Developers: Steam Controller "Doesn't Feel Like a Trackpad"

[sneakypenguin]

Its like a worse version of a M and K and a wonky version of an analog controller. Only upside I see is the right pad might allow for slightly more accurate aiming.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

It looks pretty interesting. I'd at least like to see how it plays some good Steam games.

 

[legendp]

Just no, as someone who owns a sony xperia play I can safely say I hate touchpads instead of analog sticks, perhaps this will be revolutionary but I doubt it. just like the steam console itself I can't help but ask "why", I find the standard 360 and ps3 controllers fine. and the steam console seems to be an expensive piece of equipment with less customisation than a pc and valve games will support it but 3rd party games like tomb raider (games that don't support mac or linux) will not work.

it may not be like a laptop trackpad but it's still a touchpad, and they (in my experience) lack the physical feeling and response of analog sticks. and this clicking noise will it get annoying, or if the volume is up high will I be able to here it.

 

[Grabehn]

I don't care, since it's a controller, but it looks pretty nice and it would help a lot with the awful experience that is using a dual stick controller for me.

 

[iniudan]

I still hope they will announce some games to go along with this hardware and stuff.

Also I'm getting the impression Valve will make their fans work on steamOS optimization, improvements and compatibility with games whereas they will focus on making hats and running away with all the money.

Any linux games will work.

Actually the Steam Controller is for every games released on steam, whatever the OS you are on.

 

[ryo02]

I'm not sure what to think about this seems like it wouldn't work all that well then again I wasn't too sure about analogue sticks back in the day and they turned out great.

I'll have to try this and give it a decent chance like a I did with analogues and the wii mote.

I still think the wii mote isn't ideal and has some serious issues with how it works and is flat out worse than a traditional controller in many regards but it does have its moments like Pandora's tower that said I bought the classic controller pro for a reason.

as for keyboard and mouse I have tried to game with those and they just feel painfully sluggish awkward and unintuitive for anything outside of an RTS or point and click style games and trying to game with them for any length of time is pain full ... literally.

as of now a traditional controller and duel analogues is THE way to go for me.

 

[mysecondlife]

Knowing Valve I'm sure it is a clever design.

I wonder if those are one of those old ipod click wheels that has 4 direction buttons with slide sensors.

..because that would be kind of cool

 

[Dragonbums]

Knowing Valve I'm sure it is a clever design.

I wonder if those are one of those old ipod click wheels that has 4 direction buttons with slide sensors.

..because that would be kind of cool

Will never happen because Apple patents every orifice of their device so anyone who so much as puts the same phrase as an Ipod will get sued to high heaven.

 

[Petromir]

Some of the confusion seems to be that the ABXY buttons serve the same purpose as the ones on the xbox controller, when they really don't. They are more like the start and back buttons, plus this is meant for pc, don't like the default controls? Rebind them.

Then what buttons do serve that purpose? Cause you kinda need something to click to do stuff

The trackpat can serve as button. Want to press the right button? Press on the right side of the trackpat.

Was my first thought, yeah, but don't see improvement in it :/

Then just plug in a regular controller, this is not the only option...... (unlike on most consoles)

 

[MysticSlayer]

Well, this at least relieves some of my fears of the controller, though, to tell you honestly, I wasn't so much concerned about the trackpad after hearing about the feedback they provide. Still, I want to try one out before really getting too excited about it. The button layout still has me concerned, and while we can reconfigure the buttons and even modify the controller, it still has me worried.

Still, I want to at least try one. I have been proven wrong in the past about new ways of doing something. I'm just hoping Valve is capable of doing that.

 

[baconmaster]

A few people seem to think this is still Valve's marketing campaign... Uh, the people commenting on the controller have nothing to do with Valve. READ

It sounds pretty great but I'm still having a hard time imagining how they actually feel. There really need to be places to try these things out before you buy them. What I want now is some feedback on how the button placement works for various genres

 

[Vigormortis]

the move from d-pad to analog sticks took a bit of adjustment too...

i'm of a mind that i can't can't really make a judgement on the controller until trying it (and if Valve has any brains there will be little booths popping up that let people do just that) but i can see how it might feel pretty good and natural if it can truly track the tips of your thumbs with a high level of precision/accuracy.

if you picture how somone might mime using a controller...hands cupped, thumbs wiggling...it fits that well enough but this has a layer of potentially problematic mechanical parts (ie the sticks) removed...if it truly does work well...if the "trackpads" really are waaay in advance with those we might casually/lazily equate them with...it may be very good indeed...

regardless as an idea it still holds weight for the future because of that removal of mechanical parts angle...even if it doesn't satisfy everyone now with this iteration, doing away with the sticks still makes a lot of sense going forward...

to my mind, despite how...emblematic?..."sticks" are to gaming and gamers (and they are), this potentially has a bit of the move from ball to optical mice about it...

edit - consider also the fact the control surface/point is curved in a manner that actually follows much more closely the natural track of the movement coming down onto it from the axes of the joints in our thumbs (unlike thumbsticks which because they move on a separate axis of their own actually do the opposite) imo this design possibly has the potential to be much more comfortable in use than what we have grown accustomed to. simplistically put that bowl/cupped shape will require less "stretching" and "folding" of the whole of the thumb.

on a personal note i actually have "problems with hands" due to working in the "trades" for years and i kinda want to try one of these out due to the fact they may actually be far more "ergonomic" than what we're used to and thus hopefully kinder on my hands when setting about a decent gaming session that requires a controller.

tbth i still kinda prefer using a d-pad when it occasionally pops up in my gaming because, as i mentioned, thumbsticks require that "stretching" and "folding" of the whole of the thumb and maintaining a sort of "balancing on the axes of the stick" touch (as opposed to a sort of more planted actually "resting on the controller" touch) which sadly often makes often makes my hands hurt quite badly now

one way of looking this design is in terms of being more akin to an evolution of the old d-pads rather than the intermediary of "analog sticks" because it kinda seems much like a "digital d-pad" but with the direction that the "d-" stands for now being tracked in a full "analog like" range, subtlety and speed of motion and i suspect that'll probably be a bit like what it feels like in use "in your hands"...assuming the technology "works" ofc...

I can honestly say I think you may very well be the first person on this forum who mirrors my thoughts on this. Almost to the letter. That being, in a simple sense, skeptical optimism.

So rather than retype my thoughts, again, I felt compelled to just quote yours.

Hope you don't mind.

 

[lacktheknack]

just like the steam console itself I can't help but ask "why"

Because there's a market for it.

And it will begin a shift of game support to Linux, which is something that many people (myself included) fully endorse and would pay extra money to make happen.

Heaven forbid that we have options.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Can someone please explain to me what the point of the Steam console is? I'm not trying to be sarcastic or start a fight, I really want to know. If I understand it correctly, its a console for those who want to play AAA but A. don't have a computer good enough and B. don't have a console to run it.
Why is this being hailed as Valve descending from on high to bring us the word? From my estimate, they solved the problem of people not wanting to spend money to buy a console to play big name games by...offering them a console to buy...
Look, I don't know about the rest of you, but unless I'm damn sure I can run a game on my laptop - a process that takes a whole minute to find out - I'll get it for my 360. And that seems to be working for me. And lets not forget I can hook up my laptop to my TV and run 'Big Screen' mode and essentially play my steam games on my TV...
So I ask again, what is the point of this console? Whats the target audience? What problem does it fix? Why is this seen as smart by Valve instead of a marketing blunder?

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Can someone please explain to me what the point of the Steam console is?

I would imagine that it is more compact and quieter than a typical gaming PC. And the Steam OS is supposedly designed to be optimized for running on a TV screen from a couch, unlike Windows. It would also be a custom Linux build supported and maintained by Steam, and therefore optimized for the purpose of running games - again, unlike Windows.

We'll have to see when the hardware itself, but that's basically the gist of it from what Valve is saying.

So I ask again, what is the point of this console? Whats the target audience? What problem does it fix? Why is this seen as smart by Valve instead of a marketing blunder?

Lots of people don't want to run PCs let alone hook them up to the TV. After all, we're in the supposedly "post-PC" world, and many people's primary device is a tablet or a phone, and the only time they might use traditional computers is at work. Hence the appeal of something console-like, and the ability for Steam's business to continue as sales of desktop and laptop computers stagnate or drop.

 

[BrownGaijin]

It looks promising to say the least. Hopefully things will clear up more in next year's E3.

Unless of course Valve decides to hold it's own E3... with blackjack and hookers.

 

[Strazdas]

I would imagine that it is more compact and quieter than a typical gaming PC.

I never understood this argument. Ive had plenty of PCs and the only thing there making noise (beside the old style hard drives that used to run like sledgehammer, but they arent around for almost a decade now) was when fans wore our and asked to be replace, so they got noisy. if anything consoles were always way more noisier becuase the dvd/BR drive is the noisiest part of computer anyway, and with PC your running off installed thing and not the disc.