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The Steam Controller Configurator's Untapped Power

207 points by larsiusprime 10y ago

justinclift 10y ago
Interesting. Wonder if the PS3 controller will be supported at some point? I have an old PS3 I've not used in years (stopped using anything Sony when they sued GeoHot). If the controllers for that work with Steam, it might be worth digging them out and putting them to use. :) * Update: Doing some basic DDG searching shows that it should work. I might as well see if they still hold a charge. ;)
- gm-conspiracy 10y ago
  I just purchased a used PS3 wireless controller to use with a Raspberry Pi 3. A few hiccups, but a very good controller.
- aaron-lebo 10y ago
  If you have the money to spare, the PS4 controller is better in almost every way - triggers, concave sticks, etc.
  - justinclift 10y ago
    Thanks, but not really willing to actually spend money on anything Sony ever again. :)
  - viewer5 10y ago
    And for getting it to work with most games, DS4Windows is what I use. Some games natively support the DS4 ("DualShock 4" is the PS4 controller's actual name) but most don't.
  - callalex 10y ago
    The battery life of the DS3 was excellent, the ds4 is atrocious
    - karlgrz 10y ago
      Agreed.
- xkcd-sucks 10y ago
  If you're using Ubuntu-ish Linux, PS3 controllers have been supported for a while, search for a package. Wired is generally more robust than Bluetooth. If you're using Windows, ScpToolkit works really well ( https://github.com/nefarius/ScpToolkit https://github.com/nefarius/ScpToolkit ). There are also lots of scammy adware-ridden ps3 controller drivers which are easier to find on Google
  - karlgrz 10y ago
    Agreed, PS3 controller wired on linux seems to just work for me for most controller games.
- ascagnel_ 10y ago
  The article mentions that there's experimental support for DirectInput devices, which would include the Wiimote and PS3's controller.
  - justinclift 10y ago
    Thanks, didn't know that. :)
Eridrus 10y ago
With the not mentioned massive downside: it only works when you distribute your game through Steam.
- vollmond 10y ago
  I don't think that's accurate anymore. Here's a 4-month-old reddit thread helping someone get an Origin game working with the SC. You may have to launch the game through Steam on your PC, but not necessarily acquire it through the Steam distribution system. edit: forgot the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamController/comments/53ftxp/support_steam_and_nonsteam_games/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamController/comments/53ftxp/sup...
  - Eridrus 10y ago
    Well that's good.
  - ferdbold 10y ago
    Can confirm. I play Final Fantasy XIV as a non-steam game with my Steam Controller and don't lose any features, including the ability to share mappings with the community. As a nice plus, it even works in the launcher which is a separate process, so I can fully play from the couch without fiddling with my computer (most of the time!)
    - rjbwork 10y ago
      I've been playing Elder Scrolls Online with my XBox 360 controller. I tried using my steam controller but it just felt a bit clunky.
  - paulmd 10y ago
    Another fun fact: you can set pretty much anything up as a non-steam game if you want, which is good for doing things that the Steam Link doesn't normally support. For example, you can set up VLC and use it to stream movies over to your TV. Or a web browser would probably work too. I would think the only exception would be things that use HDCP protection, like maybe Netflix.
ChrisClark 10y ago
That is a very in depth article. Seems like everything you'd ever need to know is there.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
okreallywtf 10y ago
I'm typically a keyboard and mouse gamer but I do really like the steam controller. I played psychonauts with it all the way through (having used keyboard and mouse the first time I played it) and I loved it. I didn't do massive customization but I did play with it and I have so far been impressed how good a lot of the default configurations have been.
jc4p 10y ago
I'm still working my way through this article (after watching the video at the beginning) but one random comment about the Steam Controller I want to drop in: I use the Steam Link + Steam Controller to play games from my PC in my home office on my TV in my living room, a lot. I would say in the last year I've spent at least 80-100 hours using my Steam Controller in different situations and games. It's hit or miss in many games, the best experience I've had with it is in Civilization. In some games it's _so_ close to perfect but the game disables mouse-input if you are using a controller, which means you can't use the Steam Controller to its full capability. All in all, I mostly use my Xbox controllers (connected to my PC via the Microsoft adapter) to play on my Steam Link, mainly because the Steam Controller just feels cheap. When they first talked about open sourcing all the designs for it I was hoping someone would take the specs and make a all-metal version of the controller, with some more heft. I love the Steam controller, but it just feels so cheap so that when any growing-pains pains get in my way, it's one more negative against it compared to just using my other controllers. I may be part of a small niche market but I would gladly pay $150-$250 for a good feeling controller that does exactly what the Steam Controller does. I think if I paid a bit more for it and it felt more premium, I'd be more invested in taking the time to configure it just right.
- larsiusprime 10y ago
  > but the game disables mouse-input if you are using a controller, which means you can't use the Steam Controller to its full capability. Yeah, the Valve team (and me, I'm the OP) are specifically pushing hard on this -- an emerging best practice is to always allow simultaneous mouse & gamepad input.
  - jc4p 10y ago
    I'm only halfway through the written post right now but it's absolutely amazing so far. Thank you for writing this!
    - larsiusprime 10y ago
      I should also make sure to mention that most popular controller models are now supported by the Steam Controller configurator, so if the main thing that appealed to you was the configuration, you can get that with a DS4, an XBox360 pad, an XBox One controller, or basically any XInput device. There's also some experimental DInput support, too. But if what you want is just exactly the Valve Steam Controller model with more heft, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
rasz_pl 10y ago
Wow this was painful. All that work, all that effort just to please people refusing to use the _only_ proper control option = keyboard and mouse. Of course on the other end of the spectrum we have massive dumbing down of games due to console and phone/tablet market forcing its limited control schemes. You might get angry and even down mod me, but just look at all the examples, at the end of the day its all about replicating/simulating the mouse. We dont have anything better than mouse for analog input[1]. This is why every competitive game with analog input is played with a mouse. There are no Dota/LOL tournament finalists playing on a touchpad, no Overwatch joystick champions, no Starcraft 200 amp trackball masters, no CS gamepad leaderboard presence. [1] except steering wheel for car games, and joysticks for flight games. Those two work fine on a pad.
randomdrake 10y ago
I was extremely excited to try out the Steam Controller. I've been a fan of Valve and Steam for a very, very long time. It was a hugely fantastic letdown on every single front. I was hoping that purchasing a Steam Controller would let me play some of the games that were clearly controller-based like Rocket League, or other action-type games not particularly well-suited for keyboard and mouse. The controller feels plasticky, poorly balanced, and fragile. Give it a gentle shake and you can actually hear the buttons moving around. Every single game I wanted to play required configuration of some sort or simply didn't work. I even bought games like Rocket League specifically to make use of the controller. Instead of just working. I had to unplug the USB dongle a couple of times, setup some manual configuration, only to have it still not work, have to be blown all away and reset back to default. It eventually worked... until the next time I went to play and sure as hell: I had to restart Steam a couple times, re-plug in the USB dongle a few times, and eventually the controller was properly identified and working. The sheer number of incorrect options available for this thing make it useless. Should it emulate keyboard? Is it a gamepad? Joystick? Mouse and gamepad? Mouse and joystick? I lamented my purchase and wished I would've bought a more standard controller like an Xbox controller or a PlayStation controller as this was a nightmare. The article appears to be heading down the right track, with trying to get developers on board with mapping actions instead of buttons, but I simply don't have the time to tinker with something like a controller. When I want to play a video game, I want to sit and play a video game. I spoked to some of my game development friends about it and every one of them said that controller and device support was among one of the most mind-numbingly frustrating and difficult parts of cross-platform development. The last time I tried the Steam Controller, I fired it up and none of it worked. I could see the controller was detected, but nothing worked. The mouse pad, buttons, controls, nothing. This had happened so many times before. I installed the beta version of Steam, browsed forums for fixes, and everything. I tried very hard to like this peripheral but it was a complete failure. I'm very hesitant to try even more configuration options considering how much time I sunk into it last time. I literally gave up on having a controller-based gaming experience with my computer, got a PS4 for the holidays, and haven't looked back. I still play games on my computer, but I gave up on the dream of having a nice controller-based gaming experience on my computer.
- xanderstrike 10y ago
wincy 10y ago
I like the idea of the steam controller. However, I have a 21 month old and the Steam Controller survived for precisely two days before being broken. My Xbox one controller and PS4 controllers have endured months of baby shenanigans and are fine. It'll take them a few iterations before the can match the quality and durability of the big players in the controller field.
- chc 10y ago
  I have two Xbox One controllers that have developed such bad analog stick drift that they're unusable, and I know other people (IRL, not random folks I Googled) who have the same problem. I also have a PS4 controller that completely stopped working because it fell four feet onto a carpet. Given how many dead controllers I've seen without even any baby to blame, I'm not sure the Steam Controller necessarily that much worse.
  - maccard 10y ago
    That's incredibly bad luck. I've currently got 2 dualshock 4 controllers (the launch ones with the known fault of the dodgy analog grip), anxbox 360 controller and an Xbox one controller that are used regularly. (Xbox one controller used in work for ~4 hours a day maybe?) and the only issue aside from the known DS4 fault is that my Xbox 360 cable needed the removable connector replaced. Mind you, I don't regularly drop my controllers from 4ft (1.3m) either, so I can't comment on that.
llukas 10y ago
I feel like I need PhD for steam controller configuration. There should be some companion AI app to speed out process of setting this up. ;)
- nerflad 10y ago
  > I feel like I need a PhD for steam controller configuration. If you think that's bad, try using their map editor[0]. [0]https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Hammer_Editor https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Hammer_Editor
- Sargos 10y ago
  There's a 99% chance that someone has done the hard work for you and made your perfect configuration. Try the top community configs. They are usually the best. I've never had to tinker much with my SC because people before me already have.
lewisl9029 10y ago
> Aside: my (personal!) hope is that the Steam Controller initiative will eventually become a new universal -- and open -- standard for PC gaming input. I'm definitely not speaking for Valve on this particular point as I have no idea what their long term plans are. That is my hope as well, but for that to happen the configurator probably needs to become an independent application that's not tied to the Steam client.
ezconnect 10y ago
I bought this controller but I haven't used it much because everything feels different. The buttons are small and the depth of travel is so deep compared to other common controllers.
clarry 10y ago
Our input APIs are full of poor assumptions, lackluster abstractions and arbitrary boundaries. It could've been fixed decades ago, but nobody seems to have cared. Instead, we're retrofitting on top of retrofitting and it's not clear that we'll ever replace the lower layers with a sane API instead of just hiding the shit under yet another layer. I should be able to bind any button that sends a signal my computer can understand -- to any application, any action. It should not matter whether it's a keyboard button, a mose button, a mose thumb button, a joystick button, or my belly button... as long as a driver can detect the signal, the code to make arbitrary buttons bindable is trivial, yet people have just looked at the physical objects the buttons are placed on, and then draw an API for each object, with built in assumptions. This is how we get mice that also report themselves as an USB keyboard, and half the thumb buttons do not work in most applications (becaues they're reported as mouse buttons by default and handling more than 3 or 5 mouse buttons seems to require higher intelligence) and, well, the other half overlap with keyboard keys I'd prefer to use for different functions. It's nice that someone's working on this but I feel like this steam configurator is yet another proprietary layer, a hack on top of hacks, and so people just lazily depend on it.
- dtech 10y ago
  I think you're oversimplifying things a bit. Yes, a lot of HID have a concept of a simple button press/click/action which you can abstract away, but there are many actions that don't directly map to that: function keys, lights, analog inputs (i.e. thumbstick), rumble. And then you have the devices which don't really map to buttons like trackpads, draw tablets, face/eye tracking and Wii Mote-like devices. Your argument is a bit like saying it's stupid we have all these Graphics API's, it should be unified a long time ago since all they do is set pixels on a monitor to a certain color.
  - clarry 10y ago
    Function keys are still just keys, there is nothing special about them. If anything, the problems are caused precisely because of people thinking like you, thinking that some input is somehow very special when it really isn't. That's how we got where we are. Yes, I focused on buttons only, because that is the lowest bar (and we've yet to cross that). Yes, I am fully aware that there are other kinds of inputs. We've had "analog" inputs for decades. Sliders, joysticks, sensors, etcetra. There is nothing difficult about them. All we need is a driver to understand the inputs, optionally identify them with a name, symbol, intended purpose or default function and other metadata, and export through an API that allows applications to easily map things to arbitrary inputs. And allow the user to filter inputs at a lower level; for example, if he finds that input device 6 has a nice input 17 that takes values in the range [0 to 255] that he'd like to treat as a binary input that reads high in [0 to 126] range and otherwise low, that should again be possible and very easy to do as long as the underlying API is sane. Rumble and force feedback, keyboard leds, gpios in output mode, etc. are outputs, which could be exposed through a similar, arbitrarily mappable mechanism. We've had all these for decades, and we've yet to cross the lowest bar of making all simple buttons bindable everywhere through a uniform API. It is not hard, nobody just wants to do it (at a low level, USB HID comes surprisingly close! But then it has its struggles, what with the default keyboard mode that requires a bitfield for modifiers and bytes for other scancodes), and in the name of compatibility, we just keep piling hacks on top of legacy. And my mouse's thumb buttons are still useless most of the time.
shanselman 10y ago
I feel like the Steam Controller is destined to be the BetaMax of controllers. It may be magic. You may love it and hold on to the idea that it's going to win and take over the world. I WANT to love my Steam Controller. I take it out weekly, try to configure stuff for Skyrim, or Civ, or even just Doom, and I fail. It feels cheap. It's plasticy and cheap. Until there's a Steam "Elite" that doesn't feel like $10 of plastic, it's always gonna be Betamax - technically superior, but losing the core market.
shmerl 10y ago
The main concern raised, how can you use it without Steam? This isn't very promising: > Aside: my (personal!) hope is that the Steam Controller initiative will eventually become a new universal -- and open -- standard for PC gaming input. I'm definitely not speaking for Valve on this particular point as I have no idea what their long term plans are. Tying hardware to a distributor is a nasty practice. While there is now a Steam-less driver for the controller[1], if developers will start using these new APIs, how is it supposed to work for games released through GOG for instance? Are Valve planning to release these APIs as FOSS and without tying them to Steam? I'd say developers should not fall for this lock-in, until it becomes truly open. 1. https://github.com/kozec/sc-controller https://github.com/kozec/sc-controller
digi_owl 10y ago
While i like the idea of the controller, i dislike how everything gaming has to be hogtied to the Steam client.
petetnt 10y ago
The article is excellent and I recommend it to anyone playing games on a PC. I also love my Steam Controller. The software was a little and miss but less and less by the day. For example I had sometimes problems autoloading my configs, now I don't even have to play attention to it. It just works. My mind was blown when I configured the Steam controller to work as a Dolphin (Wii Emulator) controller: super accurate pointer controls through the trackpad. I mapped the motion controls to only work while holding the left hand pad; no more missed motions. I didn't like certain button mappings, so I switched them around: perfect. I wanted to use my PS3 controller instead and it worked out of the box with nearly the same config. Endless possibilities for tinkering, but also (almost every time) works out of the box: just like good PC experience should be.
Neliquat 10y ago
Wow, all these issues and I have been loving my steam controller with no issues for a while now. I think expecting it to be a mouse or traditional gamepad is the problem. It is its own interface, and a good one at that. It is good enough to roughly approximate both, but isnt really either. Everyone looking for a familiar experince is obviously going to complain.
michaelbuddy 10y ago
man, the steam controllers shape, I just don't get it. I don't see how they landed on the shape of the handholds and all the angles in it. It's operation I'm happy with, though the dongle has proved to be easy to break. I was bummed on the controller, till I saw you could aim by moving the entire controller around like an air mouse. That ended up being a fresh control scheme for me, though I know the PS4 controller can do it for on-screen keyboard use. Would love to see some revised shapes to it. I really dig how it can move the mouse when the software is on even on the desktop. If you don't midn keeping steam running it's a fairly capable to surf with. Though admittedly I haven't done everything. It took a long time for it to come out. I wonder if they are working on a new generation in secret because they know they might not sell as many right now. I think it feels premium, but the shape is not ergonomic to me whatsoever.

207 points by larsiusprime 10y ago

Interesting. Wonder if the PS3 controller will be supported at some point? I have an old PS3 I've not used in years (stopped using anything Sony when they sued GeoHot). If the controllers for that work with Steam, it might be worth digging them out and putting them to use. :) * Update: Doing some basic DDG searching shows that it should work. I might as well see if they still hold a charge. ;)

gm-conspiracy 10y ago
I just purchased a used PS3 wireless controller to use with a Raspberry Pi 3. A few hiccups, but a very good controller.
aaron-lebo 10y ago
If you have the money to spare, the PS4 controller is better in almost every way - triggers, concave sticks, etc.
- justinclift 10y ago
  Thanks, but not really willing to actually spend money on anything Sony ever again. :)
- viewer5 10y ago
  And for getting it to work with most games, DS4Windows is what I use. Some games natively support the DS4 ("DualShock 4" is the PS4 controller's actual name) but most don't.
- callalex 10y ago
  The battery life of the DS3 was excellent, the ds4 is atrocious
  - karlgrz 10y ago
    Agreed.
xkcd-sucks 10y ago
If you're using Ubuntu-ish Linux, PS3 controllers have been supported for a while, search for a package. Wired is generally more robust than Bluetooth. If you're using Windows, ScpToolkit works really well ( https://github.com/nefarius/ScpToolkit https://github.com/nefarius/ScpToolkit ). There are also lots of scammy adware-ridden ps3 controller drivers which are easier to find on Google
- karlgrz 10y ago
  Agreed, PS3 controller wired on linux seems to just work for me for most controller games.
ascagnel_ 10y ago
The article mentions that there's experimental support for DirectInput devices, which would include the Wiimote and PS3's controller.
- justinclift 10y ago
  Thanks, didn't know that. :)

Eridrus 10y ago

With the not mentioned massive downside: it only works when you distribute your game through Steam.

vollmond 10y ago
I don't think that's accurate anymore. Here's a 4-month-old reddit thread helping someone get an Origin game working with the SC. You may have to launch the game through Steam on your PC, but not necessarily acquire it through the Steam distribution system. edit: forgot the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamController/comments/53ftxp/support_steam_and_nonsteam_games/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamController/comments/53ftxp/sup...
- Eridrus 10y ago
  Well that's good.
- ferdbold 10y ago
  Can confirm. I play Final Fantasy XIV as a non-steam game with my Steam Controller and don't lose any features, including the ability to share mappings with the community. As a nice plus, it even works in the launcher which is a separate process, so I can fully play from the couch without fiddling with my computer (most of the time!)
  - rjbwork 10y ago
    I've been playing Elder Scrolls Online with my XBox 360 controller. I tried using my steam controller but it just felt a bit clunky.
- paulmd 10y ago
  Another fun fact: you can set pretty much anything up as a non-steam game if you want, which is good for doing things that the Steam Link doesn't normally support. For example, you can set up VLC and use it to stream movies over to your TV. Or a web browser would probably work too. I would think the only exception would be things that use HDCP protection, like maybe Netflix.

ChrisClark 10y ago

That is a very in depth article. Seems like everything you'd ever need to know is there.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

okreallywtf 10y ago

I'm typically a keyboard and mouse gamer but I do really like the steam controller. I played psychonauts with it all the way through (having used keyboard and mouse the first time I played it) and I loved it. I didn't do massive customization but I did play with it and I have so far been impressed how good a lot of the default configurations have been.

jc4p 10y ago

I'm still working my way through this article (after watching the video at the beginning) but one random comment about the Steam Controller I want to drop in: I use the Steam Link + Steam Controller to play games from my PC in my home office on my TV in my living room, a lot. I would say in the last year I've spent at least 80-100 hours using my Steam Controller in different situations and games. It's hit or miss in many games, the best experience I've had with it is in Civilization. In some games it's _so_ close to perfect but the game disables mouse-input if you are using a controller, which means you can't use the Steam Controller to its full capability. All in all, I mostly use my Xbox controllers (connected to my PC via the Microsoft adapter) to play on my Steam Link, mainly because the Steam Controller just feels cheap. When they first talked about open sourcing all the designs for it I was hoping someone would take the specs and make a all-metal version of the controller, with some more heft. I love the Steam controller, but it just feels so cheap so that when any growing-pains pains get in my way, it's one more negative against it compared to just using my other controllers. I may be part of a small niche market but I would gladly pay $150-$250 for a good feeling controller that does exactly what the Steam Controller does. I think if I paid a bit more for it and it felt more premium, I'd be more invested in taking the time to configure it just right.

larsiusprime 10y ago
> but the game disables mouse-input if you are using a controller, which means you can't use the Steam Controller to its full capability. Yeah, the Valve team (and me, I'm the OP) are specifically pushing hard on this -- an emerging best practice is to always allow simultaneous mouse & gamepad input.
- jc4p 10y ago
  I'm only halfway through the written post right now but it's absolutely amazing so far. Thank you for writing this!
  - larsiusprime 10y ago
    I should also make sure to mention that most popular controller models are now supported by the Steam Controller configurator, so if the main thing that appealed to you was the configuration, you can get that with a DS4, an XBox360 pad, an XBox One controller, or basically any XInput device. There's also some experimental DInput support, too. But if what you want is just exactly the Valve Steam Controller model with more heft, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

rasz_pl 10y ago

Wow this was painful. All that work, all that effort just to please people refusing to use the _only_ proper control option = keyboard and mouse. Of course on the other end of the spectrum we have massive dumbing down of games due to console and phone/tablet market forcing its limited control schemes. You might get angry and even down mod me, but just look at all the examples, at the end of the day its all about replicating/simulating the mouse. We dont have anything better than mouse for analog input[1]. This is why every competitive game with analog input is played with a mouse. There are no Dota/LOL tournament finalists playing on a touchpad, no Overwatch joystick champions, no Starcraft 200 amp trackball masters, no CS gamepad leaderboard presence. [1] except steering wheel for car games, and joysticks for flight games. Those two work fine on a pad.

randomdrake 10y ago

I was extremely excited to try out the Steam Controller. I've been a fan of Valve and Steam for a very, very long time. It was a hugely fantastic letdown on every single front. I was hoping that purchasing a Steam Controller would let me play some of the games that were clearly controller-based like Rocket League, or other action-type games not particularly well-suited for keyboard and mouse. The controller feels plasticky, poorly balanced, and fragile. Give it a gentle shake and you can actually hear the buttons moving around. Every single game I wanted to play required configuration of some sort or simply didn't work. I even bought games like Rocket League specifically to make use of the controller. Instead of just working. I had to unplug the USB dongle a couple of times, setup some manual configuration, only to have it still not work, have to be blown all away and reset back to default. It eventually worked... until the next time I went to play and sure as hell: I had to restart Steam a couple times, re-plug in the USB dongle a few times, and eventually the controller was properly identified and working. The sheer number of incorrect options available for this thing make it useless. Should it emulate keyboard? Is it a gamepad? Joystick? Mouse and gamepad? Mouse and joystick? I lamented my purchase and wished I would've bought a more standard controller like an Xbox controller or a PlayStation controller as this was a nightmare. The article appears to be heading down the right track, with trying to get developers on board with mapping actions instead of buttons, but I simply don't have the time to tinker with something like a controller. When I want to play a video game, I want to sit and play a video game. I spoked to some of my game development friends about it and every one of them said that controller and device support was among one of the most mind-numbingly frustrating and difficult parts of cross-platform development. The last time I tried the Steam Controller, I fired it up and none of it worked. I could see the controller was detected, but nothing worked. The mouse pad, buttons, controls, nothing. This had happened so many times before. I installed the beta version of Steam, browsed forums for fixes, and everything. I tried very hard to like this peripheral but it was a complete failure. I'm very hesitant to try even more configuration options considering how much time I sunk into it last time. I literally gave up on having a controller-based gaming experience with my computer, got a PS4 for the holidays, and haven't looked back. I still play games on my computer, but I gave up on the dream of having a nice controller-based gaming experience on my computer.

xanderstrike 10y ago

wincy 10y ago

I like the idea of the steam controller. However, I have a 21 month old and the Steam Controller survived for precisely two days before being broken. My Xbox one controller and PS4 controllers have endured months of baby shenanigans and are fine. It'll take them a few iterations before the can match the quality and durability of the big players in the controller field.

chc 10y ago
I have two Xbox One controllers that have developed such bad analog stick drift that they're unusable, and I know other people (IRL, not random folks I Googled) who have the same problem. I also have a PS4 controller that completely stopped working because it fell four feet onto a carpet. Given how many dead controllers I've seen without even any baby to blame, I'm not sure the Steam Controller necessarily that much worse.
- maccard 10y ago
  That's incredibly bad luck. I've currently got 2 dualshock 4 controllers (the launch ones with the known fault of the dodgy analog grip), anxbox 360 controller and an Xbox one controller that are used regularly. (Xbox one controller used in work for ~4 hours a day maybe?) and the only issue aside from the known DS4 fault is that my Xbox 360 cable needed the removable connector replaced. Mind you, I don't regularly drop my controllers from 4ft (1.3m) either, so I can't comment on that.

llukas 10y ago

I feel like I need PhD for steam controller configuration. There should be some companion AI app to speed out process of setting this up. ;)

nerflad 10y ago
> I feel like I need a PhD for steam controller configuration. If you think that's bad, try using their map editor[0]. [0]https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Hammer_Editor https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Hammer_Editor
Sargos 10y ago
There's a 99% chance that someone has done the hard work for you and made your perfect configuration. Try the top community configs. They are usually the best. I've never had to tinker much with my SC because people before me already have.

lewisl9029 10y ago

> Aside: my (personal!) hope is that the Steam Controller initiative will eventually become a new universal -- and open -- standard for PC gaming input. I'm definitely not speaking for Valve on this particular point as I have no idea what their long term plans are. That is my hope as well, but for that to happen the configurator probably needs to become an independent application that's not tied to the Steam client.

ezconnect 10y ago

I bought this controller but I haven't used it much because everything feels different. The buttons are small and the depth of travel is so deep compared to other common controllers.

clarry 10y ago

Our input APIs are full of poor assumptions, lackluster abstractions and arbitrary boundaries. It could've been fixed decades ago, but nobody seems to have cared. Instead, we're retrofitting on top of retrofitting and it's not clear that we'll ever replace the lower layers with a sane API instead of just hiding the shit under yet another layer. I should be able to bind any button that sends a signal my computer can understand -- to any application, any action. It should not matter whether it's a keyboard button, a mose button, a mose thumb button, a joystick button, or my belly button... as long as a driver can detect the signal, the code to make arbitrary buttons bindable is trivial, yet people have just looked at the physical objects the buttons are placed on, and then draw an API for each object, with built in assumptions. This is how we get mice that also report themselves as an USB keyboard, and half the thumb buttons do not work in most applications (becaues they're reported as mouse buttons by default and handling more than 3 or 5 mouse buttons seems to require higher intelligence) and, well, the other half overlap with keyboard keys I'd prefer to use for different functions. It's nice that someone's working on this but I feel like this steam configurator is yet another proprietary layer, a hack on top of hacks, and so people just lazily depend on it.

dtech 10y ago
I think you're oversimplifying things a bit. Yes, a lot of HID have a concept of a simple button press/click/action which you can abstract away, but there are many actions that don't directly map to that: function keys, lights, analog inputs (i.e. thumbstick), rumble. And then you have the devices which don't really map to buttons like trackpads, draw tablets, face/eye tracking and Wii Mote-like devices. Your argument is a bit like saying it's stupid we have all these Graphics API's, it should be unified a long time ago since all they do is set pixels on a monitor to a certain color.
- clarry 10y ago
  Function keys are still just keys, there is nothing special about them. If anything, the problems are caused precisely because of people thinking like you, thinking that some input is somehow very special when it really isn't. That's how we got where we are. Yes, I focused on buttons only, because that is the lowest bar (and we've yet to cross that). Yes, I am fully aware that there are other kinds of inputs. We've had "analog" inputs for decades. Sliders, joysticks, sensors, etcetra. There is nothing difficult about them. All we need is a driver to understand the inputs, optionally identify them with a name, symbol, intended purpose or default function and other metadata, and export through an API that allows applications to easily map things to arbitrary inputs. And allow the user to filter inputs at a lower level; for example, if he finds that input device 6 has a nice input 17 that takes values in the range [0 to 255] that he'd like to treat as a binary input that reads high in [0 to 126] range and otherwise low, that should again be possible and very easy to do as long as the underlying API is sane. Rumble and force feedback, keyboard leds, gpios in output mode, etc. are outputs, which could be exposed through a similar, arbitrarily mappable mechanism. We've had all these for decades, and we've yet to cross the lowest bar of making all simple buttons bindable everywhere through a uniform API. It is not hard, nobody just wants to do it (at a low level, USB HID comes surprisingly close! But then it has its struggles, what with the default keyboard mode that requires a bitfield for modifiers and bytes for other scancodes), and in the name of compatibility, we just keep piling hacks on top of legacy. And my mouse's thumb buttons are still useless most of the time.

shanselman 10y ago

I feel like the Steam Controller is destined to be the BetaMax of controllers. It may be magic. You may love it and hold on to the idea that it's going to win and take over the world. I WANT to love my Steam Controller. I take it out weekly, try to configure stuff for Skyrim, or Civ, or even just Doom, and I fail. It feels cheap. It's plasticy and cheap. Until there's a Steam "Elite" that doesn't feel like $10 of plastic, it's always gonna be Betamax - technically superior, but losing the core market.

shmerl 10y ago

The main concern raised, how can you use it without Steam? This isn't very promising: > Aside: my (personal!) hope is that the Steam Controller initiative will eventually become a new universal -- and open -- standard for PC gaming input. I'm definitely not speaking for Valve on this particular point as I have no idea what their long term plans are. Tying hardware to a distributor is a nasty practice. While there is now a Steam-less driver for the controller[1], if developers will start using these new APIs, how is it supposed to work for games released through GOG for instance? Are Valve planning to release these APIs as FOSS and without tying them to Steam? I'd say developers should not fall for this lock-in, until it becomes truly open. 1. https://github.com/kozec/sc-controller https://github.com/kozec/sc-controller

digi_owl 10y ago

While i like the idea of the controller, i dislike how everything gaming has to be hogtied to the Steam client.

petetnt 10y ago

The article is excellent and I recommend it to anyone playing games on a PC. I also love my Steam Controller. The software was a little and miss but less and less by the day. For example I had sometimes problems autoloading my configs, now I don't even have to play attention to it. It just works. My mind was blown when I configured the Steam controller to work as a Dolphin (Wii Emulator) controller: super accurate pointer controls through the trackpad. I mapped the motion controls to only work while holding the left hand pad; no more missed motions. I didn't like certain button mappings, so I switched them around: perfect. I wanted to use my PS3 controller instead and it worked out of the box with nearly the same config. Endless possibilities for tinkering, but also (almost every time) works out of the box: just like good PC experience should be.

Neliquat 10y ago

Wow, all these issues and I have been loving my steam controller with no issues for a while now. I think expecting it to be a mouse or traditional gamepad is the problem. It is its own interface, and a good one at that. It is good enough to roughly approximate both, but isnt really either. Everyone looking for a familiar experince is obviously going to complain.

michaelbuddy 10y ago

man, the steam controllers shape, I just don't get it. I don't see how they landed on the shape of the handholds and all the angles in it. It's operation I'm happy with, though the dongle has proved to be easy to break. I was bummed on the controller, till I saw you could aim by moving the entire controller around like an air mouse. That ended up being a fresh control scheme for me, though I know the PS4 controller can do it for on-screen keyboard use. Would love to see some revised shapes to it. I really dig how it can move the mouse when the software is on even on the desktop. If you don't midn keeping steam running it's a fairly capable to surf with. Though admittedly I haven't done everything. It took a long time for it to come out. I wonder if they are working on a new generation in secret because they know they might not sell as many right now. I think it feels premium, but the shape is not ergonomic to me whatsoever.