Aim Assist Off: now and always
Origins of the adrenaline rush
Why? Why never use aim-assist when you’re playing on a console, especially against opponents using keyboard and mouse? The answer is, you shouldn’t. But that’s you. You might be the type to care about overall statistics, such as the kill death ratio and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’re having fun, you carry on with that. More importantly, you probably have known nothing other than aim-assist being a staple in your gaming existence.
When I was a young man, computer games weren’t in every home. The internet was that 28.8k box you could only use when nobody in the house wanted to use the telephone. If you wanted games, fun, and competition with your mates, you’d exit your front door with your home keys. You didn’t need to worry about the charge in your mobile phone because they weren’t invented yet.
Football was the name of the game, be it on concrete or grass (wherever you could find it). You’d pick your teams amongst your friends and use your jumpers for goalposts.
I played in central defence above the keeper when needed, or the traditional Number 8 position, going box-to-box. Among my peers, I was solid. I soon realised, that often my influence made a difference to whether my team would win. It was up to the attackers to score the goals to secure the wins, but you don’t lose a game if your team conceded fewer goals than the opposition, and that’s where I’d fit in.
There came a point where constant winning wasn’t the adrenaline I sought. I was not the one scoring the goals and having that rush. I noticed that when we were dominating a team, up by 4 or 5 goals, I would voluntarily do what others would find unthinkable. I’d switch sides. My thrill was the occasions where my influence would turn the tables and the day would end with the side I switched to would clutch a win from the jaws of defeat. And I would return home before the street lights turned on knowing that I played a huge role in the win. The triumph of the underdog, persevering through a combination of grit and skill became the thrill I enjoyed most, more than winning.
Gaming before aim-assist
Single-player campaigns used to be what I enjoyed most. Online gaming didn’t really exist, not for consoles, at least.
Then came the Playstation 2 and the release of Metal Gear Solid 3, a hugely successful and popular game. Yet people were not aware that it could be played against other players, online.
I caught on late and only played Metal Gear Online 1 (MGO) for less than a year, but the experience changed everything I knew about gaming. There was no going back. Single-player story campaigns weren’t going to do it for me anymore. The challenge of pitting my skills against non-AI was the rush I sought. MGO didn’t have aim-assist.
MGO2 did have a feature called ‘auto-aim’ but it was atrocious and seldom used in online gameplay. Between 2008 to 2012 I only played MGO2 online. The playing field was even, nobody had aim-assist (not like we know how overpowered aim-assist is in online gaming, today). When MGO2 servers were shut down, my gaming clan, HeWhoDares.com migrated to playing online with Battlefield 3, while simultaneously also enjoying Grand Theft Auto Online.
I never knew till the end, but I think Battlefield 3 (BF3) had aim-assist, and perhaps had it on by default for console players. Certainly, there was aim-assist turned on by default for Grand Theft Auto Online (GTAO). It didn’t take long for me to notice the lack of joy I was having when using the aim-assist feature on GTAO.
Even though all other opposition players I would encounter would certainly have had aim-assist turned on I decided to switch mine off permanently. It was the best gaming decision I ever made. I was having the most fun.
BF3 had its run. GTAO continued to go strong and even allowed me to attain Affiliate level on Twitch.com platform which is nice. MGO2-Revival (MGO2R) initiative brought me back briefly to MGO2 but sadly the scene was all but dead without the following two things, Survival and an active player base.
MGO2 Survival Mode
Gameplay wise? Survival was a randomly selected gametype on a randomly selected map. Two teams of 6 competed and whoever won went on to the next round.
With each consecutive win, you would get more and more GP. It capped out after 5 wins, and gave 500 GP from there on. And if you went undefeated then you were given a special colored beret that wasn’t available in the store.
Community wise? It was a cesspool.
– SterlingFox
Extremely low player base
More importantly, the player base was nearly non-existent for my gaming availability and timezone. And yes, the community, even though smaller and post the initial closing back in 2012, remained a “cesspool” writ large. Thankfully, I remained relatively isolated within the close community of awesome people at HeWhoDares.com
MGO2, MGO2R, it had its day and it was time to move on.
I blame Jetbat for Call of Duty
I enjoyed GTAO, and I also got into Red Dead Redemption 2 Online (RDR2), playing them both always with aim assist turned off. I thought I was ‘happy’ in my little world. But then Jetbat in his infinite wisdom insisted I start playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019 (CoD). I argued strongly against the franchise. So persistent was Jetbat’s cause that he gifted me the game for free for the Playstation 4 (PS4). I tried it.
Suddenly, I was thrust into the then-biggest online game of them all. CoD boasted a huge player base, cross-platform play, multi-player modes for the quick fix and Warzone for the epic squad battle experience. The die was cast.
I soon found myself scouring YouTube for tutorials to adopt the best controller button mapping settings that would suit my large hands and playstyle. I hadn’t played CoD since 2008!
Rear buttons on modern controllers are needed to compete
By the time I managed to transition on to the Playstation 5 (PS5), (which was in such high demand that I had to be on a waiting list and have it imported in) I started to notice controller issues. Gaming online is hard enough when trying to keep up with aim-assist opposition players and mouse and keyboard-accurate movement monsters! I needed rear/paddle buttons for my Close Quaters Combat (CQC) situations and for marking Points of Interest (POI). I also became introduced to a dreaded term that I had never heard of before, stick drift.
I either needed to modify my standard PS5 controller or purchase a third-party non-official Playstation controller with the back paddles.
I was never one with the experience nor surgical skill to solder. There were so many commercially available options from companies such as SCUF, Battle Beaver, and AIM.
Custom Battle Beaver Controller arrives!
Inspired by NoFate I purchased a Custom Battle Beaver Controller because it was at least still at heart an official PlayStation product, just with additional physical modifications.
Above are the specs I went with. With hindsight, I wish I had chosen different locations for the placement of the back buttons, but overall I was not disappointed.
The Battle Beaver Custom controller had very minimal and acceptable stick drift. I was very pleased with my purchase and didn’t look back.
$290 Custom Battle Beaver Controller dies in less than 12 months
Unfortunately, in less than a year, the Battle Beaver Custom controller became unusable due to impossible stick drift in addition to ‘jitter’. The crosshair of the controller had a mind of its own!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1817815286 This was the in-game moment I noticed my controller had completely become unusable.
For my aim-assist-off style, I have all but concluded that the settings for the ‘Right stick minimum’ value should be zero.
Setting ‘Right Stick Min’ to the value of zero does make one’s controller more prone to stick drift. Up until this point, I had resigned to the fact that for some reason, stick drift was to be accepted for all controller players, unless this value is set to at least 3 or 4 to compensate for stick drift. This is probably why aim-assist exists for CoD and is so powerful – it’s like that to allow console players to keep up with the accuracy of mouse and keyboard players who never suffer from needing to compensate for stick drift because they never will experience it.
The default setting on CoD for ‘Right Stick Min’ is the value ‘3’, minimum.
Purchasing the Dualsense Edge PS5 controller
I knew that I was going to return the Battle Beaver Controller for repairs. I was confident that everything would work out fine. Whilst waiting for the returned repairs, coincidently, the Dualsense Edge controller was released for the PS5.
I wished this controller was released a year earlier. What a wonderful concept that this Dualsense Edge controller had, the idea that you can swap parts of the controller instead of feeling as though you need to replace the whole unit when the controller breaks down. I thought about the long-term savings I would have had when I added up all of the individual Dual Shock Playstation 3 controllers I kept on buying to replace broken ones. I went into my local Euronics store, took the plunge, made the investment, and bought the Dualsense Edge controller. I was able to use it immediately and continue playing CoD whilst waiting for the Battle Beaver repairs to come through.
Stock DualSense Edge controller arrives with zero stick drift!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1874992900
This is how the stock Dualsense Edge controller performed straight out of the box. There was no stick drift, amazing!
Custom controller repairs and the hidden costs of EU Customs
These were the upgrades I chose when returning the Battle Beaver Controller to the manufacturer internationally to the United States.
I wasted no time in getting in touch with Battle Beaver to arrange returning the controller back to them for servicing and repairs. On their site, it was quoted as $18 USD for repairs (not including shipping) on top of the additional services I wanted done. I thought that was more than fair.
However, with Battle Beaver being a US-based company, by definition outside of the EU, I got hit by at least an additional $80 USD when having to pay for Customs and Taxes!!!
I took the hit. What other choice did I have, throw away a $290 USD controller by not paying taxes?
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1874989203
Unfortunately, my troubles didn’t end there. Though the jitter issue of the right stick module was resolved, I felt that the stick drift of the right analogue module returned far worse than how it was before their repairs.
I was imensely disappointed with the quality control of Battle Beaver and their returned product. I informed them of the situation and they responded with the following:
… whether it is a new build or one sent in through Send-In Services, receives the same Quality Assurance Final Testing process. Controllers being worked on through Send-In Services are checked by a second tester just to verify the controller is working to our standards before being shipped back to the customer.
However, I must insist that when you were initially invoiced for your Send-In Repair, we did acknowledge that you were playing on sub-standard DeadZone Settings…Battle Beaver tests to ensure that controllers exhibit no signs of Stick Drift at Standard Default Dead Zones, and only offers Warranty Support up to these values.
– Battle Beaver support
The reason we test to Standard / Default Dead Zones is because it is the most reliable and consistent way for us to provide and set the industry standard when it comes to Stick Drift. Any settings less than Default, and it becomes physically impossible for us to provide a product that can reliably be used at these substandard Dead Zones. We utilized our Pro Players and eSports Partners to come up with our testing, and they all have led us to the Standards that we utilize and test to every day.
That being said, I am more than happy to review the controller if you decide you wish to ship it back, but as stated in both this and our previous message, we cannot guarantee anything more than what is listed here.
Dualsense Edge controller gets stick drift
“When it rains… it pours” is how the saying goes. Sure enough, in about a year of using the DualSense Edge, it started to exhibit stick drift in the right-hand stick module. No problem, that is what I thought. I’ll just spend $20 and replace the right stick module, that’s why I bought the Dualsense Edge.
- At that time, for months, the Dualsense modules were out of stock
- Eventually, when they were in stock, they were drastically marked up in price – defeating the purpose of the controller’s existence, in my opinion. Why should a replacement singular analogue module almost be the price of a brand new PS5 controller? Shameful support for this premium product by Sony.
Now I needed to find non-conventional solutions for my Dualsense Edge controller. Thankfully, this led me down the path of discovering Hall Effect and Tunneling Magneto-Resistance (TMR) technology.
At first, I unwittingly purchased a modification solution for my Dualsense 5 when I purchased the ElecGear Hall Joystick Replacement. I failed to realise that it required soldering and promptly returned the item back to Amazon.
2-Year store Warranty – DualSense returned for repair/replacement
Luckily for me, I remembered that Euronics had a 2-year store warranty for the Dualsense Edge controller. I expected to turn up, demonstrate the stick drift flaw in-store and then immediately leave with a brand new replacement Dualsense Edge controller. Instead, I signed some papers and was told to wait for at least 2 weeks while they send it off for repairs and I’ll receive an SMS/email notification on the repair status.
Great. Now I haven’t got a Dualsense Edge. At home, I am stuck with the standard PS5 controller that came with the console that has no back paddles and has stick drift. I also have the returned Battle Beaver controller that was returned with the worst stick drift I have ever experienced.
Custom Battle Beaver controller resurrection?!?!
There was light at the end of this tunnel. During my research process which led to discovering Hall Effect and TMR technology I also saw many YouTube videos where Dualsense and Dualshock controllers were recalibrated and the changes saved to the controller. I thought it was worth a try to see what effect this process would have on my otherwise useless Battle Beaver controller.
In the above comparison image, on the left, you’ll see how awful the returned ‘repaired’ Battle Beaver controller was. You will even notice the ‘jitter’ with how offset from the centre the black dot is on the right hand circle.
After the calibration, you will notice the amazing unbelievable improvements to the Battle Beaver controller. Running the Dualshock calibration online tool restored my Battle Beaver controller to a working optimal standard, meaning I could now use it while I waited for the repairs of my Dualsense Edge controller – oh happy days!
Tunneling Magneto-Resistance (TMR), the Hall Effect killer
I hate stick drift. Learning about Hall Effect and TMR technology for controllers inspired me to try and safeguard against ever having to experience stick drift again.
Hall effect sensors work based on the Hall effect, which generates a voltage difference across a semiconductor material when a magnetic field is applied.
TMR sensors work based on the tunneling magneto-resistance effect, where the electrical resistance of a material changes when a magnetic field is applied.
The power consumption of TMR sensors is usually in the range of 0.1-0.3 mA, while Hall effect sensors can consume 0.5-2 mA.
(Mainly because of this difference, hall effect joystick cannot work very well when installed on those stock controllers.)
Gulikit says it has design patents on its TMR sticks, as well as its earlier Hall effect ones.
The Verge
The future?…
I knew I wanted modifications to be done to my Battle Beaver controller, but done locally. While I was at it, I might as well modify my standard PS5 controller as well and also mod either my PS3 or PS4 with a Hall Effect upgrade. I purchased the following modification products as illustrated in the images below.
Through a local board game store I was referred to a local engineer who had done soldering modifications to his own PS5 controller and also his wife’s controller, too. We have agreed on prices for his services for fulfilling my controller modification needs.
By November 2024, I should have all the delivered parts and then arrange for the soldering modifications to occur.
Wish me luck.
HeWhoDares.com 