How this controller feature can improve the drift stick and give you better control in games

Stick drift is one of the biggest problems you will encounter with your controllers. While some manufacturers have solved this by switching to hall-effect joysticks, there’s already a neat feature built into your operating system or game that can help counter drift.

What are Driver Dead Zones?

Controller dead zones are the area from the center of the joystick where no movement is registered. For example, if you’ve set a 20 percent dead zone on the X and Y axis of your controller’s left joystick, your computer or console won’t register input until you’ve moved the joystick more than 20 percent of its total range of motion. .

At first, this may sound counterproductive. After all, why would you want to lose the range of motion that your controller provides? The answer is very simple – control the sensitivity of the joystick and the drift counter.

For example, if you’re playing a driving game like Forza Horizon 5 with the controller, with no dead zones (and a perfectly centered joystick), even the slightest movement should turn your car. Depending on how good or bad your controller’s joysticks are, this input may be too sensitive. This also varies depending on the game you’re playing or just personal preference.

With stick drift, there is always some movement and your joystick is not as centered as it should be. This introduces false inputs and inaccuracies in the movement of your joystick, even if you are not touching it. Dead zones help counter this by nullifying that area of ​​movement, meaning your stick won’t register input unless you move past the area affected by the drift – essentially solving the problem, but at the cost of range of motion.

Use dead zones to optimize controller sensitivity

One of the main reasons dead zones exist is to allow users to customize the way their joysticks respond. If you play with a mouse, you can control its sensitivity and DPI. However, joysticks usually do not have this feature.

Players may want different sensitivities in different games. If you’re playing a competitive title like Valorant on your console (or with a controller), you’ll want your sticks to be as sensitive as possible and responsive to the slightest movement so you can precisely change your aim. In something else like a racing game, you’d want a bit more headroom, as a very sensitive joystick means an instant crash.

There are different ways to use dead zones to control sensitivity, but the two most common settings you’ll come across are outer and inner dead zones. As the name suggests, the outer dead zones control how far you have to push the lever to register an input, while the inner dead zones control how far from the maximum range of motion the entire input is registered.

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Once you start playing around with the deadzone values ​​in whatever game you’re playing, you’ll be able to find the settings that work best for you. This requires some experimentation and patience, so take the time to see how the new sensitivity affects your gaming experience before committing.

Finally, if the game you’re playing doesn’t have deadzone control options or they aren’t as detailed as you’d like, you can use third-party options like reWASD or AntiMicroX. As an added benefit, these programs also allow you to remap keys and integrate key combinations or macros into your controller. If you just want to test the performance of your controller, HardwareTester’s GamePadTester is an excellent web-based tool for the job.

How can Deadzones improve Stick Drift?

Joystick movement is a common problem. However, manufacturers continue to use pot-based joystick modules, which wear out over time. Because dead zones are directly related to your club movement, getting them right means you can improve your club drift.

However, keep in mind that this method does not solve the drift hole, it only mitigates the software problem. If the drift stick is very strong, you will have to resort to other options.

There are plenty of ways to fix drift on Xbox, PlayStation and even Joy-Con controllers. This means that the best solution is always to replace the faulty lever with a new one – but this requires technical expertise and carries the risk of destroying your controller if done incorrectly. Using dead zones is a relatively quick and safe way to solve the problem because all you are doing is making a few adjustments to the controller input.

In my case, I had terrible drift on the right stick of the Xbox One X controller that I use for PC gaming. For most games, I can mitigate the problem by adjusting the outer and inner dead zones so that all of the joystick input is mapped to the range of motion that the joystick actually works at.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it saves me the trouble of taking apart the Xbox controller and replacing the joystick module – an otherwise time-consuming and delicate but permanent fix.

What to watch out for when setting dead zones

Just because dead zones can solve your sensitivity and drift problems doesn’t mean you can set them up however you want in every game. There are a few things you should be aware of when setting up dead zones for your games or controllers.

1. Experiment with different values

Experimentation is the key to using dead zones correctly. If you touch this dead zone slider for the first time in the game, it will take some time before you are able to fully understand how it affects your aim or movement.

Sometimes the process can even be frustrating because you might start playing worse with dead zones, but as you get used to the lower sensitivity, especially in competitive shooters, you’ll eventually become much more accurate.

Of course, your mileage may vary greatly depending on the games you play, but you need to play around with different dead zone values ​​and see what you like best. Once you figure out how to set up dead zones and how you like your controls, the whole process becomes easier.

2. Use different dead zones for different games

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all dead zone setting that works for all games. A big part of the above experimentation is also finding different deadzone settings for different games that best suit your playstyle.

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For example, your dead zone setup will vary greatly depending on whether you like to quickly aim and swipe across the screen or precisely move the reticle to the target. Similarly, you would want different dead zone settings in a racing game.

The built-in dead zone settings in your games are your best bet. However, if you want more control and freedom in how you prioritize your dead zones, you can use the third-party programs listed above.

3. Using dead zones is not always the solution

Finally, just because using a dead zone may alleviate your stick drift problems, it doesn’t mean it’s the default fix for the problem. Depending on how bad the stick drift problem is on your controller, you will eventually need to replace the joysticks or scrap the controller.

Deadzones are a rarely used setting that can have a huge impact on how you play games with a controller. Start experimenting with them and you’ll get much better at fighting demons, racing cars, or sniping enemies around the map.