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[flaxknuckles]

Anyone tried this controller with Mad Max since it just got native support patched in? Or Alien Isolation since it just came out on SteamOS so it should have native support (unless putting SteamOS on marketing material doesn't have any expectation of native-level quality lol)?

 

[Nzyme32]

Anyone tried this controller with Mad Max since it just got native support patched in? Or Alien Isolation since it just came out on SteamOS so it should have native support (unless putting SteamOS on marketing material doesn't have any expectation of native-level quality lol)?

Being on SteamOS doesn't mean "native" controller support is guaranteed at all. Pretty sure there isn't native support for the controller on Alien Isolation.

 

[belmonkey]

What do you guys think of the left pad as a d-pad? GamerMuscle has had some pretty good videos so far, but he doesn't seem to like the left pad for something like 2-d platformers,

 

[Nerrel]

What do you guys think of the left pad as a d-pad? GamerMuscle has had some pretty good videos so far, but he doesn't seem to like the left pad for something like 2-d platformers,

I like it a lot for inventory swapping. You have to reach up, which is not comfortable to do, but the touch-only mode saves your thumb some stress and the haptics feel like a real Dpad. It generally works well for this.

I really didn't like it for character movement... it's hard to describe why, but it's just very awkward to get used to. I assume it's because the haptic feedback isn't adequate for replacing the tension of an analog stick. The feedback that's present also just doesn't feel appropriate for character movement. I think the analog stick is more than precise enough for character movement, which is honestly just full-forward 80% of the time. Unlike the right pad, the left trackpad doesn't offer enough enhanced precision to deal with the learning curve.

I haven't tried it for any platforming games, because.... why bother. The very best it could possibly manage is to be equal to a real Dpad through emulation, which I can already do more simply with the authentic Dpad on a Wii U Pro.

 

[Nzyme32]

What do you guys think of the left pad as a d-pad? GamerMuscle has had some pretty good videos so far, but he doesn't seem to like the left pad for something like 2-d platformers,

I'm having a great time with it but there are certainly some things that I didn't like but have adjusted to, but also have their positive sides.

I've used it to play platformers like super meat boy and spelunky, went through the entirety of Undertale (which gets very demanding of a dpad or arrow keys) and even got through the entire story mode of MK9 including the absurd Shao Khan final fight with Raiden's teleport strat. I've also gone through KI via SNES emulator and can do all the old combos, ultras and fatalites without issues. I'll be trying Ikaruga at some point to test some more twitchyness but doubt there will be any issues after going through all those.

I don't find any issues with comfort or the position of the pad at all. I have the haptics set high and the deadzone quite small, so I can roll my thumb around when I feel like it rather than make big movements. That said, it is a big advantage to comfort to have the flexibility to move around the extra surface area. I avoided it at first out of habit, but loved it when I started forgetting about the controller and focused on the game.

The issues I've had with the controller are actually mostly exclusive to a minority of people who are issues caused by the firmware that are currently under investigation at Valve. These include random rapid inputs that won't stop till you make an input elsewhere and cause the haptics to go crazy, and miscalibration of the dpad, which was the whole thing but since the update is now more of a misalignment on the left half leading to a slight curve above the left indentation, which can lead to some inputs errors when at the far side. There is also a mouse issue on the left pad where for some reason it doesn't activate on a section of the pad.

Other than that, the only big issue that took time to adjust to is the feeling of it and the amount of force required to press it. In all honesty even though I can use the controller almost perfectly (bar the furthest side issue), it still feels odd to the touch, but the feedback at high setting is far better than any dpad I've used, and this is best demostrated in a fighting game doing any quarter circle move. On a normal dpad, it is one solid piece, and you can only feel a change in indentation, and barely so (especially on the ds3 and 360 pads. With the Steam Controller I get that but with much more feedback on the changes confirming that input. It also feels great for Raiden's down up teleport move, which I fail at in double digits during the final MK9 fight on standard controllers. I still didn't win off the bat with the Steam Controller but not due to the execution of the move, but just due to the difficult of the fight, beating it less attempts than with the other controllers, although this could also be a bit of luck perhaps.

Really underrated as well, is the dpad activating on touch with high feedback, which I use in Fallout NV so I can also bind enter to click. It feels so so good. Much more powerful than the feedback on click, but obviously that is only best suited for certain situations

All in all though, if Valve fix the issues I have with it with the dpad, which are pretty much all on their end, I'll be using it for everything dpad related.

The only issues I have with the controller right now, is wanting better compatibility with gamepad + mouse combo, getting better with right analogue emulation for precision aiming - which I barely have tried and don't really need thanks to simply going with the mouse or mouse + gyro combo, and finally getting better with the trackball mouse / mouse + gyro aiming, which is already phenomenal, but I need more practice and I haven't tested the latest gyro improvements yet

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Hopefully they get a better rating/sharing system in place. I like tinkering as much as the next guy, but I feel like some of you are coming up with some really creative shit.

 

[belmonkey]

Well it's nice to hear that I may not have to worry much with regards to that; I was a bit afraid that after wondering so long about whether the right pad would be good for aiming, that the left pad would actually turn out to be the problematic one. I'm still quite curious about how the haptic feedback actually feels firsthand, although I suppose I'll find out in 2 weeks; I just can't quite wrap my head around how it must feel to make the whole experience of the controller more satisfying.

I do have one more burning question though: is analog emulation with the joystick for greater ranges of movement in non-gamepad games useful at all, or is movement jittery like in Krej's MGSV video?

 

[chekhonte]

Will the steam link only work work for controller support in big picture mode? I ordered on but have no intention of streaming steam to my TV as my rig is already connected to my TV. I want one solely for the steam controllers and a one box solution for all my controllers.

 

[PersonAndStuff]

Mine just went shipping soon. Ordered October 3rd.

 

[Unai]

Will the steam link only work work for controller support in big picture mode? I ordered on but have no intention of streaming steam to my TV as my rig is already connected to my TV. I want one solely for the steam controllers and a one box solution for all my controllers.

If you are not Steaming you don't need the Steam Link. The controllers will work on your rig. (I'm not sure if I understood what you are asking, though)

 

[Lork]

What do you guys think of the left pad as a d-pad? GamerMuscle has had some pretty good videos so far, but he doesn't seem to like the left pad for something like 2-d platformers,

I posted this about the d-pad ealrier in the thread:

For example, one thing I've noticed is that the left trackpad is far too large to be viable as a d-pad. The natural resting place of my thumb is on the bottom half of the pad, so often the location I intuitively feel should be "left" is interpreted as "straight down" (or "down-left" if I'm lucky) by the controller. This could easily be solved if I could just move the origin point down a little bit, but alas, that can not be done. An even better solution might be to have a mode that sets the origin point based on where your thumb first makes contact with the pad and retains it until contact is broken. This one would require a custom implementation from Valve to do it justice, but I can't even try to make a ghetto version of it because the only option for relative input locks you in to mouse or joystick control

As well as this about the feedback (or lack thereof) from d-pad mode:

Oh I see, the haptics only activate when you press one direction, then switch to another direction without letting go of the pad. Which is... something you would almost never do under any normal circumstances in the vast majority of games that use a d-pad? What's the point? It would make more sense to me if the feedback was activated on touch so it could give you a little bump to let you know that your finger is in place before you press down.

I've used it for a couple more days since those posts, and everything in them still stands. Unless you have a very specific hand size, the left pad is simply not an acceptable replacement for a d-pad. I'd like to try it with some the tweaks I suggested, but unless/until they add them in, it's a pretty inadequate solution.

 

[Jon of the Wired]

I haven't tried it yet, but they appear to have done the thing I asked for?

Added a new trackpad mode, Mouse Joystick. This is an alternate way of emulating mouse-style controls for games that disable mouse input when using a gamepad. For best results, we recommend increasing the gamepad camera sensitivity/speed in the game settings.

I'm going to assume they were already working on it.

Edit: Tried it out, works great.

 

[mntorankusu]

THANK YOU VALVE

Mouse Joystick is the best thing ever. It works SO WELL in MGSV. If you turn the in-game sensitivity all the way up, it's perfect for controlling the third person camera. Then you can just mode-shift while aiming to enable the mouse. Lets you keep all of the controls standard gamepad stuff until you need to aim.

It needs linearity and anti-deadzone options, though. Just like the other joystick emulation options. Dunno why they're missing, except maybe because the configuration screen is full. They need a second page-- one for the "mouse" settings and one for the "joystick" settings. The minimum output thing is a really good idea, but it doesn't correct for the joystick input deadzone.

 

[Jon of the Wired]

THANK YOU VALVE

Mouse Joystick is the best thing ever. It works SO WELL in MGSV. If you turn the in-game sensitivity all the way up, it's perfect for controlling the third person camera. Then you can just mode-shift while aiming to enable the mouse. Lets you keep all of the controls standard gamepad stuff until you need to aim.

It needs linearity and anti-deadzone options, though. Just like the other joystick emulation options. Dunno why they're missing, except maybe because the configuration screen is full. They need a second page-- one for the "mouse" settings and one for the "joystick" settings. The minimum output thing is a really good idea, but it doesn't correct for the joystick input deadzone.

It has anti-deadzone options, they're just different than the ones for the other virtual stick modes (minimum joystick value, or something, in the advanced menu). Also, I assume the mouse acceleration setting replace the linearity settings.

 

[red36]

has there been any talk of if/when the next gen of the controller will be out? I would feel a little stupid if I got it now but then in 6 months they release another one which completely fixes all the issues I may have with it.

Side note: has anyone seen these in any stores by them? i have a microcenter that's about an hour.25 away, seems like a place that might put on a display model.

 

[mntorankusu]

It has anti-deadzone options, they're just different than the ones for the other virtual stick modes (minimum joystick value, or something, in the advanced menu). Also, I assume the mouse acceleration setting replace the linearity settings.

I just realized my mistake after posting. I thought "Minimum Joystick Value" was like the mouse "Minimum Movement Threshold", but it is simply anti-deadzone with a different name. Nice. Still need the linearity adjustment though.

 

[Mountainmohawk]

I wish this thing had rumble. That my biggest complaint. And I feel like the right touchpad should be where the abxy buttons are.

 

[Red]

I wish this thing had rumble. That my biggest complaint. And I feel like the right touchpad should be where the abxy buttons are.

I miss rumble, but I think it'd be weird with haptic feedback at he same time.

 

[Nerrel]

has there been any talk of if/when the next gen of the controller will be out? I would feel a little stupid if I got it now but then in 6 months they release another one which completely fixes all the issues I may have with it.

It's going to be a long time before Valve even starts talking about a second generation controller, let alone releasing one. The real launch hasn't even happened yet, and they've been making incredible process with patches and firmware updates to address a myriad of issues they didn't foresee before now. Once the main launch happens in a few weeks, they'll be very busy keeping up with the community.

Once the dust settles and they feel like they're certain of what the community thinks of the current pad and what they want from the next one, then they'll likely start designing a successor, but that's assuming that it's a success in the first place. I think developers picking the Steam controller up and natively supporting it is going to be a factor in that.

 

[laxu]

From the design side I think the only issues right now are:

• Bumpers are a bit big. I would much prefer the same design as on the DS4.
• XYAB placement could be slightly better or maybe it needs slightly bigger, flatter buttons. I can't quite figure out what it is that bugs me about them.
• It could use a few more buttons! PC games generally have lots of controls so splitting the grip buttons to two more would help - I feel I often have to delegate one grip button for mode shift purposes.

From the software I would like to see:

• Toggle option for mode shift so you don't have to hold a button
• Ability to use mode shift with any button (now you need to use one of those that are always at your grasp and thus better suited for other stuff)
• Support for mapping buttons to diagonals on the D-pad
• Ability to map Steam button + other button combos for stuff like menus etc, again giving you a few more face buttons on tap

 

[ashecitism]

full beta changes

Added a new trackpad mode, Mouse Joystick. This is an alternate way of emulating mouse-style controls for games that disable mouse input when using a gamepad. For best results, we recommend increasing the gamepad camera sensitivity/speed in the game settings.
Added a new trackpad mode, Touch Menu. This mode is useful to bind many infrequently-used hotkeys to a single trackpad. The Big Picture in-game overlay has to be enabled for this feature to work.
Fixed an issue with emulated analog stick sometimes moving in the wrong direction when fully deflected

 

[mntorankusu]

• Support for mapping buttons to diagonals on the D-pad

The new touch menu can be used for this if you just want to use it to select weapons, etc. Use the 9-button layout. You can't make it completely transparent though, which is unfortunate. There are a lot of arbitrary restrictions with the configuration right now that I hope they remove.

The touch menu will be a lot better if they add a few more features. You need to be able to remove unused buttons ("unassigned" popping up when you mouseover and unused button is really unnecessary), and I don't think a grid will be the best for every game. Radial and linear layouts would be useful, too.

Edit: Holy crap. Using the touch menu gives focus to the overlay, so it accepts input even while it's not open. That's a huge problem.

 

[grandwizard]

The Touch Menu is a pretty huge deal. You can now get a ton of button functionality from only one trackpad, and the adjustable sizes means you can make it huge so you can quickly use it to hit binds. This would be really good for games that use all of 1 through 0 for weapon selection for example. The way the menu fades in and works is really smooth too.

The ability to take advantage of the in-game overlay to create your own menus of any size/shape/range might be one of the biggest advantages this controller has. They should have pushed this angle more because this could be really big for it.

Games that have a ton of bindings that previously would not have fit on a pad are now doable, especially if they are bindings that aren't used often.

 

[mntorankusu]

I'm also having the problem someone else reported earlier where the trigger press mode doesn't stick. I'm stuck in Hair Trigger mode, which makes my whole configuration useless.

 

[Nymerio]

That touch menu thing is mindblowingly amazing.

 

[Won]

Love the updates, but things start to get a bit too buggy.

Still, the touchpad thing is like "holy shit"! Just needs some fixing.

 

[laxu]

What impresses me is the speed they do these upgrades. While stuff like adding a certain button to a list is easy it seems many other things come in days.

 

[grandwizard]

The Touch Menu thing is so good that even if I don't use the Steam Controller to actually play games I might just keep it nearby just for the occasion I need a more obscure command and can just use the touch pad real quick to get to rather than going over to my keyboard.

 

[Wrestlemania]

Can someone do a screenshot of the touch menu?

 

[Red]

What impresses me is the speed they do these upgrades. While stuff like adding a certain button to a list is easy it seems many other things come in days.

It's very impressive. They're serious about this thing, which instills confidence.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

The Touch Menu is a pretty huge deal. You can now get a ton of button functionality from only one trackpad, and the adjustable sizes means you can make it huge so you can quickly use it to hit binds. This would be really good for games that use all of 1 through 0 for weapon selection for example. The way the menu fades in and works is really smooth too.

The ability to take advantage of the in-game overlay to create your own menus of any size/shape/range might be one of the biggest advantages this controller has. They should have pushed this angle more because this could be really big for it.

Games that have a ton of bindings that previously would not have fit on a pad are now doable, especially if they are bindings that aren't used often.

This is one of the first uses I thought of for the touchpad as far as adjusting for traditional KB based games goes. Psyched that this actually exists now. Just mode shift with a grip button to switch the right pad from camera control to skill bar layout

EDIT: So I also just got a wacky idea. Is it possible to stack mode shifts, a la ctrl/alt/ctrl+alt? As in Grip one is mode shift 1, which shifts all the face buttons and triggers from default to mode one. Grip two is mode shift 2, which shifts them all to mode two. Holding grip one and THEN pressing grip 2 mode shifts to mode 3, and then maybe even have it order dependent in that holding grip two then grip one mode shifts to mode 4? HOW DEEP DOES THIS RABBIT HOLE GO?!

 

[mntorankusu]

It's not possible to do multiple mode-shifts for one control, or to have multiple buttons shift the same control. These are both features that would be nice to have.

For example, in Resident Evil 5, aiming with the gun and knife are triggered by two different buttons. It would be nice if you could have both aim buttons perform the same mode shift.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

It's not possible to do multiple mode-shifts for one control, or to have multiple buttons shift the same control. These are both features that would be nice to have.

For example, in Resident Evil 5, aiming with the gun and knife are triggered by two different buttons. It would be nice if you could have both aim buttons perform the same mode shift.

Rats. If they ever could get it implemented, the macro capabilities it would provide for RTS's would be unparalleled.

On another note: Do people think the next iteration should ditch the joystick and bring back the D-pad? The touchpad seems much more apt to emulate the relative positioning of a stick versus the precise and immediate action of proper directional buttons. Or is the resistance/recentering of a physical stick that essential to its use?

 

[dangerskew]

It's very impressive. They're serious about this thing, which instills confidence.

No kidding. Lately I've been annoyed by how often Steam has an update to install, but I know I'll be really thankful for that after my controller and Link arrive.

I just used the new BPM for the first time yesterday and maaaaan have they improved that. It's already leagues better than the XB1 or PS4 menus.

 

[TheSeks]

Is the radial touch menu new? I saw a post on reddit, and it looks like a feature that could grow into something special.

Yes, it is.

In any case I'm in the "rage/depression" stage of the controller. Every controller-enabled title I've ran with I ask "why am I not just using the 360/PS3 controllers I have right here?" And the ones that don't, either have really weird configurations by the community (read: Gyro) that make me scratch my head (read: Absolutely LOATHE Gyro) or no configurations at all.

Valve REALLY should have default genre bindings to where people like me that don't want to sit there and fuck about for hours to find a binding layout wortwhile could at least start somewhere on customizing it.

 

[ashecitism]

Can someone do a screenshot of the touch menu?

here's someone using it for Diablo 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUubFsM2wc0

shows the setup screen

 

[Nymerio]

Yes, it is.

Valve REALLY should have default genre bindings to where people like me that don't want to sit there and fuck about for hours to find a binding layout wortwhile could at least start somewhere on customizing it.

But they do? There are three default templates that you can use and of them is a straight up standard controller configuration I think.

 

[Jay Shadow]

But they do? There are three default templates that you can use and of them is a straight up standard controller configuration I think.

They're saying they need a more specific variety of templates. The defaults don't really work well for most things. Keyboard mouse assumes you want to play an FPS.

 

[Red]

here's someone using it for Diablo 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUubFsM2wc0

shows the setup screen

Someone in a recent steam machines thread was saying how the controller did not function well for MMORPGs. I think this settles that one.

I would like to be able to adjust the position of the menu in addition to scale and opacity.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

here's someone using it for Diablo 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUubFsM2wc0

shows the setup screen

That's a good start, but what they need to do on top of that is have a preview window which would allow you to individually customize the input boundaries and adjust where the menu overlay appears in game. Even better if they could allow you to label the on screen buttons with graphical icons.

 

[Nzyme32]

I'll have to update the OP later.

Looking forward to messing with this new stuff when I get the chance

 

[joshbob1985]

Someone in a recent steam machines thread was saying how the controller did not function well for MMORPGs. I think this settles that one.

I would like to be able to adjust the position of the menu in addition to scale and opacity.

From the options in the video looks like you can. There are options for menu X and Y position.
Does the menu show up when you touch the pad or is it activated by another button?

 

[belmonkey]

here's someone using it for Diablo 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUubFsM2wc0

shows the setup screen

It looks cool, although if not already doable, it should allow each item in the menu to be given a custom name like "Inventory" or "skill points" instead of keys so it's easier to navigate.

 

[hepburn3d]

The touch menu is awesome but I'm getting an annoying bug when using it that steam is activated in the back ground and I can hear it moving around menus

Edit:

Disabled the touch menu till its ironed out the bugs. Like the idea though wish it showed the name rather than the key it was pressing as well. I know it shows it up top but would be cool to make a custom grid.

Also getting the annoying double press bug in steam a lot. Keeps double entering my buttons :/ lots of bugs to clean in not much time

 

[RealityCheque]

Mouse - Joystick FTW!

All issues fixed, Tomb Raider (my benchmark console controller game) is now perfectly playable. Aiming is good and the delay between right touch and onscreen movement is gone.

Nailed it Valve, nailed it.

BTW i'm just using the default settings for it so far. Has anyone found any improvements by messing with any particular setting?

 

[hepburn3d]

Ok something is majorly wrong tonight. the controller is unuseable in game! Tried to play gta and all the controls are wrong to what I have bound. Try to go to the steam menu and it all Borks out double clicking everything!

No idea what's going on tonight but I can't play gta with it. Other games seem to be ok

 

[ashecitism]

Ok something is majorly wrong tonight. the controller is unuseable in game! Tried to play gta and all the controls are wrong to what I have bound. Try to go to the steam menu and it all Borks out double clicking everything!

No idea what's going on tonight but I can't play gta with it. Other games seem to be ok

Hopefully Valve will fix these issues, but I won't bet on it. It's sorta okay for software (or more understandable or whatever), but for a controller it won't be.

 

[Jon of the Wired]

Mouse - Joystick FTW!

All issues fixed, Tomb Raider (my benchmark console controller game) is now perfectly playable. Aiming is good and the delay between right touch and onscreen movement is gone.

Nailed it Valve, nailed it.

BTW i'm just using the default settings for it so far. Has anyone found any improvements by messing with any particular setting?

Aside from all the settings that normally exist for mouse mode (for which I'm pretty happy with the defaults, but I'm sure lots of people mess with) there are two important settings in the "Advanced" menu. I can't remember exactly what they're called, but it's something like "minimum joystick value x" and "minimum joystick value y". These are anti-deadzone settings, and you should increase them if small movements on the touchpad result in either no motion or jerky motion in game.

 

[TheSeks]

They're saying they need a more specific variety of templates. The defaults don't really work well for most things. Keyboard mouse assumes you want to play an FPS.

Exactly.

The defaults don't fit racing, fighting, platformers, etc. It's just "this is a keyboard and mouse emulation. Have at it! !"

It's shocking that for three years Valve has worked on the hardware but didn't even bother to look at genres and go "okay, this is the 'most comfortable for 90% of the base' defaults for people to use as a template for these genres." They just kept redesigning the controller which is alright. But when people boot up a former "no controller support" keyboard and mouse title and are told "what do YOU think works for me?" That's not going to sell people on the controller.

 

[RealityCheque]

Aside from all the settings that normally exist for mouse mode (for which I'm pretty happy with the defaults, but I'm sure lots of people mess with) there are two important settings in the "Advanced" menu. I can't remember exactly what they're called, but it's something like "minimum joystick value x" and "minimum joystick value y". These are anti-deadzone settings, and you should increase them if small movements on the touchpad result in either no motion or jerky motion in game.

That's great. Thanks for the advice.

Has there been any progress in getting it working reliably with non-steam games yet? Every older or exclusive uPlay title i have still has a stroke everytime I try to use it.