Decline What controller do you nerds use?

[Cat Headed Eagle]

You don't know how convenient a wired controller is until you are playing a Souls game and the batteries run out right in the middle of a boss fight

 

[yellowcake]

Rechargeable batteries are all well and good, but what's the point of having

You have two sets and replace when needed.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

8bitdo Pro 2. Rubber dome buttons and SNES-style d-pad, good quality (albeit rattly), best shoulder buttons ever, zero drift or stick assembly play after over maybe 200-300 hours of game time.
I'd probably get a Ultimate 2.4G instead if I had to get one now, but that didn't exist when I got this, and the Pro 2 still retains a few advantages. Namely, it's the most multiplatform controller they made so you can use it on a phone or on Switch, and it has a gyroscope so you can use gyroscopic controls in Breath of the Wild in CEMU with a bit of tinkering.

 

[Goldschmidt]

An educated gentleman doesn't buy nor play games that have shitty pc controls and require a so called controller to fix their shit game.

 

[Elthosian]

8bitdo Pro 2. Rubber dome buttons and SNES-style d-pad, good quality (albeit rattly), best shoulder buttons ever, zero drift or stick assembly play after over maybe 200-300 hours of game time.
I'd probably get a Ultimate 2.4G instead if I had to get one now, but that didn't exist when I got this, and the Pro 2 still retains a few advantages. Namely, it's the most multiplatform controller they made so you can use it on a phone or on Switch, and it has a gyroscope so you can use gyroscopic controls in Breath of the Wild in CEMU with a bit of tinkering.

In case you ever decide on getting the Ultimate make sure to get the BT version. It has hall effect sticks that don’t get drift in the long run.

 

[Anonymous Ranger]

I use an wired 360 controller so old it’s changed color from white to yellow and the left joystick padding has began to wear down to nothing but hard plastic. I keep telling myself I’ll get a new controller at some point but I never do.

 

[Modron]

I use an wired 360 controller so old it’s changed color from white to yellow and the left joystick padding has began to wear down to nothing but hard plastic. I keep telling myself I’ll get a new controller at some point but I never do.

Similar boat of a wired 360 controller with worn down padding but mine is still white I don't want to know what you've done to yours. We've made it this far might as well wait another couple of years for hall effect controllers to mature more.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

In case you ever decide on getting the Ultimate make sure to get the BT version. It has hall effect sticks that don’t get drift in the long run.

I was thinking of the cheaper "Ultimate C" instead because I love that gay purple colour. Looks like the BT is 85€ which is fucking absurd, I remember it being like 60€ before.

Stick drift doesn't really concern me. I've had a 360 controller that's fucking ancient and that thing is still fine, the "drift" is purely in the assembly (doesn't reset to perfect zero, stick itself can stick slightly left or right of perfect centre), and I imagine the Gulikit assemblies they use on the Ultimate BT are just as susceptible to that type of assembly play with enough use.
I highly suspect that the only reason we're having this conversation right now is because the Nintendo Switch has those shitty flat joysticks that can't live up to extended use. I've never experienced stick drift myself. I guess it's like hard drive failures, it won't happen until it eventually does, but neither has happened to me.

 

[911 Jumper]

The official 360 controller (both wired and wireless) has been my controller for the last decade.

 

[Elthosian]

In case you ever decide on getting the Ultimate make sure to get the BT version. It has hall effect sticks that don’t get drift in the long run.

I was thinking of the cheaper "Ultimate C" instead because I love that gay purple colour. Looks like the BT is 85€ which is fucking absurd, I remember it being like 60€ before.

Stick drift doesn't really concern me. I've had a 360 controller that's fucking ancient and that thing is still fine, the "drift" is purely in the assembly (doesn't reset to perfect zero, stick itself can stick slightly left or right of perfect centre), and I imagine the Gulikit assemblies they use on the Ultimate BT are just as susceptible to that type of assembly play with enough use.
I highly suspect that the only reason we're having this conversation right now is because the Nintendo Switch has those shitty flat joysticks that can't live up to extended use. I've never experienced stick drift myself. I guess it's like hard drive failures, it won't happen until it eventually does, but neither has happened to me.

I don't know if it's too late but the BT ultimate is going for 62 on Amazon US and 44 pounds on Amazon UK. Didn't check other Amazon stores but it can't be 85 euro. Were you checking the special edition controllers on their website?

Regarding stick drift, this table indicates that they use ALPS sticks for the Xbox and Ultimate 2.4G but not for the Ultimate C, so you might be safe if you don't care for the back buttons:

As for stick drift experiences, I have avoided modern controllers except for a single Dualsense and the 8Bitdo BTs, but as you predicted, my old Switch had ALPS and got stick drift pretty quickly, lol. However, the Xbox Elite 2 controllers are extremely infamous for dying after 3 months of use, so it's certainly not a Nintendo only thing.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

Elthosian
I completely forgot to respond, sorry. The price was 85eur for the Ultimate BT on the official 8bitdo Aliexpress store, but its been discounted now to just 67 on Amazon Germany. Still steep, still 20eur more than a Gulikit Kingkong 2 (hall effect, 47eur on Ali), Dualsense or Xbox controller (50ish locally).

Regarding stick drift, this table indicates that they use ALPS sticks for the Xbox and Ultimate 2.4G but not for the Ultimate C,

Oh, that's useful. I thought that they also used Alps on the Ultimate C, but I guess something's gotta give. K-Silver appears to be a cheaper Chinese manufacturer that also appears to be making hall effect sticks, but Alps is the name brand that the big three use.

my old Switch had ALPS and got stick drift pretty quickly,

Yeah, but the Alps pots they use in the Switch are a (flawed) compact design, not the full-size they use on other controllers.

At the moment I'm just going to wait until replacing since the Pro 2 works fine, and I think we're about a year out until a lot of these Chinese brands are all making cheap hall effect controllers because the parts are becoming more available and the demand is higher. (thanks, Nintendo and Alps for your bad controller that made this happen!)

 

[Elthosian]

Elthosian
I completely forgot to respond, sorry. The price was 85eur for the Ultimate BT on the official 8bitdo Aliexpress store, but its been discounted now to just 67 on Amazon Germany. Still steep, still 20eur more than a Gulikit Kingkong 2 (hall effect, 47eur on Ali), Dualsense or Xbox controller (50ish locally).

Regarding stick drift, this table indicates that they use ALPS sticks for the Xbox and Ultimate 2.4G but not for the Ultimate C,

Oh, that's useful. I thought that they also used Alps on the Ultimate C, but I guess something's gotta give. K-Silver appears to be a cheaper Chinese manufacturer that also appears to be making hall effect sticks, but Alps is the name brand that the big three use.

my old Switch had ALPS and got stick drift pretty quickly,

Yeah, but the Alps pots they use in the Switch are a (flawed) compact design, not the full-size they use on other controllers.

At the moment I'm just going to wait until replacing since the Pro 2 works fine, and I think we're about a year out until a lot of these Chinese brands are all making cheap hall effect controllers because the parts are becoming more available and the demand is higher. (thanks, Nintendo and Alps for your bad controller that made this happen!)

Glad it helped! And that sounds too expensive, tbh :/ I'd go for the Gulikit considering that unless the 8Bitdo Ultimate BT goes for lower while your Pro 2 still works.

Definitely excited to see prices go lower as hall effect sticks get cheaper, but I'd really love to see a company try to do analog triggers + gyro at the same time. Relatively few use cases but would be nice to have it.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

but I'd really love to see a company try to do analog triggers + gyro at the same time. Relatively few use cases but would be nice to have it.

That's a bit wonky, because xinput can't do that because of hard analog axes limitations, dinput is deprecated and janky for both devs and users, and nobody does native game implementations of Steam Input which does support it. So best we'll get is mixing and matching mouse, keyboard and controller inputs via Steam by pretending to be a Dualshock 4 or Switch Pro, and that's never going to be very user friendly.

By the way, how's the d-pad on the Dualsense? Wondering if it'd be as pleasant as the 8bitdo d-pad for 2D games. As far as I know it's a rubber membrane, so it can't be too bad.

 

[Elthosian]

but I'd really love to see a company try to do analog triggers + gyro at the same time. Relatively few use cases but would be nice to have it.

That's a bit wonky, because xinput can't do that because of hard analog axes limitations, dinput is deprecated and janky for both devs and users, and nobody does native game implementations of Steam Input which does support it. So best we'll get is mixing and matching mouse, keyboard and controller inputs via Steam by pretending to be a Dualshock 4 or Switch Pro, and that's never going to be very user friendly.

By the way, how's the d-pad on the Dualsense? Wondering if it'd be as pleasant as the 8bitdo d-pad for 2D games. As far as I know it's a rubber membrane, so it can't be too bad.

Would a native Steam Input implementation be too far-fetched? Not an expert on this, but what stops people from coypasting the Steam Controller firmware?

I like the Dualsense d-pad, it's certainly far than the GameCube/early Xbox abominations. I've played a few 2D games with it and have no complaints. However, I don't play fighting games so I can't say whether it's good when you need to be very precise with your presses. The only finicky game I've played lately is Rain World and I use the 8Bitdo for that one.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

Would a native Steam Input implementation be too far-fetched? Not an expert on this, but what stops people from coypasting the Steam Controller firmware?

It's just complacency and ease of implementation, I think. A handful of games do it, mainly indies, but not many. I only have experience with one; the Okami HD rerelease on Steam, I figured that part out since my controller didn't work on a pirated copy.
Almost nobody implements it because almost nobody has a gyroscope-compatible controller, because why implement a gyro if nobody uses it and you can't have it send gyro information if it's using xinput that 99.9% of games use? If the software, hardware and demand is there, developers do support it. The Nintendo Switch is proof of that. PC just doesn't have the hardware or the demand.
Frankly, the most plausible chances to get gyro aim widespread on PC is if somehow, Sony starts enforcing widespread gyro aim and the demand increases, or if MS' next controller has one and they implement a standardised gyroscope function into xinput.
As for why not just use the SC firmware, it's because it's not an xinput device, which means no plug-and-play xinput for any non-Steam xinput games. It automatically diminishes the value of the product. Making multiple modes adds a lot of complexity to the firmware, the Pro 2 is good proof of that since it can be dinput, xinput, DS4 or Switch Pro, and all have certain caveats and bugginess.

Fortnite on PC actually does support native gyro aim, they implemented Flick Stick with the guy who came up with the idea, but it only supports the Dualshock 4 and Dualsense, presumably via direct SDL just enabling those two (or anything that pretends to be those two) only, since those are the only gyro controllers out there in the hands of tangible numbers of PC end users.

I like the Dualsense d-pad

Great to hear. I occasionally play a few more demanding joystick games and the Sony controllers are top performers because of low lag, but having one controller for everything is still easier.

 

[Doc Sportello]

I use this one:

Bought it in 2011 and while it kinda sucks ass I'm attached to it on a sentimental level. Also I'm not a PRO so who cares if it gets the job done.