Do the Dualshock 2 analog sticks register more than 2 degrees of pressure?

[Entroper]

RolStoppable said:

Entroper said:
The lack of sensitivity is something that drives me nuts about the Dualshock 2. I first noticed it when playing the Super Monkey Ball collection. The level of control was absolutely HORRID compared to the Gamecube version of the game.

I am fairly certain that there are more than two degrees, but the resolution is pretty poor, and the "dead zone" is huge. If you pop in a Gran Turismo game, you should be able to move the stick and watch the telemetry respond to your movements.

So the analog sticks of the DS2 have more than two degrees, but because the resolution is so poor, most developers probably didn't bother to integrate more sensitive controls and restricted their games to just two degrees. Does that sound plausible?

 

That's possible, but I think it stems more from ease of programming than the controller itself.  It's easier to just set your state to run/walk than to bother with more complicated movements.  You'll notice that even in Mario 64, Mario only has a tiptoe, walking, and running animation, and nothing in between.  But at least they gave his movement speed more granularity!  Lesser developers spend less time tweaking the gameplay, and the controls are central to the gameplay.

 

EDIT: The other thing I hate about those sticks is that they're SLIPPERY AND CONVEX.  Look at the 360 analog sticks.  Notice that they're concave.  Your thumb fits into the little impression so it doesn't slide around.  Nintendo's analog sticks have ridges to give your thumb more grip.  The Playstation *insert incarnation here* controller has a micro-textured surface that provides much less "thumb adhesion" than its competitors.  Boo-hiss.

L2 and R2 on both the SIXAXIS and the Dualshock 3 are CONVEX as well.  The opposite of Nintendo/Microsoft's controllers, and the opposite of good.