r/fightsticks • u/Trevor_Z • Jun 07 '26
My design for a more comfortable leverless that also frees the left ring finger
Leverless controllers are a great idea, but their design is very conservative, not only in the body of the controller, but even in the button layout.
I’ve been trying to design a controller that solves a couple of issues:
- Better access to dedicated DI and parry buttons in SF6
- A directional-button layout that does away with the need for that pesky, slow, unresponsive ring finger.
Usually, as soon as I build and test a new version, I immediately notice issues and details I could improve, and I start planning the next one. But I’ve been using this version for the last few weeks, and I’m quite happy with it.
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u/Disco-Prime Jun 21 '26
I love this bro, seriously. I just think it's a lot of work to not train your ring finger, but regardless it looks like a fun project. I hope you post the final product.
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u/Trevor_Z 29d ago
I have an educated hunch about the ring finger: for some people, using it will always be more cognitively demanding, even after they achieve good accuracy and timing without accidental presses.
Because it’s slower and has strong mechanical and neural coupling with the other fingers, the effort to use it might affect people even if they don’t consciously realize it. For example, by making them tire more quickly. They might only notice this after trying another layout.
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u/Disco-Prime 29d ago
Yeah man I really tried leverless, seriously. I got pretty good with my ring finger too, but nothing beats the consistency of stick for me. Double QCF, Double QCB, QCF, QCB it's all burned into my brain. No mental stack or getting tripped up with fingers.
You might be on to something about the ring finger though, I'm not smart enough to know but it sounds like it could be something.
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u/remz22 Jun 10 '26
At first I was disgusted by your layout, but now I'm kinda curious. Considering how little you should press up it makes sense to move it from the thumb.
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u/uaquo Jun 08 '26
How many brains do you have?
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u/Trevor_Z Jun 08 '26
This was 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration. I built a lot of stuff, carried over what worked each time, and eventually arrived at a design that significantly improved my experience.
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u/ProfileSensitive7250 Jun 08 '26
What tool did you use to cut the acrylic so clean?
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u/Trevor_Z Jun 08 '26
The laser cutter from a store nearby.
I just created the project on Inkscape, and gave them the file.
The cut has about 0.1mm precision, but I did have to take that into account. When you want the pieces to fit perfectly, it's surprising how noticeable a 0.1mm gap suddenly becomes.
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u/Trevor_Z Jun 08 '26
Actually, to be more accurate, when designing you have to account and compensate for the kerf, which is the width of material that is evaporated by the laser. In this case, 0.1mm on each side of the cut.
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u/nobix Jun 07 '26
So how exactly do you use it? Your default hand position is middle, index and thumb on left, down, and right? How do jump right? Move your hand to the right?
How would you play a character like guile that need to transition to jump quickly?
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u/Trevor_Z Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
I use the index for up and down, moving it side to side. Took me a couple of hours to get used to it when I first tried, more than a year ago, but now it's perfectly natural.
For Guile, and for stuff like C. Viper's high jump, you can just slide the finger left to right if the buttons are low profile.
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u/nobix Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
What other layouts did you try?
I feel like that side stretch is a bit awkward, and having up/down vertically arranged would be easier.
I also think putting up/down on the thumb would also be interesting, or maybe put up on the ring finger instead with a traditional layout.
I'm not criticizing at all, I just like this sort of experimentation, and I have no skin in this game as a lever user anyway.
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u/Trevor_Z Jun 08 '26
I tried several other arrangements, but all for the middle finger, index and thumb. The issue for me wasn't using the index for up/down, because as I said that felt natural quickly. It was positioning the right button so I could do motions like 2xQCF or DP into level 3 easily with the thumb.
What I found out was that, at least for me, for motions like those it was best to have the right button very close to the hand, and positioned so it could be pressed with the middle of the thumb, not the tip. Also, in a different plane than the rest of the buttons.
Using the ring finger for up or the thumb for up/down could work too. Didn't try those yet because freeing the ring finger was more important to me than being able to use SOCD shortcuts, which is the real advantage in using 4 fingers, and because having up/down between left/right felt more natural.
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u/ProfileSensitive7250 Jun 07 '26
Yes this is the real customized make according to a specific personal need. Saw too many customized ones with only the painting customized.
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u/Admirable-Diamond-56 27d ago
Crazy design