Help! I don't know how to hold this controller properly and they dared put the buttons somewhere other than my previous controller put them!
Incorrect.
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- Thread starter ashecitism
- Start date
Help! I don't know how to hold this controller properly and they dared put the buttons somewhere other than my previous controller put them!
Incorrect.
Abilidebob
Member
They need to work on that distribution. Here in Brazil the Steam controllers you can find on the internet for sale are, at the very least, TWICE the price of a Xbox ONE controller.
Guardian Monkey
Member
Haven't used one enough to say. But I would find it difficult to recommend anything over the steam controller. There is simply so much you can do with it. No console controller offers the same utility or flexibility.
I think it's pretty cool that such a supportive steam controller community has formed on GAF. You don't get that sort of thing with other input devices. People don't gather around Xbox pads the same way.
It's what you make of it, though - 2 minutes searching for a community config, and another 2 minutes to make sure that the button assignment makes sense is one way to do it. The other way (what I did for DS3) is spending a couple of hours to make sure my set-up is right, and uploading it for the community.
And as for the touchpad, it's a long way from awful, but it's down to what you're used to, and if you want to spend the time to adapt to something else. *shrugs*
Literally couldn't be done on the PC. Too many variables, too many preferences, too many people with weird little foibles. Sure, if you just want to play GTA, plug-and-play ftw, but I'm telling you now, my Dark Souls 3 config is... "different" to everyone else's, so the flexibility the SC provides is a wonderful thing.
Indeed - I just played Doom with it for the first time and switched duck and jump, because it felt better for me. In no way did I have to tinker with it otherwise, the community took all the work with that.
The huge thing is that I could if I wanted to though.
I'm excited for the revision - don't know if I would buy it, because I'm pretty happy as is and it doesn't really work to well with local MP games (most of mine need a good d-pad instead of mouse support).
I completely disagree. An analog stick is just plain awful for anything that requires moving the view of the player. It's inaccurate for aiming which is why console games have various degrees of auto-aiming and typically fine aiming is done by moving your character rather than your viewport. The gyro option in the SC makes it even more accurate.
There are more and more games coming with native Steam Controller support and often there are configs available for download straight from launch.
To me the ability to fine tune it according your preferences is a huge benefit. I hate that you can't change button setup on consoles beyond a global option or the few different profiles offered by games (most of which usually have some buttons doing things that don't fit you). You can do as much or as little with the Steam Controller settings as you want.
For most games a gamepad setup + right touchpad as mouse is as much as you need to do to get started. But it's when you get deeper into the customization that it starts to shine. For example in Witcher 3 nothing else would allow me to hold a grip button and hit the D-pad to do spells quickly. Or change sensitivity and activate gyro when aiming in GTA V.
AndyMoogle
Member
I feel like a lot of people don't really understand the point of the Steam Controller. Yes, you can use it as a regular controller, but it's meant to be something that can work with everything without the developers adding support for it. It's emulating a mouse and keyboard, so obviously there has to be some kind of customization that comes with that.
It's not meant to be another Xbox controller. This is something for those who want to be able to customize their controller to whatever they like and for those who want to be able to play kb+m only games with a controller.
There are usually good configs available for any game, so even for those who don't want to tinker with the customization, just choose one of those and play. It's not like you have to do much tinkering anyway after you've done it once. It's mostly just swapping around the buttons. Don't any of you ever do that with a regular controller as well?
It's not meant to be another Xbox controller. This is something for those who want to be able to customize their controller to whatever they like and for those who want to be able to play kb+m only games with a controller.
There are usually good configs available for any game, so even for those who don't want to tinker with the customization, just choose one of those and play. It's not like you have to do much tinkering anyway after you've done it once. It's mostly just swapping around the buttons. Don't any of you ever do that with a regular controller as well?
Yeah, the controller really is great.
Funnily enough, just before I saw this thread I started having an issue where pressing the B button turns the controller off. No idea what's going on there. I suspect it's the Steam beta client, because I've had issues with the controller before when that's enabled.
Funnily enough, just before I saw this thread I started having an issue where pressing the B button turns the controller off. No idea what's going on there. I suspect it's the Steam beta client, because I've had issues with the controller before when that's enabled.
I absolutely love mine.
Being able to create configs for games which don't have controller support, like Mass Effect and the early COD games, is great and allowed me to play them from the sofa.
Also being able to play controller specific games AND use the mouse aiming, specifically for games like Crysis, Bulletstorm and GR Future Soldier improves the existing controller support tenfold.
Add in gyro support, which should be mandatory in every controller!, and I found myself trying to play Uncharted 4 with the DS4 and being gutted when I moved the controller and COULDN'T AIM!
Simply an awesome piece of kit.
Being able to create configs for games which don't have controller support, like Mass Effect and the early COD games, is great and allowed me to play them from the sofa.
Also being able to play controller specific games AND use the mouse aiming, specifically for games like Crysis, Bulletstorm and GR Future Soldier improves the existing controller support tenfold.
Add in gyro support, which should be mandatory in every controller!, and I found myself trying to play Uncharted 4 with the DS4 and being gutted when I moved the controller and COULDN'T AIM!
Simply an awesome piece of kit.
codswallop
Member
It's available in Australia if you buy it through Amazon (about $80AU shipped). I bought one in November and absolutely love it now.
ashecitism
Member
It's available here, but last I checked it's very expensive. Might wait for the revision.
It sounds like the whole thing is made out of mouse buttons.
Nabs
Member
My feelings exactly. Analog Stick aiming is so outdated now, this is the future.
No. Not by any objective metric. I guess it's more "intuitive" if you spent 15 years playing games with dual analog controls and then give the Steam controller a try for 10 minutes before dismissing it.
No, the fact that you can tune the controller for every game individually is what makes it arguably the first true PC controller. Choice, customization and user control are the fundamental pillars of the PC platform.
By far.
capylikesgames
Banned
Look, Valve may have messed up by having awful presets by default, but that doesn't make the hardware bad. There's been plenty of people, me included, that prefer the trackpad over a right analog stick after giving it time. It's incredibly user unfriendly thanks to Valve, and I get that, but that doesn't make it a "terrible piece of kit". Dismissing us who have fun with it as some sort of fanaticism towards Valve is silly. Why would anyone purposefully put up with a horrid input method?
I actually had to go play some Quake and Lovely Planet tonight to reassure myself that I'm not just imagining how great the trackpad is in shooters, with how many posts I've seen lately dismissing the device as having no advantages over a regular controller. Yes it's not plug and play. No, it's not on anybody to put up with the frustration of configuring it properly. However, there's so much potential here, and it's a shame it's gotten such bad rep. I hope it can recover, because the concept itself doesn't deserve this.
I don't use my controller but do not take this as a damning indictment.
I'm just not playing any games suitable for it at the moment. Most of what I have installed are just fine on XB1 pad. I've got my SteamController there for when I'm hitting up an RTS or anything which isn't XB1 compatible.
For the front room gamer, it is a vital companion.
I'm just not playing any games suitable for it at the moment. Most of what I have installed are just fine on XB1 pad. I've got my SteamController there for when I'm hitting up an RTS or anything which isn't XB1 compatible.
For the front room gamer, it is a vital companion.
capylikesgames
Banned
Oh, templates are a lifesaver, but there's still a matter of figuring out the base itself. I get why some people are so turned off by the idea of having to configure it. It's not a fancy version of a regular controller, it's a brand new concept, the trackpad specifically. People aren't going to give it much of a chance if first impressions are bad. And as far as I've experienced, no recommended template I've tried has been perfect. Hopefully this improves down the road, there definitely needs to be more standards with the device across genres.
jediyoshi
Member
I have to go into the video options for every single game? Guys PC gaming is terrible.
Agreed, though I wouldn't say that it's "incredibly user unfriendly". It's not braindead simple, but I'd hope there's still some graduation between that and "incredibly user unfriendly".
This is the opposite of my experience with it for the majority of the time.
The touchpad is literally more responsive than an analogue stick. How intuitive it is come down to how you get to grips with trackball mechanics or surface area usage if you play a game that uses mouse region mode eg Gungeon. Was usable for me within minutes but took me about a day to click into it and a further week to get very snappy with it, which should be selective for something so responsive with such high sensitivity.
The controller doesn't need you to fine tune every game. The majority already have great bindings ready to go, and new releases can easily use a template as a base for the control method. This has been working so well that it makes it extremely frustrating when you see the minority of cases where it doesn't work as easily as expected - eg Mad Max, where a recent patch broke the primary template of mixing controller and mouse.
Where this is different is mouse and keyboard only games (which a standard game controller isn't going to work with anyway), where there are different layouts and specific ways to translate them best for the Steam Controller features, so you either need multiple templates or a community binding is ready to go. So in these exceptions, totally agree that it isn't plug and play.
Valve have been pretty important in making this controller what I would call a success. The support for it has been incredible. They have updated it constantly over the past 7 months with features based on how the community decided to use it and apply it, which has ultimately made it ridiculously versatile. It also has the typical downsides of Valve updating things so often that the beta will have random features going a bit wonky till the subsequent patch. Considering all that, I doubt many companies would take such an approach, particularly concerning making a PC specific controller that suits it's uses primarily.
Sad Affleck
Member
I love the controller but I do have one suggestion for the next revision. Remove the ABXY buttons from their current spot and place them around the left side of the right touchpad.
I don't like this idea, they would be much harder to reach that way.
The only thing I'd love in a revision are 4 grip buttons rather than 2.
capylikesgames
Banned
Yeah, I think I could've left it at "not user friendly". I do understand where people who bought it, tried it for a week, hated it, and refunded it are coming from, though. Being one of the people to receive mines early, it took me about a month to find the right settings for shooters with the trackpad, and what an infuriating time that was. At some points I felt like just giving up and saying the controller wasn't what I had expected. But I stuck with it, and now I can't look back at a regular controller, and even prefer it to KB+M. To be honest, I'm still messing around with my ideal settings to this day.
Yup, and rubberized grips won't be so bad either.
Frank Jaeger
Member
I still can´t deal with the fact that it uses AA batteries. Was going to get one from gamestop (wife is going to the US tomorrow) but then I remembered that...
I´ll hang to my wireless 360 for a while longer and see what comes out of MS rumoured pad refreshes.
I´ll hang to my wireless 360 for a while longer and see what comes out of MS rumoured pad refreshes.
capylikesgames
Banned
It really isn't that bad. The controller is surprisingly efficient when it comes to battery consumption. In my experience, a pair usually lasts around a month inside the controller. A 4-pack of rechargeable batteries works just fine.
Saint of Killers
Member
edit: never mind.
Saiyan-Rox
Member
I personally sold mine as I just couldn't get the hang of the touchpads for turning in FPS games. I did change the sensitivity and download other ones for the games but when it came to doing full on 360 or aiming I just couldn't get the hang of it whatsoever.
it's good that it's selling though and people are enjoying the controller
it's good that it's selling though and people are enjoying the controller
Rechaegeable eneloops for life.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Well, not really. In the month of November 2006, in North America alone:
1) Wiimote 270k
2) Xbox 360 wireless controller 251k
3) PS2 Dual Shock 186k (likely combined across colors)
4) NDS List starter kit 154k
5) Wii Nunchuck 153k
6) PS2 Memory Card 152k
7) PS2 Nyko Memory card 100k
8) PS3 SixAxis controller 98k
9) 360 Play and Charge Kit 84k
10) 360 HD-DVD Drive 42k
Note these numbers do not include controllers sold with hardware.
---
As for the Wii Remote, in North America alone it had sold 65 million after four years:
The breakdown:
30.41 million included with the Wii hardware
12.92 million sold with Wii Play
18.56 million white versions sold separately
2.44 million black versions sold separately
467,500 pink versions sold separately
465,200 blue versions sold separately
I wouldn't read into those numbers too much due to the vastly different circumstances the Wii Remote and Steam Controller find themselves in, but it's worth posting them here in terms of just how much a successful, left-field controller can sell in a single region.
A corollary of the above statement is that we don't know how many of these sales are to replace lost or broken hardware. Whilst it's easy to say the 42k 360 HD-DVD drives are to replace broken drives, it's less easy to determine the reasons behind 2.44 million black Wiimote sales. Spares just in case? Needed for multiplayer gaming? Broken? Chucked out with the rubbish?
I had that idea early on too. I feel like it could definitely work, but seeing how many people's brains leaked from their ears at the mere idea of moving buttons (i.e. Wii remote, Wii U pro controller, steam controller etc) from where they've been for so long, that would completely ruin any chance of such a layout to actually take hold.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Yup. I was also going to mention that the circumstances behind the purchases are likely going to be skewed towards multiplayer gaming (probably the most likely reason), but in that case that does indicate an area of appeal that the controller had which complemented the Wii platform's local multiplayer focus.
Sad Affleck
Member
How so? The thumb has to travel a longer distance to reach them at their current spot, especially the X.
7DollarHagane
Banned
I think I'm going to buy one just to experience using it. I have a $10 coupon at gs so it will be $25 at least.
Frank Jaeger
Member
Where would buy eneloops in the US? Couldn't find it at gamestop online shop!
AndyMoogle
Member
Yeah, the batteries last much longer than any other controller besides the Wii U Pro Controller. It's probably equal to that in battery life. I've used mine around 60 hours I think, and I haven't changed the batteries yet.
I've drawn a picture:
The thumb may have to travel farther, but it's in a more comfortable range to reach.
It feels really natural to swivel your thumb left and right, and not as good to have to retract or extend it. At least in my experience.
I guess something like this would work:
But I don't know if it wouldn't be too easy to hit the wrong button that way.
AndyMoogle
Member
That would make the controller unusable for someone with small hands. Like me. It would be extremely painful for me to try and use it that way.
That image illustrates it perfectly. I only have to swivel my thumb the way it is now. If the buttons were to the left of the right touchpad, then I would have to move my hand to a very uncomfortable position.
EDIT: Unless your (Sad Affleck) idea was to have it more like the second picture; meaning alongside the touchpad. I still think that would be kind of annoying and not work as well as having the standard face button placement.
Thinking about it some more, maybe something like this would work:
You maintain the comfort of not having to extend/retract your thumb, but achieve a lower travel distance for X and A.
On the other hand, it may add a non-insignificant mental effort to already know which exact button you are going to press when you start moving your thumb, rather than simply having the general goal of moving it "to the buttons" in mind at that point.
You maintain the comfort of not having to extend/retract your thumb, but achieve a lower travel distance for X and A.
On the other hand, it may add a non-insignificant mental effort to already know which exact button you are going to press when you start moving your thumb, rather than simply having the general goal of moving it "to the buttons" in mind at that point.