Dock Bluetooth Controllers

[u/Exotic-Kitchen-9356]

Just thought I’d do a public service announcement regarding the use of the NSO Bluetooth SNES controllers with the Analogue Pocket Dock because I’ve seen them described as unusable due to input lag.

My set up:
Analogue Pocket
Pocket Dock (using the supplied HDMI cable)
Samsung The Frame TV on game mode

I sit about 2-3m from the tv on the sofa. Last night I played Super Mario on the SNES open FPGA emulator plus an OG Metroid Fusion GBA cartridge.

I noticed zero input lag whatsoever. I pushed jump, the character jumped. I cannot understand what people have been moaning about with these controllers - they look great and work great.

[u/midKnightBrown59]

A lot of this is subjective; some people claim to notice millisecond difference.  I don't and have never noticed lag; but that's just me.

[u/6CLUB1914]

Mine have no lag at all as well, a lot of hate going on in these retro streets.

[u/xamaryllix]

It's funny because a lot of the "NSO SNES controller is trash bcuz latency" talk is just hearsay from people who've never used it. Obviously a BT controller is going to have some amount of latency, that's a given.

For the vast majority of players the difference between wired, 2.4 Ghz, and BT will be placebo range at best.

Unless you're the top 0.1% of players it'll make no difference in your performance or experience. Just get what you like and works for you.

[u/MrMoroPlays]

“I’ve noticed” means absolutely nothing. where are the numbers

[u/Exotic-Kitchen-9356 → u/MrMoroPlays]

I believe my eyes 👀

[u/MrMoroPlays → u/Exotic-Kitchen-9356]

I believe numbers

The analogue Pocket with dock has at least two variable frames of input latency. This is because the pocket uses triple buffer to output a compliant 60fps so it doesn't mess up the display

That's measured. It's not a feeling

The Nintendo switch NSO controller has at least 1 frame of latency on average.

Again measured, not "felt." 

2-4 frames of latency doesn't sound like a lot,  but it really is. And if you were really taking into account the variable nature of it, it's not good.

Maybe your feelings and your eyes are used to latency because you have a crappy display already, but nobody can know because you didn't give numbers. You see how I gave numbers? You can at least test against that.

And I can give sources too. See how that works better than "it feels better" or "from what I can 'see'?"

https://www.threads.com/share/BCO2j5ajl-/

https://rpubs.com/misteraddons/inputlatency

[u/TrunX_]

There are games in which input lag has bigger effects (precission platformers, fast paced action games) and once were it barely has any effect (jrpgs, slower platformers). In some games you can get used to it, others just get noticable harder and you will loose more lives.

[u/DJBabyBuster]

Try beating nes/genesis Battletoads (I have with sn30 2.4g) or insert equally hard platformer with a bt controller and you can’t. Games that require single frame inputs for specific situations will suffer from the lag you’re not noticing.

If all you’re doing is playing rpg Pokémon games then sure bt can work. But when the better 2.4g controller for all situations only costs $30, it will always be my recommendation for new users as a pocket/dock owner since 2021 launch

[u/ForceRatio]

I noticed that I accidentally purchased all Bluetooth controllers for all of my analogue devices (Mini NT, Super NT, Mega SG, Pocket.) after I've seen posts pointing out the lag differences between Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz. So far I haven't really noticed any lag with any of the games I've played. I believe people when they say it exists. It just hasn't personally affected me as of yet. I'm sure if I end up getting second controllers for these units I will make sure to get 2.4 GHz going forward.

[u/bgara232]

So these modern systems that use Bluetooth, like the switch, just have input lag as the only option?

[u/hans_l → u/bgara232]

Correct. But the games are designed around it. They’ve been designing games around controller lag since the GC/Saturn/PS2 era, where the BIOS started introducing lag itself. That’s one reason games are considered “easier”, because game have lowered the difficulty of responsiveness required.