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Steam DualShock 4 support is now live

Arulan said:
The benefits of an open-platform everyone. And that of a company that understands how important that is, even when that means adding support for a product that competes directly against theirs.
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Truly.

And the thing is, they can retroactively add functionality to both hardware and tons of software you already own, without you having to pay anything, and even without developers having to do or patch anything.

It has happened before (e.g. Streaming, Steam controller, hell DSR is another example not from Valve really), and it will happen again.
It's wonderful.
 
Hopefully this will push devs to make games around touch & motion controls more now. I always said that the Xbox One controller held back this generation from having these inputs as standard.
 
onQ123 said:
Hopefully this will push devs to make games around touch & motion controls more now. I always said that the Xbox One controller held back this generation from having these inputs as standard.
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why would devs design games around a controller that's simply an option of many? and practically any pc game supports touch controls on the DS4 thanks to mice
 
Cartman86 said:
You need to actually be in big picture mode to use the Steam controller correct?
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No, this hasn't been true since shortly after its launch.

The in-game overlay will be the BPM version, but honestly if you are playing with a controller I don't think you'd want the other (very mouse-focused) one.
 
image.php
 
Wow, this is big. Valve putting Sony to shame.

I'd love it if it applied to PS4 Arcade Sticks too since Capcom's support for dinput probably won't come for another decade, but I'm guessing that's out of the cards.
 
Hey look Sony. It's possible to support your controllers on PC. It's a shame you never bothered.

I have mixed feelings. It's great that this is happening, but Sony got bailed the fuck out. They really don't deserve this after the nonexistent level of PC support they have provided for their $50+ controllers over the last decade.
 
Durante said:
No, this hasn't been true since shortly after its launch.

The in-game overlay will be the BPM version, but honestly if you are playing with a controller I don't think you'd want the other (very mouse-focused) one.
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Ah the overlay must be what I'm thinking of.
 
I don't have time to fully express my thoughts right now, but in short Valve finally implemented the controller API and support that the PC platform really needed.

(And that Microsoft should have evolved DirectInput into a decade or so ago, if they were actually concerned with the PC platform and its unique strengths rather than just a semi-functional appendix of their console business)
 
artsi said:
Wireless DS4 works fine on PC.



They already can and some do. It's 100% up to the devs, it never was a driver problem or anything.

What this can do is incentive the devs to implement support as the wrapper integrated to Steam is bigger thing than DS4Windows.
But technically this is nothing new, DS4Windows can do all this already.
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DS4Windows can do it but this should open up the DS4 to have all of the (amazing) rebinding options the Steam Controller has. And you can do all of it right in the big picture overlay with the controller itself.

Edit: Also this will make the controller work on all platforms in an identical fashion.

Durante said:
I don't have time to fully express my thoughts right now, but in short Valve finally implemented the controller API and support that the PC platform really needed.

(And that Microsoft should have evolved DirectInput into a decade or so ago, if they were actually concerned with the PC platform and its unique strengths rather than just a semi-functional appendix of their console business)
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I don't disagree but SDL_GameController is pretty sweet (although IIRC that was made by a Valve employee too lol). But yeah this should solve "the not xinput controller" problem on Windows PC once and for all if done correctly.
 
TheTux said:
Does it mean you can just plug a DS4 on your PC and use it like a normal (PC/XBox) controller with a few additional features like trackpad support and without using 3rd party community softwares like DS4Windows?

Will the DS4 controller work automatically for any game on Steam (even without using Big Picture mode) like, for example, FFXIII?

Sorry for the long questions btw.
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The 3rd party software is Steam but it's doing the same thing as those programs. Hopefully better.
 
Enter the Dragon Punch said:
why would devs design games around a controller that's simply an option of many? and practically any pc game supports touch controls on the DS4 thanks to mice
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IMU & Touch is found in more gaming devices than Dual analog now & they are closer to Mouse/KB input than analog sticks are.


I just think that devs shouldn't ignore them when they are making new games.
 
TSM said:
Hey look Sony. It's possible to support your controllers on PC. It's a shame you never bothered.

I have mixed feelings. It's great that this is happening, but Sony got bailed the fuck out. They really don't deserve this after the nonexistent level of PC support they have provided for their $50+ controllers over the last decade.
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The DS4 already has PC support. It works on many games like The Witcher 3 which shows PS4 button prompts.

it's all up to the devs. Most of them don't bother to support DS4. it's not on Sony.
 
kagamin said:
Because as long as this works I'm not buying a new controller dammit.
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lol, makes sense
TheTux said:
I suppose because some people like me have a spare DS3 and don't have a PS4/DS4.
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fair enough.
LCGeek said:
Already mentioned it. Has a much better analog range, though nothing touches certain nintendo controllers in precision or range. Using DS4 naked gimps you as this topic is discussing in various ways. Without a good 3rd party driver I go eww to a otherwise great controller.
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didn't know this, new info to me.

I just hate the feel of the DS3 compared to the 4
 
Amazing news. I waited for this from the moment I took DS4 gamepad in my hands on the PS4 launch [in the meantime I used xinput emulators for games that did not support directinput].

So we are getting full wired&wireless connectino with any generic BT dongle, full support of gyro, touchpad [both for mouse look and it's 2 physical buttons] and button remapping.

I can't wait for that steam update.
 
Durante said:
I don't have time to fully express my thoughts right now, but in short Valve finally implemented the controller API and support that the PC platform really needed.

(And that Microsoft should have evolved DirectInput into a decade or so ago, if they were actually concerned with the PC platform and its unique strengths rather than just a semi-functional appendix of their console business)
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I somewhat agree, but I feel that 3rd parties should have gotten together to create an open controller standard at some point over the last 10 years. You are letting them off the hook too easily. There's no reason the entire peripheral industry had to roll over and let Microsoft's restrictive xinput be the only option.

Given Valve's mammoth stature in the PC gaming world, I'd imagine any hopes of a new open standard can be put to rest at this point.

FarFromAnyGame said:
The DS4 already has PC support. It works on many games like The Witcher 3 which shows PS4 button prompts.

it's all up to the devs. Most of them don't bother to support DS4. it's not on Sony.
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Sony's controllers only support direct input which has been deprecated since 2011. The last OS that officially supported direct input was Windows 7. Sony's controllers only work at all with windows 8 and 10 because of legacy support for old software. As Valve has just shown, Sony could have stepped up and provided proper support at some point.
 
Aklamarth said:
Do i get to see real PS button prompts in games ? No ? Ok, i don't care about big picture mode.
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You can if the devs have included them, like they have in some games. Steam won't inject the games with new UI graphics or anything because of this.
 
FarFromAnyGame said:
The DS4 already has PC support. It works on many games like The Witcher 3 which shows PS4 button prompts.

it's all up to the devs. Most of them don't bother to support DS4. it's not on Sony.
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It is on Sony. They have DS4 minimal support with their drivers and relying on Dinput. Good thing Valve stepped in, I can finally put my 360 controller to rest.
Now people, what's the best DS4 to buy ? Are there battery extenders ??
 
Alex_Mexico said:
Great! Now people that are going to play Bloodstained on PC can do it as it was meant to be: with a Dualshock controller. Anyone that was going to use a Steam controller (or the Xbox One's left stick) for that game would be doing it wrong!

The Dualshock 4 has the overall best Dpad any home console has ever had. Come at me Saturners!
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I don't have to since you're clearly insane.
 
So this should work on mac out the box then? Since DS4 work easily with OSX via bluetooth (but xinput takes drivers and wires usually).
 
OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Wonder if it will be still good to keep the third party controller drivers working or not.
 
People who have only used a DS4 and not the Steam Controller are in for a treat, as it looks like you'll be getting all the insane customization options we have.
 
Sophia said:
People who have only used a DS4 and not the Steam Controller are in for a treat, as it looks like you'll be getting all the insane customization options we have.
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Can it do something that DS4Windows can't? You can pretty much bind any controller button to any key, macro etc. with it already.

The UX / UI is obviously better with this one, of course. But I don't see any new functionality per se.
 
On one hand better controller API/management is cool. On the other this is bound to Steam and specifically to Big Picture Mode which I despise. So we're gonna see about this. Maybe this will eventually get opened or forked in a sufficient way.
 
artsi said:
Can it do something that DS4Windows can't? You can pretty much bind any controller button to any key, macro etc. with it already.

The UX / UI is obviously better with this one, of course. But I don't see any new functionality per se.
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Action sets, brah. They're like Macros x Infinity.
 
How do you connect a DS4 wirelessly to a PC?

Love my WiiU Pro but the lack of analog triggers is starting to get to me. Don't want to play FH3 without analog triggers for example.
 
GhostTrick said:
It is on Sony. They have DS4 minimal support with their drivers and relying on Dinput. Good thing Valve stepped in, I can finally put my 360 controller to rest.
Now people, what's the best DS4 to buy ? Are there battery extenders ??
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They can't use xinput! MS made it for MS/MS certified controllers. Why would MS allow Sony to have xinput?
 
I wonder if Valve will also add Steam Controller Battery Life to DualShock 4?
(Truthfact: I'd pay good money for Valve's DS4 clone with 80+ hour per charge).
 
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