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Can you think of creative ways to use the Touchpad on the DUALSHOCK4?

megaspiderweb09 · 2013-04-07 12:57:54

If indeed the touchpad on the Dualshock 4 is to become an extension of buttons as a form of input, are there really wayz developers can utilize them in ways that make gaming sense. Would get to swipe the touch pad to throw a grenade in an FPS, or double tap to change motto gears in a Racer or pull a zigzag to cast a spell in an RPG?I really cannot see an addition use for the touchpad as a form of gaming input except for perhaps, maybe a game that demands complex inputs like ARMA3 where you have multiple levels of zero on target. What are your opinions on this new feature?Also here is an interview with head of Sony World Wide Shuhei Yoshida by kotaku where he mentions some touchpad featureshttp://kotaku.com/5985921/a-man-who-has-used-the-ps4s-new-controller-tells-us-why-its-better

It could be used to scroll/zoom a mini-map. That sounds silly and like an extravagance but it could do a lot to change the way we navigate (increasingly larger) game worlds. We can scroll ahead to get a overhead view of the lay of the land (very important now that many games look like real places rather than dioramas). It would change the way people approach navigation in the same way second-stick camera control did; you never really needed it (and truth be told most games still don't) but once you get used to it can feel very restrictive to be without it as it alters the way range of ways you can approach a situation. Another idea could be using a swipe-down gesture to pull down a visor (night-vision/heat-vision) and swipe-up to remove it. This frees up the controller buttons, and is natural and tactile. It could also improve gameplay diversity (imagine if visors were implemented this way in MGS games instead of hogging up the item-slot. You could use items and visors in conjunction!). Menus could also be made considerably better because of this. For instance there would be no need to activate a character-viewer mode to view the effects of equips in an RPG anymore as this can be done within the equipment screen now as you have a control method that allows you to do so without detracting otherwise from the normal menu controls. Likewise you wouldn't need a map-subscreen with it's own controls (which differs from game to game atm....which would no longer be necessary). You could use pinch-and-zoom to give precise analogue control to adjustments to AOE spell damage-circles; pinch in to contract the circle (but creating a more powerful spell) or pinch-out to widen the damage-zone (but lessen the amount of damage). Of course games should include options to invert this as well (I can see how pinch in to expand and pinch-out to contract also makes tactile sense). This is something neither a controller (nor a mouse) can currently do without it being at least a little clunky but something this interface could allow players to do naturally and extremely quickly (like so fast they don't even realise they are removing one hand from one of the sticks for a second. Just as players don't realise they are doing so when using face buttons) and also with incredible precision (all accounts put the tracking resolution as pretty high). Use your imagination. I'd imagine people working in the industry can come up with much better ideas than I could (though I have my doubts about it in execution).

Can you think of creative ways to use the Touchpad on the DUALSHOCK4?

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