Hardware What the heck is HD rumble?

[Brayton]

It sounds like marketing bs to please shareholders. I have never really noticed a difference. However I have turned off my rumble on my DS4 and never looked back. I will probably do the same later with my Switch for the sake of battery.

1-2 Switch will say, "NO!" and Nintendo Switch it right back.

As I was saying, the joy-cons can SING.

Yes, it's a lovely addition, and the Santa Tracker thing on the eShop does it.

Somebody took one apart on a discord server and it looked just like a speaker.

Because it also pushes and pulls a piece inside back and forth like a speaker.

 

[stewacide]

It's a linear actuator (basically a little speaker) instead of the typical unbalanced weight on a motor you find in most 'rumble/vibrate' implementations.

 

[foob]

It's a gimmick barely used, and i hope gest removed in a new revision of the switch and joycons, so they can be cheaper

All indications are that your wish will come true. The more portable model (of the two new Switch models coming) will have no rumble, just like DS/PSP/Vita. But of course Nintendo's discounting will be nowhere near how much less it costs them to make the new model. Demand is still high so no need for them to discount heavily.

 

[Rahkeesh]

Xbox rumble is "standard" rumble motors (uneven weights) spread out to allow localization. As a speaker-like actuator, HD rumble instead allows more precise production of frequencies in the same limited area. They take the tech in completely different directions and aren't directly comparable in terms of raw quality.

 

[kumikochan]

Xbox rumble is "standard" rumble motors (uneven weights) spread out to allow localization. As a speaker-like actuator, HD rumble instead allows more precise production of frequencies in the same limited area. They take the tech in completely different directions and aren't directly comparable in terms of raw quality.

Not really, the video i posted shows that it does even more than the joy cons do. The joy cons even lack haptic feedback in the triggers wich the xbox controller has

 

[Longshot56]

Not really, the video i posted shows that it does even more than the joy cons do. The joy cons even lack haptic feedback in the triggers wich the xbox controller has

Do you REALLY need haptic feedback for a VIDEO GAME? No.

 

[kumikochan]

Do you REALLY need haptic feedback for a VIDEO GAME? No.

Do you really need hd rumble for a video game ? No

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

but it IS nice to have one of those, just another one of the many bells and whistles they add to things now. Do you need ZL/ZR buttons and a C Stick to play most of the 3DS library? No, but it's nice to have them!

 

[medoli900]

Personally, I do feel the difference between games and actions. I like it. It's nice and all that the XBone controllers might be better, but it doesn't mean much if the console itself is unnotable.

 

[nando]

it's expensive technology no one asked for

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I have purchased a switch and realized the Joy-Cons have HD rumble according to the box and many websites. But it doesn’t feel different from the wiimotes. In fact i could say the ps4 controller rumble is “4K” Compared to the HD rumble. Does this have another function? thanks

HD rumble is essentially just another type of rumble motor (rather than the normal rumble motors that are just regular DC motors with a weight attached to the end that spins, it uses magnets to move a piece of metal back and forth in a straight line) where you can control the pitch of the rumble, kind of like how a subwoofer works. It's actually the same type of motor used in the Steam Controller (linear actuator) and the Oculus Touch controllers and I believe also the Vive controllers.
It doesn't really have any practical uses beyond that, there's stuff like the ball counting minigame of 1-2-Switch that makes good use of it, though the whole thing about it feeling like balls are actually rolling around inside the JoyCon is a big fat lie, it's just that you can tell by the pitch of the rumble how the balls are bouncing around inside. Besides very niche applications like that, the best it can do is provide improved haptic feedback, more realistic rumbling during earthquakes, explosions, that sort of thing. It's a nice little added extra but nothing revolutionary.

It's a gimmick barely used, and i hope gest removed in a new revision of the switch and joycons, so they can be cheaper

TBH, I doubt it adds much cost. Maybe 1-2 bucks per motor, you gotta remember that the Pro Controller is not much more expensive than a DS4 or a XBox One controller, in fact the price difference currently is less than $10 and the XBox One/PS4 have been out much longer and have had multiple price drops. And the Pro Controller also has NFC and gyros bumping up the cost, the DS4 does have gyros + touchpad bumping up the cost but the XBox One controller doesn't have anything like that so logically it should cost less than the DS4 but it actually costs a little more.
I think it should be the standard for controller rumble from here on out, it's just better in general. It's not game changing or anything, it's simply a superior technology and I don't really see any drawbacks to using it for everything. Maybe not for mobile phones, because space is so tight and linear actuators seem to be quite a bit bigger than regular rumble motors on average, they are also relatively heavy as they are basically just a massive piece of metal. If you look at the inside of a JoyCon the linear actuator takes up the entire width and thickness of the controller, just placed at the very bottom.

 

[Sticker]

It working like haptic feedback on iphone, it using linear motor instead of transitional one, many people here comments without knowledge how it work

 

[DSoryu]

Do you REALLY need haptic feedback for a VIDEO GAME? No.

Do you really need hd rumble for a video game ? No

FFS then let's have nothing and end of story.

Another clear example of HD rumble is Hollow Knight, being the most noticeable feeling when you descend slowly next to a wall, you can clearly feel the wall's rocky roughness in your hands.

 

[kumikochan]

FFS then let's have nothing and end of story.

Another clear example of HD rumble is Hollow Knight, being the most noticeable feeling when you descend slowly next to a wall, you can clearly feel the wall's rocky roughness in your hands.

I didn't say nothing, i said i don't see quite the difference between haptic rumble or hd rumble. Actually not a fan of hd rumble myself since it's often a bit 2 much in most games. I prefer haptic rumble the xbox one controller uses

 

[NekoMichi]

It's a rumble technology that can produce more precise haptic patterns. You'll need a game that supports this feature, otherwise you'll just get regular rumble patterns. An example is in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe where you can feel your vehicle rev up at the start and when you pick up coins. Most games don't support it though, so it's kinda a wasted feature.