So I am glad I played around with things a bit more, as I was about to submit my request to return the controller as I believed it had a drifting issue.
Turns out IT DOES have a drifting issue, but it appears to be software related.
If someone can really do me a solid and test it out to see if it is somehow my hardware, and not a software issue like I believe, it would be very much appreciated.
So in the Accessories app I left Profile 1 at the default settings, NO drifting issue.
For Profile 2, I used the Halo 5 SP settings and changed the paddles to my own settings, and I also changed the Right Stick sensitivity to "Instant."
It is that "Instant" setting that appears to be causing the drifting.
So can someone load up the Halo 5 SP profile on their controller, change the Right Stick sensitivity to "Instant," load up Halo 5 and see if your controller also drifts ever so slightly down and to the right on the right stick while you stand still it would truly and greatly be appreciated.
TIA to anyone that can help me out. I do not believe I am going to be returning it as the default profile seems solid, but I would love to know if it is just me seeing this or not.
I get very minor intermittent drift (I basically have to nudge the stick very slightly when it's centered, but not enough to engage it against the springs; bounceback when releasing it doesn't seem to cause issues) using the (non-NXOE) instant setting in Halo 5, but that's kinda to be expected, given what the curve is doing.
I'm assuming you're also using the retail dash, and your instant curve
looks like this, correct? I can't imagine that anyone would want to use the
NXOE's instant setting for a shooter.
What that curve is doing is effectively shrinking the physical range of the deadzone to roughly a third of it's usual size. Deadzones exist for a reason - no controller, no matter the cost, is going to have sticks that return perfectly to the zero point every time (at least, not at anything approaching a mass-market price, even a niche mass-market price like the Elite). That kind of precision engineering is the realm of scientific instruments that cost thousands of dollars.
So you have a deadzone to filter out those spurious inputs that happen when the stick is physically centered but still sending a small signal. Ideally, the deadzone would be as small as possible, while still eliminating drift, but as there's variance between controllers (especially once they've been used for a while and start to wear), devs typically set them larger than necessary for many controllers to be on the safe side. If you're lucky, they'll offer some degree of customisation (Titanfall offers low/mid/high settings, IIRC, and Elite Dangerous actually just gives you a slider you can adjust).
What the curve adjustments do is remap the relationship between stick position and input sent to the game - so if the part next to the zero point is steeper, the logical deadzone becomes smaller in terms of physical stick movement. And vice-versa for if the curve is shallower near the zero point.
If/when we get the ability to set custom curves you'll be able to dial in a curve that minimizes the deadzone for a given game (and in-game setting if it has that), while eliminating drifting, but until then, the presets may slightly under- or over-shoot that sweet spot, leaving you with either minor drift, or a deadzone larger than it needs to be, depending on the game/settings. In teh case of Halo 5, it seems it's shrinking the deadzone just a fraction too far.
TL;DR: It's not an issue, just minor variances in manufacturing tolerances exacerbated by a sensitivity curve that's
explicitly designed to enhance the sensitivity near the zero mark and shrink the deadzone.
edit: an image to demonstrate what I'm talking about:
Devs set the deadzone on the "movement in game" axis. So for a given deadzone setting, using the default profile (or a regular controller), it takes
way more physical movement to hit the edge of the deadzone (the dark red lines) than it does with the curve applied (the bright red lines).
