• 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 Controller Thread | Comfy Couch Sold Separately

mbmonk

Member
Not sure if this has been pointed out but looks like new pre-orders of the controller will not be available to December 9th onward:

Estimated Delivery: December 2nd - December 9th

* The estimated delivery date is for new pre-purchases on Steam. If you have an existing pre-order from before Oct 19th, you will receive your Steam Controller on Nov 10th.


Meanwhile the Link is "out of stock"

This is great news in general, yet semi bad news for me. I was hoping to order a controller from Steam shortly after the official release in November. So that obviously isn't going to happen now. I do hope these controllers continue to sell. It can only improve the chances for dev support.
 

Nzyme32

Member
That might just be the Steam store, since it seems they will be selling them on other online stores such as Amazon, as well the select retail outlets
 

mbmonk

Member
That might just be the Steam store, since it seems they will be selling them on other online stores such as Amazon, as well the select retail outlets

True. I do plan to attempt to get on in November from retailer. Regardless if I get on or not, I am glad to hear they are selling well.
 

Qassim

Member
The Valve complete pack including all future games that Valve have been giving out for people due to the Mac compatibility delay is this package:

https://steamdb.info/sub/14/

Which says:
This package is intended for developers and publishers only.

So I guess that confirms it really does mean you'll be given all future Valve games too.

My Steam account licenses:

TYq6GIj.png
 

Deadstar

Member
The Valve complete pack including all future games that Valve have been giving out for people the Mac compatibility delay is this package:

https://steamdb.info/sub/14/

Which says:


So I guess that confirms it really does mean you'll be given all future Valve games too.

My Steam account licenses:

TYq6GIj.png

I have logged into a mac on steam but not in quite some time. Anyone know what the criteria is for getting this email?
 

Qassim

Member
I have logged into a mac on steam but not in quite some time. Anyone know what the criteria is for getting this email?

No idea, but I also haven't logged into Steam on any of my Macs in a while, probably once or twice in the last three months - I still got the email and it added to my account (although I already owned all existing Valve games).
 

hepburn3d

Member
Wow, just wow. The community just keeps surprising me with ideas. New best one I've tried is hard trigger mouse sensitivy reduction. So aim with soft trigger for lots of movement and on hard trigger the sensitivity of the mouse is reduced. Coupled with a gyro for the tiny movements as well is just amazing.

A week ago I was nervous about this controller. Today I'm using it as my default for every game. No way you can review this controller yet, every day there's something more to learn with it or try differently.

This is the Master controller now. Hands down best controller on the market. GG Valve!
 

deadfolk

Member
Has anyone who didn't get their controller direct from Valve gotten the free Valve complete pack? I use my Mac with steam a lot, and have nothing, but I got my controller and link from Gamestop.
 

Nzyme32

Member
Wow, just wow. The community just keeps surprising me with ideas. New best one I've tried is hard trigger mouse sensitivy reduction. So aim with soft trigger for lots of movement and on hard trigger the sensitivity of the mouse is reduced. Coupled with a gyro for the tiny movements as well is just amazing.

A week ago I was nervous about this controller. Today I'm using it as my default for every game. No way you can review this controller yet, every day there's something more to learn with it or try differently.

This is the Master controller now. Hands down best controller on the market. GG Valve!

Yeah, the experience will be quite interesting for the newcomers in November when it releases properly. I haven't had chance to try some of the new stuff yet. Also looking forward to new BPM features. A magnifier tool was mentioned, which would certainly be ideal for some of the older games I want to play that have no GUI scaling options.

Has anyone who didn't get their controller direct from Valve gotten the free Valve complete pack? I use my Mac with steam a lot, and have nothing, but I got my controller and link from Gamestop.

I think it is more about where you are using the controller and the OS you mainly used for gaming / what you purchased and played on that determine that
 

Nzyme32

Member
I ask again then...

How is the range between the dongle and the controller? Can it go further than 5 meters?

I've gone at least 6 meters with a door partially in the way and it still works fine, but I think it is a lot more dependant on the kind of interference that might be around and types of obstacles that may be around.
 

Azax

Member
I've gone at least 6 meters with a door partially in the way and it still works fine, but I think it is a lot more dependant on the kind of interference that might be around and types of obstacles that may be around.

Thank you for your quick answer! :)
 

deadfolk

Member
I think it is more about where you are using the controller and the OS you mainly used for gaming / what you purchased and played on that determine that

I don't know. I've seen people saying they only ever used a Mac once or twice years ago getting it. I have probably hundreds of hours logged on my Mac playing steam games.
 

Red

Member
No idea, but I also haven't logged into Steam on any of my Macs in a while, probably once or twice in the last three months - I still got the email and it added to my account (although I already owned all existing Valve games).

I haven't logged onto Steam on my Mac since Portal 2's release over four years ago. It's the only game I've played on OS X.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Wishlist for next update: Circle-scrolling in BPM. Seriously good way to scroll through lists.
 

Exuro

Member
Where in desktop mode can we access controller configs? Or does it just mean we can use custom configs while in desktop mode and still have to go to BPM to change them?
 
Where in desktop mode can we access controller configs? Or does it just mean we can use custom configs while in desktop mode and still have to go to BPM to change them?
Yeah, have to change them in BPM. And it seems bugged cause it seems to often ignore your settings and switch back to defaults. But it's a start, I guess.
 

Blizzard

Banned
I showed my girlfriend the Steam controller today and was kind of surprised by her reaction because she's not a gamer at all.

She promptly started using the right pad mouse in windows, apparently picking it up better than I had. All I really showed her was using the spinny left pad to scroll. She was all, "I like this. This is so chill!"

If Valve keeps the price reasonable, there might be a non-gamer or casual-gamer market for this.
 

Exuro

Member
For anyone still having trouble with fps type controls, the top community config for portal 2 is reaaaallly nice. Was struggling with other titles but this portal 2 config feels just about perfect. Not sure if its just the guys config or the fact that its native(which I assume means you don't have to deal with in game settings that you need to with other titles + their configs). Either way we need more native titles.
 
Wow, just wow. The community just keeps surprising me with ideas. New best one I've tried is hard trigger mouse sensitivy reduction. So aim with soft trigger for lots of movement and on hard trigger the sensitivity of the mouse is reduced. Coupled with a gyro for the tiny movements as well is just amazing.

A week ago I was nervous about this controller. Today I'm using it as my default for every game. No way you can review this controller yet, every day there's something more to learn with it or try differently.

This is the Master controller now. Hands down best controller on the market. GG Valve!

Oh man, that sounds neat!
 

kodecraft

Member
Wow, just wow. The community just keeps surprising me with ideas. New best one I've tried is hard trigger mouse sensitivy reduction. So aim with soft trigger for lots of movement and on hard trigger the sensitivity of the mouse is reduced. Coupled with a gyro for the tiny movements as well is just amazing.

A week ago I was nervous about this controller. Today I'm using it as my default for every game. No way you can review this controller yet, every day there's something more to learn with it or try differently.

This is the Master controller now. Hands down best controller on the market. GG Valve!

So damn cool.
 

Veal

Member
I showed my girlfriend the Steam controller today and was kind of surprised by her reaction because she's not a gamer at all.

She promptly started using the right pad mouse in windows, apparently picking it up better than I had. All I really showed her was using the spinny left pad to scroll. She was all, "I like this. This is so chill!"

If Valve keeps the price reasonable, there might be a non-gamer or casual-gamer market for this.
This is ranty and isn't meant as a slight to you Blizzard but...

I feel like a theory I've had about "gamers" I'd being proven true once again: "gamers" ain't shit and have been coddled for too long on the control front for video games. It happened with the Wii. It happened with move and Kinect and it's happening here as well. Instead being excited for new things, most gamers seem too stuck in their ways and refuse change at any turn. It genuinely baffles me the immediate negativity things like the Wii remote and steam controller get from so called "gamers".
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Yeah, its like that Ford quote, if you asked people what they want, they'd say faster horses. Its good to have companies like Valve with interesting vision and tons of resources and money to help introduce something in a way that might gain traction.
 

luffeN

Member
Wow, just wow. The community just keeps surprising me with ideas. New best one I've tried is hard trigger mouse sensitivy reduction. So aim with soft trigger for lots of movement and on hard trigger the sensitivity of the mouse is reduced. Coupled with a gyro for the tiny movements as well is just amazing.

I don't quite get it. What is a soft trigger and a hard trigger? Half-pull and full-pull?
 

laxu

Member
I don't quite get it. What is a soft trigger and a hard trigger? Half-pull and full-pull?

Soft trigger is basically the analog portion of it, pulling it back until you feel it bottom out. After that comes the hard trigger which is just a button.

It takes a while to get used to but it's pretty powerful, for example in MGS V I use a config where the soft pull is aim but the hard trigger switches between first and third person view (so essentially scope on some guns). For GTA V I use the hard trigger to reduce mouse sensitivity for more accurate aiming. Its easy to just release your finger a little to go back to faster sensitivity.

When they give you the ability to map gyro enable to a trigger then it will be truly great.
 

luffeN

Member
Soft trigger is basically the analog portion of it, pulling it back until you feel it bottom out. After that comes the hard trigger which is just a button.

It takes a while to get used to but it's pretty powerful, for example in MGS V I use a config where the soft pull is aim but the hard trigger switches between first and third person view (so essentially scope on some guns). For GTA V I use the hard trigger to reduce mouse sensitivity for more accurate aiming. Its easy to just release your finger a little to go back to faster sensitivity.

When they give you the ability to map gyro enable to a trigger then it will be truly great.

Ah so like I use it in Rocket League where soft is accelerate and hard is boost.
 
Yeah, have to change them in BPM. And it seems bugged cause it seems to often ignore your settings and switch back to defaults. But it's a start, I guess.

Does steam have to be running for the custom desktop configs to work or will they always be on (bugs notwithstanding) right from turning the machine on?
 

Lork

Member
My controller finally arrived today so I spent a few hours trying it out, and it's definitely going to take some getting used to. I'm confident that with time and practice it'll become second nature though, so I'm not too worried.

What does annoy me however is the lack of customization options. What they have right now is nice for a start, but there are many omissions, some completely inexplicable (Why can't I bind the Windows key? Why is there no option to invert the X axis for gyro?) and some... We can call them "splicable", but still frustrating nonetheless.

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.

I'm really hoping they'll keep working on it for some time to come and not just arbitrarily stop at some point when they're only halfway there.
 

Nzyme32

Member
My controller finally arrived today so I spent a few hours trying it out, and it's definitely going to take some getting used to. I'm confident that with time and practice it'll become second nature though, so I'm not too worried.

What does annoy me however is the lack of customization options. What they have right now is nice for a start, but there are many omissions, some completely inexplicable (Why can't I bind the Windows key? Why is there no option to invert the X axis for gyro?) and some... We can call them "splicable", but still frustrating nonetheless.

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.

I'm really hoping they'll keep working on it for some time to come and not just arbitrarily stop at some point when they're only halfway there.

You can't bind the windows key (the only key you can't bind) for pretty obvious reasons such as throwing you out of the game and preventing the overlay / return to a game. Similarly functionality is platform specific which breaks the idea of sharing community bindings. Then again, they are happy to push community bindings based on qwerty, which doesn't workout for the euro folk with azerty or whatever else based on country (unless this has been fixed recently), so who knows.

As for the dpad, I completely disagree, although that sounds like a fairly typical new user remark. It actually has ended up as quite advantageous to have the extra surface area. I set it up to have a small deadzone so I can just roll my thumb around rather than always go further, and also set the haptics high, that provided more feedback than ds3 and 360 which both use a solid peace of plastic, where rolling from left to down provides no real feedback other than change of indentation. Meanwhile the steam controller can give feedback for every input change which feels great on high but crap on low.

Regardless, once I got to the point of not thinking about what I was doing, it felt sooooooo much better to switch between rolling my thumb and going much further distances just depending on the in-game situation and comfort. So that surface area is now one of my most preferred things about it. It definitely felt alien for the first few days of play though, but that got better the more I spent with it. There's a good video on the dpad here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=428f76P8nCk

Also regarding gyro inversion, I was pretty sure it was there as part of the mouse options when you choose the mode for the gyro to act in. Could be wrong though, not got time to check it
 

Vinlaen

Member
Are there any special shortcut keys/buttons on the controller?

For example, can you turn it off by holding any certain button? It seems like I need to press the [Steam] button (which activates Big Picture Mode) to get the menu allowing me to turn it off.

Also, can I activate a keyboard some how?
 

Lork

Member
You can't bind the windows key (the only key you can't bind) for pretty obvious reasons such as throwing you out of the game and preventing the overlay / return to a game. Similarly functionality is platform specific which breaks the idea of sharing community bindings. Then again, they are happy to push community bindings based on qwerty, which doesn't workout for the euro folk with azerty or whatever else based on country (unless this has been fixed recently), so who knows.
Binding the windows key in desktop mode would allow for combinations like "Windows-+" to enable the magnifying glass, which would make using the controller to control Windows from far away actually viable.

As for the dpad, I completely disagree, although that sounds like a fairly typical new user remark. It actually has ended up as quite advantageous to have the extra surface area. I set it up to have a small deadzone so I can just roll my thumb around rather than always go further, and also set the haptics high, that provided more feedback than ds3 and 360 which both use a solid peace of plastic, where rolling from left to down provides no real feedback other than change of indentation. Meanwhile the steam controller can give feedback for every input change which feels great on high but crap on low.

Regardless, once I got to the point of not thinking about what I was doing, it felt sooooooo much better to switch between rolling my thumb and going much further distances just depending on the in-game situation and comfort. So that surface area is now one of my most preferred things about it. It definitely felt alien for the first few days of play though, but that got better the more I spent with it. There's a good video on the dpad here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=428f76P8nCk
Wait, what feedback? I get no feedback at all when in D-Pad mode no matter what I set the intensity to. I thought the only reason the option was even there was that they forgot to remove it, seeing as it's also there in button mode, which similarly lacks any kind of feedback.

Also regarding gyro inversion, I was pretty sure it was there as part of the mouse options when you choose the mode for the gyro to act in. Could be wrong though, not got time to check it
You can choose between Yaw and Roll, which is important because Yaw is basically unusable. Roll is responsive but feels backwards to me, and there's no option to invert it.

Edit: While I'm complaining about missing options, they forgot about the guide button! I get that they reserved the equivalent button for going into big picture mode, but they should at least let us replicate the functionality on a different button.
 

hepburn3d

Member
So damn cool.

Oh man, that sounds neat!

What's also awesome is that this one has been set up so the haptics change as the aim gets more precise. So on free look it's high, on aim it's medium and on hard click it's low. You really feel those vibrations as an indicator of precision.

Steam knows that their community will do the hard work with these configs. I'm excited to see what the hardware tinkerers do with the controller CAD in a year.
 

laxu

Member
Are there any special shortcut keys/buttons on the controller?

For example, can you turn it off by holding any certain button? It seems like I need to press the [Steam] button (which activates Big Picture Mode) to get the menu allowing me to turn it off.

You can hold the Steam button to turn the controller off. You need to hold it for several seconds though.
 

Shari

Member
You can hold the Steam button to turn the controller off. You need to hold it for several seconds though.

And at the same time you turn of the controller you will activate BPM if you happen to have steam open.

Fucking genius /s
 
Finally trying the Gyro for small corrections in shooters, its a revelation, holy molly, Valve should have advertised it more, this is incredible.

If only all games supported Gamepad and Keyboard mode at the same time without going crazy. Im playing Wolfenstein the new order and I get analog movement with mouse aiming and gyro micro corrections, Im in heaven.
 
I'm really surprised to hear all the praise of gyro use. I feel like terrible past implementation of gyro controls (see: Sixaxis controller) has trained me to be extremely wary. Does it work well in Phantom Pain? I have some trouble lining up headshots when looking down sights, perhaps activating gyro with the full trigger pull?
 
I can't wait until I can try out gyro on the steam controller. Playing Splatoon with gyro spoiled me and I can't go back to dual sticks for aiming.
 

Nzyme32

Member
I'm really surprised to hear all the praise of gyro use. I feel like terrible past implementation of gyro controls (see: Sixaxis controller) has trained me to be extremely wary. Does it work well in Phantom Pain? I have some trouble lining up headshots when looking down sights, perhaps activating gyro with the full trigger pull?

Works ridiculously well. I have mine working better (well, at least to my taste) than this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B43ibnztDLc

It's brilliant, but unfortunately the way MGS V does it's keyboard inputs has some issues that can lead to movement issues depending on the key layout you use. So far MGS V is the only game that I've seen with that specific issue, and I'm not sure if it will be sorted. Thankfully most other games are working great with them
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
Finally trying the Gyro for small corrections in shooters, its a revelation, holy molly, Valve should have advertised it more, this is incredible.

If only all games supported Gamepad and Keyboard mode at the same time without going crazy. Im playing Wolfenstein the new order and I get analog movement with mouse aiming and gyro micro corrections, Im in heaven.

Got damn, looking forward to RE4 with this.
 
Top Bottom