11th September 2006, 12:36 PM
Having accepted the fact that Nintendo isn't going to opt for gyro force feedback and going with the "bzzzzz!" cellphone-like feedback I had actually never thought the control stick attachment had a rumble of any kind. While it could open plenty of gameplay possibilities, with the battery already at 30 hours I think it's smart to leave rumble out of the attachment. Though since its modular I imagine a company can release whatever they want later.
DJ/ It wouldn't work because an analog switch can do only the mapped function less, an analog switch cannot perform a completely different function while maintaining the data needed for the original function through it's increments. The 'bottom' of an analog switch is 0. So let's say you're playing a game that allows you to control your character with either the analog or digital function; the digital will be always be 0 (full run). If you looked at an analog switch you would see that it's litteraly connecting less and less as you let go of the switch and then offering the most connetion at full press (the the GC shoulder buttons use an actual slider to tell the data what increment its at), but it's still ONE switch with one or two inputs (the control stick has two inputs, one for horizontal, one for vertical). When you program a game to use an analog switch your base data is the full press (run) and then as you let go the character moves slower. The modeler and animators then adds animations that make sense for the character, ie: if you're barely moving the controller, the character tip-toes. But even in that tip-toe animation, you can control the speed of the animation to a fast tip toe to a slow tip toe. This all depends on how senstive the analog switch is. But no matter what animation is used, the character will move from a full sprint to a slow crawl.
What you're talking about is for the input to recieve a new map of action. An analog switch cant do this, it's still ONE button with ONE input. If you look at Zelda you can move in analog, the go in to a first person mode and look in analog. None of the parameters have changed, you're still controlling the horizontal and vertical data but now from a fixed point so instead of moving your character you move his point of view. What you want to do is say that you can look or move, but by pressing all the way right on the analog switch Link will take out his sword. This is impossible for the controller to do is since full tilt right is 0 of the mapped action (horizontal movement), replace the horizontal action with take out sword, and now the full tilt right and every incremental step away from 0 will be take out sword which means you have lost the ability to move horizontally.
This is exactly why the CG controller has seperate inputs below the analog inputs, making the digital click a completely seperate button for mapped data while still retaining any analog data for the seperate switch the developer might be using.
Let me give you an example I saw in school; Imagine you're playing a first person Zelda and you have the bow and arrow. You're using a PS2 controller to play it. You press and hold R to load the arrow, then press harder to pull the arrow back. At full analog depression the arrow is pulled back at its maximum but cannot fire until a new input is recieved, since the analog button can only control least tension of the bow to max tension of the bow. If a programer is faced with this, he can add something simple like a delay or scenario where you have to completely remove your finger from the button in order for it to know it should fire. But this is sloppy, delayed and not very accurate at all - defeating the purpose of an analog aiming system. So it's best to use a digital button with timed data (ie: hold button for X amount of time for a full charge) which gives the player the option to use more or less tension on the bow while retaining the accuracy. But if you really want to have analog control for the tension, you have to give the player a fire button somewhere else on the controller, otherwise all they can do is control the tension of the bow.
Hopefully you'll understand now, I dunno how else to explain it.
DJ/ It wouldn't work because an analog switch can do only the mapped function less, an analog switch cannot perform a completely different function while maintaining the data needed for the original function through it's increments. The 'bottom' of an analog switch is 0. So let's say you're playing a game that allows you to control your character with either the analog or digital function; the digital will be always be 0 (full run). If you looked at an analog switch you would see that it's litteraly connecting less and less as you let go of the switch and then offering the most connetion at full press (the the GC shoulder buttons use an actual slider to tell the data what increment its at), but it's still ONE switch with one or two inputs (the control stick has two inputs, one for horizontal, one for vertical). When you program a game to use an analog switch your base data is the full press (run) and then as you let go the character moves slower. The modeler and animators then adds animations that make sense for the character, ie: if you're barely moving the controller, the character tip-toes. But even in that tip-toe animation, you can control the speed of the animation to a fast tip toe to a slow tip toe. This all depends on how senstive the analog switch is. But no matter what animation is used, the character will move from a full sprint to a slow crawl.
What you're talking about is for the input to recieve a new map of action. An analog switch cant do this, it's still ONE button with ONE input. If you look at Zelda you can move in analog, the go in to a first person mode and look in analog. None of the parameters have changed, you're still controlling the horizontal and vertical data but now from a fixed point so instead of moving your character you move his point of view. What you want to do is say that you can look or move, but by pressing all the way right on the analog switch Link will take out his sword. This is impossible for the controller to do is since full tilt right is 0 of the mapped action (horizontal movement), replace the horizontal action with take out sword, and now the full tilt right and every incremental step away from 0 will be take out sword which means you have lost the ability to move horizontally.
This is exactly why the CG controller has seperate inputs below the analog inputs, making the digital click a completely seperate button for mapped data while still retaining any analog data for the seperate switch the developer might be using.
Let me give you an example I saw in school; Imagine you're playing a first person Zelda and you have the bow and arrow. You're using a PS2 controller to play it. You press and hold R to load the arrow, then press harder to pull the arrow back. At full analog depression the arrow is pulled back at its maximum but cannot fire until a new input is recieved, since the analog button can only control least tension of the bow to max tension of the bow. If a programer is faced with this, he can add something simple like a delay or scenario where you have to completely remove your finger from the button in order for it to know it should fire. But this is sloppy, delayed and not very accurate at all - defeating the purpose of an analog aiming system. So it's best to use a digital button with timed data (ie: hold button for X amount of time for a full charge) which gives the player the option to use more or less tension on the bow while retaining the accuracy. But if you really want to have analog control for the tension, you have to give the player a fire button somewhere else on the controller, otherwise all they can do is control the tension of the bow.
Hopefully you'll understand now, I dunno how else to explain it.