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Steam Controller

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Re: Steam Controller

#101

Post by jamesbritt »

NoodleIncident wrote: post #74
Osiris wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate touchpads. I use an external mouse with my Macbook. I have a Dell D830 with the nub pointer and it was so much easier to use, especially considering that you don't have to remove your hands from the keyboard and your finger doesn't need to cross 3 inches of space to move across the screen.

I've always been confused by this argument. I can reach my trackpad with my right thumb without moving any of my other fingers off of the home row. Is this an unusual amount of flexibility?

Maybe. I have long fingers and decent dexterity but find thumbing a trackpad way less accurate than using a trackpoint. This may be a matter of practice, but there's still more hand movement required even to get my thumb over the trackpad.

Re: Steam Controller

#102

Post by purplelobster »

Ok, that's it, if this controller works then I'm in. I played Portal with my wife, and she loved it, but she's too afraid of the whole mouse+keyboard control system so in the end she let me play while she just watched. I think she can more easily learn a controller like this.

Also, I frickin' hate analog sticks for controlling shooters. After having been a semi-serious CS player, I just can't bring my self to enjoying my severely crippled aiming on consoles, it just takes 50% of the fun out.

Re: Steam Controller

#103

Post by Pxtl »

jpadkins wrote: post #90
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…

They could make the trackpads modal (without changing the hw). So you could hold down left bumper and track left to right (or up/down) to have fine grained control of zoom. Only drawback of this is you couldn't control zoom and view at the same time (which I guess FPS pro's do, but mere mortals like me don't).

Yup. Especially since I just discovered on closer reading that they've got a hidden 3rd shoulder-button-set on the back. They could easily make "R3+Drag" as scroll.

Re: Steam Controller

#104

Post by adambard »

ivarious wrote: post #29
chasing wrote: post #21

Interesting. Game controllers are a fascinating user experience design challenge. While Playstation and Xbox controllers are fairly well-polished functional workhorses, I appreciate companies (like Nintendo and, now, Valve) pushing the envelope. More than even the games (which, I suspect, will also mostly be available on other consoles or PCs), this intrigues me enough to want to get a Steam Machine. (Still, though -…

Just call it a "Machine".

"Steambox" works well enough.

Re: Steam Controller

#105

Post by efraim »

NoodleIncident wrote: post #74
Osiris wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate touchpads. I use an external mouse with my Macbook. I have a Dell D830 with the nub pointer and it was so much easier to use, especially considering that you don't have to remove your hands from the keyboard and your finger doesn't need to cross 3 inches of space to move across the screen.

I've always been confused by this argument. I can reach my trackpad with my right thumb without moving any of my other fingers off of the home row. Is this an unusual amount of flexibility?

I don't think most people use trackpads with their thumbs.

Re: Steam Controller

#106

Post by BrianEatWorld »

cheald wrote: post #14

I'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 would say I am optimistic as well because, having been a dedicated "Big Picture" user for the past few months, it is clear Valve has put a lot of thought into this transition. However, what bothered me about the controller is that it doesn't seem to actually be that different.

I don't see how this markedly improves over current controllers and their integration. The key genres for which the current controllers don't work, such as RTS, don't seem to be that much better off with this solution. Maybe its just a lack of imagination on my part, but I will have to see more to be convinced.

Re: Steam Controller

#107

Post by pyrocat »

chasing wrote: post #21

Interesting. Game controllers are a fascinating user experience design challenge. While Playstation and Xbox controllers are fairly well-polished functional workhorses, I appreciate companies (like Nintendo and, now, Valve) pushing the envelope. More than even the games (which, I suspect, will also mostly be available on other consoles or PCs), this intrigues me enough to want to get a Steam Machine. (Still, though -…

I'm guessing "Steambox" will become the nickname

Re: Steam Controller

#108

Post by Arelius »

possibilistic wrote: post #69
jimwalsh wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 swi…

But that's really a matter of where the trackpoint is, not the input on the device itself. It's a bit different while you're playing games.

Re: Steam Controller

#109

Post by ihsw »

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.

Personally I think Half-Life 3 will be worth the weight.

Re: Steam Controller

#110

Post by gknoy »

Pxtl wrote: post #63
stirbot wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Including two wheels lets you scroll TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. That would be awesome.

Many games use mouse wheel for weapon switch, and something else for choosing secondary-items (e.g. grenades in Far Cry). You could use it to queue up preselected groups of chat commands usable with the touch pad ("enemy in flag room", "enemies inc to mine", etc), use it for a throttle control (!!), or all sorts of things.

Having two scroll wheels instead of one is not as bad as you might think -- and even just using one still lets you remap them as you see fit anyway.

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