You tried out osu!, and you like it, but playing it with a keyboard + a mouse is quite bit of a challenge. What if I tell you, that you may probably have some recyclable hardware laying around that you can use to play osu! without buying expensive stuff.
What we need to play osu! (easier):
If you like Nintendo's consoles, you may probably already have a pointing device, that even comes with a pencil, like the DS, the 3DS, and the WiiU gamepad
Or if you have some crappy and ancient devices, you may probably own a crappy Android tablet with a resistive "touch"screen.
But what if you don't have a proper pencil? Well, you could just use/buy/borrow/acquire a round-headed pencil. Or if you don't care scratching your device, you could use almost every dull/round-headed plastic thing that has a smooth surface, but I don't recommend it. Use a proper touch pencil!
Or if you don't need feedback, you could use a true capacitive touchscreened device.
If you're using the above hardware I mentioned, I recommend these software:
NintenDS: Sadly all I found all are relative pointing inputs, but the best I found is Remote Touch DS. Its server software written in Java, so it should be multiplatform. Sadly because of the whole network setup I have (and Windows + Java aren't co-operating networking-wise) I wasn't able to try this out. Once I try it out on Linux, I'll edit this post.
DS Triple: I'm using 3DSController. If you have the proper hardware, it can have no latency at all! For me it's instant! Not almost instant, it IS instant. But sadly it's currently for Windows only, but it could be VERY easily ported to Linux, because it's opensoos.
WiiU gamepad: I found this, but since I don't have a WiiU, I can't try it out. Sorry
Android: If you can tolerate relative input, you could use a Touchpad + Touchpad server combo.
If you need an absolute input, you could try out TUIODroid with TouchProxy (afaik only for Windows 8). It worked for a few seconds before the whole networking gave up, and I was no longer able to reconnect. It's probably Android's fault, since it doesn't work at all on my phone, and I was able to get TUIODroid + TouchProxy working with my ancient tablet, but only once, after that it just stopped working. It had a high latency anyways, so it would be impossible to osu! with this, but very slow beatmaps would be beatable, but it's not worth the effort.
Okay, I have mentioned some of the pointing devices, let's talk about buttons!
You may probably have some old PC input devices laying around, like keyboards and mice, so why not use them? If you want a real challenge, you could even use an old joystick
M$ mouse: To be honest, this is the only M$ product I like. Not because its pointing capabilities (it's very slow and shitty), but its buttons are the best mouse buttons I've ever used! And if you need to rapidly press buttons, it can serve a perfect job for our purpose! And it's quieter than my gaming mouse I don't know if it's because it's worn out, but the M$ mouse I own has very quiet and easy-to-press buttons, but it's at least so clicky, that you get feedback, but not as much, that it would be hard to press, or be loud.
Old worn-out keyboard / mechanical keyboard: I have an old worn-out keyboard, that is not mechanical, but it has that rubber-y keyboard switch, like the DSLite does. It's so worn out, that its keys can be as easily pressed as a mechanical keyboard's keys. In my opinion it's better to use an easy-to-press springloaded (mechanical) keyboard than a rubberized one, because if you don't hit the keys hard enough, or you need to spam the keys, you could very easily miss some notes (at least this is a problem for me).
Resistive "touch"screen with pencil / capacitive multitouch-screen: If you can knock with your finger really fast, you could use a touchscreen! I was always annoying my classmates by knocking music with a broken needle, and I got so used to it, that I can knock averagely 11times per second! If you plan on using a capacitive screen instead (and/or using 2 fingers), make sure that it can register at least 4 individual touches, otherwise you may gonna have some problems, and you may miss some notes because of that. Sadly most of the times there's a high latency, ruining the whole idea.
Joystick axes as buttons: Well, all I can say it's pretty hard to play this way, even if you get used to it, because the deadzone is so big, that you need to move the joystick a gajillion kilometers before osu! registers it. But it's still playable, and it makes out an unique gameplay
Whatd'ya think of the above? I'm open to constructive criticism
(Note: I know I'm terrible at formatting text, please try to focus on the content instead)
What we need to play osu! (easier):
- An absolute pointing device (mouse is a relative input device)
- 2 buttons
If you like Nintendo's consoles, you may probably already have a pointing device, that even comes with a pencil, like the DS, the 3DS, and the WiiU gamepad
Or if you have some crappy and ancient devices, you may probably own a crappy Android tablet with a resistive "touch"screen.
But what if you don't have a proper pencil? Well, you could just use/buy/borrow/acquire a round-headed pencil. Or if you don't care scratching your device, you could use almost every dull/round-headed plastic thing that has a smooth surface, but I don't recommend it. Use a proper touch pencil!
Or if you don't need feedback, you could use a true capacitive touchscreened device.
If you're using the above hardware I mentioned, I recommend these software:
NintenDS: Sadly all I found all are relative pointing inputs, but the best I found is Remote Touch DS. Its server software written in Java, so it should be multiplatform. Sadly because of the whole network setup I have (and Windows + Java aren't co-operating networking-wise) I wasn't able to try this out. Once I try it out on Linux, I'll edit this post.
DS Triple: I'm using 3DSController. If you have the proper hardware, it can have no latency at all! For me it's instant! Not almost instant, it IS instant. But sadly it's currently for Windows only, but it could be VERY easily ported to Linux, because it's opensoos.
WiiU gamepad: I found this, but since I don't have a WiiU, I can't try it out. Sorry
Android: If you can tolerate relative input, you could use a Touchpad + Touchpad server combo.
If you need an absolute input, you could try out TUIODroid with TouchProxy (afaik only for Windows 8). It worked for a few seconds before the whole networking gave up, and I was no longer able to reconnect. It's probably Android's fault, since it doesn't work at all on my phone, and I was able to get TUIODroid + TouchProxy working with my ancient tablet, but only once, after that it just stopped working. It had a high latency anyways, so it would be impossible to osu! with this, but very slow beatmaps would be beatable, but it's not worth the effort.
Okay, I have mentioned some of the pointing devices, let's talk about buttons!
You may probably have some old PC input devices laying around, like keyboards and mice, so why not use them? If you want a real challenge, you could even use an old joystick
M$ mouse: To be honest, this is the only M$ product I like. Not because its pointing capabilities (it's very slow and shitty), but its buttons are the best mouse buttons I've ever used! And if you need to rapidly press buttons, it can serve a perfect job for our purpose! And it's quieter than my gaming mouse
I don't know if it's because it's worn out, but the M$ mouse I own has very quiet and easy-to-press buttons, but it's at least so clicky, that you get feedback, but not as much, that it would be hard to press, or be loud.Old worn-out keyboard / mechanical keyboard: I have an old worn-out keyboard, that is not mechanical, but it has that rubber-y keyboard switch, like the DSLite does. It's so worn out, that its keys can be as easily pressed as a mechanical keyboard's keys. In my opinion it's better to use an easy-to-press springloaded (mechanical) keyboard than a rubberized one, because if you don't hit the keys hard enough, or you need to spam the keys, you could very easily miss some notes (at least this is a problem for me).
Resistive "touch"screen with pencil / capacitive multitouch-screen: If you can knock with your finger really fast, you could use a touchscreen! I was always annoying my classmates by knocking music with a broken needle, and I got so used to it, that I can knock averagely 11times per second! If you plan on using a capacitive screen instead (and/or using 2 fingers), make sure that it can register at least 4 individual touches, otherwise you may gonna have some problems, and you may miss some notes because of that. Sadly most of the times there's a high latency, ruining the whole idea.
Joystick axes as buttons: Well, all I can say it's pretty hard to play this way, even if you get used to it, because the deadzone is so big, that you need to move the joystick a gajillion kilometers before osu! registers it. But it's still playable, and it makes out an unique gameplay
Whatd'ya think of the above? I'm open to constructive criticism
(Note: I know I'm terrible at formatting text, please try to focus on the content instead
)
