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I hate the Switch's capacitive touch screen

rochellepaws

rochellepaws

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,453
Ireland
Dr. Collins said:
Nintendo got so much flack for using a resistive touch screen for Wii U. So for Switch they finally go with a more modern capacitive screen, and then people complain and want the Wii U screen back. What is real anymore?
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People do have different tastes and different priorities. The Wii U was a fantastic system for artists both in its hardware and in Miiverse and game integration to showcase it so it's fair criticism that those people would be frustrated at its successor no longer catering for them.
 
Man God

Man God

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,308
Resistive screens have always been better for gaming. They just look like crap.
 
SkywardBeam

SkywardBeam

Member
Oct 25, 2017
409
chusetto said:
Do you imagine playing Okami HD with a stylus? Me neither...
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Ōkamiden on DS used the stylus and controlled far better than Ōkami on PS2 and Wii. I for one would love to have stylus controls for the Switch version.

But seeing what an afterthought the touchscreen is on the Switch anyway, the capacitive screen doesn't bother me too much. Although it means that we'll never get DS games on the device.

What bothers me is that typing on the Switch's TS is a real pain, as I somehow never seem to hit the letter that I want to. Have the same problem on the Vita screen, but never on one of my Samsung phones. Do Nintendo and Sony use cheaper screens for their devices, are they badly calibrated or what?
 
maximumzero

maximumzero

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,934
New Orleans, LA
It's a real bummer to know that, for multiple reasons, games like Kirby & the Rainbow Curse, Art Academy, and Nintendoland are all but dead on the Switch.
 
nikos

nikos

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,998
New York, NY
Resistive touch screens should have never existed for as long as they did. They were trash from the beginning.

Apple Pencil with iPad Pro is great for drawing. The Switch just isn't the platform for that. The technology exists, Nintendo just doesn't have it.
 
Akela

Akela

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,849
There's no way people would let Nintendo get away with using a resistive touch screen in 2017. You might like those types of touch screens but the vast majority of people hate them, especially because they're associated with crappy pre-iPhone touch devices, and poorly designed ATMs and self service machines running decades old software with uncalibrated displays that you can barely read to begin with.

This is the imagery that resistive touch screen congers up, which along side the fact that they feel terrible to use with touch, generally offer no multitouch and tend to have a poorer colour response, basically killed off that entire technology outside the cheapest of consumer devices.

The fact is, the Wii U's display was one of the devices biggest complaints - when the Switch was revealed people were relieved that Nintendo had finally discovered capacitive touch screens.
 
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
Well if nothing else, the OP proves to me that "resistive is better tech" people from the DS days weren't just full of Kool Aid. Some of them were full of madness too.
 

Deleted member 2171

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,731
Vagabond said:
I hated resistive. It was awful.

I'm not sure if the Switch uses ultracheap capacitive glass but capacitive caught up and excelled resistive screens for precision a while ago to my understanding (it was a major comparison point during the Galaxy S3 days and since stopped being an issue), while the higher end use active stylus + Capacitive screens.
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Capacitive cannot be as accurate as resistive due to the way it works, it's basically a 'cloud of points' as far as the hardware sees it, which the firmware tries to average out as a single point for the OS to interpret. The active stylus is essentially bypassing the cap screen's tech.

The ideal screen for a gaming console would be a hybrid cap + resistive, or if money were no object, multitouch resistive, which would functionally be no different than multi-touch screens we have now, except you'd be able to use a passive stylus and have accuracy. It's still crazy expensive though.
 
Niosai

Niosai

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,927
You guys know that there are styluses made specifically for capacitive touch displays, right? I bought an all-purpose one for my windows tablet a few years ago. It had the big, foamy stylus and a smaller, pen-style stylus on the other.

It's weird because I remember a huge number of people that were upset when the Wii U was announced to have a resistive touch screen on the gamepad. Never expected people to be upset about the capacitive.
 
Why would you do that?

Why would you do that?

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,801
New York City
I think capacitive screens are worse for games in several ways.

Resistive is:

- Easier to see what's on the screen while you're touching the screen (i.e. It's easier to touch and precisely drag small targets).

- More accurate in general. You can't slowly draw perfectly straight lines on a capacitive screen, even with a ruler or other straightedge. The line will come out wobbly.
18mo4at1own6kjpg.jpg

I mean, look at this... Modern devices aren't as bad as these, but it's still not as accurate.

- More responsive. If you drag something on the screen, it's going to actually be under your stylus instead of lagging behind.


Capacitive is:
- Multitouch capable
- A little easier to tap with a finger
- Much easier to drag with a finger


The comfort and ease of tapping and dragging with a finger is definitely great, especially for UIs. But for a system that's primarily for games and not UI, I feel like resistive screens give more opportunities for interesting and precise gameplay.

Plus, there's not many situations where multitouch would really be useful. The only one I can think of is with rhythm games. (Still waiting for DJ Max Technika Switch!)

But as I said before, they should really use both resistive and capacitive on one screen and it would be the best of both worlds.


Roo said:
Wii U gen : I hate resistive screens!!
Switch gen: I hate capacitive screens!!
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Personally, I was always on team "I hate capacitive screens" and I think most people who miss the resistive screen of the Wii U were as well.
 
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maximumzero

maximumzero

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,934
New Orleans, LA
I can't help but feel that anyone that hates a resistive touch screen simply didn't own a Wii U and thus didn't see all the practical gaming applications it allowed.
 
iamsirjoshua

iamsirjoshua

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,026
For those with concerns, aren't styli made for capacitive screens relatively inexpensive? It still might not equal the precision of the resistive screen but that seems like it would still solve many of the problems mentioned here (drawing in Splatoon, TWEWY, etc.).
 

Deleted member 2171

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Oct 25, 2017
3,731
iamsirjoshua said:
For those with concerns, aren't styli made for capacitive screens relatively inexpensive? It still might not equal the precision of the resistive screen but that seems like it would still solve many of the problems mentioned here (drawing in Splatoon, TWEWY, etc.).
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Still the same cloud of points problem, all it does is basically let you draw without "fingerpainting", but the results will still look like fingerpainting. Only way around it is with active stylus technology, which needs the device to support it, and support isn't cheap. Out of reach for a game console.
 
BLLYjoe25

BLLYjoe25

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,969
I don't use it a lot but I'd be disappointed if it wasn't a touch screen. It's great for typing.
 
TripaSeca

TripaSeca

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,762
São Paulo
Here's a protip.

Get 2 ziplock plastic bags. Stick your switch inside both. Grab yourself a hard tip capacitive pen.
Draw away.
Profit.
It'll be blurry but it'll also emulate a resistive screen.
 

Deleted member 2145

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
29,223
resistive was always the better way to go for a gaming device that requires a deliberateness and accuracy with its inputs, I don't know why people on enthusiast forums made such a fuss over it. capacitive screens are more responsive and less accurate. it's a simple thing to wrap your head around and yet people on forums like these would never miss an opportunity to complain.

I don't mind that they changed it with the Switch though, since it's a single screen gaming device I literally never want to use the touch screen for anything except keyboard inputs which a capacitive touch screen is serviceable for
 
Wowfunhappy

Wowfunhappy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,102
I don't _hate_ it but I'll agree that I really liked the stylus on previous Nintendo touchscreen devices. Stuff like Kirby Canvass/Rainbow Curse, Mario Maker, Meteos, etc would not work well on the Switch. And the Wii U gamepad's touch screen was sensitive enough that you could use it mostly-comfortably with your fingers.

thistooshallpass said:
It's a tablet actually, way to fail right off the first sentence.
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It's a tablet without a web browser, an eBook app, Netflix or Youtube, and most of the other things people use a tablet for other than gaming?
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,954
I miss it too, I would have picked up Sushi Striker day 1 if the Switch had a resistive screen, but the extra step of buying a capacitive stylus for it kept me away. There are definitely benefits to capacitive screens, but I prefer resistive for gaming, although capacitive is better for OS/UI
 

Deleted member 13101

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
17,973
The Switch screen is fine. Switch console body has a gyro, too (learned that from Labo).

As for the Wii U screen, it's ok with a stylus. Kirby Rainbow Curse doesn't work all that well anyways, but Pikmin Bayonetta W101 got some good mileage out of it.
 
SkywardBeam

SkywardBeam

Member
Oct 25, 2017
409
Wowfunhappy said:
I don't _hate_ it but I'll agree that I really liked the stylus on previous Nintendo touchscreen devices. Stuff like Kirby Canvass/Rainbow Curse, Mario Maker, Meteos, etc would not work well on the Switch. And the Wii U gamepad's touch screen was sensitive enough that you could use it mostly-comfortably with your fingers.
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This. You never need the stylus on the WiiU gamepad for typing or selecting anything. Applying very slight pressure with one's finger is more than enough.
 
Doskoi Panda

Doskoi Panda

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,978
Wowfunhappy said:
I don't _hate_ it but I'll agree that I really liked the stylus on previous Nintendo touchscreen devices. Stuff like Kirby Canvass/Rainbow Curse, Mario Maker, Meteos, etc would not work well on the Switch.
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I don't think there would be a single problem with any of those games on Switch. It's not like... any of the games you just mention require pixel precision.
Jecht said:
I'm sorry they didn't compromise the rest of the entire UX so you could draw a squid in splatoon.
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^^^
^^^
^^^
 
Giever

Giever

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,756
I have no need to be touching my Switch with my finger, it's totally usable with just buttons. Way more games work way better with resistive tech + stylus than with capacitive. Super Mario Maker will suck if I have to use my finger. That said, if resistive would've resulted in that ugly rainbow film type look the touch screens on the Wii U, 3DS, and DS had, then maybe I'd still prefer capacitive. But, for the most part I'm with you OP.
 
Hieroph

Hieroph

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,995
I want the 4DS just to keep getting Picross games on resistive touch screen with a stylus.
 
Azriell

Azriell

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,109
Nintendo just needs to get on that Samsung S Pen game.

I miss the nice stylus input of DS/3DS/Wii U, but I'm glad they went capacitive for Switch.
 
NinjaScooter

NinjaScooter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
54,185
I hated resistive touch screens. Always felt cheap and less responsive. Glad Nintendo left that shit in the dust.
 
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