Live data from Hacker News

A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

scanofthemonth.com

101–110 of 138 posts

Re: A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

#101
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you start playing shooting games with gyro aim, you'll definitely feel the difference - because it's not even an option on Xbox. As far as the haptics go, the degree to which cross-platform games use them really varies. Cold War had cool haptic triggers so you felt the recoil kick, but I don't think that was included in MW2. Some exclusives like Returnal leverage the advanced haptics in a really impressive way, to…

What do you mean by giro aim? Moving the controller in the air to aim?

Yes, that is exactly it. Nintendo Switch and Valve Stream deck (and even the old steam controllers) have this functionality. In the case of the Steamdeck, there are sensors in the joysticks to know if your finger is present to then allow mapping to enable/disable gyro aiming as well. Making it easier to reset the devices position in space without also aiming.

Re: A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I use a controller to game and interact with the game, the most ways to game, the more fun I have Hence why I bought a Nintendo Switch, the premise is: to have fun

The only reason I've put off buying a switch is because the controllers are so bad. Even assuming they've finally fixed all the issues with drift and wireless, the controls are cramped and the buttons so so tiny!

Doesn't nintendo sell a bigger better controller? I forgot what it's called, but it's much higher quality than the default ones and feels really good in the hand.

Re: A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ps5 controller, just like the PS4 controller, are succumbed to the dreaded stick drifting issue. I play Call of Duty and this stick drifting issue has made me own more than 4-5 controllers for each generation. At this point I have a conspiracy theory that Sony intentionally not fixing this. My friends in the Xbox camp say they never experienced this issue.

I'm pretty sure all the manufacturers have this problem pretty much equally, at least on their "normal" controllers. Nintendo worse probably just due to the very constrained available size. You see users of all the consoles anecdotally reporting drift problems. I haven't experienced personally any drift on my PS4 or PS5 controllers, nor an Xbox controller used for a PC. I did have it happen pretty significantly on a…

Never experienced this on modern Xbox controllers, but I did get it significantly on N64. Seems like it should be fixed if they use hall sensors or encoders but I haven’t actually looked inside one.

Re: A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

#105
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you start playing shooting games with gyro aim, you'll definitely feel the difference - because it's not even an option on Xbox. As far as the haptics go, the degree to which cross-platform games use them really varies. Cold War had cool haptic triggers so you felt the recoil kick, but I don't think that was included in MW2. Some exclusives like Returnal leverage the advanced haptics in a really impressive way, to…

What do you mean by giro aim? Moving the controller in the air to aim?

It’s more like a tilt - I use it in conjunction with the regular analog stick movement. Together, it adds an extra degree of control, and gyro is a much more sensitive and precise input than an analog stick.

It takes a little getting used to, and there’s a good number of settings parameters you can dial in to your preference (I generally like higher sensitivity and on all the time), but now I’m able to snipe across the map with a controller in fortnite nearly as well as I used to with a mouse and keyboard in battlefield 4. Playing it on an Xbox feels like using stone tools in comparison.

Re: A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

#107
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes this situation even more frustrating is that analog sticks have been around for a long time now. I still have controllers from the PS2/GC/Xbox era that work just fine after all these years and countless hours of play, and have no drift whatsoever. Even the earliest analog sticks like the N64 (Which used LEDs for tracking) didn't suffer from drift — although it did wear out considerably mechanically! I just…

Even more frustrating, its not even that difficult to fix. All they need to do is implement a renormalization routine. If you find your controller is drifting, then the console just needs some menu where you put the stick to a bunch of reference locations, and then the stick maps outs its own response and renormalizes. "This is neutral." "This is upper-left as far as it goes." "This is..." ect... Maybe even with fine…

I also have had stick drift due to COD and in the menu you can doing something similar to this by controlling how much default stick is pushed.

You set high sensitivity and the cursor moves with hand off the controller in a certain direction. You adjust the counter-drift until the cursor doesn't move at all.

Re: A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

#108
post #39

One thing they didn't make quite clear here is that the Xbox controller is considerably less advanced than the PS5 controller. The PS5 controller has "linear resonant actuators" (previously introduced in the Switch, and in the iPhone before that) which provide a much more fine-grained rumble feature than the older method which is still used in the XBox. The newer feature lets you feel e.g. that the character walks ov…

The ps5 controller, just like the PS4 controller, are succumbed to the dreaded stick drifting issue. I play Call of Duty and this stick drifting issue has made me own more than 4-5 controllers for each generation. At this point I have a conspiracy theory that Sony intentionally not fixing this. My friends in the Xbox camp say they never experienced this issue.

Xbox one controllers are susceptible to the bumpers failing on the other hand. You can at least still play with drift.

Re: A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure all the manufacturers have this problem pretty much equally, at least on their "normal" controllers. Nintendo worse probably just due to the very constrained available size. You see users of all the consoles anecdotally reporting drift problems. I haven't experienced personally any drift on my PS4 or PS5 controllers, nor an Xbox controller used for a PC. I did have it happen pretty significantly on a…

Never experienced this on modern Xbox controllers, but I did get it significantly on N64. Seems like it should be fixed if they use hall sensors or encoders but I haven’t actually looked inside one.

Here's an interesting video I just watched of someone making a hardware mod for existing controllers using a rotary encoder hall effect position sensor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAsrLxaAkY0

Re: A look inside the SNES, PS5, and Xbox controllers with CT scans

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason I've put off buying a switch is because the controllers are so bad. Even assuming they've finally fixed all the issues with drift and wireless, the controls are cramped and the buttons so so tiny!

Doesn't nintendo sell a bigger better controller? I forgot what it's called, but it's much higher quality than the default ones and feels really good in the hand.

That's good to know! It somewhat diminishes it's usefulness as a portable system but it beats having to put up with that insane d-pad and baby buttons. I'm still kind of hoping for a switch XL...
Post reply on HN