Is Microsoft… the Good Guy? - Xbox Adaptive Controller
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
2,160 words · ~10 min read
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when it comes to human bodies there's no such thing as
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normal so how do you design something like
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a game controller that's meant to offer the highest performance possible to as
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many people as possible do you just kind of
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take the average well actually yeah that happens pretty often but if
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you do that you're naturally going to end up with a design that a lot of
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people really like i'm particularly fond of this one but
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that others simply cannot use it all thankfully microsoft has given us
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another option the xbox adaptive controller is not
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specifically designed for anyone so that it can be used by everyone
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the thermaltake a500 aluminum mid tower case features a minimalistic design
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brushed aluminum panels for a clean uninterrupted look hinged tempered glass
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Windows on both sides and compatibility for radiators of up to 420 millimeters
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at the front get it today at the link in the video description
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okay so here i am i've got my adaptive controller and i'm connected to my xbox
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one it's got wireless capabilities but it also comes with a 9 foot usb cable
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that can plug into this usb type-c port that is also used for charging so the
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big d-pad here is for navigation and then i also have the menu view and xbox
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buttons up here as usual but then
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like other than that there's not really a lot
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going on here i mean i've got these two big black buttons here that are labeled
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a and b which actually have
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like pretty nice tactile feedback and click reasonably consistently no matter
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where you press them but like
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so what am i expected to play with just two buttons and a d-pad tetris
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blades of steel this is like a nest layout
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okay here we go
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okay cool so this is sort of usable i've got my
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accelerator i've got my break i've got oh shoot
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but there's some issues like press y to rewind i don't have that i can't press
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hand brake or like look behind me or
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or really much of anything so then odds are you'll want a few more buttons than
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this luckily microsoft has given us a few options the easiest of which is
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called copilot this actually lets you use your adaptive controller and a
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conventional xbox controller together as
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one player so for example if you have more mobility on one side than the other
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then you can use a mixed grip or you can even have a friend operate one
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controller while you operate the other one okay so uh here we go then the
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joystick so i'll steer yeah and then the gas i'm gonna do gas and braking so then
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you'd be able to rewind if i was like yo i want to i want to see that again
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oh that's pretty cool running hot we're going no no i got this
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i got this i got you fam like that's a truck yeah whatever screw these guys
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oh so that's actually pretty cool
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but the real power of the adaptive controller comes
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here each of these three and a half
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millimeter ports back here corresponds to a button that you would
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find on a conventional xbox controller and there are actually two extra ones
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that are confusingly labeled as x1 and x2 so you
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end up with the x the x1 the x2 and the x box
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uh let me tell you no one needs that many
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x's but i don't know then again this was designed by the same people what brung
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you xbox xbox 360 and xbox
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one anyway here's how it works if i want to
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be able to press y i just plug in another switch
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like for example this one the adaptive controller works seamlessly with most
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input devices that have this three and a half millimeter connection type and
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that's really important because there is such a wide range of ability within the
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gaming community and the perfect setup for you might not be the perfect setup
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for the next person so where's my why there it is
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cool so let's take a look then through a handful of the different switch types
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that you could use to build your unique setup so this one right here
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is kind of your basic buddy button in gator green
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so we've also got though this pillow button this one's cool so it's actually
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cushioned to make it comfortable to press with your head or with your cheek
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you can actually hear it actuate there we've also got this guy right here this
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is called a wobble switch and you can activate it a couple of different ways
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so you can swipe in any of four directions or press it down
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and this one right here is an ultra light switch is actually designed to be
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worn and you can see here it requires very little
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force to actuate so if you had it on the back of your finger or something and you
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pushed against something you would activate it quite easily then there's
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the little candy corn proximity sensor which can be activated without even
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actually touching it just by getting very very close
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finally this guy right here is a foot pedal that's actually typically marketed
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towards transcribers but see i mentioned this before it does work
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with our adaptive controller because it uses exactly the same connector okay so
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i've got all my different options here i guess i'm gonna
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start playing some mortal kombat xl okay
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so if i don't have any accessories at all uh all i pretty much have is
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punch other more different punch
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forward back jump and crouch
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which is clearly well i don't know i'm doing right
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but it's not going to get me too far now i'm just sticking with the uppercut
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boom okay so this is enough to beat an easy
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computer player especially with you know remapping these two buttons to the you
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know two things you want to do the most often but i can't even block so it's obviously
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not ideal now let's kick it up a notch
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starting with a foot pedal so i want this on what why
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okay i've got this plugged in but like now where do i even put it uh okay let's
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go with here man this is crazy like i'm all of a
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sudden realizing just how many buttons there are
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on an xbox controller like even if i only give myself
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four buttons here the adaptive controller is a hundred bucks the foot
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pedal is 25 and the buddy button is another 65
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so we're at just shy of 200 and we still haven't even a
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mounted all of this stuff or b attached enough buttons to issue even
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half of the total number of commands fortunately though we don't have to add
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one button at a time so the adaptive controller also has usb ports on both
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the left and the right hand side so i could attach something like this which
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is basically like a an xbox compatible
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wii nunchuck controller or get this you
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can also use a device that you already have lying around like this joystick
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which could provide both directional movement
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and check this out a whole whack ton of
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buttons alright so we've kind of got all the ingredients
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now but this is where things get a little bit
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more complicated than what i would consider to be ideal so take the one
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hand joystick for instance here we go it's got some shoulder
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buttons and when you click the joystick you can actually switch layers so that
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the shoulders have secondary functions not bad for 20 bucks
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but how do you remap it well instead of the
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joystick appearing as its own object in the accessories app you actually have to
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program it through the adaptive controller
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so doing this requires knowing that when you plug the joystick in the adaptive
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controller assigns certain buttons to it so these are x1 and x2
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so changing these buttons then affects the usb device but also any switches
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that you plug into the x1 and x2 ports
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over here due to that same limitation that we discussed earlier
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then stay with me here guys if you plug the joystick into the other
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side it actually doesn't get mapped to x1 and
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x2 it gets mapped to view and menu now
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so it didn't take us too long to figure
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this out through a combination of checking the manual and trial and error
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since there's only a couple of buttons on this thing but then
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hold on a minute what about my other random joystick
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which has a bunch of buttons oof
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all right so the first thing to note is that the adaptive controller only
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supports eight buttons per usb device so
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step one is to identify which of the
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more than eight buttons are even being used
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then i guess what you'll have to do is just
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hop into a game that you're really familiar with grab a pen and paper and then start to
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map out what the eight buttons do when your joystick is plugged into the left
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and then repeat the whole process again when it's
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plugged into the right also if you don't like which eight
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buttons the adaptive controller decided to utilize like for example what if i
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only wanted to use these buttons down here instead of these ones up here
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well as far as i can tell you just
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don't get a choice one other word of caution too if you're
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using a high powered device like ah one
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of these mouth mice you're going to need to make sure that you plug your adaptive
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controller into the wall so it has enough juice both for itself and any
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connected accessories now microsoft wants twenty dollars for this adapter in
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their store but they also helpfully
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clearly labeled the back so you could just use any five volt two amp adapter
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so in conclusion then there is definitely some room to improve
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the user friendliness of the adaptive controller
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but honestly the main reason that we made this video
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wasn't to do an in-depth review of it necessarily but rather to bring a little
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bit more attention to how for all their flaws
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amazing it was that microsoft spent both the engineering time and the money to
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make this thing in spite of the hundred dollar price
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being higher than a standard controller i can pretty much guarantee you that
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microsoft is never going to break even on this thing let alone turn a profit so
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the only conclusion other than that okay the cynical among
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you might assume they did it just for the good pr but i'm not sure if i buy
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that i think i think it's fair to say that if nothing else someone or
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someone's over there worked really hard on this thing so that they could open up
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new possibilities for many many xbox
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and pc gamers because the whole thing also works with Windows who haven't
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always had many good options no it's not perfect and yes a fully
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kitted out setup can end up with the same kind of ludicrous price tag that
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many other pieces of accessibility equipment suffer from
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but this is still a giant leap in the right
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direction and it's something that we hope to see more of
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what can you change with headphones other than the sound quality how about
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the materials using a piece of cnc carved walnut wood the massdrop mei 99
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noir closed headphones are definitely
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going to make you stand out they utilize a 40 millimeter driver with a warm rich
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bassy sound and included with the headphones are detachable cables a one
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eighth to quarter inch plug adapter a woven nylon carrying case and a one year
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warranty so check it out at the link below and join the drop today
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