Accelerometer or on screen controls for mobile UI in 3D games?

Question

I can think of several 2D games which use the Accelerometer successfully, but in my experience as a player, character control in a 3D environment tends to be frustrating. Mostly because a 3D environment often involves a wider, continuous field of view which prevents me from sitting comfortably while playing.

Is this an unfair generalisation? Are there examples of the Accelerometer working well for 3D games on mobile devices? There is the obvious tradeoff here, screen real estate unobscured by thumbs, but is it worth it?

Answer 1

This is more of a question of, does the use of the accelerometer improves/or integrates well with the controls of your game or does it makes it worse. Having good controls contribute to the overall design of a game, so ask yourself whether you want to design a good game or a bad one, then implement the best controls (whether it be a touch interface, onscreen pad or accelerometer) for having the best experience for your game.

Answer 2

Give the user the chance to choose between both things.

Answer 3

When you tilted too much, you will hardly see the screen (eyes must move), which is bad for intense action games.

I'm a joypad and keyboard gamer, so I'm used to key controls, and key or mouse controls give you an accurate directional feedback. So you know if you are driving straight.

In the X-Plane app, I found it's missing the HUD that shows your yoke position, which FlightGear has.

DO NOT use the accelerometer to look around, it's very difficult.

About Tilt to Live, it requires practice to steer properly.

That's my list of example cases.