Binding Sprint to L3 is an admission of defeat.
You’ve run out of free buttons, so you’re picking the one everyone hates having to use.
I have recently changed my computer’s gamepad for a 8BitDo Pro 2: those have additional buttons in the back, activated by your middle fingers, with just enough resistance they won’t be pressed accidentally. In the driver, i bound those two buttons to additional L3 and R3 controls.
In games with character movement and camera control, i find myself reaching for this alternative L3 bind all the time, but never for R3.
R3 tends to be used to recenter or lock-on, so it is generally pressed with the right joystick in the center position.
But L3 is generally pressed with the left joystick pushed to its edge, and it somehow makes the button feel more difficult to hit.
Why?
Recently, i bought a bag of analog sticks from AliExpress, a whole 10 of them for only 3 Euros. Not that i wanted to repair a stick—i just thought i might put them to use for DIY synthesizers. Think i could turn them into some sort of pitchbend lever?
Analog sticks are a clever assembly of simple parts! Moving the stick makes it move two plastic assemblies (one red and one white on this model), each of those moving a potentiometer (in green on this model).
Potentiometers contain a little metal wiper that moves along a resistive track, so if you put 0 Volts at one end of the track, 5 Volts at the other end, and place the wiper in the middle, it will read 2.5 Volts, and that’s how gamepads measure your stick’s position.
Of course, the wiper causes friction to the resistive track, wearing it out, causing over time what’s often called joystick drift. Enthusiasts prefer Hall Effect joysticks: they use magnets to measure their position instead, limiting the wear on the assembly.
But let’s go back to the question why it’s so annoying to press L3 to sprint:
Pressing on the shaft makes this little red thingie push on a little tactile button, mounted to the side of the assembly rather than below the stick.
And when you move the stick vertically?
Yup. The red thingie rotates too.
So when you must press L3 to sprint, here’s all that happens:
- You have to press the stick at a physically awkward angle
- Inside the assembly, there is much less contact surface between the pushbutton and the lever that presses it
- You need to apply more force to press it from this angle
- Because you press the button at an angle, the click feels less audible, and the haptic feedback feels also reduced
Now, let’s hope this page makes its way to the eyes of some developers.