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Elden Ring Keyboard And Mouse

Elden Ring's half-assed mouse and keyboard controls could be and then much ameliorate with a few fixes

elden ring
(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Information technology'due south 2022, and for some reason a game is asking me to have my manus off the mouse to use the arrow keys to switch items. You know, the pointer keys? The ones we used to move effectually in Wolfenstein 3D back in 1992, before WASD took over? After a full decade of releasing its games on PC and selling millions of copies, FromSoftware is nonetheless putting out games with baroque and barebones mouse and keyboard controls, and in some ways Elden Ring is actually a step backwards.

But it's not a total disaster, which is what makes Elden Ring's shortcomings especially frustrating. Beingness outright proficient is even within reach! FromSoftware's biggest game ever deserves better on PC, and some small changes would become a very long manner.

It'southward been a long road to decent mouse and keyboard controls

Since FromSoftware started releasing its games on PC, the developers have conspicuously been trying to improve their mouse and keyboard controls from game to game. The original Dark Souls' mouse input was unusably jittery without a mod, and some of the default keybindings were then esoteric information technology was hard to believe they were chosen by someone who'd ever used a keyboard. Those bindings inverse with Dark Souls ii and again with Nighttime Souls iii, at which point everything at least functioned smoothly despite some strange keyboard layout choices

It somehow took until 2019'southward Sekiro for us to get the selection to testify keyboard prompts in the UI. The implication has ever been that the mouse and keyboard options only exist as a last resort culling for those who don't (or can't) use a controller.

FromSoftware'south games are designed around controllers: They've essentially been using the aforementioned layout since Demon's Souls in 2009. If FromSoftware hadn't recently made Sekiro, a fast-paced gainsay game starring a superhumanly athletic ninja, I doubt Elden Ring would even have a spring push button—it's the single biggest alter in years. Otherwise, you still employ the D-pad to bandy between weapons and items, still utilize the shoulder buttons to attack with whatever's in your left or right hand, notwithstanding utilise the same confront buttons to drink a potion and two-hand a weapon.

Those controls must accept carved permanent neural pathways into the brains of every FromSoftware designer at this point, which would explicate why the PC layout seems to be trying to replicate the controller experience, rather than adapting it to the keyboard's strengths.

Elden Ring won't let you rebind two major keys

Elden Ring keyboard bindings

(Paradigm credit: FromSoftware)

This is a strange regression from all of the Dark Souls games on PC: at that place are some functions Elden Band but does not let you modify. The central binding options don't include an entry for how y'all admission the chief menu (First on a controller): It's hard-leap to Esc. It besides doesn't include an option for the map, which is difficult-bound to G ("View" button on Xbox, touchpad on PlayStation).

What a strange omission. Even Dark Souls 1 let y'all change the menu key!

Letting us rebind those options is an obvious first footstep, but more important is divorcing how they work on a controller from how they piece of work on a keyboard. Because Esc is used to bring up the menu in-game—which totally makes sense for a controller's Offset button!—information technology can't be used on the keyboard to dorsum out of options screens. That's the Esc key's whole purpose in life! On a PC Esc should e'er be able to back out of menus, even if you wouldn't exercise the aforementioned with a Start push. It makes sense as a literal translation of the controller function to the keyboard simply not a applied one, which is also the example for how Elden Ring deals with your inventory.

Elden Ring really needs to let u.s. bind inventory items to private hotkeys

Elden Ring's item pouch

(Prototype credit: FromSoftware)

I tin see why Elden Ring'south designers chose to map its D-pad controls to the arrow keys, considering it really does seem similar a logical fit. You've got a perfect up-down-left-right input method for swapping weapons in each mitt and cycling through items and spells. Merely the placement of the arrow keys hateful yous have to fully take your hand off the mouse to make those changes, while on a controller y'all can slide your pollex off a joystick to make a quick swap; the layout just doesn't piece of work on a keyboard at all.

The game near gets it correct here, though. You can at least rebind the arrow keys all the same you desire, and y'all can even use the mouse wheel equally a secondary way to swap weapons. But it really falls apart when you pull up the pouch, which is meant to provide quick access to iv items of your pick. On a controller this makes sense for the D-pad, merely on a keyboard, it's silly that nosotros can't simply bind each particular to its own individual shortcut.

PC games take been doing this for ages. Many shooters allow you swap between weapons with the mouse wheel, concur down a key to bring up a visual quick-bandy cycle, and press an private number cardinal to swap direct to a particular weapon. Souls diehards might argue that having to frantically curl through your equipped items mid-fight is an intentional function of the feel, but Elden Ring could at least let for hotkeys for each quick admission pouch item while keeping the spirit of the original pattern intact.

I recall FromSoftware should go further and allow united states bind individual spell slots to keys, too, which has already been added to the game with a mod called the Enhanced Moveset Utility. With more real estate on the keyboard, other actions that require multiple presses on a controller, similar 2-handing a weapon, could easily go their ain keys. Again you could debate that'due south counter to how Elden Ring was designed, but Capcom added similar flexible shortcuts to Monster Hunter World when information technology released Iceborne, and removing a couple unnecessary key presses didn't pause the game. Options are neat.

The double keybindings could be better

Good job, Elden Ring, for letting us bind deportment to both the keyboard and the mouse! Duplicate keybinds are great. Unfortunately the implementation here is again limited: For accessibility reasons you should be immune to bind movement similar forwards/backward to mouse buttons, but those commands are disabled in the keybind options.

And while Elden Ring does permit y'all to duplicate bindings on the mouse and keyboard, if you have your extra mouse buttons set to input keyboard commands in Windows, Elden Ring won't recognize them as mouse buttons. Secondary keybind options that aren't restricted to input type just work ameliorate.

Almost PC games today tin can auto-notice control input

Elden Ring keyboard/mouse display

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

FromSoftware finally added the pick to show mouse and keyboard prompts instead of controller options with Sekiro, its quaternary modernistic PC game. That option carries over to Elden Band, and notwithstanding it withal feels like a blank minimum implementation of something other games have been doing better for many years.

Most games I play today that support controllers volition automatically switch their icons based on any yous pressed final. That's the standard on PC now. Heck, indie developer Supergiant did information technology with Transistor in 2014!

A 'lock mouse cursor to screen' option needs to become standard in DX12 games

In DirectX 12, in that location'due south no such thing as exclusive fullscreen anymore: everything is borderless windowed (opens in new tab). Elden Ring is a DX12 game, which means Elden Ring is lying to you when information technology says "fullscreen" in the video mode options. This leads to a minor problem in Elden Ring and other borderless-merely games: Yous tin fling the mouse cursor correct out of the game onto a secondary monitor, even if that monitor's turned off.

Information technology's not a big problem in Elden Ring considering it'll only happen in menus—while controlling your character, the cursor disappears. But information technology tin however exist frustrating. More DX12-only games demand to implement a menu selection to lock the cursor to the screen. Lost Ark is an instance of a recent game with just such a setting, even though information technology's not DX12 exclusive.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter (opens in new tab) and Tested (opens in new tab) before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little scrap of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he'south not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really condign a trouble), he'south probably playing a 20-year-old Last Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza past volume (deep dish, to be specific).

Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-pc-keyboard-mouse-controls/

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