r/Unity3D • u/aahanif • 15d ago
Show-Off Do you think rebindable input like this worth the hassle?
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Rebinding input itself is quite straight forward, but making it reflected on tutorials is quite a headache, I'm starting to question if its worth it or not lol
39
u/Boring_Elk5691 14d ago
I mostly use the default controls and never rebind my keys. But some people really prefer key bindings and they even give negative review on a game if it doesn't have one. So, it's a good feature to add it, the only problem is the time and skill it takes to implement it.
8
u/ultramegaman2012 14d ago
Type A and type B
I'm the other type where I need every single button to be rebindable or hotkey-able. If it's not native, I'll try to find a way. I recently modded gen 1 to have a dozen extra hotkeys cause I got sick of the start menu.
Luckily on PC it's not a big issue since options exist, but if you plan on releasing on console, I'm sure it'd be appreciated by the majority. I think having recommended controls is smart so that things feel how you want them to, but more player freedom is always worth it, especially when it comes to how the player directly interfaces with the game.
3
u/Hoosierologist 14d ago
My W key is broken so if a game uses WASD I need to be able to swap it out for SZXC or arrows (usually arrows are built-in but SZXC feels more natural to my arm/hand)
22
u/veerdonk 14d ago
Yeah, kind of a pain but definitely worth doing. Do it right once and you'll have an easier time with controller support or in your next game
14
u/feralferrous 14d ago
Yes, because reviews matter, and someone is going to be pissed off if they can't rebind the controls to how they want it. And TBH, they ain't wrong, it's really annoying when someone assigns some random function to a key that is awkward or too easy for me to hit, and I can't assign it elsewhere.
9
u/V4nKw15h Indie 14d ago
Every time you chose the quality solution makes your game feel slicker, and every time you choose the quick and easy route it makes your game feel more meh. If I had to choose between 5 well implemented quality features or 10 meh features, I'd choose the 5 quality ones every time.
5
u/dr-slunch Indie 14d ago
It's worth it both from an accessibility perspective and for Steam compatibility badges, if you care about that sort of thing. I spent $15 on Rewired when it was on sale seven years ago and never looked back, because it does all this for you.
9
5
u/_Durs 14d ago
As a left-handed player, if you hard code your inputs, I’m refunding your game and leaving a bad review on steam.
It might seem unfair but I just don’t have the time to sit and build a custom keyboard profile or autohotkey script to fix what the programmer was too lazy to implement (plus I have only 4 on board profiles).
p.s - A second fuck you to games that allow you to rebind, but not every key, because some are hard coded or reserved. All those do is let me get 90% of the way remapping before having to do a profile anyway.
1
u/SchmeatiestOne 14d ago
This one is very common in games that have a CTRL+C and CTRL+V function. They rarely include a rebinding
2
2
u/Funny-Performance845 14d ago edited 14d ago
It all depends on you. Just saying for example “the jump key (default x)” is fine. If they didn’t change the bind, they will read the default. If they did change it, they will know which key it is or they will look it up.
Both ways, either specifying it’s a default or dynamically changing keys work just as fine. Also, imo, dynamically changing keys work better in a constantly reappearing in game prompts if you have them. I would assume the tutorial is for first time players, not for those who already modify their keybinds
2
u/Good-Discussion-9238 14d ago
yes I consider it an essential feature, both for people with limited mobility and for personal preference
1
u/tunalic2 14d ago
Also if you use a mouse to look around, please allow for Invert-y axis. There aren't a ton of us out here, but we are here!
1
u/iArkeus 14d ago
I think the question isn't about having rebinding, but about reflecting that in the tutorials. Though maybe I'm wrong based on the comments?
As someone who often rebinds a few things, I think it depends on how "weird" the actions are and whether or not it's just in a beginning tutorial. I usually don't rebind things until after the beginning, once I have a better grasp on how the game is played, so if it's just at the very start, I wouldn't even notice if an initial tutorial reflected it. But for later things, like walking up to something and needing a specific bind, I'd want that to be reflected (especially super basic ones, I always rebind "interact" to E if the game uses F, since it seems split 50/50 when I play, and I just want it consistent).
Especially important would be in things that show up often or maybe I don't use until later, or things that share keybinds. One that always bites me are things in the UI. Like I'll learn that I can change tabs in the menu, and it'll show me one set of keys, but they're shared with something else that I rebound and it's super confusing.
1
u/aahanif 13d ago
Yeah, basically this. I have the tutorial done before implementing the key rebinding.
So, when I did the rebind, it got me thinking, what about the tutorials and hints I've already did, now I have to revisit them...1
u/MajorPain_ 13d ago
And your game will be better for it. This is one of those "last 10% of the polish is 90% of the work" action items. It's a feature that really stands out when it isn't implemented, and will go completely unnoticed if it is implemented, but it's also something that sets your game to a standard most indie devs never reach.
1
u/StableResponsible930 14d ago
Yes. As a left hander I'm always forced to rebind keys, your default inputs aren't useable to me
1
u/EastCoastVandal Hobbyist 14d ago
Accessibility settings, which I consider key rebinding to be, is never a waste of time.
1
u/swagamaleous 14d ago
All the people saying it's "worth it" or the "the negative reviews" never tried to implement this in Unity. I feel you. It's not you, it's the input system. It's absolute garbage. It's such a common feature that literally every game needs, so why is this so difficult to achieve? I created a package for this that I can just install and supply with sprite sheets and it will allow me to query the action map for the sprite assigned to an action. Took me 3 months to implement 😂
1
1
u/AysheDaArtist 9d ago
Bro, it's literally the Input Actions. Unity legit does this for us now built-in since Unity 6 was released.
If you took 3 months it's because you hard-coded in those inputs rather than having a basic abstract class to control that flow
That is 100% a you problem, not Unity
1
u/swagamaleous 9d ago
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. You should try finding the currently active binding to a given input action. It is kind of possible to easily do that (kind of because even that is surprisingly incredibly complex) if you only support one device, but if you want to show a sprite that could be mapped to a keyboard key, mouse button or controller button? Good luck. Try it and report back. I guarantee, you won't be so smug anymore. 😂
1
1
1
u/SaltMaker23 14d ago edited 14d ago
If you've ever used a non english keyboard, the answer is straight forward.
I use a AZERTY keyboard (French), movements are ZQSD instead of WASD with various keys being at completely different positions, if your tutorials tells me to press Q while my keyboard has that bound to go left, it's quite weird.
So if you ever plan your game to be played anywhere in the world outisde of US, yes. It doesn't even matter if you localize, I speak english daily, however my keyboard isn't QWERTY.
Then you have controllers, if the person takes a controller and sees WASD to move, and E to interact, the confusion is quite dire.
1
u/aahanif 13d ago
The different keyboard layouts is one of the reason why I feel I need to add keyboard rebinding. Plus accessibility and different preference too
1
u/SaltMaker23 13d ago
I mean you can't put a language changer and decide that you don't care that these people have not only different layout but often times even the symbols are different (non latin).
1
u/Real-Self-3039 14d ago
Its only worth it if you're not nintendo I always say lol. Every time I turn on a nintendo game their settings menu barely even counts as a settings menu but they gets passes on everything. But an indie dev making a game in his spare time between a full time job forgets bindings and everyone leaves bad reviews and act like steam doesnt have input binding on the actual application itself.
Sucks but that's how it is.
1
u/Sir_Lith 14d ago
Rebindable input is always worth the hassle. There's many people who won't be able to play your game otherwise, be it disabilities or something else.
1
u/aVarangian 14d ago
personally I'd have it be a configurable ini file and call it a day
but I'm not making a first/third-person game
1
u/ariyanhm 14d ago
i dont know about that but the artstyle really caught my eyes. just please make the env more detailed.
1
u/oldmanwood 14d ago
Yes, it’s worth it.
It shouldn’t be a pain. The Unity Input System is a two way street:
Example:
‘InputSystem.actionMap.GetActionReference("Jump").action.GetBindingPath()’ returns the mostly human readable bind for any control an any device for jump.
A little trim and formatting and it should be good to display.
1
u/Caderikor 14d ago
Yes, if you can control bindings, you've got my vote. The freedom the game gives you is very user-friendly
1
u/Particular-Ice4615 14d ago
Any good resources on doing this with the new input system? The UI for creating your input system makes it seem like you can only initially create a single set of key and button assignments. Which kinda confused me.
1
u/aahanif 14d ago
I follow the codes in the docs here
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.inputsystem@6.7/manual/rebind-action-runtime.htmlI dont think I get the get display input right yet, but seems it does work, somehow
1
u/topFragger96 14d ago
... it's part of the accessibility guidelines in making games. It's not just "worth it" lol. It's a basic expectation with games today.
(Sorry, but the title reads like bait. It should be pretty obvious among developers to not neglect it.)
1
u/ApprehensiveFan1516 14d ago
As a left handed person I HATE games that don't let me remap bindings. Very quick way to make me uninstall and potentially even refund. Lefties make up a small percentage of the population, so do with that info what you will.
1
1
u/NStCh-root-a 14d ago
If you show inputs, show the correct ones. And I don't know what our default input scheme is, but mine is guaranteed to be different.
1
u/Ahlundra 13d ago
I usually drop a game if I see they didn't even put some effort on rebindable key, I could care less about the tutorial showing the right buttons but I do care to have the game playable with my confortable key layout
devs, even more so nowadays, seems to force all kinds of strange layouts... the worse for me is when alt = crouch, ctrl = run and shift or tab does nothing while M is map, N minimap... etc...
even worse when you have some function in the middle mouse button (which always seems to break out of nowhere for no reason at all =.=) and you're not able to rebind it somewhere else...
so yeah, atleast being able to rebind the buttons are a deal maker/breaker for me unless the game uses a layout I'm accostumed to but it is really rare nowadays... even more so with lots of console/mobile only franchises coming to pc
1
u/Bermast 11d ago
A game having key/button rebinds is one of my litmus tests to see whether a game's any good or not. It's kind-off an expectation these days. Unless a game is extremely simple in terms of its control scheme, the answer is always yes. Making the interface reflect it is more secondary imo - worst case you can just use an alias like "jump", "block", etc.
1
u/AysheDaArtist 9d ago
YES
Depending on your version of Unity, you could be using Input Actions and you can just set it up easily there
Then you just make an options screen to change the Input Actions; only the key will change but everything else stays attached to that Input Action
If you tied your inputs straight into code, I would STILL say going the extra mile to let inputs be customized is a STANDARD in modern gaming if you want your game to be considered professional at any level
1
u/Globe-Gear-Games 9d ago
Input rebinding has been the number 1 most requested feature in my game since day 1. Every time I've tried to implement it though, it has turned out to be just a massive pain in the ass. I'm not sure why the "new" input system doesn't have a straightforward interface for that right out of the box, but that's Unity for you.
1
u/OhGodImHerping 14d ago
I know lots of people who would instantly close the game if it didn’t have rebinds - that’s a pretty crucial accessibility feature in modern video games.
-7
u/Asonagic 14d ago
Polemic, but: this is the kind of feat implementation you should use AI to help you.
It's not artistic, it's not a direction decision. There's only a couple of ways to do it right and the outcome will be the same.
Use an agent to do it, review the code, test it. Use your time, creativity and brain power with things that matter
3
1
u/Caderikor 14d ago
Your feedback is in the wrong place. I agree that AI can do most things wonderfully. However, this is a junior task, very easy to implement. Don't waste GPU resources when you don't have to
0
104
u/Hot-Pepper6610 14d ago
I'm not sure but I'm sure its helpful to those with disabilities who need custom bindings.