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Steam Controller

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Re: Steam Controller

#61

Post by timdiggerm »

Pxtl wrote: post #54

... HN ate my post, I think. I am super-excited for this. Finally a way to bring FPS (without aim-assist) and RTS games into the living room. I don't even care about the OS and the box itself, I crave this device. Even if it doesn't measure up to a mouse, it will still be a massive improvement over the traditional thumbstick for pointing-device-oriented games. My only disappointment is that I wish they'd added a scro…

If you'll note, they've mapped L/R shoulder to the scrollwheel in their example Portal 2 mapping

Re: Steam Controller

#62

Post by rfnslyr »

acgourley wrote: post #15

This is huge. Consider that first person shooters are the largest genre in the livingroom gaming space, and then consider this controller may change how these games are made and played. Other consoles are locked into a thumbstick system for the next 10 years. How big this is will come down to how the controller works and feels, obviously, but it could be just massive.

I don't see that happening, unless Sony and Microsoft follow suit with similar controllers, or this one is somehow made compatible with those systems. When it comes to market share, those systems are still top. AAA developers especially will be making games geared towards them - they won't shift the way they make a game for one new entry. They will still make it standard: console-style for the thumbstick, and PC port for keyboard+mouse.

Re: Steam Controller

#63

Post by Pxtl »

stirbot wrote: post #58
Pxtl wrote: post #54

... HN ate my post, I think. I am super-excited for this. Finally a way to bring FPS (without aim-assist) and RTS games into the living room. I don't even care about the OS and the box itself, I crave this device. Even if it doesn't measure up to a mouse, it will still be a massive improvement over the traditional thumbstick for pointing-device-oriented games. My only disappointment is that I wish they'd added a scro…

That's some right-handed elitism right there.

... touchee.

I hadn't thought of that at all. Including two scrollwheels would be doubly expensive and thus kinda wasteful, and including only one means giving a south-pawed middle finger to the sinister folk.

Re: Steam Controller

#64

Post by ivarious »

icebraining wrote: post #44
ivarious wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reason that using mouse is more precise is not because of its shape, but because we use at least all of our palm to use it while with controllers you only have one thumb to connect the stick with your body.

I disagree. I think the reason is more fundamental: with a mouse, you're doing a direct translation (distance in pad → distance on screen), while with a gamepad you're doing an indirect translation (distance in stick → velocity in screen). This is harder, because you're essentially forced to calculate (in a low conscious way, of course) distance/speed to know for how much time you should turn the stick.

You're correct. I guess this is why I speculate that the new trackpads uncomfortable with action/platforming games, since in those games, you move your character and dictate their speed (velocity plus direction), not pointing their position.

We'll see of course, and since the controller will be "hackable" I think there will be many way to use the controller for many types of games.

Edit for spelling

Re: Steam Controller

#65

Post by timdiggerm »

kevinh wrote: post #22

It looks like yet another controller with some special, device-specific features (advanced haptic feedback) that will only be supported by their first-party games and a few novelty ones. I wouldn't buy one before trying it.

> Even the older titles in the catalog and the ones which were not built with controller support. (We’ve fooled those older games into thinking they’re being played with a keyboard and mouse, but we’ve designed a gamepad that’s nothing like either one of those devices.

Re: Steam Controller

#66

Post by fartface »

i'm rooting for this thing so hard. i have hundreds of games sans controller support that i never play because i run big picture mode in the living room with an xbox controller for the few games that do have controller support.

Re: Steam Controller

#67

Post by Pxtl »

timdiggerm wrote: post #61
Pxtl wrote: post #54

... HN ate my post, I think. I am super-excited for this. Finally a way to bring FPS (without aim-assist) and RTS games into the living room. I don't even care about the OS and the box itself, I crave this device. Even if it doesn't measure up to a mouse, it will still be a massive improvement over the traditional thumbstick for pointing-device-oriented games. My only disappointment is that I wish they'd added a scro…

If you'll note, they've mapped L/R shoulder to the scrollwheel in their example Portal 2 mapping

Which is kind of disappointing. I mean, you can obviously bind some keyboard keys to work as a scrollwheel if you have only a 2-button mouse, but it's not the same is it?

Re: Steam Controller

#68

Post by nekopa »

wnevets wrote: post #30

mouse > track pad > analog stick

? > mouse.

Do you really think that the mouse which was invented in the 60s (mother of all demos) is the pinnacle of technology regarding input? It is for now (I do agree with your premise for my own personal reasons) but such a bold expression seems a little, how should I put this, small minded.

I feel this is an interesting direction to experiment on.

Re: Steam Controller

#69

Post by possibilistic »

jimwalsh wrote: post #59
spongle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have agreed with you once, but I broke the trackpad on a ThinkPad a couple of years ago and out of apathy i switched to the nipple mouse and I haven't looked back. It takes more practice but it has excellent precision and infinite movement. The trackpad remains broken and unplugged.

Use an Apple trackpad and you'll never want to use the ThinkPad/Lenovo eraser nubs ever again.

I have, and I strongly prefer the TrackPoint--by a whole order of magnitude. I never have to keep my fingers off home row.

I do use a tiling window manager and bindings like Vrome/Vimperator, so my use case is probably atypical. My mouse usage is limited to when I deem it absolutely necessary; I hate physical/mental context switching, and bringing my hand from keyboard to TrackPad/mouse/whatever is a huge context switch.

Re: Steam Controller

#70

Post by Demeno »

redthrowaway wrote: post #13

The bigger story for me is that Valve has managed to once again troll its fans with a "3" announcement. This is starting to have flavours of Stockholm Syndrome.

In their defense, while having 3 things to announce, they did "number" them "O", "[O ]" and "O+O", none of which look like a 3...
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