This is very encouraging. There appears to be non-trivial innovation here and that has me excited. I too am interested in how the controller will handle fighting games. The haptic feedback seems particularly interesting because It seems possible that just maybe there could be an effect similar to the one described here:
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-05/27/disney-tactil...
that might allow fingers to "feel" as though there were buttons or edges or some similar effect. That might allow for a precise and traditionally intuitive fighting game experience as well as interesting new applications.
Steam Controller
91–100 of 370 posts
Re: Steam Controller
#92I'm skeptical that the trackpads will provide the same precision feel that a good analog stick can do, even with the haptics. But I'm not going to count it out. I'll reserve all judgement until I get to try it. And that's the only real sticking point for me on this announcement; everything else about this controller I love.
Laptops all moved from nipples to trackpads a long time ago, surely if analog sticks could provide higher resolution then that wouldn't have happened, or there would have been a move back?
Most popular does not mean best.
Re: Steam Controller
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've had several ThinkPads, and I've always disabled the trackpad in the BIOS as soon as I got a new one - it's totally unnecessary when you have the TrackPoint. It's so much faster and more precise. Like amalcon said, I have no idea how anyone can use a trackpad. Whenever I watch a friend use one, or use one myself, it's like the mouse is moving in slow motion compared to me using the TrackPoint. It does take some p…
How do you scroll? Do use scroll bars?
I use the arrow keys.
Re: Steam Controller
#94I'm actually pretty optimistic about this. It's a big divergence from current couch input schemes, and the open nature of it might mean that it'll be improved for ergonomics and whatnot. It's got some interesting promise. Best of all, worst case, I can fall back to my trusty 360 controllers and use those without a hitch, so even if this is a disaster, it doesn't sink the platform (as can be the case with other platfo…
I'm trying to be optimistic about it. I like that they are going somewhere new with controllers. Already I can imagine those Y and B buttons not being easy/natural to get to. and of course not having at least one actual joystick is going to throw me off. (I game a lot with my Macbook Pro and I've gotten very very good with the mac trackpad, but I still like my WASD keys for the left hand). But again, all of these are my own issues and I'm very much willing to give this joystick a shot.
Re: Steam Controller
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
Nothing to defend; I think it's hilarious. Although I do think it would make sense to announce HL3 for the Steam Machine on launch day.
Agreed.
Re: Steam Controller
#96mouse > 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.
> Do you really think that the mouse which was invented in the 60s (mother of all demos) is the pinnacle of technology regarding input?
You're kind of pushing what he said. He's referring to gaming, and probably shooter games. A mouse is definitely the most precise input device for shooters, or else you'd see professional eSport FPS players using laptop trackpads.
Re: Steam Controller
#97I think that it is obvious that this dual track pad solution could be a good move for any game style which currently uses dual analog sticks (FPS and 3rd person, etc). As others have already mentioned, it is less obvious whether this will be a good solution for platformers and fighting games. But with a bit of quick pondering I suspect it could open up a huge range of options for any developer who wants to try and st…
The newer EA boxing games, and the THQ UFC games use dual stick controls as the primary moving/fighting controls. Players seem to like it better than button mashing. I thought it was cool when I learned quick flip left was jab, hold the stick left for more powerful punch, and circle the stick left for a cross or uppercut.
Re: Steam Controller
#98I think that it is obvious that this dual track pad solution could be a good move for any game style which currently uses dual analog sticks (FPS and 3rd person, etc). As others have already mentioned, it is less obvious whether this will be a good solution for platformers and fighting games. But with a bit of quick pondering I suspect it could open up a huge range of options for any developer who wants to try and st…
Remember that the track-pads are clickable like a face button, and it sports 2 shoulders and a 3rd pseudo-shoulder in the back-button on each side. That means that for a fighting-game you've got a full suite of buttons available to you. That's 9 buttons available assuming you keep your left thumb glued to the trackpad. Buttons are not in short supply.
The real question is how well the track-pad works as a D-pad. For Mario-style games that primarily use left and right but don't do much up and down? Should work fine.
For a Capcom-style fighting game with its elaborate rolls and whatnot, or the hyper-precise of a shmup? That's the real question.
Re: Steam Controller
#99Call me impressed. I never thought that the biggest innovator and risk taker in the console market would be valve. All the other manufacturers have basically made their platforms "safe" and they're pretty much like the last generation, but this is pretty ballsy from valve.
Speaking on innovation, the Xbox 360 came out with a brand new controller, but the Xbox One has practically the same controller? It's like they didn't take any time to re-evaluate the controller with the new console. For that matter, the PS4 controller is the same except with a small touchpad in the middle.
"the Xbox 360 came out with a brand new controller, but the Xbox One has practically the same controller"
Calling the 360 controller "brand new" is a big stretch. It wasn't that much more different from the old Xbox Controller S than the Xbox One controller is from the 360's. In terms of technology the One controller with trigger-specific haptic is actually a bigger change than the Controller S->360 which was pretty much just button layout changes.
In any case, if something works well, why change it just for change's sake? I love Valve and I'm excited to try this controller, but put me on the list of people that are very skeptical this will actually be an improvement for the types of games that play well with two analog sticks.
Re: Steam Controller
#100mouse > 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.
For gaming (this is gaming related news after all) my benchmark will always be who would win in quake or counter strike with everything else (player skill, weapons, etc) being equal.
The mouse currently dominates all forms of commercial gaming input.