From the creator that brought you a comes a whole different kind of controller: Rudeism specialises in building custom controllers of, it's probably fair to say, varying utility, and one of their latest projects is a functioning replica of the Mysterious Artefact from Baldur's Gate 3.
It took some tinkering over the course of to bring it all together, but it now mostly resembles a working controller.
Each rune-covered segment of the Artefact is actually a button on Rudeism's design, and they each took around 3 hours to print on a resin printer. Each of these buttons is hooked up to a handful of mechanical switches located around the exterior of a 3D printed shell, and each switch requires a run of wire into a mainboard, connecting an [[link]] ESP development board, IO expander and USB controller, and is carefully stuffed inside. There are also batteries located inside, which hasn't left a great deal of room for mistakes.
"This way is incredibly fiddly, and a bit annoying, but it is a way that guarantees that it can be dismantled again if I need it," Rudeism said .
The controller is nearly complete but it turns out and will need to be reprinted. Rudeism says it'll take around 3 hours to do the whole lot required for the controller in a resin printer. It's the main body that would be a more painful process—both halves took around three days to complete—so best to change the buttons instead.
One thing that's clear from watching the build progress: it takes some serious dedication to build something like this. Not the least bit because its efficacy as a controller is yet to be proven. Let's be honest, it's probably not going to be that great to actually game [[link]] with. But hey, it's most definitely a controller that Baldur's Gate fans will be clamouring to get hold of, just like the actual Mysterious Artefact itself.
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