Current Events > why is it WASD and not UDLR

(+) Yeah! (+)

Up Down Left Right

I mean the letters not the arrows

I always use QWERTY

someone told me about esdf last night and it blew my mind

TwoDoorPC posted...

someone told me about esdf last night and it blew my mind

yeah I think that was the default for a Tribes game

tbh even WASD was mind blowing, I'm pretty sure my brother played Half-Life 1 with the arrow keys somehow.

TwoDoorPC posted...

someone told me about esdf last night and it blew my mind

There's one person in the Lemmings community who's so set on ESDF they even made it the default in their clone engine... Which confuses a lot of new players.

Hexenherz posted...

yeah I think that was the default for a Tribes game

tbh even WASD was mind blowing, I'm pretty sure my brother played Half-Life 1 with the arrow keys somehow.

Im now having nightmare flashbacks to my early days of WoW where I didnt use the mouse

Silly.

The functional best layout is

ABDT

Ascending Back Descending Towards

Hexenherz posted...

yeah I think that was the default for a Tribes game

tbh even WASD was mind blowing, I'm pretty sure my brother played Half-Life 1 with the arrow keys somehow.

I remember playing Jedi Knight with the arrow keys when it first came out but I can't remember doing it for any games that came after. At whatever point WSAD just became natural.

Kloe_Rinz posted...

Up Down Left Right

I mean the letters not the arrows

Serious answer? Probably the development of games that started implementing the mouse as a mode of engaging with a 3D environment in a new way.

I think Descent was the earliest game to do that?

Because it's awkward to have your left hand all the way to the right side of the key board on the arrow keys with your mouse even further. Plus WASD has all these keys around it for quick actions like Q, E, Z, X, C, F, R, V, Shift, Tab.It just makes more sense

You can thank a Quake competitive player called Dennis "Thresh" Fong for popularizing it and mouse look.
https://www.pcgamer.com/how-wasd-became-the-standard-pc-control-scheme/

Qwes might be better.

TwoDoorPC posted...

someone told me about esdf last night and it blew my mind

One of the first things I do with nearly every new game I play that uses WASD is change the keybindings to ESDF.

You using one of those weird European keyboards, TC?

TwoDoorPC posted...

someone told me about esdf last night and it blew my mind

I used this for a little bit on one game when my z key died, it's barely any difference.

Kloe_Rinz posted...

Up Down Left Right

I mean the letters not the arrows

What keyboard layout do you have?

WASD is used on QWERTY and QWERTZ keyboards because they are near each other and on the left side. UDLR would be scattered across the keyboard on those as well as on AZERTY keyboard.

standard US layout

hjkl

ESDF is just WASD, but being different for the sake of being different

Arrow Keys are where it's at

There are more adjacent keys with esdf. Middle of the key board might be best for that theory.

wsad is best fool

Dark_Arbron posted...

Im now having nightmare flashbacks to my early days of WoW where I didnt use the mouse

I moved with the arrow keys and used the mouse to select spells lol

Ah, youth

i remember using wasd + arrow keys for a while as well.

non-optical, non-trackball mice were really, really, really, really bad.

also! instead of WASD or ESDF we should be using

ASDF

it's way better. D is Up and S is still Down. much more comfortable.

It's WADS

Notti posted...

There are more adjacent keys with esdf. Middle of the key board might be best for that theory.

YGHJ it is

When I look at a keyboard and think efficiency TFGH would make the most sense because it is most centre on keyboard making every other key closer to use.

I only started using WASD after 2010, I used to be one of those hardcore Arrow Keys Only Types

I was a fool. (To not use WASD from the beginning.)

I also used to change default keybinding of every single game.. my god that was annoying.

Now I just use default controls unless they're horrible.. Than depending on the type of game, I set them to whatever game had the best default controls and copy those for the other game. (Same Genres usually have similar keybindings.)

Although now I use a PS5 Contrller whenever I possibly can, because I Have severe carpel tunnel and other wrist problems on my right arm so I have to be very careful with my gaming sessions, but it hasn't stopped from playing and enjoying all the games I love. If I do too much clicking or repetitive button pressing, my entire arm starts burning and my lower arm starts going numb, and before long , my arm gets so stiff I can barely move it.
Like I said though, I can manage it for the most part, and using a controller is the best way for me to do that.

ZaruenKosai posted...

I set them to whatever game had the best default controls and copy those for the other game. (Same Genres usually have similar keybindings.)

This is what I do.