One thing I learned from this is that we are calling haptic feedback "HD Rumble" now, and that the annals will credit Nintendo for bringing it to gaming input devices rather than Valve
It's not something I care about deeply either way, just something to note both for those who call it a "typical Nintendo gimmick" and for those who call it a "Nintendo innovation". As far as I am concerned it's neither of those.
There's also innovation through engineering and implementation.
Is not that a "Linear Actuator" was invented for the Steam controller specifically and thus debuted with that device. Valve took an existing piece of technology end employing it in a certain way and got X results. If Nintendo's implementaion creates sort of a marked treshhold for this technology then i could understand why HD rumble stock with people.
After using the Vive controllers. The haptic use case that felt the most genuine was with the bow and how it simulates the act of firing an arrow. In the case of Joycon (acording to reports), there's the Milk and Marble in a Box cases. The first extends a sensation from up to down simulating a pouring liquid. The 2nd example, allows the user to distinguis between 1 to 9 marbles and for what i' ve seen users most times get the number right or are off by 1/2 balls.
i think so far the haptic simulations seem a bit more accurate with the Joycon and i think that implementation is making the difference here. The size and ergonomics of the Joycon can be an important factors, since the user hand almost wraps the device entirely, so it's does a very efficient job transmitting sensations to the hands.
As a disclousure im in no way "bought" by the feature to the stratospheric levels some people are. i mean there's those that think the weight of the controllers change with HD Rumble. BUt really glad one of the main 3 manufacturers put effort enhancing haptics in controllers.
All games have resolutions. If mere improvements in technology are a "gimmick" then what isn't a gimmick? Music attracts attention and appeal to a game, is game music a gimmick?
i think what he's trying to say is:
There are Industry Standards and there are "Consumer Standards".
480P - 720P - 1080P - 4K are video industry standars. However in the consumer market the common resolution for TVs is 1080P. So in the case of a PS4 Pro the ability to render to 4K resolutions (nativily or checkerboarded) is the selling "hook" that sets it apart from the competition even if 4K TVs are not the norm right now.
True, Nintendo was there with controller speakers first and thanks Nintendo for introducing this concept/feature... but DS4 is the first controller/portable speaker in a similar device that actually sounded really feeling good. I remember being a bit freaked out in Resogun due to the speaker quality. Wii remote speaker sounds quite a lot worse in comparison.
Well that's debatable. And i would say the speaker quality in the Wii Remote doesn't pay such a big role as most people think on how it sounds. It's probably more how compressed the audio needed to be to fit inside that ancient Bluetooth standard wireless signal.
The reason i said it's debatable is because some games did enhance the experience significantly. Games that stock to simple sounds did the job admirably: A raquet coliding with a ping pong, shaking a magical bell, simulating a marble sliding over a surface.
However, something like Shattered Memories had more complex audio coming from the speaker. The Remote vibrated and emitted a chime, so the user needed to put it next to the ear to hear the conversation... it gave a natural sensation of using a cell phone.
________________________________________________________________________________________On topic:
The 2 surprises:
- Developers finding the device price to be a good value.
- Developers actually caring at all about the HD Rumble feature.
The second one specially. So far Console War Soldiers and Japanese developers are the only people i' ve seen attached to the feature. Even Nintendo in it's presentation treated just like another bullet point in the Joycon feature list.