Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license • Hacker News Board

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#591

Post by dghlsakjg » Thu, May 07, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

wtetzner wrote: post #581

dghlsakjg wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scuba diving is a pretty risky activity on the scale of things that rich people do in their everyday life. Golf and cycling are a lot safer. Scuba fatalities fall into a few buckets, the big two are inexperience/bad decision making, and older folks with health issues (underwater heart attacks/respiratory distress, basically). As a former dive pro, an overweight 63 year old is someone that I would keep a very close ey…

I'm pretty sure just riding in a car is more dangerous.

Not when you normalize by time spent doing the activity.

If you normalize by incidents per participant, sure.

Keep in mind that the average recreational diver does one or fewer dive trips per year, with maybe 10 dives on a very dive intensive trip. A small population of divers are massively more active. Drivers on the other hand have the opposite distribution. A very active driver spends more time in their car in a week than even the most active recreational divers.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#592

Post by Aerolfos » Thu, May 07, 2026, 5:17 PM UTC

HeckFeck wrote: post #303

bsimpson wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that's Valve's fault. Windows is designed for gamepads to emulate an Xbox controller. All those Steam Deck competitors are implemented as an Xbox controller with a partial keyboard grafted on. That's why you need Legion Space or Armoury Crate to make them usable - they tell the controller firmware what keybindings to send for those rear paddles. InputPlumber serves this purpose on Linux. Without it, you…

That spliced in USB hub looks messy. Does a new controller necessitate Xinput? I assume Windows still supports DirectInput, which was used in the past with more complex controllers. I'd recently brought up "JOY.CPL" in Windows 10. It would hinge on whether DirectInput can talk to games that expect Xinput.

> It would hinge on whether DirectInput can talk to games that expect Xinput.

As far as I know, nope.

Some games also get really confused if you have Xinput and DirectInput devices plugged in at the same time - for me, Silksong (and unity games in general) don't work if I have a throttle+stick plugged in.

And it's worse than just taking input from the wrong thing, the game can't recognize input from any of throttle, stick, or controller. Only controller by itself works.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#593

Post by system2 » Thu, May 07, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #248

system2 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have one and didn't have any issues buying, nor heard anyone have any issues buying in the past... In fact, the Steam Controller was considered a flop.

Wrong Steam Controller. Valve released a new one with the same name on the 4th of may. Stupid naming.

Funny the first one was a flop yet they released a second one.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#594

Post by dleslie » Thu, May 07, 2026, 5:49 PM UTC

account42 wrote: post #491

dleslie wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a game takes more then five minutes to become fun then return it. I've returned plenty of games with under five minutes of play time, because I don't have the patience to purchase boredom. Two hours is far more than enough to determine if a game is for you.

There are entire genres where that makes no sense. It would be like returning a book because the first page didn't immediately grab you. Not everything should be designed for attention deficit teenagers.

What genre takes more than 5m to find any indication of enjoyment from it?

4x, city builders, deck builders, RTS, RPG, etc; these can all be fun in short order, if the games are well designed.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#595

Post by odo1242 » Thu, May 07, 2026, 5:49 PM UTC

order-matters wrote: post #271

odo1242 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the trading feature is part of what enables the gambling system to work (i.e. selling weapon skins). Most game companies will explicitly try to not have a trading system on any items that are obtained by random chance because, well, gambling.

except a lack of trading features encourages more gambling because youre not allowed to directly purchase or trade for items you want that are only dropped through random chance and are thus forced to gamble for them. without trading they effectively remove everything about exchanging money for goods except the gambling part. and for regular microtransaction stores without gambling, it just kills the second hand mark…

Hmmmm, I suppose that makes sense

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#596

Post by Forgeties79 » Thu, May 07, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

a96 wrote: post #473

Forgeties79 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SteamOS does not currently really work on modern desktops/laptops. You can force it but it’s really not made for it. They’re pretty clear about that, I think they even pulled down the OS download page from their site and now clearly mark it as for restoring old machines. Likely to change soon though with the steam machine release

Bazzite is great, though. And doesn't lock you in to Steam or DRM if you don't use them.

Yeah I’ve been using it as a daily driver, no windows partition or anything, for over a year. It’s been great. Having an AMD CPU/GPU combination definitely helps though

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#597

Post by fc417fc802 » Thu, May 07, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

throw10920 wrote: post #554

fc417fc802 wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you are not forced to use them, which makes them non-rent-seeking by definition. That's not how it works. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive. Plenty of businesses engage in rent seeking without having a captive (by most definitions) audience. All that's required is a very modest barrier (ex network effect, non-zero switching cost, etc) and a sufficiently large audience. Rent seeking isn't even mutually excl…

So first off, you start out by lying about my words, so we immediately know you're not operating in good faith. What I said: > Steam is not rent-seeking - the value that they provide is tremendous, and you are not forced to use them, which makes them non-rent-seeking by definition. That's a compound statement that you cut off to change the substance of. What you quoted: > you are not forced to use them, which makes t…

You are not assuming good faith, nor are you interpreting what I wrote in the most plausible manner.

I did not misrepresent you. You made two claims and I objected to the second. My objection stands regardless of the presence or absence of the claim about Steam providing value.

Notice that I took no position on whether or not Steam is rent seeking, instead merely disputing the reasoning that you expressed.

However even if I had taken a position to the contrary, I don't see how the definition you quoted would be at odds with that. I think it is fairly reasonably to see a dominant player with network effects as possessing sufficient economic power to meet the criteria you laid out. For that matter it's quite presumptuous on your part to assume that everyone else is on board with the particular definition that you selected there.

And it goes without saying that I disagree with your latter assertion of factual incorrectness. No dictionary disputes the ability of a business to multitask.

Actually interestingly enough if we use your definition then you can rent seek while simultaneously adding value to the same product just so long as you're also engaging in unreasonable market manipulation to increase your profit in the process. Amusingly my working definition had been somewhat more restrictive.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#598

Post by cortesoft » Thu, May 07, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #485

cortesoft wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not just gaming communities and it is not just kids. The number of adults who don't understand basic supply and demand is astonishing. Every discussion about Ticketmaster and/or scalpers is full of people who think if it wasn't for scalpers and ticketmaster, we could all go to every concert we want to for a reasonable price. It is the same thing with the tech community and the price of hard drives, RAM, and G…

The only thing that's worse is seeing people like you defend scams, exploitation and worsening of consumer experience with trite high school "economics" explanations - and then insulting abused parties because of it.

There are a lot of scams in the world, but high prices for desirable things with capped supply aren't caused by a scam.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#599

Post by LelouBil » Thu, May 07, 2026, 6:09 PM UTC

fxwin wrote: post #448

numlock86 wrote: post #406

It sold out in less than an hour. Scalpers are at it again. Units are showing up for as much as $300 in resell-value already. What I don't get is why their shop page just gives me an "out of stock" panel, instead of the purchase button. Why won't they just let me buy and pay it, and have it ship whenever? Is having customers to regularly check for new stock (and potentially missing it) better than ... just having the…

> It sold out in less than an hour. Scalpers are at it again. "Underpriced good at it again" would be more accurate.

It's not underpriced at all.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#600

Post by fc417fc802 » Thu, May 07, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

throw10920 wrote: post #549

account42 wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Valve does not. Except they do. They control the Steam distribution network. It may not be physical but you still have to use it to reach a large portion of PC Gamers due to network effects and no one wanting to run multiple clients. Currently you have to also make use of their other services like the Store, and pay for them with a large sales cut, in order to use the distribution network, no matter if you want tho…

> They control the Steam distribution network. Tautologically true and therefore irrelevant. That's exactly the same as saying "Walmart has a monopoly over Walmart's physical stores" - that's not a meaningful statement and it has nothing to do with either monopoly status or consumer harm. > It may not be physical ...and therefore it's categorically different. Don't be dishonest. > you still have to use it to reach a…

Disagreeing with someone either ideologically or about the definition of a word or some other criteria does not mean that the other party is being dishonest. It is not reasonable to bandy about such accusations.