I don’t necessarily know if this counts as a “bug” but the motion controls on the Switch version of Overwatch do not work properly. I’ve tested it for a good few hours, but no matter what I change with settings, controllers, and settings outside of Overwatch, it seems that it does not function properly. I have used gyro controls for over 4 years now consistently, and I’ve never seen issues like this, but I might have some insight as to what it could be.
The issues seem to arise from the fact that you cannot disable one of the two axes available. When using both the roll and yaw axes, the game doesn’t respond to it well. If I move the controller normally as I would using only the roll axis, because the yaw axis is enabled, the camera will not move where I am telling it to. When turning left and right, the camera will turn up or down depending on where I turn. This is not an issue with me, as when tested laying the controller flat on the table, the camera still does not move perfectly to the sides as it would in other games that use this feature. I think most gyro control players would appreciate an option to enable or disable an axis, much like some other games on the Nintendo Switch allow.
Another issue would be that you cannot fully disable aim assist. Even when you turn the “Gyro Aim Assist On/Off” toggle off, you will still be getting aim assist when you push the stick. The issue here is that when you stop moving the stick and start moving with gyro, for some reason the game does not disable it, and it keeps sticking to the target. Aim assist with a motion based control system only ends up hurting the users ability to aim. Even when turning aim assist strength and window size all the way down, I am still getting the same stick as I would when using aim assist. I would really like an option to disable aim assist completely on the switch, as if the gyro controls are functioning normally, I don’t think aim assist would be optimal.
Another thing I want to bring up the issue of input lag. This, while being a large issue, would not be an easy fix, as most other games running on the Nintendo Switch with gyro controls have the issue. I’m not sure if it is a hardware issue, but it’s still very frustrating to deal with. A video on Youtube by IceManLoneWolf shows this issue perfectly. When hooking up a controller to Steam and enabling gyro to control the mouse, you can see that the delay between moving the controller and the camera moving is very low, but there’s much more of a delay on the Switch. This could be due to the frame rate, which unfortunately cannot be helped, but it’s still an issue.
Finally I wanted to bring up the minimum movement threshold. Much like a deadzone on a joystick, a minimum movement threshold determines the speed at which you have to move your controller to get the camera to move. The default speed is not bad, but I think a slider option would be better as it would allow for more customization.
Gyro controls are one of my favorite features in games, but I think it’s being focused on more as a gimmick rather than a regular control type, and that often gets in the way of it going anywhere. I find it frustrating that the way I use gyro in other games doesn’t work here, and having that experience is not fun. I was really hopeful that this would be perfectly implemented, and while I appreciate the time spent adding them to the game, they do not work even close to how well they could. After discussing it with others who play gyro in other games as well, they seemed to agree. I hope that this can get enough attention to be noticed, because if they worked better, then people might be more willing to give the control type a try.
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your not the only one with this problem.
Seems like they were updated as part of the christmas patch, the camera no longer moves up when you look to the sides. Also hasnt lost tracking at all in the amount of times ive played. Hope they keep it up with the fixes cause its moving in the right direction
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This vertical drift problem is back now in overwatch 2. I hope they fix it.