A professional gamer. A top-ranked eSports athlete. A well-known figure in competitive shooting circles—I am none of those things. But could it depend on my choice of controller? Could there be something that's a step up from the norm xbox Is the pad I use for PC and console really the same for my games?
Thrustmaster HART (an acronym that stands for “Hall Effect Accurate Technology” – more on what it means soon) promises to do just that, providing greater accuracy and responsiveness to deliver better in-game performance, without breaking the bank. Does. In short, it aims to be an entry-level pro controller.
It may seem like a paradox, but it takes on a special kind of meaning when the heart is in your hands. It's a pad that offers a familiar layout – similar to that of the Xbox, which has become the default for most games in recent years, as well as two programmable paddle buttons on the back – with a (mostly) premium feel. A gentle texture on the grips and triggers ensures that fingers are unlikely to slip, the thumbsticks have a satisfactory degree of resistance, and those extra paddles sit comfortably under the middle finger of each hand. Its asymmetric black and white design is also attractive, supported by a single LED strip split on each side when in use.
Photograph: Thrustmaster
The only deterrents to that premium feel are an ugly, blobby D-pad and Xbox function buttons – View, Menu and Share – that are too small. The worst is the D-pad, which seems to be at odds with the otherwise sleek design approach taken by HEART. Its rounded tips result in no real delineation between its directions, and as there is no texture on its surface, the thumb slides over it aimlessly. Meanwhile, the function buttons are both small and shallow, making them seem insignificant.
Still, the design impresses for the most part, and Thrustmaster builds it around with advanced parts compared to standard controllers. However it doesn't have the sometimes daunting array of swappable components and subtle degree of customization that Microsoft's high-end offerings love. xbox elite or Thrustmaster's own eSwap X2 On offer, the HEART's mechanical buttons provide a satisfying clicky pushback on each press, its triggers feel intuitive, and its control stick glides under your thumb.
magnetic attraction
It's in the thumbsticks where some of the pad's high-level technology resides. Most standard controllers determine the position of the stick using a potentiometer, where (very simply) a contact pad measures resistance as you move the stick around. The problem is that the friction of the process – thousands of microscopic movements in each playing session, each of which rubs against contacts – causes components to wear out over time. This results in “stick drift”, where your on-screen character or target may wander off on its own. HEART, in contrast, uses magnets, with the position of the rod (again, very simply) determining which direction the electrons are pushed onto the sensor.
this is Hall effect This abbreviation is named after the physicist Edwin Hall, who discovered it, and although he probably did not anticipate its application to better video game controllers in 1879, the main thing is that this process occurs due to friction. Is devoid of. This means that not only do the components not wear out over time, but their condition can be measured more accurately in the first place – Thrustmaster says they can be tracked to within 0.01 degrees of movement. But does it really improve performance in games?