I’ve had some good feedback from my Measuring Responsiveness in Video Game article, which explains how to use a cheap camera to measure the lag between pressing a button and the result appearing on screen. Â One of the problems with the method I was using is that it does not let you measure responsiveness in typical gameplay situations, since you have to set up the controller so you can see the button being pressed, which means your finger or thumb has to start moving while not touching the button – generally not the case in normal gameplay.
The guys at Infinity Ward saw this problem, and their solution was to commission modder Benjamin Heckendorn to build a custom joystick that had a seperate display with an individual LED for each button.  Here’s the result:
With this setup, the board can just be placed next to the monitor, and both videoed together in normal gameplay. Â Specific moves and events can then be isolated, and the frames counted in the video to measure the responsiveness.Â
Frame-by-frame analysis of the button presses might also be useful for some analysis along the line of what I suggest in Pushing Buttons, although that’s still better done in code.
[UPDATE] Â Ben now has a more detailed post on the controller on his site, with videos of it in action:
http://benheck.com/12-05-2008/controller-monitor-built-for-infinity-ward-game-testing
Wow, that’s a pretty awesome little device! I’ve never really noticed any lag time between pressing the buttons and reacting on screen yet, but I guess once my controller and XBox get older, I may start to notice something.
Cheers.
It’s actually nothing to do with the age of the hardware. It varies from game to game. You don’t notice it directly, it just changes the overall feel of the game.
The maker did an impressive work with this device. Good job.
It looks really cool. Which sensors the have?
sry for my bad english :)
So maybe I’m not totally crap after all! It IS the equipment! ;)
I agree Games, I always thought that I was the mess but now I can see that is not my fault I don’t travel through those waves hehehe well actually I really think the device is pretty useful
WoW! That is a cool machine. You could really teach professional gaming to someone with that device. It’s so much easier to follow a game beeing played with that kind of display. Can it be built on other gaming devices and consoles too? Could be wanted at some demonstrations at fairs and shows too. Good stuff and nice that you embeded the video too.
Nice vid. Is that GTA IV that the guy is playing?
The device is all cool and stuff. But who would really need this? Is it just me or, is this really pointless?
Cool. It;s a good way to know how the tools can work! Thanks for sharing, Informative article.
using this tool you are relying on the image on screen to act at the same time as you press the button. theres always going to lag abit as motion is random and can not be predicted for a game to be developed to be able to have no lag tht means every movment must be predicted(pre-determind) thus taking the whole point of games like gta were you control the movements and the randomness of the gameplay
This brings back memory’s. Cool custom made controller. Has this thing been taking into production?
Thats wicked. I haven’t noticed a lag on my xbox but then again I’m not a proper gamer but I still think its cool that they managed to come up with this idea
Interesting device. Is it for \normal\ players or is it more useful in so called gaming industry or proffessional game developer?
neat little gadget you got there… i love video games so i obviously found this article quite useful.. looked up “measuring responsiveness in video games”, it’s as cool as this one.. many thanks, really…
Yes! The maker did a really impressive job with this device. Good job.
Yes, The maker did a rather impressive job with this device. Good job.
Very impressive, I could use one of these…
Man, what a cool little device. They need to mass produce these and make them available to everyone!!!
Super cool little gadget!!!
Sign me up for one if these ever get mass produced and sold in stores!!!
Thanks for the interesting post. That cool little device looks really neat. I look forward to more from you in the future.
That is a cool machine.
Hey, that’s a pretty informative video about this… I have tried to test this myself by just using the game to test how it responds, but this is a pretty cool way ;)