Hands-On: DualSense PS5 Controller Feels Like A Preview Of The Future Of VR Haptics
For as long as I can remember, perhaps since the Nintendo 64’s Rumble Pak, controller vibration has felt mostly the same. The Nintendo Switch has “HD Rumble” in the Joycons which try to be a little more precise, but those controllers are so tiny they’re inherently limited. The DualSense takes it to a whole other level.
It’s a two-fold solution for Sony with the PS5’s DualSense Controller: adaptive triggers and reactive rumble. The adaptive triggers change and adjust the amount of tension provided and pressure needed to interact with the game. The small slice of Astro’s Playroom I’m allowed to talk about right now does this wonderfully with a spring-loaded robot character that requires you to firmly press down the R2 button just past the point of full tension, then release it to launch him.
The other facet of the DualSense PS5 Controller I was most impressed with is in the way of its reactive rumble. What I mean by this is that depending on what you’re doing in the game or where you’re going, the controller
feels different in your hands. It reminded me a bit of Ultra Haptics, a company that used air to precisely press against your hands and simulate touch. Instead of air, the DualSense Controller just lightly and very precisely vibrates in your palms.
For simple actions like punching an enemy or landing on the ground it’s a quick jolt that feels similar to what you’d see in any other game controller on the market, but when you have Astro walk across different surfaces that’s when it really shines. I could
literally feel the difference between sand, metal, wood, and even glass just from the way the controller felt in my hands. It’s impossible to describe adequately, but let me just say that if I closed my eyes I could probably still identify the surface based on how it feels. The sound coming from the controller is extremely crisp as well with a great little speaker that’s far better than the speaker which no developers ever seemed to use on the DualShock 4 for PS4.
(Update 02/23/21): Today, Sony announced an upcoming next-generation PSVR headset built specifically for PS5 that will include new controllers based on DualSense technology. As a result, we’ve republished this editorial from when the PS5 first launched late last year. (Original 10/27/20): One...
uploadvr.com