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What's the point of the trackpad on Dualsense

Do you want Sony to keep the trackpad on their controllers

  • Yes

    Votes: 128 47.6%

  • No

    Votes: 141 52.4%
  • Total voters
    269
speaking stan marsh GIF by South Park

Backwards compatibility and prestige
 
LectureMaster said:
The trackpad usage was a joke on DS4 to begin with. It just bugs me more as they even increased the trackpad size significantly from DS4.

Yet not a single PS5 game bothers to give the pad a function rather a button press.

In PS4 era at least there were some games using the wipe gesture for different menus (Witcher 3, GoT), which is really convenient imo.

I know it all comes down to their Brand recognition BS. But if they had ditched the trackpad and made the controller an asymmetric layout, it would have been the best controller to date.
Click to expand...
The same as the haptic feedback. Remember in November everyone was saying how mind blowing the control was? Lol they should be ashamed of themselves for praising rumble.
 
elliot5 said:
Like 0.1% of games use the trackpad and most of them are Sony games. I think MGS may be the other one that isn't a Sony game.

I don't hate gimmicks but the track pad was a failure imo. Same with the light bar until they redesigned the controller to let it bleed through the front.

It's mostly there because of PS4 backwards compatibility. I'm not sure how Sony would have handled BC other than only playable with DS4 controllers and not DualSense ones?

I wonder if the ps6 will rip the band-aid off and ditch it or if they're going to just keep it from here on out..

Haptics and triggers are dope and can stay tho
Click to expand...
It's too early to call it a failure or a success. Analog sticks didn't take off right away either. R1/L1 buttons weren't adopted by every platform right away either. Somethings just take time. I do hope that it gains traction because it can be used in some very interesting ways – developers just need to be creative.
 
I've never used a controller with a trackpad. I dont even use the trackpad on my laptop.

I can see the purpose being it acts like a mini-mouse for precision input, but for me a gamepad with sticks and buttons is fine. And on a laptop, I use a travel size mouse if I'm on location somewhere. Or a regular mouse if at a desk.

I find trackpads look like more of a nuisance if you accidentally touch or click it. Thats why for my laptops, I go into settings and turn it off.
 
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It's there because of Backwards Compatibility and no other reason. This is one of the things I have said that I hate about controller gimmicks - it makes it harder to preserve the software for the future. If we want full BC from now on for PS games then every controller needs to have a track pad, and now also the special triggers and haptics. Imagine if one of the sony first party studios made a game that used the light bar to solve a puzzle or something for example - then you'd also need the lightbar forever too.

Keep gimmicks off controllers.
 
Yeah it's not really used alot but I have no problem with it. It would just be unused space otherwise.

Though I just had a thought, you could have an overlay card over it dividing it into different touch sensitive buttons. Different games could have different overlays. Like the old Atari Jaguar controller.
 
It's a pointless feature. I haven't used it in the vast majority of the games I've played for anything else than a button. Also maybe I'm not used to trackpads, but I don't think it's that precise to use to move the cursor or the map screen.
 
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rofif said:
Another? What else is a gimmick ?
Tell me, I need to wank
Click to expand...

Sixaxis wasn't well utilized either, I remember many people actually hated its (forced) usage in UC1 so much that ND patched the game and let people use analog sticks instead. Shortly after the initial launch lineup the feature basically died. DS4 light bar was also totally pointless. Sony does like to experiment with their controllers way more than necessary, with a hit and miss results, and that wouldn't be an issue at all if those features weren't draining the battery life.
 
Dream-Knife said:
You mean a feature that's been on laptops for 40 years?

Trackpad was a headge against if the wii u was successful.
Click to expand...

It was a carryover from the Vita. It had nothing to do with Wii U. The Trackpad on a laptop isn't aligned with your thumbs for gaming. Not the same thing.
 
Closer said:
It's not symmetrical if you use analog stick and face buttons on PS controllers.
Click to expand...

If I'm using both sticks at the same time (which is common) they are.

Closer said:
Mostly fighters and Monster Hunter. Mind you, I do use the right analog stick, just not as the main input. There are too many games out there that barely uses the right analog stick. What I was trying to say is that there's no "asymetric hands", 'cause that depends on what type of game you are going to play.
Click to expand...

You use the stick instead of the d-pad for fighters? Seriously?
 
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I use a DS4 on PC and I love it. The extra functionality brings enough to the table that I don't want to give up. Presses, double presses, too presses, and swipes are a lot of inputs. Even if it's just mouse input in Windows, it makes life easier.

If console games aren't using it, it's on the devs. There's plenty of use it can have. Same with gyro. Don't blame the controller for not being used.
 
Bit of a running joke quite honestly. I can see the argument for it providing a couple more buttons but to be honest, I'd rather buttons at the back, sort of like paddles instead.
 
Any game that forces me to swipe in order to access certain menus or god forbid gameplay moves can fuck right off. It's somehow not my natural range of motions with my thumbs, so it's always awkward and annoying.
 
GHG said:
If I'm using both sticks at the same time (which is common) they are.
Click to expand...

Mine too while using stick and face buttons. What gives?

GHG said:
You use the stick instead of the d-pad for fighters? Seriously?
Click to expand...

Preference. I really dislike PS dpad and Xbox dpad is not that better. When not using a fight stick, that's how I play.
 
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rofif said:
Another? What else is a gimmick ?
Tell me, I need to wank
Click to expand...
The touchpad, The gyro shit, light bar, and the speaker is a gimmick.

Apparently they also added a mic into it the Dualsense 5. So another gimmick to tinker with.

Also who knows what those new triggers will do to the longevity of the controllers.
 
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Was very usefull in FFXIV to use it as a mouse to adjust stuff on screen. (Moving skills around, adjusting hud, etc)

Even when the tracking feauture is not used i like it as a big map button.
 
Darlingcognito said:
Just another gimmick Sony fans can wank over the competition not having it.
Click to expand...
Another? What else is a gimmick ?
Tell me, I need to wank
Warablo said:
The touchpad, The gyro shit, light bar, and the speaker is a gimmick.

Apparently they also added a mic into it the Dualsense 5. So another gimmick to tinker with.

Also who knows what those new triggers will do to the longevity of the controllers.
Click to expand...
The gyro stuff is not used enough. But it's ok when it works. In 2nd son, the graffiti was super fun to do.
Speaker is great but ok - not needed.
Mic is a mic. nothing wrong about that.
Lightbar is just for vr
 
Warablo said:
The touchpad, The gyro shit, light bar, and the speaker is a gimmick.

Apparently they also added a mic into it the Dualsense 5. So another gimmick to tinker with.

Also who knows what those new triggers will do to the longevity of the controllers.
Click to expand...
Lighbar was needed for VR tracking without need to buy controllers just for VR. Gyro should be default in all controllers for gyro aim if well implemented. The mic in DS let u chat with ppl without needing an headset.
 
rofif said:
Another? What else is a gimmick ?
Tell me, I need to wank

The gyro stuff is not used enough. But it's ok when it works. In 2nd son, the graffiti was super fun to do.
Speaker is great but ok - not needed.
Mic is a mic. nothing wrong about that.
Lightbar is just for vr
Click to expand...

Light bar was used by some games to great effect outside of VR. Also useful for tell which controller is whose if you are playing with someone else and your controllers are the same color.
 
Tearaway Unfolded also used it to a greater extend.

It is correct that not a lot of games provide meaningful integration of the feature but when it was used in creative ways it was much more than just a gimmick. As with many things it is up to the developer to provide additional resources to make full use of things like that. This is especially true for multiplatform games where the benefits of such different controlshemes are not so easy to integrate.

Overall i love it and hope Sony keeps it in further iterations. Especially the overhauled pad on the DualSense just feels awesome.
 
So much potential wasted. Basic swipe gestures could offer tangible improvements to accessing maps, menus, upgrades, what have you.

We only need to look back to KZ Shadowfall or Witcher 3 (I think).

Each and every 1st party should be flexing this to the max. 3rd party as usual, will simply opt for lowest common denominator.
 
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I like it in Spider-Man Miles Morales: swipe the trackpad's right side to bring the Spider app.

I also like it as a big dumb button to simply bring up the map/inventory: it is easier and quicker to use than the two narrow and uncomfortable buttons on the Dual Sense's face (I have the same "complaint" about the similar buttons on my Xbox One controller for PC).
 
I like the big button for pulling up the map or menu. It's such a waste for that, but it makes it feel better than using a tiny button.
 
I'd much rather keep the trackpad and get rid of the speaker. You can actually use the trackpad for gameplay. The speaker is literally useless redundancy.
 
It's good when I have dry hands, but as soon as I'm sweaty it doesn't read correctly and has a lot of false inputs. Example being that zipping up the suits in Astro's Playroom was great, but once I'd progressed and got to the ball rolling part, swiping left caused the ball to roll down. Luckily for my sweaty arse not many games use it apart from as a map button. I like having it there though.
 
It's the best big map button ever. Allows you to bring it up really quickly. Using an Xbox controller after feels weird finding the small options button 😅
 
People do bitch about everything. The trackpad doesn't bother anyone, it opens up options for developers and It's used in several PlayStation 4 games that would be rendered useless without it on DualSense.
 
Outlier said:
I'd much rather keep the trackpad and get rid of the speaker. You can actually use the trackpad for gameplay. The speaker is literally useless redundancy.
Click to expand...

It works well in combination with the haptic feedback. See Astro's Playroom for an example. It's also good for radio transmissions. It's immersive.
 
I played Elite Dangerous on PS4 let you assign each of the four corners of the track pad to an action, this really showed how trash the thing was, top right and especially to top left clicks almost always registered as bottom right click.

This is why developers couldn't use the pad for many different clicks, it's to sloppy.

It's a gimmick that barely worked and was never mandated as mandatory for developers to utilize. This is why multiplatform games used it merely as a button, or sometimes two.

If Sony wants gimmicks to work they need to mandate the usage and stay strict with it, this risks alienating devs, but either have some balls and make them use the features you ship with or don't waste time and effort on throwaway gimmicks.
 
LectureMaster said:
The trackpad usage was a joke on DS4 to begin with. It just bugs me more as they even increased the trackpad size significantly from DS4.

Yet not a single PS5 game bothers to give the pad a function rather a button press.

In PS4 era at least there were some games using the wipe gesture for different menus (Witcher 3, GoT), which is really convenient imo.

I know it all comes down to their Brand recognition BS. But if they had ditched the trackpad and made the controller an asymmetric layout, it would have been the best controller to date.
Click to expand...
Since it's a trackpad you can use it as several different buttons depending on where you press it. Four more buttons can come in handy, especially compared to none. But yeah, the true trackpad nature of it is probably a bit on the novelty side.

Edit: I dont have the numbers, but it feels much more presise on the PS5.
 
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jaysius said:
I played Elite Dangerous on PS4 let you assign each of the four corners of the track pad to an action, this really showed how trash the thing was, top right and especially to top left clicks almost always registered as bottom right click.

This is why developers couldn't use the pad for many different clicks, it's to sloppy.

It's a gimmick that barely worked and was never mandated as mandatory for developers to utilize. This is why multiplatform games used it merely as a button, or sometimes two.

If Sony wants gimmicks to work they need to mandate the usage and stay strict with it, this risks alienating devs, but either have some balls and make them use the features you ship with or don't waste time and effort on throwaway gimmicks.
Click to expand...

Either you're missing or your controller is busted. Using it with the onscreen keyboard shows it is extremely precise.
 
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GuinGuin said:
Either you're missing or your controller is busted. Using it with the onscreen keyboard shows it is extremely precise.
Click to expand...
CLICKS. I swear, some here don't even try to read posts before they ready their contrary responses because you're hurting their precious child.

My post was clear, assigning ACTIONS to the corners lead to inaccurate unreliable responses.

Either you didn't read my post or your browser is busted.
 
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Wish it had an oled or eink screen. Could have used it as a little universal remote.
mostly appreciated it as a keyboard input.
I neverliked swipe gestures ingame.
 
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