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Valve Announces Steam Controller
Today Valve unveiled their third and final announcement about living room gaming: a Steam controller. The company made the determination that existing gamepads simply weren't good enough for bringing PC games to the living room, so they made their own. Instead of having directional pads or thumb sticks, the Steam controller has two circular trackpads. The trackpads are also clickable, and Valve claims they provide much higher fidelity than any previous controller trackpad. Valve also eschewed the traditional 'rumble' feedback mechanism: "The Steam Controller is built around a new generation of super-precise haptic feedback, employing dual linear resonant actuators. These small, strong, weighted electro-magnets are attached to each of the dual trackpads. They are capable of delivering a wide range of force and vibration, allowing precise control over frequency, amplitude, and direction of movement." The center of the controller holds a clickable touchscreen. "When programmed by game developers using our API, the touch screen can work as a scrolling menu, a radial dial, provide secondary info like a map or use other custom input modes we haven't thought of yet." The design also breaks up the common diamond-shaped button layout, instead putting the A B X Y buttons at the corners of the touchscreen. The controller is designed to be hackable, and Valve will "make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering." The controller is being beta tested concurrently with the Steam Machines they announced on Wednesday, so you can expect them to be on sale in 2014.
Yup... and every time you go to use it, it pauses for a couple minutes while it downloads a new patch, before allowing you to play! "While you wait for your controller to be updated, please look at this webpage with a bunch of vaguely-related advertisements and a PR release by the developer." (-_-) What ever happened to just turning on the console and, you know, playing the game that worked just fine last night when you went to bed? I know, I know... it's a feature...
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I don't mind the trackpads, they could be alright. Maybe. But the fact that they expect you to alternately press buttons with either hand makes me feel like it could be hard to simultaneously move and act in a game.(This must be how lefties feel all the time)
better be able to plug a keyboard and a mouse into that thing
But it sounds almost like a scaled down version of the Wii-U controller, with less buttons. It sounds as though they are doing something like wrapping a reasonable grip around a cell phone, and doing some sort of on-screen controller like you'd see for the SNES or Genesis emulators. In other words, it sounds like they forget one key point of having buttons:
You don't have to look at the controller to make sure you are pressing the correct buttons, your thumb can easily detect the diamond shape and, with a little memorization, know which one is triangle/X/Y, versus cross/A/B.
The real issue with mouse vs. thumbstick/trackpad accuracy has little to do with the resolution. It has to do with muscles - you can control your entire hand a heck of a lot better than you can control your thumb.
But then again, some folks can use trackballs just as good as a mouse, so who knows? But, color me skeptical that they can approach the precision of a mouse setup with their track pads.
I'm not really sure how, but it's been confirmed with this announcement. You have to read it carefully. Specifically, picking certain letters out.
(starts crying)
What wrong with a wireless keyboard and mouse? PC crowd does not want a console controller, why try to force it?
Ugh, cant they use a PS2/PS3 like controller?
Its the best design i've come across. Great button configuration.
You mean a steam valve?
... the controller design is awful. Why the fuck would you re-arrange the traditional diamond? If anything it looks to me valve expects games to get even more dumbed down to two button Wii remote kind of gaming.
I still think the snes classic/Wii classic/playstation controllers are the best in the industry. I love my dual shock and Wii classic controllers.
http://www.amazon.com/Wii-Classic-Controller-nintendo/dp/B000IN0BSU/
Do they even know what they are building? There seem to be some claims that the center is a touch screen, but they give no specs or even say if the screen is color or just B&W. However, the exploded view and the only real photo of the device shows the center part as just 4 large buttons, no screen at all. I don't think they know exactly what direction they plan to go with this, and IF anything ever is released it likely will not be this.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I don't see myself ever really wanting to use this controller.
If I need precise movement (like they say the trackpad will offer), I'd much rather use a mouse.
If I don't need a mouse, and the game has relatively simple controls, then I'd prefer to have a controller which feels nice in the hands and has a bunch of buttons, like the Xbox 360 controller.
So under what situation would I want to play a game with 2 trackpads, a touch screen and only 8 buttons (with some slightly awkward looking positioning)? I honestly can't think of any.
I am tired of seeing this obvious truth treated as trolling. It's not trolling. Mod up, please.
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
What exactly are they smoking? Do they think that people are going to LIKE trackpads instead of something more ...useful? Like a button or a stick.
I just hope it doesn't flop.
Perception is the thin dividing line between reality and fiction.
Starcraft 2 would be pretty unplayable without a keyboard and mouse.
Maybe that's why it isn't on Steam.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
My computer has a perfectly good couple of monitors, why would I want to not use those to game on?
Why would I want to take over the TV so that nobody else in the house can use it to watch TV?
Even though you hid behind posting as an AC and started at zero you will likely be modded down. Too many fanboys here who pay Steam don't like their stupidity pointed out. And no, I'll never buy a Steam DRMed piece of software either. Have used it for some free demos, and had to install it to update a previously purchased DRM free copy of the original Halflife (upgrade now required for on-line play). But I completely agree that Supporting Steam is supporting DRM, and a very unwise thing for a supposedly intelligent on-line community to do.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
No, I refuse to mod up. It's not trolling, but it lacks a meaningful insight. Steam approaches the DRM question from a different direction by detaching game ownership from physical devices entirely.
When you buy a disk, and have an install limit, or an offline game, with an always online requirement, it turns the thing you think you have into something less valuable, and uses a legal fiction to justify it. Steam gives you a person license that you can use as part of an account independent of the machine on which its installed, with some flexibility regarding internet access and physical media. It's a license that actually acts like a license, you can use it freely, yourself. It treats the underlying legal fiction as actually representative of usage, rather than an excuse to limit you.
It's all about mods and accessories. Imagine the think with multi touch, 4 point on each touchpad. Then you could stick a direction cross over it, or regular buttons, or a plain stick, or whatever you want.
Every single gamepad these years is just plain and unimaginative or has barely usable gimmicks. Even the wiimotes are quite disappointing (laggish, unprecise). Analog buttons (not triggers these are fine) were the worst idea ever. Sixaxis motion detection is totally useless (no I wont tilt it left to turn left, I'd rather keep my wrist in good state). Wii U screen is basically a DS/3D with only one screen?
This, gentlemen, is innovation.
Stupidity is the root of all evil.
No, sc2 is not on steam because blizzard doesn't need steam as a storefront.
How do I play Street Fighter or any traditional joypad game on that thing? I don't want to dismiss it out of hand, but I have serious doubts.
It might actually be a better joypad for console fps gaming, but unless I see good TF2 YTbers like shibby2142 praising the pad and pulling off rocket jumps while shovelling people with ease... I'll stick to kb+m.
Touch screen/pad, maybe I can see being kinda cool for use on menu screens, but when you're in action, you need the precision of physical sticks and buttons. When things get intense, I always find myself pressing buttons harder and trying to tilt sticks further than they can move, and that style of play hasn't ever worked well with any kind of touch input.
Touch pads for joysticks just feels too much like the on screen joysticks people pretend are legitimate in mobile games. The issue on touch devices is as I said before, there's always the 'shit shit shit go further/faster/turn sharper' moment when you want to push the virtual joystick further but there is no boundary so your thumb/finger slides all the way off of it and you stop moving altogether. These touch pads do have physical boundaries it seems, but I wonder if they are so precise, what happens when you want to simulate tilting a stick all the way in a certain direction, but where you initially contact the touch pad isn't exactly center, leaving you with that offset as lost range.
I'm also skeptical of the buttons being split on either side of that screen or whatever it is. If you are moving or looking or whatever with your left thumb, the two buttons right next to that touch pad are essentially useless. I don't know it is only 2 buttons, it says there are 16 on the thing so maybe that isn't so big a deal.
I'm with you though on the XBox 360 controller. 2 full joysticks, analog shoulder triggers, even a D-Pad for when you don't want to trust the joystick for explicit up, down, left, or right inputs. It has all the bases covered for a wide variety of games without being overcomplicated.
Check out the cave on the east side of lake Hylia. Strange and wonderful things live in it.
Stop being factual. I was trying to make a point.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
This is a terrible mistake. As has been demonstrated with smartphones, touch devices are unusable.
People want sticks and directional pads.
The placement of most of the buttons is also terribly awkward.
Most of the games I've played by controller expect that you'll be using an XBox360 controller, so the game is set up expecting you to have the same types of controls and buttons in the same locations for two-handed operations. Drastically changing what and where everything is will only result in a controller that is unusable for most of the games it was created for.
I thought that too, but take another look at the pads - they have two features your phone screen doesn't.
First, they're concave, so you can 'feel out' the centre with the edge of your finger/thumb. On top of that, there's a pair of ridges running around the pad - the radius of the inner circle seems to match with the margin on the outer circle, which suggests these are there to mark out joystick style 'dead zones' (ie, anything inside the middle circle is 'center', anything outside the outer is 'max').
Tactile feedback is the difference between typing on a touch screen and a keyboard; the former you have to look at the screen, the latter lets you type 'blind'. They seem to have understood this building the controller.
Looks like the perfect controller for a backpack scouting drone.
Brings back distant memories of the Intellivision controller. I hope its an improvement over that godawful thing.
If you want to use a mouse (even in the living room) use a mouse, want to use a 360 controller, use a 360 controller.
This controller aim to be good enough to replace mouse and keyboard for most games, and be useable on a couch, because most people don't like using a mouse and/or keyboard on a couch..
Sony already makes a PS3 controller. No point in them joining the market if they are going to do things exactly like Sony and Microsoft.
There are enough other games on Steam which do need a keyboard and mouse though, everything from other RTS games such as the C&C and RA series, to the more complex FPS games. Valve may be wanting developers to do things for their Big Screen/Controller setups but there are still plenty of games there where controllers are unusable.
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You don't want to play Street Fighter on a Xbox controller either. Those quarter circle moves are not really designed for a d pad or analog sticks.
Look at the pictures in TFA; these aren't phone touchpads. You shouldn't be losing your center with these.
I currently have a Linux PC and a XBox 360 connected to my TV. Is Steam more of a console replacement, or a distribution method for PC-style games? (I.e. keyboard/mouse input and few co-op games). Does installing games on Linux under Steam actually work, or is it a nightmare of package dependencies that require an up-to-date install of a specific distro? Is there a good selection of split-screen games that are gamepad-friendly? I am getting a little tired of the XBox 360 low resolution, and it is feeling more and more limited without paying a subscription fee, which I won't do.
I wonder what Jeri Ellsworth thinks of this controller?
Not sure how the heck my brain confused "Steam" with "Brain", obviously my own brain needs more sleep.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
HL3?
There is a guy that plays StarCraft 2 with an xbox 360 controller and he occasionally streams it on twitch tv. I think he is diamond league so he makes it work pretty well. Obviously it still isn't as good as keyboard and mouse.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
We don't like the DRM, we just realize that DRM is not a black and white issue that trumps all else in the equation. We also realize that without any DRM whatsoever, PC gaming would be limited to what you see on GOG. GOG is good an all, old games are fun, indie games are good and sometimes better than anything else, and the small handful of big titles that are released DRM free are really to be applauded... but often I want big new games that some company has invested a lot of money in. A lot of them aren't entirely comfortable with it being completely DRM free. If you can't understand their perspective, you've clearly never made a game (neither have I) and you're closed minded.
The big problem with Steam is the restriction on simultaneously using two games in one library. My wife likes to play too, and those games, under California law, are as much hers as they are mine, no matter what the Terms-of-Use say.
So I need to make a new account for every game I buy, and it's a major pain in the ass to manage.
Those buttons around the in the middle touch screen, while having the traditional letters of a game pad are likely intended to be used as a set of select/start style ancillary buttons. Take a look at the button layout for Portal 2 and look what they're using those buttons for.
http://cdn3.store.steampowered.com/public/images/promo/livingroom/rljKewyz3M/controller_bindings.jpg?v=2
It's all communication/gesture actions. It's something you would press when standing still. Those are not intended to be action buttons!
If you really want to create a traditional button setup you could easily use the right track pad to simulate a set of face buttons. If your finger is in a given quadrant when you press it it would source your finger position and then act as an XYAB button input. Simple
and has moved on to AAAAAARRRGHHS! That's the only way I can explain this week's perpetual 3-trollage.
So under what situation would I want to play a game with 2 trackpads, a touch screen and only 8 buttons (with some slightly awkward looking positioning)? I honestly can't think of any.
16 buttons, actually. Though I'm guessing they're counting the clickable trackpads and touch screen as buttons as well. Still, that's 13 actual buttons, not 8.
"I’m a happy Steam customer happily using my happy mouse and keyboard. I don’t want a controller?" "You can’t make a sentence into a question by just putting a question-mark at the end. But we’re happy you’re happy [...]" Oh Valve. I love companies who can still afford to have a sense of humour about things.
Yeah, and Valve could be better regarding that specific scenario. It actually is a weakness they face specifically compared to their competition with consoles. The entire game list acts like what is licensed, not the individual game. In Europe, they're putting (or have put?) a game lending/reselling function that sort of works.
What wrong with a wireless keyboard and mouse?
KB+M is fine for single player. The problem comes when you have players 2, 3, and 4 visiting your home, and the APIs for accessing more than one mouse or more than one keyboard are far more obscure than the APIs for accessing more than one gamepad.
Why would I want to take over the TV so that nobody else in the house can use it to watch TV?
Because that way they can play a video game with you without necessarily having to buy their own gaming PCs and their own copies of the game.
And GOG does all that without DRM.
6 buttons on the right. 2 rows / 3 columns. Labeled as follows:
Jab Strong Fierce
Short Medium Roundhouse
FFS Steam.
I don't know about the xbox controller, as I use a PS3 pad which works nicely. Not as good as a proper arcade joystick, but passable. Heck, SF2 was really playable on the SNES pad once you broke it in.
I lost against the medium AI last night. So incompetence trumps controller.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Even better, it turns the inherent weakness of the license model (that it isn't tied to a physical object such as a disk or floppy) and turns it into a strength by giving you great convenience and protection from wear and tear.
You could always plug in a Nintendo 64 controller through an adapter. It has exactly the layout you ask for.
So how would a cross-platform side-scrolling platformer, something like Mario or Mega Man or Castlevania, be adapted to a controller like this? The player needs move left, move right, crouch, climb, jump, and fire commands. Those are already incredibly clunky on the multitouch screen of a phone or tablet.
A 'valve' is a 'steam controller'.
It still limits use for legitimate users and creates an unnecessary headache for them. Accepting STEAM is like saying "oh well it's excrement in my soup, but at least it's only bird excrement, not dog excrement". You're still going to get sick you fuckwit!
precision of physical sticks
this is an oxymoron
When things get intense, I always find myself pressing buttons harder and trying to tilt sticks further than they can move
you might have a neurological disease, what you describe is some sort of alpha motor neuron disorder. Btw monkeys also have trouble with fine motor control.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
I guess this is your lucky day! Though, I guess it won't work with the new account per game situation you created...
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
I'd be interested in using this as an input device on a desktop computer. If you configure the circular pads to act like the rubber nipples, with something like a logarithmic transform to increase precision for centre movement and increase travel speed for the edges, then I can picture this being more useful than a mouse. Couple that with multi-pointer manipulation, and you get your usual pinch / zoom / rotate movements that are becoming more common as a "everyone knows how to do it" input method.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Which would be fine, if only the sold the games for less than the amount of a comparable game that used physical media. Instead the brand new Steam games are every much as expensive as the competition.
It would also be nice of the Steam DRM was an option. Ie, use Steam when you download the game digitally, but don't use Steam if you purchased a game disk instead or want an alternative copy protection scheme.
But I just want buttons. I want to be able to rest my thumb on something and then press down when I need to. I hope I'm wrong, but this thing just looks uncomfortable.
All this advanced stuff and it lacks gyroscopes so there is no motion control option? I would think that is a major oversight...
It's just a newer more advanced Turbo Touch 360.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Touch_360
Probably sucks like one too.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
A lot of people will care. The problem is that if Valve ever does release Half Life 3, it cannot possibly live up to everyone's inflated expectations of what every AAA console game now has to be.
I speak from experience here.. I am a AAA developer who was playing Half Life 2 on the xbox 360 earlier this week. Its a great game, but it is a product of its time and the things that made Half Life and Half Life 2 revolutionary in their day are now bog-standard AAA expectations. Half Life 3 would have to bring something totally new to the table to live up to the stellar reputation that Valve has carefully built up over many years. If they ever do decide to do a Half Life 3, we know they won't want to do it half-assed, and that's why I expect them to not do it at all. In effect, I think Valve has already moved on to greener pastures.
I propose that Valve call this thing the Steam 'roller
Ask me about repetitive DNA
I'd argue that while some aspects of 1 and 2 may be pretty common, like graphics and play style, they're still good all around games independent of their time. HL3 doesn't need to be revolutionary for it to be a great game.
I think the hype is over "will it come out ever?!?" and "What's going to happen next for gordon freeman?!?" not "What new technical or storytelling innovation will valve come up with?"
She should still have her own account. I believe you are restricted to the same degree she is with the single licence. If you want to share access to the account, have her sit on your lap working the keyboard while you handle the "mouse."
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
Back in the day I used to prefer KB/M/joystick, all three. Buddy of mine used KB/M/Trackball/and a Spaceball all at the same time. It's a PC so you don't really have to choose. Maybe. We'll see.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
It's probably more relative joystick vs a mouse's absolute position. I don't have a problem playing a game designed with the autoaim inherent to a joystick's lackadaisical movement. But it can be annoying for the game to get around to the target I want to hit.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
I think this is very innovative and I hope it will work.
I love the fact that it's completely symmetric but most of all, it's open!
How many gaming and especially non-gaming possibilities does this open?
This is the perfect device to control a drone.
not any more...
steam now allows a game you own to the played by friends... you share a games the the other account can play it. If you try to start the games and other is playing, the remote "copy" is disabled and the owner can play it again. So setup a account for you and another for your wife and share games. If you both wan't to play the same game, you fall in to the "2 players, 2 licenses, please".
legally, your steam account ownership is not different from a car... both own it, only one can drive.
Higuita
If you can't understand their perspective, you've clearly never made a game (neither have I) and you're closed minded.
Wait, what? *I* am closed-minded? Because I refuse to understand the perspective that insults paying customers and rewards freeloaders? Since you started the ad hominems, what are you, fanboy or sockpuppet?
This sounds awful. Adapting to the living room means moving into a place with wood-panel walls, a fireplace, things that have to be taken out and put away like tabletop games. This glitchy glowing tablet-inspired ADHD cave man gameclub is not what I want. I think I'd rather have a bluetooth keyboard in my living room than this thing. It is unfortunate they're in an aggregator's position, because they will make games work best with their tablet-game-club so even people will hate it will have to give up and buy one.
You think you're so modern with your steam controller. Why, we had steam powered game controllers when I was a boy, right after the whaleoil powered ones became unpopular, just before kerosene powered ones came in.
It's 2013. People still live with other people. Therefore, it is likely that a given household will have more than one gamer. Couch multiplayer allows people who live in the same household to play a game together. I've also found it useful for when people happen to be visiting for some reason other than video games and happen to get the itch to play a game together. One example is when parents get together for a family reunion and drag the kids along.
If you had read the first announcement, you'd have seen that one of the things coming to Steam soon is family sharing. The basic idea is that you share your library with up to 10 accounts, and they can play any game you own, as long as you're not currently playing it. It sounds like a pretty neat solution to your situation...although now you might have the problem of having your games spread out over too many accounts to add them all to the same "family".
Sounds like you need Family Sharing.
Nuh huh shut up you're an oxymoron.
Check out the cave on the east side of lake Hylia. Strange and wonderful things live in it.
If SC2 and WoW (I'm not currently subscribed, but I don't kid myself by saying "I'll never be back") could run on this, then I could probably get rid of my Windows box.
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