wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: 360Cities.net
bryant_arnett 2010-Feb-13 18:33:00
Hi, Jeffrey.
>
> Your answer is really melodramatic.
That's me!
>
> Think of "normal" users.
I consider myself a normal user, and I can't stand the "drag" interface. It is, aptly named, a drag.
In most discussions on many topics (like religion or politics), I tend to try and see both sides of things, and I stay objective. But in this case I can say there is definitely a "Right" and a "Wrong" and I can say absolutely that the "drag" interface is "Wrong." How can I be so certain of myself? Because I know how it makes me feel when I try to view a VR image, and I have to "drag" the image around me. It's horrible. The traditional (and well established) method of pointing and moving my mouse in the direction I want to look is so beautifully intuitive, that it makes me feel like I am actually standing there looking around. I want to look over there? I just wave my hand that direction. I want to look the other way? I wave my hand the other direction. The view doesn't need to stop moving! Just like when I turn my head to look to my left in the real world, I don't ever feel like my head is stopped from turning by some invisible leash. I can freely look all the way around without stopping. With the drag method, I feel like I have to reach down and push my hand along the pavement to rotate myself. It's like the difference between sitting on a hard stool with fixed legs, and sitting on a smoothly rotating barstool. Which would you rather sit in if you were wishing to look all around you? I would rather be on a smoothly rotating stool than one where I had to keep picking up the stool and turning it each time I get more than a few degrees around.
Here's the Right way: Point my mouse and click, move my hand the direction I want to look. I can look anywhere, without hinderance. It's perfect. I feel happy!
Here's the Wrong way: Point my mouse and click. Drag a little bit. Unclick Pick up the mouse and move it, click and move the mouse a little, point and click, drag a little more, unclick, pick up mouse, move mouse, drag, Oh wait I want to look 180 degrees behind me... OK, click, drag, click drag, click drag unclick.... aarrgh!
This whole thing is as "Wrong" as when they gave us a "Reverse yoke" option for the joystick in Flight Simulator. A whole generation of PC flyers are pushing the yoke forward to pull the airplane nose up. When they finally get behind the controls of a real airplane, they will be nose diving into the ground because of years of doing it the "Wrong" way.
But, I'm always happy to discuss both sides of any topic. :)
---Bryant