Here's The Steam Controller's Final Design

[Steven Bogos]

Here's The Steam Controller's Final Design

This is what the Steam Controller will look like when it launches in November.

Valve's Engadget [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/steam%20controller?os=steam+controller] have gotten their mitts on it, and have taken a few pictures. Check them out below:

[gallery=3881]

The final version is pretty similar to that redesign we saw explained the addition of an analog stick [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139115-Steam-Controller-Gets-Another-Redesign] was due to testers having trouble making the jump from traditional dual-thumbstick controllers to the dual-trackpad design of the initial Steam Controller.

Hands-on reports of the new controller seem to be telling us the same story we heard with previous redesigns - the controller is unique and fun to use, but very hard to learn and even harder to explain to someone who has never used it before.

The Steam Controller will launch alongside the first wave of Steam Machines in November, as well as Valve's new Steam Link [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139999-Valve-Confirms-Source-2-Free-For-All] streaming hardware.

Source: Engadget [http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/04/valve-steam-controller-final/]

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[Frezzato]

Damn, looks like they removed the triggers on the inside of the handholds. Oh well.

Oh wait, I guess they're still there, just in a weird way.

 

[laggyteabag]

I never really understood the reason for having 2 pads and a stick. Now you have one pad for aiming, the stick for moving, and another trackpad posing as a D-Pad, but without the responsiveness or feel of one.

That and I have no real idea who this controller is for, but I guess I cannot really say much more without actually using it.

 

[Vigormortis]

Honestly, I'm surprised they're only $49.99. I expected them to be at least $10 more.

Not that I'm complaining. Quite the opposite, in fact. I really want to try one and now I can acquire one for less than I'd thought.

Now I wonder what the price-point will be for the Vive...

Damn, looks like they removed the triggers on the inside of the handholds. Oh well.

Nope. They're still there. They're now low-profile and are flush with the casing near the middle. They still 'click' down as before, they're just less obvious.

Hands-on reports of the new controller seem to be telling us the same story we heard with previous redesigns - the controller is unique and fun to use, but very hard to learn and even harder to explain to someone who has never used it before.

That's....not what I've been hearing. From the accounts I've seen it seems that Valve have improved the touch-pads and haptic feedback even more than before. I heard a first-hand account that claimed that the track-pads, while in 'track-ball mode', actually felt like track-balls - in so far as the way the rest of the controller felt and the way the game behaved.

 

[Alexander Kirby]

I never really understood the reason for having 2 pads and a stick. Now you have one pad for aiming, the stick for moving, and another trackpad posing as a D-Pad, but without the responsiveness or feel of one.

I agree, I think it would have been better to go all the way with a truly innovative design rather than meet us half way because some people don't like change. As PC purist I never got used to analogue sticks to begin with, so I really wouldn't have minded, but embossing a crosspad into it worries me a little; a lot of applications might end up not using it to its full advantage and opting instead to use the analogue stick.

On the other hand driving will probably work better with the stick because of its self-centering properties.

 

[loa]

Hm, doesn't dropping that d-pad mean playing games like street fighter is pretty much impossible?
And how about platformers?
I kinda need the precision of a d-pad for something like super metroid and that touch "d-pad" just gives off touchscreen vibes for me.
That is it looks awkward and floaty and not something you'd want to play mario with.

This seems to be geared towards egoshooters more than anything else and I'm not so sure if stick+touchpad comes close to keyboard and mouse.

 

[OManoghue]

Now just announce some games and everyone will be happy.
We're getting Steam machines, streaming devices, funky new-age controllers aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand?!

I'm just getting blue balls over here.

 

[Signa]

I had hoped for more buttons for non-xinput enabled games. Your hand covers so many keys on a keyboard I would want something that offers at least a portion of those options.

 

[Vivi22]

Hm, doesn't dropping that d-pad mean playing games like street fighter is pretty much impossible?
And how about platformers?
I kinda need the precision of a d-pad for something like super metroid and that touch "d-pad" just gives off touchscreen vibes for me.
That is it looks awkward and floaty and not something you'd want to play mario with.

I can't see how anyone can claim anything like this without trying it first. You have trouble imagining it being accurate and precise. I have a relatively easy time imagining something better than any D-Pad on the market right now that isn't on a third party fight pad if they did it right.

 

[loa]

I can't see how anyone can claim anything like this without trying it first.

Where in that post did I make a claim?

 

[FalloutJack]

Sweet...and thank god! I have games on steam that I'm struggling with because the interface would suit a controller better!

 

[StreamerDarkly]

After an initial "shit, that's a cool idea" phase, I've remained skeptical that the track pads will offer any serious increase in aiming precision over analog sticks.

It looks like they've increased the pad diameter as far as possible at this point. Still, if the player only has direct control of turning speed (indirect control of position) like with analog sticks, it's hard to imagine a big improvement given the limited pad size.

To be fair, I seem to recall an earlier video demo where they showed the track pad being scrolled across, similar to how a mouse is operated. Am I remembering this correctly?

The question must be asked - is Valve just pushing a new input mechanism they know is a gimmick because they're too invested? If it was a less reputable company, I'd be tempted to think so.

 

[Scrythe]

I know this is overlooking the bigger picture, but I'm actually really glad to see that it charges with a micro USB cable.

The thumbstick still weirds me out, but at least it's mostly optional. There was a fake image floating around that the final redesign was going to be essentially an Xbox controller shape, but with a Sony configuration for the sticks.

 

[CrystalShadow]

After an initial "shit, that's a cool idea" phase, I've remained skeptical that the track pads will offer any serious increase in aiming precision over analog sticks.

It looks like they've increased the pad diameter as far as possible at this point. Still, if the player only has direct control of turning speed (indirect control of position) like with analog sticks, it's hard to imagine a big improvement given the limited pad size.

To be fair, I seem to recall an earlier video demo where they showed the track pad being scrolled across, similar to how a mouse is operated. Am I remembering this correctly?

The question must be asked - is Valve just pushing a new input mechanism they know is a gimmick because they're too invested? If it was a less reputable company, I'd be tempted to think so.

I can't see this working the way an analog stick does.
Or at least, that would be a bad idea from what I know of the closest relatives of this (touchscreen devices, and laptop trackpads)

A laptop trackpad is probably the most accurate reference for where you start with imagining how this works.
I wouldn't game with one, but they have more in common with mice than they do with an analog stick.

For instance, since I have one in front of me right now, there are several properties of it that stand out.
1. The mouse cursor moves when your finger moves.
2. the distance it moves depends on the speed of your finger movement across the pad.
3. If you hit the ends of the pad (or get near them), you lift your finger, move it back across, and slide it further.
- Which is a smaller scale equivalent to what you do when you run out of space with a mouse.

If they've improved the amount of tactile feedback, I'd say that's what you're looking at here.
The closest relatives of these are undoubtedly laptop trackpads...

Which doesn't sound brilliant to me, exactly, having tried to play games with those in the past, but it's an entirely different kind of control to an analog stick.
Certainly more precise, though in my experience the reason it doesn't work isn't lack of precision, it's the awkward ergonomics of the touchpads on laptops, which leads to slow response time relative to a proper mouse.
Accurate, but slow when complex sequences of movements are involved, would be how I'd describe a conventional touchpad...

I guess there's only one way to find out how this really compares...

 

[StreamerDarkly]

For instance, since I have one in front of me right now, there are several properties of it that stand out.
2. the distance it moves depends on the speed of your finger movement across the pad.
3. If you hit the ends of the pad (or get near them), you lift your finger, move it back across, and slide it further.
- Which is a smaller scale equivalent to what you do when you run out of space with a mouse.

Number 2 is a subtle point that I never fully appreciated until just now. In fact, I thought you were wrong until I just confirmed it with my own mouse. Previously I had assumed the cursor distance was in direct proportion to the mouse distance, irrespective of speed. Thank you for that.

Number 3 is the key property that allows a large range of motion to be simulated in a small space. Still, I'm wondering how many trips across the pad will be needed to turn, say, 90 degrees? Hopefully it can be done in a single swipe for executing a fast but smooth twitch. Alternatively, they will keep the reticle moving when your thumb slides off the end of the pad until a correcting touch is applied.

 

[CrystalShadow]

For instance, since I have one in front of me right now, there are several properties of it that stand out.
2. the distance it moves depends on the speed of your finger movement across the pad.
3. If you hit the ends of the pad (or get near them), you lift your finger, move it back across, and slide it further.
- Which is a smaller scale equivalent to what you do when you run out of space with a mouse.

Number 2 is a subtle point that I never fully appreciated until just now. In fact, I thought you were wrong until I just confirmed it with my own mouse. Previously I had assumed the cursor distance was in direct proportion to the mouse distance, irrespective of speed. Thank you for that.

Number 3 is the key property that allows a large range of motion to be simulated in a small space. Still, I'm wondering how many trips across the pad will be needed to turn, say, 90 degrees? Hopefully it can be done in a single swipe for executing a fast but smooth twitch.

Lol. Yeah, I guess it's easy to miss. But once you start reading SDK documentation, (or hardware info on how mice work) you start to realise just how complicated it actually gets.

The cursor velocity is a non-linear function of the relative movement of the mouse over a given time. It's not simply, move the mouse twice as far in a second, move the cursor twice as far, there's an actual finely tuned acceleration curve involved.

Which is crazy when you think about it. Someone sat around and tried to optimise the acceleration of the mouse cursor relative to mouse movement to get the best balance of precision and speed out of it... XD

 

[Westaway]

I think I had the same response as most other people, ie "That looks fucking retarded but I guess I can't knock it until I try it".
It looks really cheap and plastic-y though, must be why they can sell it for so little.

 

[Vigormortis]

I had hoped for more buttons for non-xinput enabled games. Your hand covers so many keys on a keyboard I would want something that offers at least a portion of those options.

To be fair, it has 18 buttons that can be mapped to do whatever you wish. More if you count the 8 directional clicks of each track pad or if you customize the controller to use one of the underside buttons as a "shift" or "alt" modifier.

Still, I agree that it's not a complete replacement of a keyboard, in terms of key mapping options.

Number 2 is a subtle point that I never fully appreciated until just now. In fact, I thought you were wrong until I just confirmed it with my own mouse. Previously I had assumed the cursor distance was in direct proportion to the mouse distance, irrespective of speed. Thank you for that.

Except, you can disable that by going to your Windows mouse settings and disabling mouse acceleration. The same goes for many games.

Number 3 is the key property that allows a large range of motion to be simulated in a small space. Still, I'm wondering how many trips across the pad will be needed to turn, say, 90 degrees? Hopefully it can be done in a single swipe for executing a fast but smooth twitch. Alternatively, they will keep the reticle moving when your thumb slides off the end of the pad until a correcting touch is applied.

This can be adjusted. It's not like the pads are locked to one range of motion.

Lol. Yeah, I guess it's easy to miss. But once you start reading SDK documentation, (or hardware info on how mice work) you start to realise just how complicated it actually gets.

The cursor velocity is a non-linear function of the relative movement of the mouse over a given time. It's not simply, move the mouse twice as far in a second, move the cursor twice as far, there's an actual finely tuned acceleration curve involved.

Which is crazy when you think about it. Someone sat around and tried to optimise the acceleration of the mouse cursor relative to mouse movement to get the best balance of precision and speed out of it... XD

As I'd stated above, mouse acceleration is something that can (and often should be) disabled.

In fact, you'll find most pro-level gamers disable mouse acceleration - both in-game and at an OS level - so they can get true 1-to-1 movement.

The same thing can apply to the track-pads on the Steam controller. They can be customized to offer a wide array of tracking ranges, as well as differing levels of acceleration.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Lol. Yeah, I guess it's easy to miss. But once you start reading SDK documentation, (or hardware info on how mice work) you start to realise just how complicated it actually gets.

The cursor velocity is a non-linear function of the relative movement of the mouse over a given time. It's not simply, move the mouse twice as far in a second, move the cursor twice as far, there's an actual finely tuned acceleration curve involved.

Which is crazy when you think about it. Someone sat around and tried to optimise the acceleration of the mouse cursor relative to mouse movement to get the best balance of precision and speed out of it... XD

As I'd stated above, mouse acceleration is something that can (and often should be) disabled.

In fact, you'll find most pro-level gamers disable mouse acceleration - both in-game and at an OS level - so they can get true 1-to-1 movement.

The same thing can apply to the track-pads on the Steam controller. They can be customized to offer a wide array of tracking ranges, as well as differing levels of acceleration.

That really depends on the type of game.
But for many games the OS settings are irrelevant anyway, because the game does it's own calculations.

I've done enough game programming to know that. Yes, you can read the values the OS gives you, but more often than not it's better, if creating a game to work with the raw data the mouse sends out.

And that data is a series of packets describing the change of position over time. 99% of the time you can't apply this directly, especially in a game, because there is an absurd mismatch between the resolution of the mouse and what you are trying to control with it.

This is made much worse by the wide range of mice with huge differences in dpi settings (or equivalent, depending on how the mouse works)

Non-linear motion is one option among many, which indeed you may not want in some situations, but then again, may appreciate in others.
It depends...

 

[Vigormortis]

snip

Oh, I know. You're actually 'preaching to the choir' on this one. I've done my fair share of 'homework' on properly config'ing mice.

I was just saying that the track-pads on the Steam controller are far more high resolution than the sorts of track-pads we tend to come across on other devices, and their tracking speeds and range of motions are variable.

I spoke with someone who owned one of the early beta builds of the controller. He said that, even in its early state, the pads were highly adjustable to suite a wide range of input needs. From 1-to-1 tracking like one would want on a mouse, to 'momentum' based tracking like you'd see with a track-ball. It could even be configured to emulate an analog stick. (though he saw little point to it)