• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Steam Universe (beta) videos, impressions

D

Dr Dogg

Member
Blimey loads of new information in this thread (sorry for neglecting it). Should be some interesting reading.

Good to see some positive reaction from devs to the controller. I hope Valve stick to their guns with this.
 
A

alexandros

Banned
It looks great! Very playable and with no serious control issues as far as I can see. The Steam Controller really works like a charm for slow-paced strategy games.
 
A

ashecitism

Member
so, from what I gathered, in the original model if you put your fingers on the touchscreen, a virtual finger with virtual buttons around it would appear on your display. This way you could scroll though multiple buttons, commands bypassing the input limitation of the controller. Like with Arkham City in legacy mode TBG had problems with the bindings (couldn't assign TAB). This way Valve basically condensed the keyboard, control schemes, so that wouldn't be a huge problem anymore.
 
S

Shalarn

Neo Member
ashecitism said:
so, from what I gathered, in the original model if you put your fingers on the touchscreen, a virtual finger with virtual buttons around it would appear on your display. This way you could scroll though multiple buttons, commands bypassing the input limitation of the controller. Like with Arkham City in legacy mode TBG had problems with the bindings (couldn't assign TAB). This way Valve basically condensed the keyboard, control schemes, so that wouldn't be a huge problem anymore.
Click to expand...

That's my understanding. From that original design, they then moved from a touch screen to a third touchpad, because they realized they didn't need to use the display on the controller to show any data. From there, they implemented a system where the two touch pads could implement a similar system without needing the third touchpad. I'm not completely clear on the implementation details, as I was a bit out of it during this part of the talk, since I had just come off of the stage.

Edit: Oh. I'm Chris from Trial by Game. Finally got my account approved. I requested a name change. Awesome to finally be on gaf after reading for so long.
 
D

dsk1210

Member
Welcome TBG, you have been one of the most informative beta testers regarding the controller, looking forward to eventually being able to get my hands on one, got a lot of old games ready to go.
 
S

Shalarn

Neo Member
Thanks guys. I'm pretty excited to actually be able to communicate on here a little more effectively and make sure I'm answering your questions whenever possible. This thread has been extremely helpful in directing my focus a bit.

I'd like to take a second and let you guys know my plan going forward.

I really regretted starting that Metro playthrough... twice... The first time, I stopped because the quality of the recording was poor. The second time, I realized I hated the idea of having to play through a FPS over a long period of time. So I'm going to be trying to do a new set of different games to demo over the next few weeks and months. I also want to do something fun for me. My tentative plan is to do:

Tuesday/Thursday releases of new 'Lets Try' style videos where I show off 10-30 minutes of a game with the steam controller. These will start in a week. I expect to do an overview of Loadout and Torchlight II.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday releases of a Dragon Age: Origins blind playthrough on the steam controller. I played it based on a suggestion during the giveaway stream and was hooked, so I figured 'why not.' I've got about two weeks in the can. The first few episodes are between 15-25 minutes in length, and I think I'm going to try to stick to 25-30 going forward so that I can finish it sooner than later. I know you guys might not be into this series, since it will be more about the game and less about the controller, but I'm sure you'll appreciate the first couple episodes.

I have enough time to do one more video a week. I'd like to find something that's about 10-15 minutes long and I can just chat over. Going over my experiences with the controller, things I'm noticing with specific games I've been playing, and maybe a bit of commentary on the week's gaming news. I was thinking of doing it with the Spelunky daily, but I'm just not consistent enough, and I'm worried it will take too much concentration. Any thoughts on a good game to chat while playing?
 
A

ashecitism

Member
Hmm, something that's good for short burts, but doesn't require that much attention. Isn't Hearthstone like that? Or maybe some openworld game where you can mess around?

Btw you came up with a capable binding for Spelunky yet? You mentioned you had problems with it. Tried Tommy R's config?

So the left circle pad was once again used for the directional buttons, and the right circle pad was used as A, B, X, Y buttons in the orientation that you find on an Xbox Controller
Click to expand...
 
S

Shalarn

Neo Member
ashecitism said:
Hmm, something that's good for short burts, but doesn't require that much attention. Isn't Hearthstone like that? Or maybe some openworld game where you can mess around?

Btw you came up with a capable binding for Spelunky yet? You mentioned you had problems with it. Tried Tommy R's config?
Click to expand...

I've given up. Spelunky will be great with the new version of the controller. I find using the right trackpad as a set of four buttons to just be too frustrating, especially in a game like Spelunky. I inevitably try to rest my thumb somewhere and accidentally hit a button. Or I press the bottom and right buttons at the same time. I tried a few more times and it's just not fun to play.

As for games, Hearthstone might work. I have been playing a lot of that game. Open world could be fun. Once I put some time into GTA and am able to think about those controls, maybe I'll decide to screw around in Saints Row IV. That looks like a ton of fun.
 
A

ashecitism

Member
There's also Just Cause 2. SP or MP :p

also, if you want to talk about in-home streaming, you can use this or the dedicated thread.

I figured this thread is mostly about the controller now anyway.
 
S

Shalarn

Neo Member
So I've been playing a lot and prepping some new videos. I've got a few up, but the main points are that I'm feeling I can play Loadout without disrupting other people's experience. In my video, I come in last on my team, but my K/D ratio is at least reasonable, and I'd say I can usually do better than this when I'm not fumbling at talking while playing.
 
S

Shalarn

Neo Member
alexandros said:
When are we supposed to see the redesigned controller in action? Will they also send it to the beta testers?
Click to expand...

They haven't said anything publicly to the best of my knowledge. You guys have probably seen the videos more recently than I, but in the steam dev days video with Greg Coomer and Anna Sweet, I believe they mentioned plans to have the first Steam Machines and (presumably) Steam Controllers out by late 2014. I could be crazy, but I think that's their stated plans. I would expect a second beta iteration to occur sometime in between now and early Summer. If that doesn't happen, they'd probably ship the redesigned controller to developers around the same time, and just ship the first retail controllers without any more changes.

Based on the way they've been talking about the redesigned controllers, I don't expect a second beta round with any large changes in the hardware design. Still, I'd expect at least some testing to make sure all the user interface kinks are worked out.
 
D

dsk1210

Member
Still can't wait to get one in my own hands, got a lot of old games ready to go.

Disappointing that the feedback seems to have dried up quite a bit.
 
A

ashecitism

Member
Steam Controller vs. 360 Controller, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (with Steam Machine): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtnbNy0W-1c

We switched sides/controllers several times (video not shown) to verify our quantitative results. Overall the steam controller did a very tiny bit better. Aside from the quantitative results, the video is really meant to offer a qualitative assessment of the controller's capabilities (that's why we bothered with the controller cams). We leave it up to the viewer to decide which controller is better for their gaming needs.
Click to expand...

dsk1210 said:
Disappointing that the feedback seems to have dried up quite a bit.
Click to expand...

At least I hope people are still providing feedback to Valve behind the scenes and it's only the coverage that slowed down.
 
S

Shalarn

Neo Member
ashecitism said:
At least I hope people are still providing feedback to Valve behind the scenes and it's only the coverage that slowed down.
Click to expand...

There was a survey that went out a couple days ago that I just got a chance to fill out. It went through pretty much everything and should provide some good feedback that will be useful.

Also, videos will be delayed. I am either having USB, Computer, or Steam Controller issues that are making it impossible to use the controller. My left trackpad has been acting up quite a bit. I need to make a video about this, but the time I usually devote to the videos has been taken up trying to figure out the problem. I might need to contact valve about it soon if it turns out to be a controller issue. Once that's determined, I'll let you know!
 
A

ashecitism

Member
Did you get a firmware update? Because I recall dev saying a couple of days ago he did and for him it made it better. Maybe for you it messed up something?
 
M

MutonCommander

Banned
I guess we'll have to wait for updated impressions. I'm really looking forward to hearing how the revised controller changes things. Also, what's the deal with ghosting.
 
A

ashecitism

Member
Hopefully it will be easy to parse impressions during GDC. People are still RTing the news about the revised controller on twitter, lol. Maybe on reddit.
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
Great job keeping the thread going. I'm sure impression will come rolling in over the next few days so it should be quite interesting
 
A

ashecitism

Member
Posting this here too and putting in the OP. Candescence posted a dev's impressions and explanations over at Sonic Retro in the recent Steam Controller thread.
 
V

Vinterbird

Member
Not sure if this is the place, but has any manufacturers revealed their streaming focused machines yet? Or is there a way to build something small already available?
 
V

velociraptor

Junior Member
How loud is it? My PC is notoriously loud despite having a 'quiet case'. I have a Fractal Design R3, 3 fans, a Noctua D14 and a GPU which has a custom cooler. Yet it sounds horrendous when I play games.
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
velociraptor said:
How loud is it? My PC is notoriously loud despite having a 'quiet case'. I have a Fractal Design R3, 3 fans, a Noctua D14 and a GPU which has a custom cooler. Yet it sounds horrendous when I play games.
Click to expand...

I can't remember where I read it but apparently valves prototype case with a titan maintained the same decibel levels at peak to the Ps4. But I don't know how loud or quiet that is. It does operate warmer though but that is typical of machines with those kind of cards under load
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The Steam Machines launch was fake and intricately connected to the assassination of JFK.
31
2K
Crayon replied
Capcom quietly removes Ray Tracing from Steam versions of Resident Evil 2 & 3 Remakes
2
67
8K
M1987 replied
The Day Before joins Overwatch 2 as one of Steam's worst-reviewed games after players discover it's not an MMO at all and extremely poorly made
Drama Community
28
2K
Gamezone replied
Helldivers 2 Community Manager Has Been Fired After Bad Management
Business Cringe 2
61
5K
Arachnid replied
Palworld dev explains Steam and Xbox differences, missing features: "We're really at the mercy of the certification here"
Game Dev Platform
30
10K
FoxMcChief replied
Top Bottom