Anyone use a hitbox?

[MattyD315]

I just got my HitBox "stickless" or all button fight stick and have been practicing all day. 632146 has never been easier after only a day. No more accidental 7 or 3 inputs when looking for 6. So amazing. I cant wait till I'm fully adjusted to it. Anyone else here use one?

[Rigel Cyrosea]

I use a hitbox sometimes. I find I'm more comfortable with a regular stick for general playing, especially for characters with a lot of half circle inputs, but the hitbox is great for precise inputs, especially ones where you need to avoid hitting up accidentally. Bridget's movement options are all much easier on hitbox for me. It's also great for down-down motions, and mini dashes followed by neutral normals. Slayer backdash cancels are easier too.

[Ajantas]

I was actually wondering about getting a hitbox, ever since I started playing on my vita I notice that I prefer button presses than stick motions when playing fighters. But I feel like the hitbox interface might need to take getting some use to, I mean using your thumb for a jump motion and how your finger positions are basically swapped when performing things on the opposite side. If I could just have an arcade stick with a massive pad I probably would play that over either of the two, but I need to get hold of one for a day or so before spending the money on it.

[MattyD315]

It most certainly needs some getting used to haha. But i think itll be more than worth the time. I remember how lame it was for the learning curve to go from pad to stick haha, just gotta tough it out. Plus theres no jerking the stick around you basically type your combos lol. And for the directions thing the creators of it had a good way to look at it. Just consider the up button a jump button instead of up. Makes all the difference in the world. I really like it for quartee and half circle inputs too. And instant blocking is so mindlessly easy with it. Hold back and forward at the same time gives you neutral so just holding back and giving a quick tap to forward and releasing it is a very safe way to attempt them. Definitely loving this thing so far!

[lisk]

I use a hitbox but I started with it so I can't really compare it to a stick. In theory it sounds better to me than a stick though which is why I got it initially.

[Grimsley-San]

I tried to use a hitbox once using Tager, it was kinda hard so I went back to pad.

[t1geridingh0rse]

how do you do diagonal normal with the hitbox like 3c

[Ctrlaltwtf]

how do you do diagonal normal with the hitbox like 3c

Two directionals at the same time. That's exactly how normal pads work and how the game calculates diagonals.

i.e. 3 = 2+6

[t1geridingh0rse]

ah ty ctral

[mAc Chaos]

It sounds like it would make it take longer to do inputs. Like 632146.

[NecroTheReaper]

Only requires 3 fingers and its just a roll like you're playin a keyboard from watching the demonstrations, some say its actually a lot faster. I feel like I'd reliably be able to pull off Relius' new gear distortion input better, plus tks sound easier to me personally. A local player uses one and I was confused when I first saw it but now I want one

[Ajantas]

It sounds like it would make it take longer to do inputs. Like 632146.

Wouldn't that input just be 6 2 4 6 though, so you just slide along the three fingers buttons from forward direction to the backwards direction and press forward again, sound sort of fast or does BB inputs not work like that?

[RoBoBOBR]

I play on hitbox (used to play on stick, started on pad). IMO it takes some time to get used to, but is as quick as stick (or quicker) and more precise.

[Random Naoto]

Wouldn't that input just be 6 2 4 6 though, so you just slide along the three fingers buttons from forward direction to the backwards direction and press forward again, sound sort of fast or does BB inputs not work like that?

Arcsys games have almost no input leniency; GG and in nine out of ten cases BB require that you hit every input in the right order to get what you want. There are two widely accepted methods among hitbox people for inputting a satisfactory half circle, the first is just making two quarter circles (632,214), which for some reason is acceptable in both GG and BB, and the other is an SOCD half circle, which for a half circle back would entail hitting and holding down on forward, down, and left which gives you 6, 3, and then left/right cancel out while all three buttons are held down giving you the 2, then rolling off left to right in the same way.

Everything else though, they're great, especially if you already know how to play on a keyboard. Instant blocking with SOCDs is probably the most busted thing for anime games. I made a video the HB guys put on their facebook about how to do it.

Only requires 3 fingers and its just a roll like you're playin a keyboard from watching the demonstrations, some say its actually a lot faster. I feel like I'd reliably be able to pull off Relius' new gear distortion input better, plus tks sound easier to me personally. A local player uses one and I was confused when I first saw it but now I want one

I have a ton of 24mm Sanwa buttons lying around. If you bring a case and a PCB to a meetup I'll make you one for free.

[Kikirin]

HitBox is pretty awesome overall, though I still have a hard time with getting half-circle and TK motions consistently when trying to do them quickly. With the former, I'll often get 63146 and eat a counterhit for my trouble when trying to get a super reversal out. With the latter, 2147 and 2369 often doesn't end well, though I've found that 214~8 and 236~8 get me more-consistent results. One-handed 720s are also pretty rough for me, but they're a snap when done two-handed (i.e. right thumb for 8).

The instant block trick mentioned earlier is pretty cool! I'll have to work that into my defense.

[Random Naoto]

HitBox is pretty awesome overall, though I still have a hard time with getting half-circle and TK motions consistently when trying to do them quickly. With the former, I'll often get 63146 and eat a counterhit for my trouble when trying to get a super reversal out. With the latter, 2147 and 2369 often doesn't end well, though I've found that 214~8 and 236~8 get me more-consistent results. One-handed 720s are also pretty rough for me, but they're a snap when done two-handed (i.e. right thumb for 8).

The instant block trick mentioned earlier is pretty cool! I'll have to work that into my defense.

If you use your right thumb to hit up usually, try doing tks with the left thumb so it's all on the same hand. I'm like 99% with TKs since I switched.

[Ajantas]

Arcsys games have almost no input leniency; GG and in nine out of ten cases BB require that you hit every input in the right order to get what you want. There are two widely accepted methods among hitbox people for inputting a satisfactory half circle, the first is just making two quarter circles (632,214), which for some reason is acceptable in both GG and BB, and the other is an SOCD half circle, which for a half circle back would entail hitting and holding down on forward, down, and left which gives you 6, 3, and then left/right cancel out while all three buttons are held down giving you the 2, then rolling off left to right in the same way.

Everything else though, they're great, especially if you already know how to play on a keyboard. Instant blocking with SOCDs is probably the most busted thing for anime games. I made a video the HB guys put on their facebook about how to do it.

Though I can still do most things on a pad I am liking the idea of a hitbox, ignoring anything about execution etc. I remember when learning arcade stick and I had to use a flat surface cause putting it on my lap just gave a very uneven surface and the diagonals just got annoying. This wasn't an option when taking it to a friends house. The pad is quite similar in some regards but the inputs are more absolute cause a forward and down will always be a 3 regardless of how wonky you hold your controller, though you have to 'feel' the input with your thumb. But the fact you just have a single button corresponding to the direction for 3 separate fingers (and a thumb for jumping) I think removes all that. Will most likely buy one if I still stick to fighting games when I start work in here, the 'anime fighter' community is tiny though.

Also is that SOCD thing meant to be some sort of protocol? I remember there being some fuss about Hitbox allowing you to block both directions, so I assume by what you are telling me (pressing all 3 button negates left/right and shows up as 2) then SOCD must be the thing they used to stop you pressing both directions at once? Does this also affect Up and down motions or could you make it so Up and down is Up so you could easily buffer like a super jump.

[Kikirin]

If you use your right thumb to hit up usually, try doing tks with the left thumb so it's all on the same hand. I'm like 99% with TKs since I switched.

I actually use left thumb 8 almost all the time. My problems likely stem more from sloppy inputs (2369 as 239) and/or incorrect timing (hitting the attack button too soon after the motion or too late such that the special input is no longer in the buffer).

Also is that SOCD thing meant to be some sort of protocol? I remember there being some fuss about Hitbox allowing you to block both directions, so I assume by what you are telling me (pressing all 3 button negates left/right and shows up as 2) then SOCD must be the thing they used to stop you pressing both directions at once? Does this also affect Up and down motions or could you make it so Up and down is Up so you could easily buffer like a super jump.

The HitBox does output Left+Right inputs as neutral and Up+Down as Up. I imagine this behavior can be changed if you used modified firmware for your controller. Also, I'm of the opinion that it's the game that's poorly coded if it doesn't handle Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions gracefully.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Kikirin

[TAI-X]

There was a problem with Vanilla MvC3 where using a modded controller to input left and right at the same time would allow you to block both directions at once. This was fixed in a patch so that the game interpreted it as neutral, and I'm unaware of any other games where it became an issue.

[NecroTheReaper]

I have a ton of 24mm Sanwa buttons lying around. If you bring a case and a PCB to a meetup I'll make you one for free.

Where would I find stuff like that?

[Krackatoa]

I would say that the Hitbox isn't that much better at doing 632146 motions than stick. 3-button motions can slow you down as you try to coordinate your fingers.

Hitbox is king of doubletaps (66/Dash). Variations on motions like 8236/8214 and the 7 and 9 versions are also insanely fast. You can buffer a QCF before leaving prejump frames after inputting 8 in many cases. You'll also never overshoot your QCFs, and double QCF is really easy.

[Random Naoto]

Where would I find stuff like that?

The PCB you can buy pretty much anywhere; for a hitbox you're more or less obligated to use a PS360+ which will run you like $60. As for the case, you can either try to find one on SRK, buy one from someone like Magocyber, or if you have some pretty basic tools you can make one out of wood. It's basically just a box with a bunch of holes in it.

[NecroTheReaper]

So in other words, building one is fairly easy? I thought you'd have to get specialized stuff, don't know a lot about the insides of an arcade stick and hitbox. Be kinda cool to make a custom one.

[Random Naoto]

So in other words, building one is fairly easy? I thought you'd have to get specialized stuff, don't know a lot about the insides of an arcade stick and hitbox. Be kinda cool to make a custom one.

Yeah. The parts list is just case, PCB, buttons, USB cable, and wires with .187 QDs to hook the buttons up to the PCB. There are a couple little things that might require extra materials like stripping the wires and fixing the PCB to the case, but all in all it's pretty simple.

[Airk]

So in other words, building one is fairly easy? I thought you'd have to get specialized stuff, don't know a lot about the insides of an arcade stick and hitbox. Be kinda cool to make a custom one.

Well, pretty much everything you need IS "specialized stuff" in that the only thing it's for is building an Arcade Stick/Hitbox. So in that sense, you're right, but none of it is hard to get, because there's a pretty thriving cottage industry around this sort of thing.