7 ms·

Why, just why won't any of the competitors make one of these handhelds with at least the same amount and types of input options as the Steam Deck. I'd love a hi

Why, just why won't any of the competitors make one of these handhelds with at least the same amount and types of input options as the Steam Deck. I'd love a higher performance handheld but none of them have two trackpads, gyro input and four back buttons, so I'm stuck with the Deck.

rtkwe 2y ago
It's an extra cost that doesn't add much to the device for north of 90% of their intended audience. I love my Steam Deck but barely use the trackpads except for the rare times I need the keyboard or I wind up in the desktop doing something.
- bsimpson 2y ago
  The Go S appears to only have one rear button on each side. I've played half a dozen games on the original Go, and I don't think I've used more than one rear button. In Half Life, it's more comfortable to hold for crouch. In one of the Spider Man games, it expected a trackpad click, which was easier to perform with a rear button. Since games have been designed to be playable with only the face buttons, there's not always obvious utility for extras. Maybe as premium controllers become more popular, this will change. For now, I can definitely see the argument that 4 buttons are superfluous (except for standardization).
  - MoreMoore 2y ago
    Just because everything is bound to the face buttons doesn't make it the best solution. Developers make do with what they have. Extra buttons mean I don't have to move my finger off the trackpad or joystick every time I want to do a common action, particularly while aiming the mouse cursor.
  - rtkwe 2y ago
    I do enjoy the back buttons even on games that were originally XBox controller games, those are relatively cheap compared to the trackpads.
  - philistine 2y ago
    Back buttons have turned me from an inattentive nincompoop at Dark Souls to a true Souls head.
segasaturn 2y ago
I have a Deck and almost never use the track pads, they feel totally redundant to me. The right one is pretty good on desktop mode and in games that aren't Deck-optimized and need a mouse, though. What are you using both of them for?
- stackskipton 2y ago
  I use them to play Stellaris/Rimworld/Oxygen Not Included. Rimworld/ONI you could do with Joysticks but I'm just quicker with trackpads and it's finer tuned control.
- 8note 2y ago
  i use the right one as a mouse and the left one as a scroll wheel
- lawn 2y ago
  The right trackpad is absolutely a killer feature. Rollercoaster Tycoon, FTL, point and click games are games the trackpad has vastly improved for me.
- MoreMoore 2y ago
  I pretty much use them constantly. They're useful for playing any shooters or anything with mouse look, they're great for RTS, city builders, point and click adventure, Factorio, etc. Currently I'm playing Dawn of War, Ground Control, 688i Hunter Killer and Fleet Command, which basically requires trackpads. I also play Stronghold Crusader, Warhammer Gladius, Company of Heroes, Warframe, WoW and other MMOs on it. I honestly don't know how people get by without them, they're extremely useful. Even for emulators, they're great for binding all kinds of extra functions. Using the right trackpad also means I can free up the right joystick for other stuff, and there's always enough other stuff I want to access regularly enough.
- ekianjo 2y ago
  > I have a Deck and almost never use the track pads, This reads like "I never play mouse driven games"
ThatPlayer 2y ago
XInput is still the standard API for controllers on PC, and there's no way for it to support additional inputs. So this is the same issue with adding gryo and extra buttons to any controller: they don't work without software to translate the new inputs to those standard either XInput or keyboard and mouse events. Like how ds4windows is used to translate Playstation controllers gryo and touchpad. Even the Steam controller requires Steam. I don't think oems are investing in the software to do the same.
- throwaway314155 2y ago
  This runs SteamOS. That ships with the necessary controller translation layer you're describing.
  - ThatPlayer 2y ago
    This, the Lenovo Legion Go S—Powered by SteamOS, shares the hardware as the Windows variant, Lenovo Legion Go S. They're not building hardware specific for SteamOS yet. I think the Orange Pi Neo is the only (other) one that's targeting Linux only. And they do have touchpads
  - bsimpson 2y ago
    It's TBD how it will handle extra buttons. I believe Valve has a kernel module for the Steam Deck controller. Lenovo's current handheld exposes an Xbox controller and a USB device with extra buttons. Handheld Daemon synthesizes them into a virtual PlayStaton controller. If you tried to use the current SteamOS without Handheld Daemon, the 6 extra buttons wouldn't work. The community is waiting to see if Valve ships a more robust solution that Linux can standardize on, or if we'll still be using daemons like HHD for devices that don't have official Valve support.
- badsectoracula 2y ago
  Steam already has Steam Input, a translation layer that converts between various input events to whatever the game expects. It is how i got to play the original System Shock 2 on my Steam Deck even though the game was designed with a keyboard and mouse in place.

rtkwe 2y ago

It's an extra cost that doesn't add much to the device for north of 90% of their intended audience. I love my Steam Deck but barely use the trackpads except for the rare times I need the keyboard or I wind up in the desktop doing something.

bsimpson 2y ago
The Go S appears to only have one rear button on each side. I've played half a dozen games on the original Go, and I don't think I've used more than one rear button. In Half Life, it's more comfortable to hold for crouch. In one of the Spider Man games, it expected a trackpad click, which was easier to perform with a rear button. Since games have been designed to be playable with only the face buttons, there's not always obvious utility for extras. Maybe as premium controllers become more popular, this will change. For now, I can definitely see the argument that 4 buttons are superfluous (except for standardization).
- MoreMoore 2y ago
  Just because everything is bound to the face buttons doesn't make it the best solution. Developers make do with what they have. Extra buttons mean I don't have to move my finger off the trackpad or joystick every time I want to do a common action, particularly while aiming the mouse cursor.
- rtkwe 2y ago
  I do enjoy the back buttons even on games that were originally XBox controller games, those are relatively cheap compared to the trackpads.
- philistine 2y ago
  Back buttons have turned me from an inattentive nincompoop at Dark Souls to a true Souls head.

segasaturn 2y ago

I have a Deck and almost never use the track pads, they feel totally redundant to me. The right one is pretty good on desktop mode and in games that aren't Deck-optimized and need a mouse, though. What are you using both of them for?

stackskipton 2y ago
I use them to play Stellaris/Rimworld/Oxygen Not Included. Rimworld/ONI you could do with Joysticks but I'm just quicker with trackpads and it's finer tuned control.
8note 2y ago
i use the right one as a mouse and the left one as a scroll wheel
lawn 2y ago
The right trackpad is absolutely a killer feature. Rollercoaster Tycoon, FTL, point and click games are games the trackpad has vastly improved for me.
MoreMoore 2y ago
I pretty much use them constantly. They're useful for playing any shooters or anything with mouse look, they're great for RTS, city builders, point and click adventure, Factorio, etc. Currently I'm playing Dawn of War, Ground Control, 688i Hunter Killer and Fleet Command, which basically requires trackpads. I also play Stronghold Crusader, Warhammer Gladius, Company of Heroes, Warframe, WoW and other MMOs on it. I honestly don't know how people get by without them, they're extremely useful. Even for emulators, they're great for binding all kinds of extra functions. Using the right trackpad also means I can free up the right joystick for other stuff, and there's always enough other stuff I want to access regularly enough.
ekianjo 2y ago
> I have a Deck and almost never use the track pads, This reads like "I never play mouse driven games"

ThatPlayer 2y ago

XInput is still the standard API for controllers on PC, and there's no way for it to support additional inputs. So this is the same issue with adding gryo and extra buttons to any controller: they don't work without software to translate the new inputs to those standard either XInput or keyboard and mouse events. Like how ds4windows is used to translate Playstation controllers gryo and touchpad. Even the Steam controller requires Steam. I don't think oems are investing in the software to do the same.

throwaway314155 2y ago
This runs SteamOS. That ships with the necessary controller translation layer you're describing.
- ThatPlayer 2y ago
  This, the Lenovo Legion Go S—Powered by SteamOS, shares the hardware as the Windows variant, Lenovo Legion Go S. They're not building hardware specific for SteamOS yet. I think the Orange Pi Neo is the only (other) one that's targeting Linux only. And they do have touchpads
- bsimpson 2y ago
  It's TBD how it will handle extra buttons. I believe Valve has a kernel module for the Steam Deck controller. Lenovo's current handheld exposes an Xbox controller and a USB device with extra buttons. Handheld Daemon synthesizes them into a virtual PlayStaton controller. If you tried to use the current SteamOS without Handheld Daemon, the 6 extra buttons wouldn't work. The community is waiting to see if Valve ships a more robust solution that Linux can standardize on, or if we'll still be using daemons like HHD for devices that don't have official Valve support.
badsectoracula 2y ago
Steam already has Steam Input, a translation layer that converts between various input events to whatever the game expects. It is how i got to play the original System Shock 2 on my Steam Deck even though the game was designed with a keyboard and mouse in place.