[gamepad] Haptic Feedback/Controller Vibration

Hello,

Is there a reason that haptic feedback support is missing from the gamepad
api? I feel that this would prevent developers from fully utilizing modern
gamepads which nearly always include some form of a haptic feedback
mechanism, (from the speaker on the wiimote to the dual vibrators in an
xbox 360 controller). In order for this to work however, we need a
mechanism for detecting supported "haptic feedback modes" which could then
be used on the gamepad with the WebAudio API.

Here is an example of one such mechanism:

var ctx = new AudioContext();
var rumble_audio = document.getElementById("rumbleAudio");
var rumble_audio_source = ctx.createMediaElementSource(rumble_audio)
var modes = gamepad.getSupportedFeedbackModes();
var feedback_node = null;
if (typeof(modes.RUMBLE_STEREO) !== "undefined"){ // like the xbox 360
feedback_node = gamepad.getFeedbackNode(ctx,modes.RUMBLE_STEREO);
}else if(typeof(modes.RUMBLE_MONO) !=="undefined"){ // like some pc gamepads
feedback_node = gamepad.getFeedbackNode(ctx,modes.RUMBLE_MONO);
}else if(typeof(modes.GAMEPAD_AUDIO)){ // like the wii remote
feedback_node = gamepad.getFeedbackNode(ctx,modes.GAMEPAD_AUDIO);
}else{
feedback_node = ctx.destination
}
rumble_audio_source.connect(feedback_node);
rumble_audio.play();

A system like this would allow both greater access to the controller's
functionality and allow feedback to be dynamically generated or modified by
the WebAudio API.


I hope this suggestion helps,
Patrick Martin