the aiming on controller is so bad that people hate one of the best guns in the game, the Commando, because it is one of the only guns with barely any aim assist, so people can't aim with it and rather use the pistol or the BR because those basically aim themselves.
the aim assist is a joke in a modern game like that, it was a necessity in games of yesteryear because developers didn't have controller aiming figured out quite yet, so they relied on that to fix it.
Fortnite was also one such game, where there was literally a soft lock-on like in CoD Campaign modes, because their core aiming controls were so dogshit that this was the only way to make it playable. they later completely revamped the aiming controls (which are now really good actually) and removed the soft lock-on.
I thought I might do a visual demonstration on how weird and fucked Halo Infinite's aiming is with some hastely put together graphs, because I don't wanna be told I am throwing out vague statements (which most of the people that object my criticism do usually by just saying "you're a hater, the core game is amazing! HURR DURR!")
the issue lies mostly in 2 things:
#1: The Max turn speed/sensitivity is RIDICULOUSLY SLOW... as in basically what 50% speed is in a modern CoD. you can't turn around for shit, and this makes the game feel sluggish and undynamic
#2: the sensitivity curve, and this is the biggest issue with the game's controls, and the reason why the ridiculous aim assist is needed. you have for one, aim acceleration
* THAT CAN NOT BE DISABLED! you can only change how fast it ramps up. and secondly a curve that's just a joke
here a few graphs that show for 1, Halo Infinite's curve that is close to shooters of the late PS2/Xbox to the early PS360 era, before CoD started to perfect controller aiming. and 2, some other curves, including the one used by many popular mainstream shooters
you can see how shallow the curve is, and how abrupt it shoots up, and even then still has a slight angle on top for additional unevenness
this curve was found by
EternalDahaka on reddit using a
TitanTwo
it uses most of the stick for extremely slow turn speeds and then shoots up right at the edge and then trails off even higher
____________________
this is roughly what I use in games that allow it, but if the have either of the ones below this one, i'm also fine with that usually.
you can see I prefer a smooth ramp up with precision in the inner part of the stick that steadily increases in speed towards the edge for max turn speed
while keeping the ability for granular precision.
I also usually use ones like these because you can normally use a 0% dead-zone and still avoid drifting or at least have only slight drifting. but a 0% dead-zone allows for extremely granular movement with ease.
in Apex Legends for example I barely move my stick when counteracting recoil for most guns and can counteract very efforlessly
____________________
many pro controller players play linear, which is what you see above. most games that give a "Linear" option don't have an actual "true linear" curve though.
many look more like
THIS
This gives 100% consistency but also needs the user to be extremely precise in high sensitivity settings as there is no precision zone in the inner circle.
most games give this as an option (Infinite of course doesn't because
it sucks) and some other have this as the only option. although most use a different one.
which brings us to the last one below
____________________
this is what most of the games that are commonly said to have really good controller aiming use as the default. of course they aren't 100% identical to this but they usually use this with slight variations and options to tweak further.
CoD's and Apex Legend's default look similar to this, this is also the default Steam uses when you emulate mouse movement on your controller's stick I think.
this is a very balanced curve that doesn't offend anyone. it gives some precision in the inner most circle but also is not too far off from linear to get in the way of people that really prefer a linear curve
this is also roughly what Splitgate, a Halo Clone made by a handful of students, uses and why it feels 10x better than Infinite and why it doesn't need Infinite's ridiculous aim assist to be playable on controller.
it lacks options to change the curve, which is suboptimal, but this curve is the least offensive to most players. so a good choice as the one to use
here a pic of the sensitivity curves that Modern Warfare uses:
(dynamic is fucking horrid btw! lol, some people like it tho so the option is there at least)
as you can see the CoD standard is very similar to the curve I presented above as what is basically the modern standard of good controller aiming
____________________
so this is why the aiming in Halo Infinite sucks. it uses a curve similar to
the one used by Halo 2 back in 2004, before controller aiming was truly perfected by countless iterations of Call of Duty, which became as popular as it is due to how smooth and good the aiming felt compared to other shooters at the time. it was a standout reason as to why people fell in love with the series around Modern Warfare 1 and 2. it just felt better than the rest.
Halo Infinite meanwhile is stuck in the pre-Modern Warfare 1 era when it comes to the controls. it feels clunky, stiff, slow and inconsistent as hell. and that is AFTER you turn off axial deadzones, which is a whole nother dogshit option that Infinite has on as the default (but at least you can turn that off, unlike the acceleration)
and remember, most games have multiple curves as an option, Apex Legends even lets you create a custom one from 100% Linear to extremely curved to the edge
*aim acceleration is when you tilt your stick a certain amount, in Halo's case ~95% in default, and the game does not immediately give you the maximal possible speed, but slowly increases the turn speed over time. this leads to inconsistent feeling aiming and depending on implementation can lead to uneven movement in the horizontal and vertical axes
www.neogaf.com
www.halowaypoint.com
