and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;In the simplest terms, Novint’s Falcon is a three-dimensional input device for computer games. It’s designed to be used instead of a mouse by your right hand, with or without the aid of a keyboard under your left hand, depending on the game. The Falcon’s footprint is about the same size as a standard mousepad, and is about the same height. Essentially, the device suspends the controller (which is interchangeable) in mid-air, being held by three arms which extend back into the almost round body of the device. The included controller is held much like you’d hold a doorknob, just a little smaller in size. The controller can be moved up, down, left, right, inward, and outward. It cannot, however, twist (like a doorknob) or change the angle (it has to point straight ahead). In most games, the only directions that are used are the “x” and “y” axes, much like standing your mousepad up against a wall and using the mouse vertically – and in most cases this makes more sense than a mouse does – in first-person shooters, to look “up”, you’d move the mouse forward – but you’d actually move the Falcon UP. The “z” axis of depth, in most games, is only used to facilitate the force feedback of the device.
and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;For example, in first-person shooters, you move forward using the standard WASD keys on the keyboard with your left hand, and you look, fire, and do a few other functions with the Falcon. When you fire weapons, the Falcon produces very realistic and immersive recoil and kickback, which matches the sound of each bullet being fired perfectly. Bigger guns have more kick, and rapid fire guns have rapid kick. This is mostly NOT achieved with vibration motors like in console controllers. the Falcon is actually pushing and pulling the controller with incredible fidelity. If you jump from a ledge, you feel the weight of the Falcon release, and when you hit the ground, it punches upward. Bump into walls and you feel just enough feedback to know where you are, and when you’re shot at by enemies, you can feel exactly from which direction each shot came. Most FPS games’ implementations of the Falcon drivers add resistance to the “edges” of the Falcon’s movement range, producing a bit of a “springy” effect – so no lifting and re-placing like with a mouse.
and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;The Falcon comes with the standard “ball” controller (with 4 buttons), and there’s a pistol grip controller available for under twenty dollars. All Falcon controllers are usable in all games, and all controllers have the same number of buttons – so it’s really all about what’s most comfortable. They’re very much hot-swappable, you just pull a lever and the old one pops off, and the new one slides on – no shutting down, restarting, or any calibration required. Novint was kind enough to send along a pistol grip, and I’m glad they did. I was beginning to wonder if the grin on my face was going to be permanent after giving the pistol grip a try. The feeling of bashing a zombie with a flashlight in Doom 3 can only be described as realistic. It really felt like bashing a body with a flashlight – you can feel the weight of the object and the resistance of the victim. The same goes for the other side – being swiped by a zombie was quite compelling and really added to the atmosphere of the game more than I had expected. Instead of getting out of the line of fire of an enemy because you think you should, you get out of the line of fire because it’s unsettling being shot (in a good way, trust me).
and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;Because the Falcon has to be integrated into the game to produce these effects, not all games are supported – but a surprising number are. Novint has already released mods for the biggest triple-A games on the market, and many more are in the works. Some mods are created by Novint themselves, and others by third parties. Because of this, the quality of the implementation does vary. Crysis, F.E.A.R., Half-Life 2 (and expansions), Left 4 Dead, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Enemy Territory Quake Wars, Prey, Quake 4, XLR8, Battlefield 2, Madden, and Painkiller are a part of their current AAA-game lineup. Included with the hardware is a disc of a bunch of first-party minigames, which really show what the device is capable of (games designed around the hardware rather than working the hardware around existing software). These games take full use of the z-axis and force feedback. For example there’s a slingshot game where you pull back the slingshot to load, and it really resists being pulled back. When you release, it really releases. There’s also pool (which is perfect for the Falcon), plus many many other mini-games. While I’m on the subject of compatibility, I’ll mention that I tested the device on Windows 7 RC1 64-bit, and it worked flawlessly. It uses a usb data connection and an additional power source (unfortunately with an NES-style power brick on the end). Every part of the hardware feels high-quality and looks like something straight out of Portal.
and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;XLR8, the supported rally racing game, is another showcase of just how diverse the uses of the Falcon are. The Falcon’s resistance is set VERY high, and the controller is held in the center of it’s movement space. You push the controller left or right to steer, and it pushes back. The amount of pushing required is based on your vehicle speed and conditions, much like a real car. Another incredibly realistic feeling that the Falcon produces is the texture of the ground that you’re driving on – you might think that it’s just vibrating, until you cross a wooden bridge and you can feel each plank going by – very cool stuff.
and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;The final, and by far coolest Falcon game I’m going to talk about is Penumbra. For those of you not familiar with the games, it’s basically a modern, 3D Myst. It’s like a puzzle/adventure/exploration game (lots of picking items up and reading things, you get the idea). What I’m going to try to explain is very hard to explain, but I’ll try my best. Essentially in the game you can switch to a “touch/grab” mode, where you control a small white ball on-screen. The ball in-game is about the same size as the Falcon’s default controller ball. Once you’re in that mode, the in-game ball moves exactly as your controller does – all axes. But what’s truly revolutionary and incredible is not how the game reacts to the Falcon, but how the Falcon reacts to the game. If you’re moving the ball around and you push it into, for example, a box, the Falcon will emulate the feeling of pushing on the side of a box, and will keep you from pushing the controller where it “can’t” go ingame. So if you’re pushing against the side of a box and moving upward toward the top, the Falcon will keep you from pushing in any more until you crest the top of the box, and then you’ll likely swing your arm forward as it releases the pressure. You can even feel the texture and details on objects. You could close your eyes and feel the engraving on a tag, or a latch on a chest. You can even feel the back edges of objects, where the camera can’t see! It’s truly incredible but hard to explain – you have to try it for yourself.
and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;So with all of the praise I’m giving the Falcon in this review, you might be asking yourself why everyone doesn’t have one. There are some drawbacks to the Falcon. First, the obvious ones – you need a lot of desk to have the Falcon sitting, and even more if you don’t want to remove your mouse and mousepad to use the Falcon. The other obvious hitch is arm fatigue. The documentation included recommends using a chair with armrests and only moving your arm from the elbow down, but even as such, you can only use it so long before you just have to stop. When I explained the device to my friends and colleagues, almost all of them said that they’d never be able to use it because the fatigue would just be too much, but being the person who actually used it, I can tell you that it’s a lot less than you’d think. I used it for a few hours at a time before I got too tired – and like anything, once you get used to it you wouldn’t notice it at all.
and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;Like fatigue, how competitive the Falcon is is up for debate. On the one hand, the force feedback is cool, but it can not help you in a competitive environment. For this reason, it CAN be disabled – but the “z” axis cannot be locked, so your controller sways in and out, and you have to support the weight of the device. The learning curve, however, is virtually nil – it’s very natural with the pistol grip and I was almost immediately at no noticeable skill difference compared to a mouse in Left 4 Dead. Finally is price – the only Falcon model is the fully-fledged model, coming in at $200. It’s hard to sell a $200 PC peripheral that you don’t actually “need”, and which is hard to explain how it actually feels to use. In my opinion, it might be a good idea to produce a budget model with no force feedback (just springy walls on each axis), and maybe bundle it with a pistol grip for a discount and market it as the competitive gamer’s Falcon. The added bonus of not having force feedback might be that drivers would not be needed for games; the Falcon could simply literally emulate a mouse. This is not to say that the Falcon isn’t worth $200, it’s just that most people don’t want to spend $200 on something that they don’t very well understand. It’s a shame that most game stores don’t have decent PC kiosks, or Novint could plant demo units there.
and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp; and nbsp;So here’s my final verdict: The Falcon is by far the coolest PC input device on the market – and for what you get, $200 is genuinely a good price. It’s got a learning curve even shorter than a mouse, and it feels very natural. The force and haptic feedback is beyond impressive, and the supported game library includes every major PC game of the last few years. The only things keeping it from dominating the PC market are universatility (everything uses a mouse, not just games – whereas the Falcon only responds in games), price, and the unique inability to really explain how it feels to use it. I really feel that given the chance to give it a try themselves, a large percentage of my PC-gamer friends would buy a Falcon in no time.
