qornea
Much write, very gaming
Steam Controller announced by Valve
Valve has unveiled a controller for Steam that looks refreshingly different
Valve has unveiled a controller for Steam that looks refreshingly different
Take a look at Valve's Steam Controller
- Thread starter qornea
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oltman
New member
i have played games on my tab with two trackpads on the touchscreen, and honestly, it sucks. lets hope this is different!
FriedPet
New member
I agree. Will have to wait and see. I'll put my trust in Valve and be optimistic.
czc
Thread Killer Mk VIII
Well for one your fingers won't be on the screen.
B1nary
New member
The main issue i have with this is that now you will have to learn a whole new set of controls instead of just using the same ones as the xbox.
Then again I suppose you wont have another console if you have a steam-box.
Trackpads don't have any resistance, that satisfying bounce back "feature" when you let go of a stick wont be there
Then again I suppose you wont have another console if you have a steam-box.
Trackpads don't have any resistance, that satisfying bounce back "feature" when you let go of a stick wont be there
MetalSoup
There's a GIF for that
[h=1]"It doesn't feel like a trackpad"[/h]Chris Remo, designer and writer at The Cave developer Double Fine had a hands-on of the Steam Controller at the San Francisco studio.
Remo played a couple different games: Double Fine's upcoming point-and-click adventure gameBroken Age and the already-released platform-adventure game The Cave.
"We just plugged it in, and it worked," he said. "We didn't have special support for it or anything. It worked really, really well. I was really impressed with the mouse imitation. It doesn't feel like a trackpad."
Remo said the controller has a tiny speaker in it that offers audio feedback – a subtle "tick" sound that increases and decreases in speed (he compared it to the Wheel of Fortune wheel's sound), depending on how you use the track pad. If you "fling" your thumb across the trackpad – if it's mapped to the mouse – the ticking increases in speed, and slows down as the virtual momentum of your action slows.
"It sounds like there's actually a mechanical device in there, which really makes it feel mechanical, but not in a clunky way," Remo said. "It just feels really high-tech and precise. … I can't stand trackpads on laptops, and this felt really good to me. There was almost no learning curve as far as accuracy goes."
On Twitter, Ichiro Lambe with AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! developer Dejobaan Games also said the haptic feedback of Valve's new controller was a highlight of the device.
"It feels like you're moving your thumbs over a rough surface, though it's all virtual," Lambe said. "From a tech standpoint, think about something that can click whenever you tell it to... Simple example: you move your finger 1 inch up, and it ticks 10 times...You flick it up, and it starts ticking, like you've spun a wheel."
Remo added that he doesn't really consider the pads to be "trackpads," which, to players and developers, often represent poor feedback. "This is just the opposite of that," he said.
"I don't know if this would necessarily be my first choice for a first-person shooter, because I'm such a mouse-and-keyboard guy normally, but I'd also really like to try it," he said.
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Edelweiss
New member
You guys do realise that these trackpads do have some kind of force feedback system "haptic force feedback" so it is not analagous to your typical generic laptop trackpad. It actually feels like buttons. Apparently.
Still have no idea how this works though, the trackpads I mean.
Still have no idea how this works though, the trackpads I mean.
Ike_009
Assassin of Accountants
They tallied about it in PM, from what I remember its using vibrations to mimic the button pushing feeling.
It's weird to explain but it's basically a method to give force feedback to a touch screen.
DieGrootHammer
Daddy TK
For one thing it looks really great. I am quite comfortable with a controller playing games, so I wonder how easily you will move over from say an Xbox controller to this. Also, being a Steam development, this will be used to play games that were built in the first place for the PC, so I wonder how the leap will be from a normal mouse and keyboard layout to this. Or will Steam games be optimised in some way to use this controller better...
