Xbox One impulse trigger effects

[nondebug]

The haptic vibration proposal (https://github.com/w3c/gamepad/pull/68) only defines the typical "dual-rumble" style rumble effect with strong/weak ERM actuators. Xbox One controllers additionally have Impulse Triggers: haptic actuators that can be used to create effects localized to a particular trigger. To support these let's add new actuator types, for instance:

    enum GamepadHapticActuatorType {    
      "dual-rumble",
      "impulse-trigger-left",  // NEW
      "impulse-trigger-right",  // NEW
    };

Xbox One impulse triggers can be controlled on Windows 10 using the Windows.Gaming.Input API.

[marcoscaceres]

Seems pretty straight forward to add. As I'm new to the actuator discussion, what's that envisioned API shape for activating an actuator look like? Is it something like gamepad.something("impulse-trigger-left", 0.4) ?

[nondebug]

The activation method could be the same as for dual-rumble effects but with a different set of parameters.

// 1 second dual-rumble effect (100% strong, 50% weak)
navigator.getGamepads()[0].vibrationActuator.playEffect("dual-rumble", {
    strongMagnitude: 1.0,
    weakMagnitude: 0.5,
    duration: 1000
});

// 1 second impulse trigger effect, left trigger (40% magnitude)
navigator.getGamepads()[0].vibrationActuator.playEffect("impulse-trigger-left", {
    magnitude: 0.4,
    duration: 1000
});

It might make sense to also have a combined impulse-trigger effect to make it easier to send effects to both triggers at the same time.

// 1 second impulse trigger effect, both triggers (10% left, 20% right)
navigator.getGamepads()[0].vibrationActuator.playEffect("impulse-trigger", {
    leftMagnitude: 0.1,
    rightMagnitude: 0.2,
    duration: 1000
});

The vibrationActuator object should also support querying its capabilities so applications can determine if impulse trigger effects are supported.

-> navigator.getGamepads()[0].vibrationActuator.effects
<- [ "dual-rumble", "impulse-trigger", "impulse-trigger-left", "impulse-trigger-right" ]

[marcoscaceres]

Ok cool, thanks for the explanation. Makes sense :D

[mrmcpowned]

@nondebug I believe you wrote this proposal as well which would be good to have handy here for reference as well

[gabrielsanbrito]

Hi! We have written a proposal for this extension. What do you think?

[DJm00n]

@gabrielsanbrito gamepad trigger vibration is also feature (among others) of Sony DualSense controller (PS5 one) - and could be implemented with it too.