Topic: Sharpshooter Settings ? getting the most out of Move and 1PS.

Playing Resistance 3 last night some of the battles were incredibly intense and I had one of the best gaming experiences of my life. Couldn't get to sleep after and woke up this morning still thinking about the game. Which has inspired me to write this.

I have been using the sharpshooter for a while now, playing KZ3, SOCOM4 (yes I know it is a 3PS), Resistance3 (with the patch) and Goldeneye. Traditionally I am not a huge 1SP fan, but with the gun I absolutely love it. They are so much more fun this way, I cannot imagine going back.

However, I continue to see comments all over the web from people who are frustrated and don't like the Gun or move for shooters. In general, I would say that I have personally experienced all of their frustrations and understand why they make those comments. However, for the most part I have found solutions that work (at least for me) and the good more than compensates for the bad.

I think that the technology is still new and people are still learning how best to use it (both developers and gamers) - which settings work and which ones don't. For whatever its worth, my experience is below. I hope that it will be helpful to someone and perhaps encourage some people to try again if they have given up. It's worth it.
Also very keen to hear what settings other people are using. What works for you?

Dead  Zone Setting (to turn or not to turn, that is the question)
When I first started using move for shooters I found turning completely disorienting. I couldn't control it and it drove me nuts. So, to fix it I made a really big dead zone. This helped, as you only turned when you moved the controller way to the left or right, but had some negative effects as well. Games become largely on-rails shooters, losing much of the experience, turning is still hard to control because it is all or nothing, and takes large sweeping movements. You end up getting shot from behind a lot.

I read about making a minimal/zero dead zone (i.e. a tiny box), so I tried that, but the constant bobbing up and down of the camera made me sea sick (didn't have any pills handy). I played Goldeneye like that for a while but could not keep the camera steady. Impossible.
What I now do that works really well, is have and absolute minimum left/right dead zone, but an up/down dead zone of about half the screen. i.e. A tall thin rectangle. This means that the camera follows your arm movements left and right in a natural way, but that there is a fair bit of leeway up and down, which stops you "bobbing" around or accidentally staring at the ceiling or floor.
One benefit of having a minimum dead zone for left/right movements is that you don't have to swing your arm as far to turn, reducing arm fatigue. Also, small movements tend to be more accurate than big sweeping motions.

Even with these setting, there is a learning curve to switch from a DualShock, but I am now very comfortable (and successful) with it. It has become quite natural, and where I used to use a slow turn speed, I now find that I am progressively upping the turn speed to much higher levels and maintaining control.
Interestingly I played Infamous – Festival of Blood recently (with Move, but not sharpshooter) and noticed that its default dead zone was set up like this (tall, thin rectangle). I didn't need to adjust its setting at all.

Turn Speed
I would suggest that you initially set this way down to be quite slow. It helps overcome the disorientation as you get the hang of things. At the end of the day, not being disoriented is more important than a fast turn speed in the heat of battle. However, once you get used to the control scheme, you should be able to progressively increase it.

Sensitivity
This one is counter intuitive. At first it seems that if you are having trouble controlling the motion, you should lower the sensitivity to make it easier, but in my experience that does not work. The problem with lowering the sensitivity is that it adds lag to the motion. So you end up over correcting all the time, which causes you to swing past where you want to, then miss it again the other way dancing around where you want to aim.

I now always have the sensitivity as high as possible/practical, reducing lag, so that the screen responds to your movements as quickly as possible. This makes you fast and accurate, stringing together headshots in rapid succession, which is what you want. For Goldeneye I have it at maximum, for some games (e.g. Resistance 3) which change how far you have to swing your arm to move from one side of the screen to the other, I set it at about 70-80%, so that the cursor matches my physical movements as closely as possible. i.e. it aims where I physically point. At 100% you only had to move your arm half way across the screen to have the cursor get to the edge, which I personally didn't like. I prefer a more 1:1 motion.

But basically you want a high sensitivity setting, not a low one. Same with cursor smoothing. Low or off. I say embrace the cursor jiggle and have one that actually responds to your beck and call. Lag is the enemy!

Wandering cursor
Many people report a wandering cursor that slowly (or quickly) loses calibration over time. This is definitely an issue with the Magnetic sensor calibration of the Move controller, not the game. If the magnetic sensor on the controller is not well calibrated, it can make a game unplayable.
This is recalibrated from the PS3 XMB menu, under the Settings, Accessory Settings, Calibrate Motion Controller.

Unfortunately, doing this is a little bit tricky and easy to get wrong. The problem is that you have to keep the glowing ball in a fixed position, while you rotate the controller, and it is not easy to do.

If the ball changes position too much, it will give you an error, and not do the calibration.
After many failures and so-so calibrations (which helped but didn't fix), I paid more attention to the hand diagram on the calibration screen. What you should do is rest the glowing ball in the palm of your other hand to keep it steady. I haven't tried, but it may work even better to rest it on a book or something like that.

Once you get this calibration right, the difference to how accurately the cursor follows your movements in a game is night and day.

This is one of the things that really annoys me about the tech. It shouldn't be this hard. I have worked it out now, but this calibration is one of the things that I believe has put a lot of people off. It's a shame.

Gun fatigue
Unfortunately the Sharpshooter is very front heavy, which means that it does start to weight you down after a while. If this happens, you can sit on the couch (I never play standing), rest the end of the gun on your leg and play successfully (for hrs at a time). You could also play with Move (but not the Sharpshooter) which is still lots of fun (just not quite as much) and much lighter.

However, I have found that I am progressively getting less tired using it, which probably means that I am building up some muscles in my left forearm, but I think also that better settings allow for more efficient movements. I do lay they gun down during cut-scenes to give my arms a break.
Other gun peripherals that have the navigation controller closer to the stock (near the trigger) than at the front may be more balanced and therefore more comfortable. I haven't tried them though.

Does anyone disagree with my settings?
Have other combinations that they think are even better?
I would love to know what other people are doing. Whether success or failure.

@Ginkgo Thanks for your in-depth tips. I put two Move guides here at Movemodo for Killzone 3 and SOCOM 4 and you can find them here:

http://www.movemodo.com/news/2011/03/sh … _move_tips

http://www.movemodo.com/news/2011/04/gu … ooter_tips

After the initial Resistance  3 Move control upset at launch, I loaned out my copy of the game and I've only just been able to get it back this past weekend, so I haven't had the chance to try the controls with the update yet -- or to write a guide either, which I think is a little past due this far after release sadly. But, I think you've covered the majority of what I'd have put in the guide. 

With all my extended time with Move, I now prefer small deadzones and medium/high sensitivities. I don't use the Sharp Shooter too much, but I do really enjoy the Flex-Fire, but mostly for rail-shooters only. The accuracy and speed of the Move/Navi setup alone is my ultimate preference in FPS/TPS's. 

I have never seen the Flex-Fire in a shop in AU, though obviously you can order it online. I would be interested to try it and compare to the sharpshooter.

Resistance 3's controls are way better after the patch. Looking down a sight looses some realism, but is way easier to use. With the settings described above I am successfully making my way through the game on difficult and having a hoot.

Thanks for your great articles, I hadn't seen them before. They were probably from before I started hovering around Movemodo. Definitely needed for SOCOM4 as there were so many different options. Would you still recommend the same settings?

No question there is a learning curve to be successful with Move on shooters, but once you adjust, there is no going back. I guess my article was hoping to encourage people to push through the transition if they were frustrated or had given up.

I'm inspired by both of your articles.  Great tips!  This is definately the way I'll be going when I get around to starting these games.  Since I don't have any familiarity with the games already (with the regular controller or otherwise), I'm hoping I'll have an easier time getting acclimated to the Move controls.