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Steam Controller

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Re: Steam Controller

#291

Post by Pxtl »

laeus wrote: post #255
paulgerhardt wrote: post #170

I got to hold one of these a few months ago. It's solid. The ergonomics are there. The same designer[1] was previously at {one of the other three very large gaming console manufacturers} and knows a thing or two about controllers. My understanding is it will be significantly more accurate than traditional joysticks and competitive with a mouse (with a mouse you have a single 'large' plane of motion, with this, you ha…

I got a chance to try this out with a first-person shooter. I was not very happy with it. It felt worse than mouse+keyboard and simultaneously worse than dual-analog gamepads. Everybody in the room had issues calibrating and re-centering themselves. I'm sure it gets better with more use, but that's just the problem: it fails a fundamental usability test, because the initial experience of using it is pretty awful and…

To be fair, dual-stick FPS gaming and mouse+keyboard gaming has a vicious learning-curve the first time out as well. The question is whether it's worth struggling through that.

Re: Steam Controller

#292

Post by Pxtl »

danso wrote: post #40

Wow, the announcements are coming at a fast clip and each more impressive than the last. I wonder if the final announcement in this round will be that Half Life 3 is a launch title?

No, this was the final announcement. Valve clusters their announcements, always.

Re: Steam Controller

#293

Post by aidenn0 »

noonespecial wrote: post #276
anonymous wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how my right thumb could be as precise as moving the mouse, which I do with all 5 of my fingers (for tiny movements) or from my shoulder (for larger movements). If thumb touchpads were good for FPS games, how come nobody is playing them with their thumb on their laptop's touchpad? Maybe I'm just old, but I don't see myself ever being able to use this.

Controllers like this are notoriously hard to get right. The tiniest details matter immensely and mean the difference between joyous and unusable. There's just no way to judge a controller without physically holding it and walking an FPS mile with it as your shoes. I spent the early 90's going from one giant, gaudy "flight stick" to the next, never knowing that what I really wanted was a pair of miniature thumb-stick…

This[1] CH joystick was my bread-and-butter for gaming. I used one one-handed with a joystick in the other for FPS; I used one with the spring switch off on a Y-adapter as a throttle. it's only downside was not enough buttons for fighting games. Also they wear out after about 2-4 years of hard use (or a decade of light use).

I'm down to my last one that works perfectly, and considering building a USB one since all of the joystick parts are still manufactured and available from CH.

http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000IBRN7O.01-ABT3ZC4T...

Re: Steam Controller

#294

Post by aidenn0 »

hayksaakian wrote: post #239
anonymous wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how my right thumb could be as precise as moving the mouse, which I do with all 5 of my fingers (for tiny movements) or from my shoulder (for larger movements). If thumb touchpads were good for FPS games, how come nobody is playing them with their thumb on their laptop's touchpad? Maybe I'm just old, but I don't see myself ever being able to use this.

Long time users of trackball mice will disagree with you http://mobile.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/trackballs

I use a logitech trackman and still have an optical mouse just for FPS games

Re: Steam Controller

#295

Post by BrianEatWorld »

baq wrote: post #207
dfrey wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civilization is a turn based strategy game. The "RT" (real-time) part is what really makes gamepads unsuitable for RTS. I play Starcraft 2 and I can't imagine how you could possibly select individual units and pull them back when they are taking damage. Show me someone doing blink stalker micro with a gamepad and I will eat my words.

i'd bet some dollars on dota 2 and tf2 working at near-mouse+keyboard efficiency - those are their main money printing machines right now (...besides the cut sales) and they can't afford to segment their player base by controller, so they must have something in store.

DotA was the main title I was thinking about. If they can make DotA playable with this then I think they are on to something special. DotA is intimidating enough using K+M, if they break down the hotkey barrier with an intuitive controller, they stand to gain a lot.

Re: Steam Controller

#296

Post by M2Ys4U »

romaniv wrote: post #243
nilkn wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Valve is effectively turning its back on the games (and gamers) that allowed it succeed despite competition from consoles. I don't see how they are turning their backs on anyone just because they're venturing into a new market segment. The current system, where people have both gaming PCs and separate gaming consoles, doesn't make a modicum of sense practically. It's just a vestige of old monopolies and corporate c…

I don't see how they are turning their backs on anyone just because they're venturing into a new market segment. Same way Microsoft turned its back on PC game(r)s with it's "Games for Windows" brand, which really is "Games for XBox shabbily ported to Windows". I thought one of the points of the Steam machines is that they're not locked down at all. Will it run games not distributed through Steam?

>Will it run games not distributed through Steam?

I don't see why not - Valve has stated that the source code for Steam OS will be available. I presume that it's only Steam (and perhaps some drivers) that will remain proprietary.

Re: Steam Controller

#297

Post by phaus »

gcb0 wrote: post #271
jjkmk wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using Counter Strike as the flag ship FPS for Valve there currently aren't any professional players using a trackball: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AkghPvIh7ZVwdGZ...

As a trackball heavy user (i use both thumb and index ones, with both hands) I avoid playing FPS without a mouse! the thumbs trackball is more precise. But still not good. A good and cheap microsoft mouse is always with me when i'm playing FPSs. Also, even if the control wasn't an issue, no trackball has more than 300DPI. EVER. The minimum for mouses is 400. I don't know why that is. But even the overly expensive Ken…

I wholeheartedly agree that trackballs suck for FPS games, but most pro FPS players advocate keeping the mouse at a fairly low DPI, so that deficiency isn't really the problem.

I have trouble believing that any device that relies on thumb-only input is going to be anywhere near as good as a mouse, but I hope I'm proven wrong.

Re: Steam Controller

#298

Post by ioquatix »

criley2 wrote: post #266
anonymous wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how my right thumb could be as precise as moving the mouse, which I do with all 5 of my fingers (for tiny movements) or from my shoulder (for larger movements). If thumb touchpads were good for FPS games, how come nobody is playing them with their thumb on their laptop's touchpad? Maybe I'm just old, but I don't see myself ever being able to use this.

Why not FPS with a laptop? Laptop trackpads are low precision and high latency. They're also ergonomically inferior and the placement is difficult when considering the all-important WASD just above it. When you read into the details of these two pads they're developing, it sounds extremely exciting. Some of the highest resolution and performant sensors ever put into a controller. When combined with the supposed "conf…

Apple's trackpads aren't low precision and high latency.

Re: Steam Controller

#299

Post by selimthegrim »

kefka wrote: post #246
spongle wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty good solution actually as well. Older ThinkPad keyboards have back and forward keys next to the arrows as well.

I have a T61 thinkpad, and love it. I use Linux on it solely. I have compiz bound to those forward and back arrows as cube_rotate_left and right. And I also run 8 desktops. Makes my world so much simpler in terms of organization of programs and flow.

Fellow T61er on Linux chiming in. A thousand MBAs couldn't tear me away.

Re: Steam Controller

#300

Post by kcbanner »

ioquatix wrote: post #298
criley2 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not FPS with a laptop? Laptop trackpads are low precision and high latency. They're also ergonomically inferior and the placement is difficult when considering the all-important WASD just above it. When you read into the details of these two pads they're developing, it sounds extremely exciting. Some of the highest resolution and performant sensors ever put into a controller. When combined with the supposed "conf…

Apple's trackpads aren't low precision and high latency.

Heh, have you tried playing an FPS on a mac, with its awful mouse acceleration?
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