The REAL Science Behind Controller Drift
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- Joy-Con Drift has plagued the Nintendo Switch since shortly after launch, and now Sony’s PlayStation DualSense controller is also drifting. This prompts an obvious question: what’s the deal with controller drift? IGN talked to Astrophysicist and USF instructor Aaron White to learn more about the science behind controller drift and what can be done to fix controller drift moving forward.
The PS5 Controller is hardly the first game controller to drift, but it definitely seems like controller drift is on the rise. Currently, faulty Nintendo hardware and Sony’s defective controller have now resulted in multiple lawsuits. The DualSense lawsuit came about after numerous reports of PlayStation 5 drift but the Nintendo Switch Lawsuits date back to 2019.
In this piece, you’ll learn a bit about controller drift history, the recent uptick in PS5 drift, and what can be done to fix defective controllers.
#IGN #Gaming #Drift - Hry
Manufacturers dont want you to open their electronics because they’d rather you buy a new one than being able to repair it yourself. Its not about potentially breaking it when its already broken...
No because you could fully break the controller if you open it and correctly put it back together
@@pluto9516 and? Then you still have the backup plan of just buying a new controller
Nice name btw B)
@@pluto9516 oh no, I might break my already busted ass controller, ahhhh....!
@@pluto9516these company's dont do repairs anymore. The controllers are so cheap they just send you new ones. Changing the joysticks isn't actually that hard to do yourself. I fix them in my area for like 10 bucks each.
Having an astrophysicist explain stick drift is like using a morphine for a paper cut
There's no kill like overkill!
Actually the paper cut would be a lot more profitable.
Rocket launcher on a animal
@@sonicandroxas some animals you’d need a rocket launcher, so kyllä ei
More like using morphine as a hand cleaner, completely the wrong use. Couldnt they have found an electrical engineer or someone vaguely related or was astrophysicist the first person in the phone book
My solution is one of two options. Either pay a little more for higher quality parts, or slice that $70 price tag down considerably.
And make it easy to replace the analogs when u get drift
We're already paying more for higher quality parts, but only getting duds, and that's the problem. Controller prices have skyrocketed with the last few iterations of consoles while quality has decreased.
Back in the Gamecube era I would always buy cheap, shitty Mad Catz controllers. They were frequently 10 or fewer dollars, and I knew it wasn't going to last long.
Nope I bought a $200 controller 6 months later… stick drift
I bought Xbox Elite 2 for $200 .after 5 months stick drift.
This was never an issue on older controllers. Never heard of anyone having drift on PS1-3 and none of mine ever had (some are over 20 years old). Just down to cheaper poor quality components these days, unacceptable as they are so expensive.
PS3 controllers got drift too. As with all electronics, sometimes they can last years without problems and other times they are faulty and break. Just luck of the draw
@Minecraft Kid Yes it did. The original Dual Shock.
@Minecraft Kid It absolutely did, SCPH-7000
I feel ya was using one ps3 one for 3 years actively play with one game every single game for hours. The stick literally stopped working propely after sround 4600 hours which is still impressive and one rb or it was rt was getting stuck sometimes if didnt press with enough force.
for real I grew up with N64 played for hours golden eye, zelda ocrania of time... NEVER had problems...
actually, i think I'd be ok with the "modular, or easily replaceable thumbsticks" idea.
It makes sense but I can imagine that companies wouldn't sell a replacement as cheap as 10 or 15 dollars.
@@pnvgordinho it still would be cheaper that the whole controller
@@dotbox3018 It should even be free. If you buy a controller and in the first months it starts having problems, the replacements should be free, instead, they would charge and Im sure it wouldn't be cheap.
@@pnvgordinho I'd be fine with paying. Give the first 2 replacements for free but pay the rest. If a newly bought controller starts drifting within 3 months, it shouldn't be counted, a digital system taking note of replacements using your credentials would be good enough.
its been done before
“Just buy a new remote, it’s not rocket science.”
You’re right, it’s astrophysics.
Lmfaooo
Lol
Yesss because they got cheaper this gen right
@@ukaszpaluch4950 bruh I guess I just went to buy a new DualShock and it’s f*cking 89$ USD. But for a dualsense its only 60$ like WHAT
That’s why D-Pad was always superior
The real reason they don't want you opening the controllers is that they want you to encounter resistance when trying to repair them, or extend their use, so that you go and buy a new one.
The asking price of the controllers is outrageously high for the quality. the issue is as usual, poor business ethic rooted by greed. Every controller could be designed to be easily taken apart, cleaned or fixed. instead you need special tools, and knowledge not given by the manufacturer, and if you open them you just void the warranty and the company washes their hands of it anyway. It's poor business ethic 100%. There is no need to sacrifice any element of the product, we use to get product that was good, cheap and reliable, now everything is overpriced garbage. We aren't getting any of those elements listed. They sacrificed everything for a sale. Since when did controllers ever have such a ridiculously low life span? I know people with working NES controllers from the 80's. And who of us would actually buy the controller knowing it will not last them? If they told people how long the controller lasted, they would have to make them last longer because no one would be paying 80 bucks or more a pop if they knew. This is why they are all facing lawsuits, because they deserve it. It's a scam to sell as many units as possible, when change in design would largely alleviate this issue and every developer making this trash knows it. They just wouldn't get as much money. That is literally in a nutshell why we can't have nice controllers. companies are greedy fucking assholes.
Tbh… I ain’t bout to read all that
@@realcmyt lol, than why respond? A couple paragraphs too much literature for you LOLOL.
maybe go grab some picture books from the kids section.
@@davidgread511 well I mean yeah, I’m still in school lmao, and alright I’ll go get a manga book, but honestly at the end of the day this shit doesn’t matter, you took this too far up the ass when we are all just going to die, lighten up my man
@@realcmyt if you aren't going to read what someone else says, they likely aren't going to read what you say.
Controller drift needs to freakin go. This is 2021.
Cheap plastic and rubber
@@Fenris2 exactly.
Controller drift makes them money! Makes us buy new controllers, so i don’t think that will happen
@@albertalberto2288 That's stupid
Dont you dare diss the PSP man! That shit was amazing for its time
Days of Star Wars Battlefront 2's space battles man!
No the first party games were not high quality like ps4
MHFU >.>
@@Link_t. Why are you comparing it to the ps4. Of course objectively the ps4 is better than the psp just like its better than the ps2. But at that time the psp was the best handheld with the best graphics and a huge selection of great games
True
They should make controllers where you can swap out that exact module there’s no reason that we have to purchase a whole new controller for such a small module
They make money with it so it won't be like that I think
Dude theyve been doing this since the original xbox. They've had 30 years to fix stick drift. 30 fucking years! Btw they've always been 80 dollars. 😑 like the other guy said: fuckin Assholes
They do have controllers like this. And if they dont fix the root of the problem you will just be replacing thumbsticks over and over again. Not a good idea
We should use optical sensors instead of variable resistors
You can, but it involves soldering 🙄
Controller drift problem needs to be solved as soon as possible.
I smashed the side of my controller and now it drifts permanently 😭
it's been happening on ps4 controllers for years now, and it's still happening with the new ps5 controller wtf
@@snooppp8873 same I’m pissed off I can’t play my game usually my character moves it self or looks up
Im pretty sure it’s because the sticks underneath our fingers are just old or its a scheme that they use to get more money.
8 months later and it’s still the same
Lets be honest here. The big 3 gaming companies would rather go through the lawsuit than try to change their fabrication process. Paying for the lawsuit is much cheaper and they can recuperate the money lost by dragging out the lawsuit by years. Changing their production lines though on the other hand would be so much more expensive to do. I really hope we can come to a middle ground with this though so we can all have a better lifespan for our controllers.
As far as I know, they don't own these fabs. Specifically, these potentiometers are the third party. Notice they are called ALPS in the video (alpsalpine.com I believe). The potentiometer from the PSP Slim (2000) was not soldered but was simply screwed and uses contact points. Why PS ever moved away from such I could never imagine, unless they simply want it harder to repair so you buy more every time it broke. Imagine giving your customer the ability to change potentiometers for USD $1.25 instead of buying a new one for USD $60.0?
@@foxlance shhhhh you know too much.
@@ArmedBatman lol
That makes a lot of sense. You're unto something here
Stop buying pieces of shit made by companies that aren't interested in making anything but cheap crap
BAM, problem SOLVED
FFS.... for $70 I’d expect a great controller, no exceptions
Exactly. Shit in the gaming industry keeps going up and up in price but the quality keeps going down. It's bullshit.
@@Zeroshiki EXACTLYYY. I never had to deal with this shit on Xbox 360. PS4 has drift the absolute worst tho
@@Cronyth It really does. I've been a die-hard fan of PlayStation foe a long time and I don't remember having this problem on PS3, 2 or 1, either. Something with these new ones, feels like they're doing it on purpose like Apple does. Make something shitty, mark up the price, profit.
@@Zeroshiki don’t know if this is universal or what but had my ps4 since 2016 and only been through 1 controller. Have 3 and only one has an issue which is something broke off the potentiometer I think, otherwise they’re been very good to me and are absolutely fine. Didn’t know so many people had issues. Either I’m lucky or a lot of you just got bought bad controllers
@@Jamooson_ my ps4 controller is pretty old and doesn’t have controller drift but my Nintendo switch joycons are like a year old and the controller drift is really bad
“You get what you pay for” is something that applies to almost everything except for the gaming industry as worth a buy said.
Amen!
Honestly 60 dollars for a PS4 controller that is useless after like 3 months because it's drifting and slowing down my sens when I turn to the left ugh the only thing is the actual console is pretty cheap for what you get like 300 for a PS4 and it can play games pretty well
@@oldarthurmorgan6319 I think you're abusing your controller then
@@The_Patbey I legit am not I don't throw it I don't eat infront of it nothing like that
@@oldarthurmorgan6319 🤨🤨🤨
What I find shameful is that they keep increasing the prices of the controlers for features (or at least that's the reason given) but they will most likely die out or be useless anyway, e.g. trackpad.
Exactly, why the hell would I want to but another controller that will probably break in month, that also cost the same price as a knew freaking car.
When you need a scientist to combat controller drift.
Fr tho lmao
Thankfully we have keyboard and mouse..
@@Shubham-hk6yf
You'll get dust in the mouse.
Instead of cleaning it they'll make a 12 minute video explaining how the optics work with an unrelated specialist.
Scientist sounds excessive. I prefer a good old Engineering Tech
Man the PS2 controllers were built like tanks. All of my controllers still work, some even after 10 years of having layers of dust
The Xbox 360 controllers are similar. It's just so wellmade
For me it's the complete opposite, ps2 controllers would break in a few months but both my ps4 controllers still work perfectly after 4 years, tbh i never had any controller drift issue since the ps2
Back then every thing was build like tanks
That’s weird, I’ve had my ps4 controller for 7 years and no controller drift, both the rubbers are fucked tho. Same for the ps2 controllers tho
gamecube too
Video : Controllers last 2 Million Cycles
Me: So... 2 smash rounds ???
So frustrating especially when none of my controllers have taken physical damage
Same here, I treat all my stuff with care. Fuck splashing £45 on a new pad though, I took the whole thing apart, right down to stripping the analogue stick housings open and removing those "contact discs" then got some switch cleaner in there. It was extremely fiddly and a bit worrying but it seems to have fixed it. Not like I had anything to lose if it went wrong.
This is the intellectual equivalent of Steven hawking telling you how to restart your router
That man was a genius RIP to him
@@aidenwhiting5131 yes that’s what you do when you tell jokes, you exaggerate. Being someone so smart and popular as yourself, I’m sure you’re very familiar with exaggerating jokes to make them funny.
@@aidenwhiting5131 and while you may find that this joke wasn’t funny, I’m sure in your infinite wisdom you realize that I didn’t make it just for you. Since you’ve fundamentally have proven that you’re very funny by criticizing my post, then I’m sure you can make something even funnier right?
@@aidenwhiting5131 bro... it’s a joke
@@eliasdailey3911 the joke was funny. He just happens to be boring at parties
Ive gone through 4 DS4 controllers already... And my Game Cube controller that came with the console on 2005 still works fine and doesnt drift at all.
My 4 N64 controller that my dad bought when the n64 came out aswell. With a absurd amount of game play. Goldeneye multiplayer.
@@jplusosec977 my ps2 controller is over a decade old and is still working perfectly
I've gone threw over a dozen Ps4 controllers in a few years..
Yet my Original Ps1 and Ps2 controller ALL still work.
@@BurnCrushExecute I don't play that much ps4 so my controller is good for now. But I tend to take really good care of all my stuff. ps3,n64, 3party ps2 controllers. With them mostly selling new consoles at a loss I can see them cheaping out on the controllers.
@@BurnCrushExecute Planned obsolescence
"Drift never used to be a thing."
Yeah, I sure am watching an IGN video.
I never had drift on my Nintendo 3ds
@@cashmoneyrblx8124 because it uses axial deadzone. Doesnt even have an analog stick
@@cashmoneyrblx8124 Yeah, instead you get a thumbstick that breaks if you play anything that isn't an RPG on it. Try playing more than a couple weeks of smash on a 3ds and see what happens.
@@Nicolas-qc3jf already did
I personally never had issues with stick drift until the ps4 and xbox one era, lost 3 ps4 controllers and two xbox controllers from stick drift alone. Never had this issue with PS2, PS3, Xbox, or Xbox 360.
telling me the shit will go bad in 200hours doesnt excuse the fact that it goes bad in 200 hours.
but hey, good thing we have touchpads literally no one asked for
I have over 395 hours in smash ultimate already and I'm not experiencing drift yet so that's good
@@chazzilla8919 It doesn’t necessarily always have to be, “your controller moving by itself.” Sometime it can be your in game camera moving a little to far in one direction. If you feel as though your sticks aren’t as responsive as they used to be, this is still stick drift IMO. Mostly because it all stems from the same problem. Those problems being dirt and grime getting into the mechanisms, or general wear and tear.
@@nycempirestate4689 I didn't know that if the camera prefers one direction over another that's drift. Thanks for letting me know! I also mostly play on pro controller with joycons sometimes do note that
I got drift on the dualsense in 3 weeks of having the ps5 . I only played for about 50hr so disappointing
@@Dizzy_Shows oof. theres more and more reasons not to buy a ds for my pc
Now this is rare from IGN.
A genuinely great ideia for a video, and well executed as well.
Give this guy a raise and more screentime on the channel
I agree the University of Sanfransisco should give a raise to Astrophysist and USF instructor Aaron White. He should also be hired onto IGN to do part time consulting on tech stuff.
Its too bad that IGN guy kept hogging the screentime, if it was entirely devoted to Aaron he could have gone into further detail about the drift and how to fix it.
@@2drealms196 THIS. Also, I love (read:despise) how the video thumbnail actually reads "Scientist explains how to fix controller drift", yet no actual fix is offered in the video. Top content, IGN, bravo.
@@martinromer6997 I mean, he offered 2 fix suggestions. I think they meant "fix" as in a systematic fix, not how to fix your personal controller.
@@TheGamingDandy I'd still call the thumbnail misleading. "Start building controllers that aren't shitty" is hardly a fix viewers can use.
@AggrievedCommenter you seriously can’t be defending a game review company that can’t even make competent reviews.
I’ve had a controller with a drift and held off on getting a new controller because they were 60$ ‘s. I finally bought a new one and it immediately had the same problem.
This was on the ps4.
I'm buying a new controller a month, it's seriously fucked up
Same
I bought a 2 pack back in August and both already suffering from drift before September ended.
Easy fix, but still scummy on Sony's part. Not everyone has the time to open up there Controller and clean out the Potentiometers.
@Neil N Please don't blame Capatilism, blame the Greedy Companies. There are still Honest people out there that sell Great Quality Products for Great Prices.
I like the modular idea of being able to swap the joystick. That just makes sense. They should seriously consider this an option.
Not if they're making money from the sales of controllers alone.
Sony and microsoft heard you
Dual sense edge and elite series core 2
swap-able sticks
A few hundred hours isn’t enough for a controller that you pay almost 100 dollars on (more than that in different countries). They should bump it up to a few thousand hours and people won’t mind the initial price bump if the controller will last the lifespan of atleast 3 few hundred hour Controllers.
They make them break easily so u buy more controllers
It really doesn't help that they lock down controllers to the ps5 and not allow custom controllers.
I just bought a Elite today... I paid $250... They always fuck 3rd world countries on electronics.. Only the High mid class and rich can get them....
Dude they got a whole ass astrophysicist for controller drift💀
It's like that time that university funded a study to determine whether trans women are more likely to dominate olympic sports than actual women. You can guess what the results were 😆.
I love how everyone says dust first but never cheap materials FIRST
Hey! That was my Astronomy Lab Instructor for college!! He was one of the best teachers ever. Took us to the planetarium to relax and have class in.
cool
cap
cappity cap, but if that’s true, cool
No really! No cap, He even showed us Tim and Eric’s universe skit for our first day, and made a joke about why the Cancer Zodiac sign is the worst with a Greek myth story. He made us memorize at least 15 constellations as our final. He gave out his PSN to my classmates as well.
He was still an undergrad at that time and was the Vice President of the astronomy club too. I think he teaches physics now?
I've found that slightly separating that green square from the joy stick mechanism fixes the drift. Though if you don't wanna void your warranty i would just leave it and deal with it until you get a new controller.
Thanks a lot. Thought I'd have to throw away an ‘open box‘ controller I bought from an asshole on ebay which came dirty and with heavy drifting left stick. Tried bw100 with no improvements at all, I found that pushing that green piece fixed an issue but I couldn't keep it under the pressure obviously. Your solution worked. I'm just thinking how long it will last.
If only these companies actually cared about their consumers.
They care about the money in our wallets and how many controllers we can buy
Just like the government 🤷🏾♂️
@A K oh the irony of your ingorant comment
Honestly I'd pay the extra 10/20 bucks for a controller if it could last more than 1 yr without suffering from stick drift
@@Umbra_Nazgul oh the irony of your ignorant comment
That didn't really explain why my PS2 analog sticks are still in good working order after having played dozens of games over many years while my Joy Cons and Dualshock 4 started drifting within a year after a small handful of games.
If I really had to guess is that they traded more smooth and precise movement for faulty mechanics. PS2 controllers were cheaper, but as they age also tend to get a little rough to move. At the same time tho, they were also way more durable. But if I have to guess it’s a basic enough mechanic behind the controller so there are less small pieces that can break.
Same with both of my PS3 Slim controller. They've been flying over 10 years now. And I never had a stick drift 😂🤷♂️
Because at the time xbox was king.
@@willnottell6350 True, I noticed that my Gamecube Controllers aren't as smooth and accurate as my Switch Pro Controller.
Luckily I can explain this one to you.
After having drift issues AND the l3 r3 buttons failing to work I pulled apart my ps4 controllers to be greeted by those small green potentiometers, small chassis that has plastic internals and a really small plastic star 1mm thick that contacts the micro switch for button L/R3.
I pulled apart my old ps3 controllers, a rock candy controller and a logitech f310.
What I found is that older controllers (ps2 to ps3 era) have a larger joystick chassis, the button actuator (also the axle for Y direction) is long and goes across the whole micro switch and is sometimes metal like the logitech f310.
So in short the older controllers are by far more robust as the potentiometers have larger wipes with a longer radial path and the axle that depresses on the button doesn't wear down.
We need them to be modular with easily replaceable parts, that's my favorite option.
I have a controller where the left analog stick drifts to the left, but only when I press the left trigger. Something about pressing the left trigger causes the potentiometer to be read incorrectly.
He forgot to mention shooting games are even worse.
Fighting games are even worse than shooting games
@@dariuscross2946 I wouldn't say that because you do a lot more movement a Call of Duty etc.
@@Divineniijigamer in fighting games like smash some combos are nearly frame perfect, in a game where 1 mistake could cost an entire game can be game changing, each combo you learn has different timing in lag which is why top players often go for easier combos in order play optimally online but I can see what you mean, fortnite has alot of movement, overall games like fighter z and marvel vs capcom 3 all face the same problem 😩, maybe 5g will save us
@@Divineniijigamer cod is so easy and aim assist is so strong the game's skill ceiling is capped low for controller players. I use to mostly play fps like apex/halo/cod and i have to say they are so much easier than fighting games. In a fighting game one misinput can drop an entire combo or make you use the wrong move. Stfu about cod "movement" apex movement is 100% better and harder anyways
@@dariuscross2946 that's false
I like the subject and style IGN. Nice job.
Thanks for watching! - Zach
@@IGNGames I am impressed
IF this trouble cant be solved I Will adopt keyboard and mouse to play ps5 games.. Sorry Sony..
@Kzaxrtij Skather your on here to be negative?
I like how the guy looks like Trevor Phillips
3:59 ik that, 2 new gens and one old gen ps4 controllers opened, i called the potentiometer a rotator cuff tho
Another solution that wasn't discussed is a software fix. If it drifts by a predictable amount, that amount could be ignored by the software. Assuming the controllers have some kind of unique id, this drift value could be tied to that specific controller. Of course, this would necessitate some sort of "fix drift" screen in the config.
These controllers are NOT cheap costing $70-80! So they better be good AND reliable!
For the tech, lol ya they're cheap
@@alexradice8163 It costs sony 18 dollars to make a ps4 controller and they sell it for 60$, not sure about ps5. But that price is stupid for a controller that sometimes won’t survive a year
@@juke414 honestly if it's barely lasting you a year that's something you did
I make 30 bucks a week and that shit barely gets me 4 meals
@@Thecleetus bro that's tuff
Now I kinda feel bad for spinning my analog stick when the game is loading out of habit.
Ahh yes im not the only one thank God😅
I stopped after my controllers started drifting once 🤣
But why
@@tentedkarma7465 Watch the video. It basically reduces your analog cycle by a ton.
@@BlueV205 no way really
I want to share a fix I came up with, about the analog sticks.
If cleaning doesn't work and you see the missing traces in the potentiometer, you can pick the wiper inside it and bend the little metal flaps in the opposite direction of the missing traces and also up, to make good contact.
Doing so the wiper will make contact with new good traces and I think this is a very durable fix, because the traces will have to worn out again before going bad.
I fixed my controller with this method that had traces completely missing and this was messing up also L2 R2, it fixed them all. Otherwise you can buy new potentiometers but that requires soldering.
I've never had controller drift on any gaming controller I've ever had. However I do have a problem that nobody else seems to have on the switch where my left controller won't connect to the switch when it's slotted onto the main device. It worked wirelessly but the second I put it all in handheld mode the left controller constantly connects and disconnects
Same
IGN:"We went to the university of San Francisco to talk to Aaron White"
Cuts to video call.🙃
E
@@dhruvavikas1632 masks.
Lmao
Nope your nitpicking and biased I Winn bye bye
Sega Dreamcast used hall effect sensors for joysticks and triggers that don't wear out like this, and maintain highly consistent and accurate sensing. Maybe it's time for that to make a comeback.
@@subtegral in my day, there wasn't a distinction.
The dualshock 3 had it as well, but pots are marginally cheaper.
I remember the Nintendo Wii's nun chuck not having this problem or I could be mistaken and those were cheap, couldn't Nintendo do what they did there?
I know there is an arcade stick module using the same kind of sensor.
I've not had great experiences with the dreamcast's analogue inputs in the past, I found them very inaccurate but im willing to try the tech again if it fixes the rampant stick dift issues we have nowadays.
Hall effect sensors would fix this problem. Sega used them in the triggers of the dreamcast and I have upgraded rc transmitters with them. They use the hall effect rather than a physical potentiometer that wears down and eventually breaks. Only option now is to keep swapping them with new ones and get high quality ones.
Whenever you ever press a button its always uncertain for the user if you really made a circuit. There are a lot of buttons who disconnects a circuit. Without you knowing it.. Its called “active low“ to activate a function while breaking a cirtcuit.
Every PlayStation 4 controller I've had. Has had controller drift at one point.
YUP!! Drift, or the L3 shitting the bed. I've gone thru 4 controllers during the PS4 console life. I had the same 2 all thru PS3's life.
and somehow my ps2 controller has no drift
Somehow none of my dualshock 4s had any stick drift that had any effect on the gameplay, all I noticed was slight drifting on the warzone map. But the dualsense that came with the PS5 I got at launch started having drift issues after two months and shortly after became unusable due to right stick having really erratic upwards drift that constantly changes the intensity so deadzone cant really fix the issue.
Yeah. I don’t think they’ve suddenly chosen cheaper pots (electrical engineer short for potentiometers). The switch does have a somewhat different design and is maybe more prone with the compact design but I suspect the PS5 controllers are getting caught up in some higher awareness around the Nintendo lawsuit. Fwiw haven’t seen any drift with either and we’ve put hundreds of hours on a PS5 and a switch.
@@jamessnyder3807 I'm pretty sure ALPS switched to cheaper materials in their products since the older PS4 controllers I have got no issues with drift. But the controllers I've gotten in the past year or two all have some form of drift and the PS5 controller is unusable because it drifts so hard.
Wow IGN finally a great video. BRAVO!
RIght on! Thanks for watching. - Zach
@@IGNGames keep up the good work I might sub again.
@@subtegral 🦧
@@maxchronicler they don’t want you
@@GhostOfJohnLennon who asked you 😂😂😂 by the way are you them? No so STFU
The controller that came out with My ps4 ( that I bought in 2015 ) has been going strong no problem. But these new controllers last almost a 10months - a year before there's issues
I bought it in the same year and that controller worked for 3 years! But the new ones don’t get more than 4 or 5 months
I would have expected high end controllers like the Xbox elite series to use hall sensors. Its ridiculous that hall sensors are not being used, when joysticks have long taken advantage of them in high precision/high reliability applications
Only thing I can say is, imagine playing apex on switch lmao
Or on PS4, with basically any game where the camera suddenly jerking upwards is bad (which is most games these days since its 80% shooters).
@@ncshuriken Happens on ps5 too. Sony cheaped out on that part.
Man fuck this im irritated
I have no choice but to play apex on switch🤧
@@ncshuriken breaking news: happens at xbox one too
The fact that Aaron White can explain controller drift to the world but can’t fix his crooked glasses shows you no one can have everything.
Lol
His face is crooked
Violation
Just like he said, 3 factors, but you can only pick 2
Literally scrolling through looking for a comment about his crooked glasses LOL
those days when u could open your controller and clean the muck out of it where the good days
what about adding a capacitive sensor on the stick so it adds deadzone when you are not touching the analogs.
Man every hardcore gamer needs to watch this video. This definitely cleared some things up for me and made me sad as a rocket league player. Makes sense of why I go through 3-4 controllers a year now.
Or every switch owners lol
I used to play rocket league a lot but I got stick drift on my PS4 controller and i couldn’t play as well as I used too
I have right stick drift and I basically have to control recoil in rocket league lol
@@octane6778 LMAO big F's bro out here playing warzone in rl 😂😂😂
@@steven9674 honestly tho it made my recoil control better I wish I was kidding but it’s almost perfect now
I never knew what people meant by drifting until this year when my dualshock 3 started doing it. I always just thought people were pushing too hard on the sticks, wearing out the spring tension until the stick rests outside of the deadzone. Crazy seeing the difference between the two in person. Really depressing because the DS3 is hard to find new these days.
My xbox one controller has worked perfectly for five years, got the series x for Christmas and i already got drift, personally id be willing to fork up a little more cash for a controller that actually lasts
Can someone explain why my joy cons have no drift when I leave them untouched for a long time (like a month or so) but the more I USE THEM THE MORE DRIFT THEY HAVE, THEN WHEN I LET THEM REST IT DISAPPEARS WHY
rather than adding the useless features like track pads, blowers, haptic feedbacka and a speaker they should give quality analogue sticks.
Game devs don't really use those. we need buttons and analogs XD.
Hard to sell that..
@@Goma328 Maybe not anymore..
The PSP disrespect in the beginning was uncalled for. Best handheld ever!!!
Ok so what about ALL THE NINTENDO HANDHELDS?
Best handheld for modding definitely and I love the face buttons & dpad on the psp 2000 but I prefer nintendo portables in general.
@@Clara_Page the 3ds had better homebrew support
@@Hope_Upstairs the vita does
@@Clara_Page best handheld for modding? The Vita?
It was directly addressed, but I assume the reason PAST controller analog sticks didn't fail as often was because they weren't as sensitive? (aka the good in cheap/good/reliable, so they could be more reliable). And, the answer to drift exists - Hall sensor, magnetic sticks. The Dreamcast used them and now the 3rd party KingKong 2 does. (Unfortunately I heard too bad things about the rest of that controller to make it worth it just for the sticks, but it's a positive outlook for the future).
He said that no resistance generates a lot of heat but it’s exactly the opposite and low resistance wires are ideal, the problem is that we can’t afford to make electronics with no resistance wires yet because the wires and junctions would need to be made of molecularly perfect carbon matrices. The reason you want to use resistors is to control the voltage in your wires because the components they supply can only work in a voltage window e.g. (1-3v dc). The whole circuit is designed to regulate the current and dissipate heat evenly across the board to stop the creation of hot spots which is always caused by electricity being lost in the form of heat which happens as it travels through any object that resists current. Another benefit of resistors is that they work like a fuse where in the event they are over supplied they blow up meaning that you can often replace them instead of burning out wires, circuits and key components.
i think its a mix of making a product as cheap as possible and planned obsolescence
They got a physicist in to explain planned obsolescence lmao
lmaoo
HAHAHA
Taking a leaf from the light bulb companies. 😂
@@TheDukeOfReason u saw the CZcams video too.
So you're confused too that IGN got someone who studies the stars and the universe to explain how a controller works?
So if you buy potentiometers for ps4 controller and replace them will there be no more stick drift
Need some help.
My analog stick seems to not register inputs for one direction, a 100%. For example, if you were in a car game, and turned the analog stick right, the steering would go all the way right but if I did that for the other side it would only for around 75% left.
Is this also what’s called stick drift? Or is this something else?
Me gets Controler Drift
Me: I guess I have to put the joystick in my mouth and blow air into it
Yeees!!!!!
So true 😩
I controlled controller drift by blowing soft air into it
Sounds ridiculous I know but welcome to the 90's problem solving trick. Nintendo and Sega counsels.
Bruh I started hitting my controller to fix it
And it's crazy that it actually worked now I haven't had controller drifting in like 6 months
Fun fact: nintendo's joycons also have some system software issues. When my brother and I got a new pair of joycons because our old pair was drifting terribly, we connected the new ones and they started drifting straight out of the box. We had to manually get rid of the controller on our system for the system to recognize the new one and stop the drift, proving that it's not only a controller problem , but a system error too
I had terrible stick drift in both my sticks and this totally helped would recommend but when you do take it apart make sure to put it back exactly because I messed up the first time and had to retake the controller apart
Damn both sticks?! I only have drift in one and get stressed tf out because of it😒 I can't image having drift on both joysticks 😳
Wait are they doing the daily fix again? Or was that from the reunion thing they did a lot little while back?
Just a regular advice. I had two dualsense and both of them I still put them on the plastic bag that they came. Those copper wires inside the controllers are very sensitive to dust. So avoid that and you will increase life span to your controllers
I started putting mine away and I still got stick drift on my PS4. I stopped snacking while gaming, too. I think it's because I starting cleaning my living room less and it became more dusty when my controller was out.
So basically we the consumers have to deal with defective controllers that the company knows aren't going to work as intended after about 100 hours of play time and we have to give them more money for controllers that are inevitably going to stop working again after a few hundred more hours. I'd rather pay extra for a reliable higher quality controller than constantly having to go buy new controllers for my games to work as intended.
The Ds3 was so reliable it still works for me 11 yrs later.
my PS4 dualshock controller, the newest one I got less than 2 years ago and played the least time has controller drift and the bumper button doesn't react. It happens on all controllers
had my switch controller start drifting a couple years back, havent touched the thing in years now.
Let me have it. I'll take good care of it 😆
8:01 exept when an elite controller starts drifting 4 months into a 3 year warranty.
Ok, ive found the problem. That white little plastic cage that sits around the poll that the anolog pushes onto gets stressed over time and develops alittle gap, this gap causes the left/right potentiometer to not return to center when you release the stick. This error is minute but its enough to cause the pot to read and cause small movements when the stick is released. To fix this, you carefully push onto the side of this plastic that isnt connected to the pot, remove this side from the metal enclosure and gently squeeze the gap together just enough to cause the gap to close up tighter so when you put it back into place it fits snug around the center pole and gets rid of the free play which will center the left right movement more acurately when you release the stick.
Could you visualise?
Every now and again IGN impresses me by posting something resembling newsworthy
And guess what: the engineers know which components they're putting into controllers and how long it takes to beat them.
Take that as a friendly reminder, that it's unwise to blindly trust companies.
They generally try to generate the most success with the least amount of effort. 💰💰💰
Buying a controller and expecting it to work for a decent amount of time isn't really "blind trust" in my book, it's just reasonable.
True story statement, brother. It's a cash grab scam
You console gamers need to wake up and demand keyboard mouse support in every games. Compared to a controller, any KBM that is half decent will outlast any controller, by a mile.
@@coolperson4283 lol what. Consoles are played mostly in living rooms on couches, KBM is not suitable for that at all. Also, there are tons of genres like 3D platformers and racing games that actually control way worse with that setup than with a controller.
@@Christopher-md7tf Then nothing can be done about it, I guess. But KBM support should be native on all games already, whether its clunky or not.
For the sake of improving the lifespan of controllers, I don’t think I would be against changing movement controls a bit. Best I could think of is something like the Steam controller or maybe an internal stylus reader instead of stick potentiometer? Haven’t seen problems yet but after seeing this I know it’s coming soon.
Some industrial machinery such as Mori-Seiki have analog thumbsticks which are mechanically different, rather than a variable resistor moving around the track it is a metallic stick going near four inductive sensor, maybe gamepads could evolve to that.
I mean I would love it if they could make some kind of twist and pull design for controllers. Use a small tool to push a release button/hold, then twist 90 degrees, pull, pop in the new joystick/potentiometer, twist 90 until it 'clicks', done.
I think those cycles translate into 5 hours of game play on Mario Party 64
Would explain why N64 controller joysticks wear out so quickly.
Hahahaha. Palms looking like you got crucified after a 20 round game.
@@MercenaryJames maybe, but I had never even played Mario party before my controllers were drifting.
Or 1 hour of dragon ball budokai tenkaichi 3
Or 15 minutes in botw
"You don't want the very best. You want cheap. And I got cheap."
It happens when you click in the sticks to run or melee for example.
After purchasing controllers that have extra buttons or tabs on the bottom to use as run or melee actions.
I dont click the sticks and dont have drift problems.
Making sticks that don't click may solve this issue.
The D-pad on my my PS4 controller is reading down inputs at down right now on occasion. Is that still controller drift and how do I fix that?
Outstanding work, Zach! This was super entertaining and easy to follow. Keep it up!
+1 for hall sensors. Insanely accurate measurement of magnetic fields and incredible reliability/durability. Hall sensors are used in high end flight joysticks already. Pots are cheap but sooner or later those carbon tracks are going to wear out. Not sure if it would create a problem with the wireless operation of current controllers but you have to use magnets for hall sensors to work. Miniaturization may also be a problem as well.
The wireless thing was Sony's excuse for going away from that at their first iteration of wireless controllers, but at this point they would have had more than enough time to design it in such a way to either include shielding for the wireless network module, or shielding around the actual sensors itself
I think, I faced this in my PSP as well. All these technology advancements and yet controller drift ain't solved yet.
So, controller drift is also pretty common on VR devices. I have an Oculus Rift S and and today marks the second time in 1.5 years that i had to fix the drifting issue. However these controllers do not use potentiometeers but rather some form of dircet contact capacitive pads and two sets of perpendicular 'arms' that maintain contact while phisically moving with your analog input. I can fix the issue simply by taking apart the joystick housing and cleaning these pads and bending the 'arms' a tiny bit so they maintain contact instead of being smushed into their housing..
I thought it was more common on switch because the joy-con shell opening for the stick, is too small and doesn’t stop the mechanism being over pressed past it’s maximum position.
They could use a joystick similar to the new 2ds xl, that doesnt spin around a ball, and use a mouse sensor to track the position
There is a possible software work around. A controller calibration. Start the calibration and perform specific functions while the system records what outputs occur, the remap varied output to align with expe ted result.
Another possible solution would be to change the method of analog input. Stop using potentiometers. Magnetic pickups could be incorporated utilizing the Hall effect.
The main culprit for stick drift is the plastic sticks that go on the mechanical device and the plastic that surrounds the stick which is your border and controllers are always having the stem grind against the borders which results in the sawdust on the bottom of the stick that looks shiny and smooth and that's all saw dust that saw dust pretty much ends up inside the mechanism underneath and causes mixed connections most people don't realize when they're walking on their controller with the left stick it begins to get a deep crease/Cut on the stem part of the stick which indicates you grinding the stem against the barrier wall now replacing the barrier wall with a layer of thin metal along with a metal stem stick that fits on the mechanism instead of a plastic one would possibly solve stick drift all the way around for a long time controllers will go longer
This is the first ign video i watched in probably a year
In a year!?! Boo!
Here, try these next -- might be up your alley as well:
czcams.com/video/aYg4wv3fPj8/video.html
czcams.com/video/aBaSuw5iXLA/video.html
czcams.com/video/cRoDonQqk1E/video.html
@@IGN I watch more ign stories than actual ign videos cause of sydney goodman
@@IGN nice. Those are actually pretty good and interesting videos TBH, NGL
Right???🤣
Years* fixed it for us all
Having gone through 2 Xbox elite series 2 controllers that both began drifting within a couple of months it is clear they used the cheapest parts they could. Having paid as much as I did for the controller they should have lasted considerably longer than they did.
call me crazy but why not just add some sort of material to the top to not only help with dust, but to also help with the joystick recentering? Stick drfit also happens when the stick itself gets worn and cant center causing it to always have an input of some kind.
Gyroscope aiming with a very high movement sensitivity is how you fix the problem at least for one stick. Also slightly increase your analog stick DeadZone setting if the game provides such options.
That's not a fix, that's a band-aid on a broken leg. The fix is for manufacturers to spend $0.30 more on potentiometers with higher Mean-Time-Between-Failure ratings. Uprated versions of those components already exist, manufacturers wouldn't even have to do any additional design or engineering work.