ASUS has revealed what’s coming in the next batch of updates for the ASUS ROG Ally.
Alongside some fixes for the XG Mobile and external keyboards, the biggest news out of the update is the introduction of a controller calibration section.
Coming in ACSE v1.3.15, players will be able to calibrate the joysticks and triggers in the Control Mode menu, and if you’re one of the many owners who’ve been struggling with deadzone issues, there’s also now an Anti-Deadzone slider option.
ASUS has also spoken briefly about what’s going on with deadzones and why it’s taken them a little longer to implement a fix.
“As many users have found through gamepad testing tools, the firmware deadzones on the ROG Ally are quite similar to other controllers on the market,” says an ASUS representative on the ROG forums.
“So our investigation led us deeper, where we discovered that users are likely experiencing a difference in what they expect from the joystick’s sensitivity curve — the strength of the signal that takes place after input is detected by the system. And in some cases, a game may actually have its own software deadzone or adjusted sensitivity curve that compounds this feeling of delay. Sometimes this can be adjusted in a game’s settings, and sometimes it can’t.
“With this in mind, we’re exploring multiple ways to give users control over their Ally’s joysticks, starting with a new anti-deadzone slider in Armoury Crate SE’s control settings. While not as precise as [a] full adjustment as the sensitivity curve, this feature is simple to use and can make the joystick feel more responsive on a global or per-game level. However, we’re also investigating other options that offer more fine-grianed [sic] control, so we can provide the best possible experience for our community.”
Deadzone issues, along with broken SD card readers, have been one of the top problems ASUS ROG Ally owners have been waiting to be fixed. How well this new fix will work we won’t know until it launches. That said, this sounds like a step in the right direction.
Full patch notes follow…
ACSE v1.3.15 on 9/27/23 through Armoury Crate SE
- New feature: Added joystick and trigger calibration in the Control Mode menu (requires MCU v313 or later)
- New feature: Added “Anti-Deadzone” slider to Stick adjustments in the Control Mode and Game Profile menus (requires MCU v313 or later)
- Enhancement: Added iGPU driver version under Content > System > About > Service version check.
- Enhancement: Microcontroller Unit firmware can now be updated through the Armoury Crate SE Update Center
- Bug fixed: Fixed issue where using an external keyboard would cause input delay when gaming
- Bug fixed: Fixed a problem where the ROG XG Mobile would randomly disconnect or not function properly
MCU 313 on 9/27/23 through Armoury Crate SE
- New feature: Added support for joystick and trigger calibration in ACSE
- New feature: Added support for the Anti-Deadzone feature in ACSE
BIOS 330 on 10/12 through MyASUS
Enhancement: optimized overall system stability.
