- cross-posted to:
- gaming@lemmy.zip
- steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
- cross-posted to:
- gaming@lemmy.zip
- steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
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Magnetic hall-effect thumbsticks
SEE NINTENDO?! IT’S NOT THAT HARD!!
TMR, not Hall Effect
Even better
As a big fan of the Steam Deck something I want to emphasize here is that even if you didn’t want both the joysticks and the touchpads on the Steam Controller and wish they had picked one or the other, this kind of setup means the controller has essentially the same layout as the Steam Deck which is HUGE for ease of finding custom control schemes already uploaded by the community for complex games.
I prefer joysticks+gyro over touchpads for aiming and so for me the touchpads might seem superfluous, but in reality I heavily use them for virtual menus in all of my control schemes I make for complex games with lots of controls and inputs. The nice thing is that even though I am in the minority of people in that I prefer joysticks + gyro over touchpad for aiming, because the Steam Deck and Steam Controller both have two touchpads and two joysticks, somebody who is touchpad centric can use a control scheme I make pretty much right out of the box just by flip flopping the touchpad and joystick bindings so the virtual menus live on the joysticks instead.
I think this will be one of the subtle things people look back on and credit the Steam Deck and now new Steam Controller for having, it might seem silly and extraneous to have both touchpads and joysticks but it opens up a very wide range of capability and also makes it easier for touchpad and joystck focused players to share custom keybinding schemes with each other.
I thought I’d use the touch pads more but gyro is the first thing i set up in most games.
I use them both together, touchpds for quick movements and gyro for precision.
Yeah, this is something that I’ve been wanting for a while now too. I flip flop between my steam deck and a steam-machine-like desktop pc with an original steam controller for a while now, and not having my control mappings translate from one to another has been annoying (but in an understandable way). This is gonna be sweeeeeet.
You say that because you prefer joysticks, but imagine using touchpad for camera movements and then going for buttons. Hella uncomfortable, something that was a plus in the old steam controller. Basically a downgrade.
I think the easy solution here is release an identical controller except switch the location of the touchpad and joysticks. I think this would also be good for people with all different kinds of hand shapes as someone who likes joysticks but has small hands might prefer the same controller as someone who has large hands and prefers touchpads and equal and opposite for the other version.
Idk it is a weird idea I guess but I think it makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
I agree, no way in hell we are getting it though lol.
Probably not, but it might be suprisingly economical given you are making a product that simultaneously targets two niche ends of two markets at once (people who have larger hands and use touchpads and people who have smaller hands and use joysticks) and compliments the new steam controller perfectly as a sort of mirror image.
I am sure it would be more costly than just sticking to one controller design, but you wouldn’t presumably have to change thatttt much about the controller production. It wouldn’t really change keybinding stuff either just you would have to change the steam ui to reflect the changed position of the joysticks and touchpads.
My hope after seeing that the joysticks themselves look like they can be removed from the main board is that the touchpads can be relocated to the top without too much hassle and put into a 3D printed top shell made by the community. So if that were possible what I’d probably do is pop off the XYAB, dpad, and board holding the joystick so the touchpad can be moved up to make the touchpads comfortable for primary use.
And then I’d rely on the back buttons and set up a dpad modeshift on a right pad click to enable edge and center clicks, so I wouldn’t miss the absence of the other inputs too much. I also use touchpad for movement where I’ll often set outer ring to sprint and map crouch/slide/dash on touchpad click, so cuts down on needed inputs further.
So that’s my hope that modifying the new Steam Controller for touchpad users will be as simple as 3d printing a shell and opening the controller and not require further things like soldering.
That looks uncomfortable to hold ngl.
Steam Frame is a PC, and runs SteamOS powered by a Snapdragon® 8 Series Processor.
I’m more excited about this tbh. It’ll be quite something if Valve ends up solving the firmware problems of Linux on snapdragon powered phones.
It says it’s a zen 4 custom AMD chip?
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine?l=english
Edit: sorry I got th machine and frame mixed up. Whoops
I’m so thrilled for a new steam controller. I was a huge fan of the original, I just wish it were built Better. I hope the new one is built well, I’m planning to purchase one as I think it will be a good controller for my flight sims
I think at this point Valve has a lot more experience with hardware/handheld design. My steamdeck is more than rigid enough, and this at least looks like a steamdeck, without the screen
I certainly hope so, the index was a promising piece of kit, never got the deck because I shouldn’t have access to my escapism simulators on mobile.
As someone who was an absolutely massive fan of the original Steam Controller (in fact I still have two of them) I absolutely love these. Yes I know they’re clearly a different design but like last time they seem absolutely perfect for my larger hands. The touchpads seem to be less of a primary focus but honestly im just happy that they included them at all especially two of them. Also USB C plus rechargeable battery and four back buttons instead of two, this is absolutely everything I could have hoped for and then some.
I really hope that with the release of this sc-controller either starts being maintained or somebody makes a fork of it that is (standalone original steam controller/steam deck/steaminput driver)
Touchpads on the Deck are really great for on screen menus for things like ability bars and whatnot.
But this isn’t the first Steam Controller, is it? The first one (and also the first Steam Machine) was released on 2015.
I can’t find a reference to first - where did you see it?
You’re right, of course. I still love my Steam Controller (and Steam Link) after all this time.
There’s no prefix in this second one, so it implies it is the first.
I don’t think that’s how it works. The Xbox One wasn’t the first Xbox, DOOM didn’t get a number for its reboot, etc etc.
But you are right that it’s the second one!
One is a valid prefix (and Microsoft has a weird numbering).
Steam Machine is then an update to the original Steam Machine…
Not sure if you’re being obstreperous or not…
First, these are suffixes not prefixes. Second, this isn’t unusual.
Xbox Series X was updated in 2024 with no update to show it was the second Xbox Series X.
MacBooks and iPads aren’t released with suffixes.
Amazon have released how many Echos by now?
This isn’t some weird conspiracy…
So fucking hyped for this thing. Hope the price is good.
AHHHHHHHH I love my steam controller. I love this upgrade to the Steam Link and the Steam Controller. I am definitely going to try and get this and the Steam Machine. I hope the pricing is doable.
Sony added a screen to their controller to create a handheld, whereas Valve removed the screen from their handheld to create a controller.
I still have the original in perfect condition. This looks like a complete improvement to me
I’ve got 2 sitting around, never use it but it’s a neat gimmick and I know a lot of folks still swear by this thing. I love how all 3 of these new things are just major upgrades to hardware from like 2016ish
I’ve barely used mine too. Pretty sure I bought it the first few months they were available and never got used to the left touchpad. Feels cool. Maybe if it was left stick and right touch pad, I would use it
I have four of them, and I agree completely.
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I use it as a scroll wheel on my Steam Deck often. Scroll with the left, point with the right.
I often go through the effort of mapping menus, macros, etc yo the left trackpad. It’s especially good for PC games with lots of binds.
To scroll in menus or desktop, sometimes virtual menus for games requiring more buttons
Some people use left-handed controller layouts.
I use it in mouse and keyboard only games for rotary and square menus for things like hot bar keys or f1-f12 and the like. Really came in handy for finishing my first playthrough of Dyson Sphere Program.
Wooo. Was worried when the icon didn’t have “gamepad + touchpads” but the “ai generated render for legal purposes” did.
Time will tell on the ergonomics. But Valve know their shit and the Steam Deck is genuinely pleasant to use so I assume the size and angle should mean the d-pad and face buttons are still fully usable. Rather than the mess of a switch controller where only the tiniest of hands can use them without cramping.
Currently leaning “three steam controllers, maybe a steam frame when we know more” since I already have an HTPC under my TV.
Stop trying to make touchpads happen. It’s not going to happen.
This is a PC game controller, and for some PC games, mouse input is required.
Get a Xbox controller then. What’s the point of them releasing their own controller hardware if it does nothing new compared to the competition?
My partner has an original steam controller. The touch pads are honestly pretty nice for computer navigation when you’re laying on the couch. It is a horrible option for gaming though. This new one has joysticks though, so this really might be the steam controller that works well for both computer navigation and gaming.
It’s niche, but has its uses. As the only person who actually liked the original Steam controller, I can attest that Daggerfall is so much more fun with a controller that has a trackpad.
I’m definitely picking it up, but honestly, I don’t see the controller selling very well.
I dont use my Steam Controller as often, but I admit that this way of making touchpad is the only way. It actually works!
They are awesome - for some games.
Great to have both!
I actually love the touchpads, but it weird that I’m thinking about this more in the context of a media center PC than actually playing games? I definitely wouldn’t use this for all games unless the form factor was really good.
Because, trying to operate Desktop Mode docked on Steam Deck with a controller is…painful, and this controller would be perfect for jumping into a web browser for streaming sites that don’t have Kodi add-ons (Kanopy and Patreon are two that come to mind).
The original Steam Controller has become my go-to HTPC controller any time I have a PC hooked up to a TV. It’s great.
This is a straight-up improvement. As long as the D-pad is good, it’s going to become my #1 way to interact with any computer that I’m not sitting at a keyboard for.
Even if the D-pad isn’t good, I might just hack it apart and put microswitches in it.
I have Stremio+Torrentio set up on my deck, and use a PS5 controller for its trackpad since Stremio is very difficult to navigate with a controller. Still, the PS5 controller sucks in a lot of ways and I’d love to upgrade to this!
