attach

something like this which is basically

like a an Xbox compatible we nunchuck

controller or get this you can also use

a device that you already have lying

around like this joystick which could

provide both directional movement and

check this out a whole whack ton of

buttons alright so we've kind of got all

the ingredients now but this is where

things get a little bit more complicated

than what I would consider to be ideal

so take the one-hand joystick for

instance here we go it's got some

shoulder buttons and when you click the

joystick you can actually switch layers

so that the shoulders have secondary

functions not bad for 20 bucks but how

do you remap it well instead of the

joystick appearing as its own object in

the accessories app you actually have to

program it through the adaptive

controller

so doing this requires knowing that when

you plug the joystick in the adaptive

controller assigned certain buttons to

it so these are x1 and x2

so changing these buttons then affects

the USB device but also any switches

that you plug into the x1 and x2 ports

over here due to that same limitation

that we discussed earlier then stay with

me here guys if you plug the joystick

into the other side it actually doesn't

get mapped to x1 and x2 it gets mapped

to view and menu now so it didn't take

us too long to figure this out through a

combination of checking the manual and

trial and error since there's only a

couple of buttons on this thing but then

hold on a minute what about my other

random joystick which has a bunch of

buttons oof all right so the first thing

to note is that the adaptive controller

only supports eight buttons per USB

device so step one is to identify which

of the more than eight buttons are even

being used then I guess what you'll have

to do is just hop into a game that

you're really familiar with grab a pen

and paper and then start to map out what

the eight buttons do when your joystick

is plugged into the left and then repeat

the whole process again when it's

plugged into the right also if you don't

like which eight buttons the adaptive

controller decided to utilize like for

example what if I only wanted to use

these buttons down here instead of these

ones up here well as far as I can tell

you just don't get a choice one other

word of caution - if you're using a

high-powered device like one of these

mouth mites you're going to need to make

sure that you plug your adaptive

controller into the wall so it has

enough juice both for itself and any

connected accessories now Microsoft

wants $20 for this adapter in their

store but they also helpfully clearly

labeled the

so you could just use any 5 volt 2 amp

adapter so in conclusion then there is

definitely some room to improve the user

friendliness of the adaptive controller

but honestly the main reason that we

made this video wasn't to do an in-depth

review of it necessarily but rather to

bring a little bit more attention to how

for all their flaws amazing it was that

Microsoft spent both the engineering

time and the money to make this thing in

spite of the hundred dollar price being

higher than a standard controller I can

pretty much guarantee you that Microsoft

is never going to break even on this

thing let alone turn a profit so the

only conclusion other than that ok the

cynical among you might assume they did

it just for the good PR but I'm not sure

if I buy that I think I think it's fair

to say that if nothing else someone or

someone's over there worked really hard

on this thing so that they could open up

new possibilities for many many Xbox and

PC gamers because the whole thing also

works with Windows who haven't always

had many good options no it's not

perfect and yes a fully kitted out set

up can end up with the same kind of

ludicrous price tag that many other

pieces of accessibility equipment suffer

from but this is still a giant leap in

the right direction and it's something

that we hope to see more of what can you

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