I didn't like mine. Maybe needs lube?
1) each joint has lots of static friction
2) movement feels "robot-y" and restriction to 2 distinct sweeping arcs
3) elevates arm, but arm rest doesn't tilt downward
x.com/PhalangesCo/status/201…
Has potential, but Deltahub Carpio might be better
TL;DR this thing has a lot of potential. if somebody designed one of these to function for fpses, there could be something really special here. but right now, this product kinda sucks and i don't think you should get it.
the only exception is if you just want an elbow support that rotates, it's pretty good at that.
btw, i didn't buy the one linked in the tweet. there were a bunch of different options and that one wasn't available here, so ymmv based on which one you get.
anyway, to explain why i was interested in this thing we have to talk about armrests for fps more generally first:
For basically my entire life I have removed the armrests from chairs and not really had a second thought about it. But after I met Viscose, someone who really depends on her armrest to do well, it made us think about why it was so important:
1) they elevate your arm above the pad slightly.
2) they give you another place to generate support from other than the desk/mousepad.
3) they allow you to have your arm closer to your body.
4) it creates a fixed pivot point to base movements off of.
These traits make it so your arm is generally more stable and supported, allowing for an easier time with activating and starting motions with it. In my eyes, it is one of the reasons that Viscose's post-flick fluidity is so good and flexible, and why her handcam looks quite a bit different than most other TSers. Not many of them involve the arm in almost every single motion.
It also lowers the amount of friction your arm experiences generally. Your wrist is the only real point of contact on the pad thanks to the elevation, which helps with the arm getting stuck on the pad. You can see me not using a sleeve in the second half of this video, which I literally never do. Viscose cites this as a reason why she never feels that impressed with the speed of glass: you get an exceptionally fast/smooth glide on the arm when using a sleeve, but she has no arm contact with the pad either way.
The downside is that if you want to move vertically or stray from that fixed point, it is significantly harder due to the friction where your arm makes contact. That's why I always removed the armrests: those benefits were not worth the feeling of being glued to that one spot, and the flexibility of arm movement was much more important to me. Viscose wraps a sock around her armrest to counteract this, but the friction was still a bit much for me.
OK NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE CONTRAPTION
It clamps onto your desk and has three pivot points. one right at the base, one in the middle of the arm, and one on the pad where you rest your arm. It also has three adjustable height options.
The reason I was so intrigued is because it had the potential the provide the benefits of using an armrest WITHOUT that one fatal drawback. The mobility of the hinges allows you to relocate where that pivot point rests.
So, here's my first impressions:
This thing has potential. I kinda doubt any of the cheap, plasticky versions of this on Amazon will be endgame for anybody, but in the moments it actually works, it's as good as I hoped it would be.
The main difference in my aim was how comfortable I was on the edges of my mousepad and how fluid my post-flick transitions were.
The causes were pretty much everything I listed earlier. It felt easier to lead motions with my arm too, probably thanks to the additional stability.
I use about 34cm/360, and a 180 puts me towards the edge of my pad. This was always really uncomfortable for me, and mouselifting was my solution to it; it would stop the flick without any instability and allow me to quickly reset my mouse back to the center of my mousepad.
At first, I kept doing this while using the armrest. But on one of the flicks I didn't--I just kept my arm where it was and tried to aim. That discomfort wasn't there. In this video I think you might be able to see it too, the speed in which I'm able to correct after a 180 is way smoother and executed more fluidly than in my other videos. I'm not sure if this is because of the additional support, the fact that I'm more comfortable starting movements with the arm, or because my arm was closer to my body, but it was a pretty cool feeling.
But all that being said, I don't think almost anybody should buy one of these right now. There are two design issues (at least with the one I have).
The first is that downwards pressure on the armrest creates a ton of resistance on the middle pivot. I feel like this could be solved with better design and materials. Maybe a full metal design could prevent this much flex, or using bearings/bushings might allow for articulation even under pressure. However the effect in aiming was that lateral movements were only slightly better than normal armrests. There were plenty of times where I'd full whiff because I tried to track somebody at close range with my arm and the armrest did not cooperate.
The result was subconsciously avoiding placing too much downwards pressure on the armrest, which kinda defeats the purpose of the product and forced me to use more tension overall than resting my whole arm on the pad.
I also tried placing the armrest in positions where the middle pivot doesn't have to extend as far and it did help, but it would introduce this feeling of getting railroaded into unwanted movements.
The second issue is the clamp. For cloth pads, it will create a section of a pad with a raised area that you can definitely feel. But with glass, I honestly didn't mind having it under the pad. I'm not sure how you could fix this without making the first issue worse though.
I also expected to struggle with mouse resets, thinking that my arm would leave the cup and I'd lose my place in the armrest. Didn't happen surprisingly! Never had to think about it.
That's basically it. I honestly think something like this could finally let me use the Zero, more than any sleeve could. That would be a really funny ending to a video LOL
but for now, we just gotta hope somebody comes along and designs something a bit better, because the idea itself is pretty strong.