The Fixes Sony's DualShock 4 Controller Still Needs 59
An anonymous reader writes Sony's PS4 has been on sale for more than a year now, and while its revamped DualShock 4 controller has been critically lauded, it's not without its faults. A new article flags up the issues — both hardware and software — that Sony could look to improve. Almost all of the points — a bigger battery, more options for the lightbar, repositions Option button — could be fixed with a bit of elbow grease. After all, as the author points out, Sony has already quietly changed the model it ships with each console once already.
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Cosmonaut? ;)
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When to use worse and when to use worst [wikihow.com]
Re:One step foward, 10 slippery steps back (Score:4, Insightful)
You should know that Sony has a history of delivering stupid pieces of shit [theonion.com].
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I think the touchpad is a great feature. In GTA 5, if you go into your character's phone's browser, the touchpad acts as a mouse cursor. It also functions as a mouse when you're entering text in PS4 menus. It may go somewhat under-utilized since it's a feature that's only available on one console this generation, but I think it's a great idea, and it's implemented pretty well.
And honestly, I don't find it to be intrusive at all when I'm just playing and not using it.
Bigger options button is the main one (Score:5, Informative)
The Options button is a key one. The thing is tiny and aggravating to push. For any game that you end up using it a lot (ie, Dragon Age Inquisition) it gets annoying really fast.
Other than that though I have no major complaints. The touchpad I don't see as useful but it also doesn't really get in the way either. Bigger battery - yeah it would be nice but its not hard to keep it charged up (I just keep a second cell phone charger near my nightstand and connect the controller when I'm finished playing).
If they just got that options button taken care of that would work great.
Also - a cheaper wired version would be nice (even if third party). My 6 year old likes to occasionally play Skylander Co-op, but she generally doesn't need a great controller (and keeping two charged up is more aggravating). The availability of a ~$15 second controller is why we're still playing that on the PS3 instead of the PS4.
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The "share" button also needs to be changed into something a bit more genera -purpose. I know that the whole game-streaming thing is big right now, but the simple fact is that the majority of gamers - self very much included - will never actually record gameplay footage interesting enough to be worth sharing with others. By all means, have some kind of option in the OS to enable recording and uploading of footage, but you do not need a controller button set aside for it. That's just pandering to narcissists
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Lack of L3 and R3 (Score:2)
This is one of the reasons why third party support for the Gamecube was so poor, despite it having a similar installed base to the original Xbox and fairly easy hardware to develop for
Developing once you get the devkit is a very different task from qualifying to buy a devkit in the first place, and Nintendo's policies in the GameCube era made the latter difficult for some smaller studios.
its little controller had fewer buttons than the Dualshock 2 or the various iterations of the Xbox controller, so games would have had to be redesigned to fit on it.
The GameCube controller was missing Select/Back, L1/LB, L3, and R3. How often were those essential to the point where a redesign would be nontrivial?
And the Wii-U gamepad does at least have the right number of buttons and sticks (unprecedented for a modern Nintendo controller)
I don't see how it's unprecedented. The Classic Controller for Wii was laid out essentially the same as PlayStation Dual Analog/Sixaxis, just without L3 and
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Most 3d games use most of the controls on a standard controller, though L3/R3 (which as you say are awkward) are generally avoided where possible. The Cube controller was missing enough buttons that games needed serious redesign. The Classic Controller was closer to being fully-featured, but was an optional peripheral anyway.
In the early part of the last decade, I was housemates for a while with a guy who worked at a middle-budget developer whose niche was putting out reasonably good (but not exceptional) g
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The "share" button also needs to be changed into something a bit more genera -purpose. I know that the whole game-streaming thing is big right now, but the simple fact is that the majority of gamers - self very much included - will never actually record gameplay footage interesting enough to be worth sharing with others.
It does different things depending if you single click, double click or hold it down.
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The Options button is a key one. The thing is tiny and aggravating to push.
It's bigger than the start button on the DS1/DS2/DS3.
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Bigger battery - yeah it would be nice but its not hard to keep it charged up
...
(and keeping two charged up is more aggravating)
You're kinda stepping all over your own point, there.
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Inclusiveity (Score:5, Funny)
The controller needs to be more inclusive towards women. Vibrating controllers and smooth grips are a clear allusion to female sexuality and each PS4 controller thus represents a concrete manifestation of rape culture in which women and womens' sexualities are groped and objectified by a violent, uncaring male patriarchaly power ethos. Women feel adversion and exclusion towards phallic and gynopobic objects being misused and are thus excluded from full participation in the enjoyment of virtual and online expieriences by the PS4 controller.
For the record, I'm not saying that the PS4 controller is raping women, but it is contributing towards and environment in which violence and rape are seen as a acceptable method of control over girls and women in the living room, the household, and in wider society.
Rez Trance Vibrator (Score:2)
based on the title (Score:1)
brief moments of lag (Score:1)
anyone else have this problem? I have two controllers and both will occasionally get super laggy for a few seconds at a time. really annoying when playing an action game. This happens on both the PS4 and PSTV.
super weird.
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You have enough interference to knock blue tooth into choke mode. Doesn't that worry you?
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What they need to do is be less cheap (Score:3)
Re:What they need to do is be less cheap (Score:4, Insightful)
It's better this way. You can buy a regular USB cable anywhere, it's not Sony trying to make you pay for a Sony cable. By not including a USB cable that almost everyone has (in multiple useless numbers too) it's better for the environment.
I would also be happy if computer power supplies didn't include the standard power cable either, I checked my cables box yesterday and I have over a dozen of the damn things. Standard cables outlive the computers.
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I wish I didn't comment so I could mod this up. This is pretty much spot on.
HDMI cables are becoming this prevalent too. My cup runneth over... with a mess of cables. lots and lots of cables.
People are complaining the New 3DS isn't shipping with a charger. I'm super glad it's one less thing I need to find a shelf for.
Here's a fix the PS4 needs (Score:3)
My friend keeps complaining that his PS4 is a stupid piece of shit and that Sony are incompetent fucks because it can't even auto-pause games when one of the controllers battery dies, unlike his Xbox 360.
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If each game needs to implement the feature, then it's pointless. The PS4 OS should be in charge of this.
Counterpoint: playing online (Score:1)
The PS4 can't pause Destiny just because your controller died. It's considerations like this that led Sony to leave this feature up do game developers, as opposed to enforcing such rules system-wide.
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The problem with making the console's OS auto-pause games when a controller disconnects is that there are always tricky edge cases that make that undesirable behavior.
For instance, consider Rock Band, the latter Guitar Hero games, or any number of "karaoke games" which include singing into microphones. You're singing through a set of songs, or a particularly long song, and 10 min. into your singing the controller goes to sleep and disconnects from the system. This is desirable behavior. After all, you're
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Actually it does as far as I can tell, EXCEPT when the game is online.
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Yeah, can't really pause an online game, as you can't pause time.
Despite the "flaws"... (Score:2)
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I still prefer the 360 controller, but the Dualshock 4 is a huge improvement over previously stagnant dual shock form factor.
New Analog modules, PLEASE (Score:3)
When people complain about how imprecise analog sticks are, one of the biggest problems is overcoming the initial tension that the return spring has on the analog nub. The thing hasn't changed in nearly 20 years. We've had hall effect sensors(Used on the Dreamcast; funny enough) and all sorts of other new ways to detect analog input. It's just two potentiometers.
We may never get to the place where analog aiming is as precise as a mouse, but we can certainly do better than what we've got now.
Meanwhile for the "doomed" console... (Score:2)
Their pro controller has an 80 hour battery life. So there's really no advantage to fixing the controller's battery life.
So much is good, but the light! (Score:1)
I've been really happy with the DS4, even though I've only had my PS4 for a couple months. I think the touchpad is great! For those that haven't used it, the touchpad itself is a button. You just slide your finger across it, which in many instances moves a cursor on the screen, and then you press it to click. It's not a perfect substitute for a mouse, but it is a clever way to put some precision cursor control in your hands.
When entering text (like your PSN login info) the touchpad can be used to move a
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The biggest issues are: short battery life, and that useless light.
The light also serves the same function as the "orb" does on a Move controller which is why it has it. Watch one of those Playroom streams sometime, it shows how it works.
wearing out of thumbstick and.... (Score:2)
However, I am very gentle and precise with mine, and they have suited me well. *HOWEVER* the right thumbstick, when pressed in, is starting to flake out. If I press it to run, a lot of force is needed, or else I will stop running. So that controller is basically useless now.
And of course, I have to say that as for right now, the touchpad is absolutely useles
They say a picture is worth a thousand words... (Score:3)
So, what should be changed about the DualShock? My answer is in this image. [imgur.com]
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Hmmph, Xbox fanboy I see. The DS series predates the xbox controllers, I prefer the symmetry.
You also got the letters mixed up. If you really want to be oldschool you switch Y and X positions and B and A positions, then it's the layout of a SNES controller the inspiration for the PSone controllers.
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Regardless of who came first, Sony's design is objectively worse.
What are the most used elements to control a game? Left analog stick and face buttons. Therefore, they should get the "sweet spots" of the controller, to be more accessible, more reachable. Sony's design fucks up by making the d-pad more prominent, to detriment of the left stick.
This only made sense as a quick and cheap way to add analog sticks to a controller that wasn't originally planned for that. But after the first version, Sony was just
AA battery option (Score:2)
I dislike the fact the the DualShock 4 uses an internal battery that will eventually need to be replaced. I'd much prefer to use my rechargeable AA batteries since I have a bunch lying around. I also prefer it be heavier as I'm used to using the Xbox 360 controller with a Chatpad attached.
On the weekends I will play in binges of 8 to 10 hours or longer, so battery life can be an issue for me. As a result I tend to just leave a USB cable plugged into the controller at all times. I have also had problems
Headphone Jack (Score:2)
I love that they added a headphone jack to the new controller (making it easier to chat)... and amazingly enough it works (kinda) with iPhone headsets. (3 channel mini plug)... though the audio only comes out one side in an imperfect stereo. Would be nice if they had a more intelligent jack here that could take regular headphones as well as the semi-standard (with lots and lots of options available) iPhone style stereo / mic plugs.
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and amazingly enough it works (kinda) with iPhone headsets. (3 channel mini plug)... though the audio only comes out one side in an imperfect stereo.
1/8 TRRS mini-plug on the iphone headset? That happened to me, the problem is you don't have it plugged in all the way, there's another "click" further in. The jack on the DS4 has a lot of resistance so it's easy to think you have it in all the way when you don't.