Post by thatduck on Jul 24, 2017 15:33:46 GMT
Let's compare how Rock Band lays out its keys to how Phase Shift lays out its keys:
Rock Band 3:
Phase Shift:
There are two important things to take note of here. In RB, we see a much greater visual separation between both sections of the piano (i.e. C->E and F->B), and between the white and black keys. Whilst the former is implemented to an effect in Phase Shift (although perhaps not as clearly), the latter is possibly more important. In RB, it is fairly easy from a distance and at speed to gauge the distance between the keys because lanes are reserved for white keys, whilst in Phase Shift, where every key gets its own lane, we see long distances between relatively close notes. This is almost impossible to gauge quickly and leads to what feels like an unfair challenge.
Let's have a look at how RB might express a simple C triad versus how Phase Shift would, in ASCII form, with the left most column representing C, and a # representing a note to play.
In RB, the chord would look like this:
Whilst in Phase Shift, it would look like this:
As you can see, Phase Shift spaces out the chord to a ridiculous degree, whilst RB keeps it tight and simple.
Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that RB reflects an actual piano, whilst Phase Shift does not. Phase Shift's implementation would be excellent if a piano had black keys and white keys in the same plane of equal widths, but as it happens a piano staggers black and white keys. Phase Shift doesn't account for this and as such note are spaced out inaccurately.
The easy fix for this is to simply place the black keys on the lines between lanes as in RB. Doing this would make Phase Shift easier to sight read and ultimately bring a fair difficulty to the game. There needs to be a setting in the game to allow this.
EDIT:
Just want to add to the triad example. Not only does Phase Shift space out triads far too much, but it's not even consistent.
From a glance, could you tell that this
Probably not, but yet they are all the same triad shape, just with different roots. Now how is it possible to accurately determine the actual shape of a chord (i.e. what it looks like on a piano) in Phase Shift when it's flying at you at 60 mph? The answer is, it's not.
Rock Band 3:
Phase Shift:
There are two important things to take note of here. In RB, we see a much greater visual separation between both sections of the piano (i.e. C->E and F->B), and between the white and black keys. Whilst the former is implemented to an effect in Phase Shift (although perhaps not as clearly), the latter is possibly more important. In RB, it is fairly easy from a distance and at speed to gauge the distance between the keys because lanes are reserved for white keys, whilst in Phase Shift, where every key gets its own lane, we see long distances between relatively close notes. This is almost impossible to gauge quickly and leads to what feels like an unfair challenge.
Let's have a look at how RB might express a simple C triad versus how Phase Shift would, in ASCII form, with the left most column representing C, and a # representing a note to play.
In RB, the chord would look like this:
|#| |#| |#|Whilst in Phase Shift, it would look like this:
|#| | | |#| | |#|As you can see, Phase Shift spaces out the chord to a ridiculous degree, whilst RB keeps it tight and simple.
Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that RB reflects an actual piano, whilst Phase Shift does not. Phase Shift's implementation would be excellent if a piano had black keys and white keys in the same plane of equal widths, but as it happens a piano staggers black and white keys. Phase Shift doesn't account for this and as such note are spaced out inaccurately.
The easy fix for this is to simply place the black keys on the lines between lanes as in RB. Doing this would make Phase Shift easier to sight read and ultimately bring a fair difficulty to the game. There needs to be a setting in the game to allow this.
EDIT:
Just want to add to the triad example. Not only does Phase Shift space out triads far too much, but it's not even consistent.
From a glance, could you tell that this
|#| | | |#| | |#| is the same chord shape as this |#| | |#| | |#| and this? |#| | |#| | | |#| Probably not, but yet they are all the same triad shape, just with different roots. Now how is it possible to accurately determine the actual shape of a chord (i.e. what it looks like on a piano) in Phase Shift when it's flying at you at 60 mph? The answer is, it's not.
