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What's the point of the light on the PS4 controller?

1) Tells you when the controller is on

2) Tells you which player the controller belongs to

3) Some camera things nobody uses

4) Has extra very neat functions on PC when using DS4Windows, like a battery life warning and charge state

5) Waste battery life
 
So you know when police are chasing you in GTA V...

No but really there really needs to be an option to turn them off.
 
I use it to check inside my earbuds to make sure no spider or other kind of bug got in there before putting it in my ears.
 
Yeah, such an obtrusive implementation of a feature with no concern given to the user. Just one of the huge of screw ups that prevent the controller from being great for me.

The biggest piss take is...its useless for normal gaming and drains the battery!
 
When it was first conceived, I believe that it was supposed to be a natural evolution/extension to the Move controller. Everyone would have a camera in their setup etc.

Nowadays, it may be used for a neat gimmick if the dev is so inclined, or VR I suppose.
 
Obviously for PSVR. I've it turned down in the options menu and it never bothers me since. Kinda helpful actually when I have 3 DS4s lying around and I can easily identify which one I'm using at the time.
 
Ushay said:
What baffles me is that they haven't redesigned it yet.
Click to expand...

They have redesigned it. They added a second light strip when the PS4 Pro came out. It's on the top edge of the touch pad.

Marty Chinn said:
What kind of terrible projector are you using? Is it only 50 lumens?
Click to expand...

Seriously.
It's least noticeable on a projection setup.
Actually it's even less noticeable in VR, lol.
 
It's a neat gimmick that would probably have been cool with the ps4 camera, but nobody is making games for it now. Aside from the cool siren effect in gta, it's an annoying battery waster that I have no idea why Sony can't turn off.
 
I feel like I'm back in 2013 with the launch threads lol. Ive since put all my controllers on Dim, and the 10 minute timer for turn off when Im watching a movie. Just seems like a non issue at this point, but I get it.
 
Alot more games used to use it in creative ways like turning rd when low on health etc. Seems to be a lot less now.
 
The sole purpose is being there to constantly reflect off my TV screen. Almost as useless as the expensive big black rectangular map/menu button in the middle of the controller.
 
I think it looks cool and gives the controller an identity.

Giving an identity to your products is very important for marketing purposes. When people see a controller with a lightbar, it is instantly associated with PlayStation now.

Outside of that, the actual functionality is camera tracking for VR.
 
Camera tracking and I'm very thankful for it.

Also,
bC3WKPfl.jpg
 
Damn, the OP reads like gamefaqs.

Personally I love the lights. They come into their own when you have 4 players playing (couch co op) and they all change colour to the colour of the character you're playing as. I do this often at our house.

Even when I'm by myself gaming - for games like Destiny it's great
 
I've always assumed Sony had bigger plans for camera/motion tracking stuff. Then the Kinect didn't do great and Sony scrapped them.
Now you can use it for VR stuff, I guess?

I vaguely remember someone testing the light bar's impact on battery life and it being significant. I don't know why Sony won't let you turn it off.

Is there some regulation demanding a battery-powered device must always indicate its power status? Because that dumb light array is all the DS4's got, right? The trackpad light is from that as well?
If that hypothetical scenario I just made up is a real thing, one would think they would've added a lil red light to a future revision. But they haven't done that as far as I'm aware.

I'm no engineer, but this seems like shitty engineering. Or designing. I don't know. Someone's been doing something shitty. And now we're all paying the dark price.
fade_ said:
Alot more games used to use it in creative ways like turning rd when low on health etc. Seems to be a lot less now.
Click to expand...
I would imagine few developers allot part of their time and budget towards that feature (at least partially) because when playing a game, you are looking at the screen, not the controller. Especially the top of it.

God what a dumb gimmick. it is the dumbest one I can remember at this point in time.
Or I guess if the light is bright enough to reflect off the screen, it's actually pretty smart. But still dumb.
 
I would agree it's one of, if not the dumbest feature of any main stream piece of gaming hardware I can think of. And no ability to turn it off is just the icing on the shit cake.
 
To give off a nice pretty glow.
Tbh I really like it when games incorporate it & change colour depending on the situation. Or local multiplayer games where everyone has their own colour

But yeah it's mostly for tracking.

I've never understood the hate for it personally
 
The led doesn't effect the battery much if I'm remembering correctly. The touch pad annihilates it however.

Could be wrong on that though.

On PC, I use the light on the absolute dimmest setting to let me know my battery level. Red for empty, green for full. It blends the color perfectly.
 
To get me into the game on a whole other level. I see green and I know it's fine. Orange, things might get dicey. Red...you just know some shit's gonna go down.
 
I have to believe it was just baked into the PS4 design in such a way where it just would be a massive headache to disable it completely. For example I'm guessing the PS Camera is always looking for the light bar and there would be no way to tell it that there isn't anything there or to alert the player that it's missing. Similarly if Sony's design document assures developers it's always there than it stands to reason that there may be some games that would just glitch up, if they couldn't perform their lightbar functions.
 
My real question is after 3 years, why is there no way to still turn the damn thing off without ripping it open?

Wish I was that guy whose DS4 lightbar stopped working. Now it lasts like 6+ hours.
 
Baron Von Beans said:
Maybe just angle it downward a little bit..?
Click to expand...

Seriously. I'm not trying to be a dick, but is everyone holding their controllers at a straight angle, and sitting perfectly in front of their TV? Never been a problem for anyone I know and most of my friends have a PS4. Only place I ever see complaints about the light is on this forum.
 
Neiteio said:
It makes the DS4 the most ghetto controller in my collection. I have to use black electrical tape to cover it up since it reflects off my glossy TV. When I upgraded to PS4 Pro, I was alarmed by how the light can now be seen on the sides of the touch panel, as well. Fortunately, I was able to cover it up by extending the electrical tape downwards.

I have no idea what Sony was thinking with this. It drains the battery, it's distracting if you have a glossy TV, and it contributes nothing meaningful to the gameplay experience. Most baffling of all is the fact that when you use the DS4 on a PC, you have the option to toggle off the light... So why can't we do this on the console, too?
Click to expand...

a led light isnt reason why the battery is terrible,
 
Set it to dim. It has almost no effect on battery life since it is LED on dim. Also you can shut the controller off when a show is playing by either the Quick Menu under Sound / Devices or by just holding down the PS button for ~10 seconds
 
Izayoi said:
It's really fucking stupid and whoever designed it is a numbskull.

Waste of battery with no way to turn it off. I've stopped using my PS4 because of it - actually just bought a separate device for streaming (which was basically all I used the console for anyway).

Dumb.
Click to expand...
You bought a $400 console to stream Netflix then stopped using it altogether because of a light on the controller?

Dumb.
 
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