- cross-posted to:
- controllers@lemmy.world
- pcgaming@lemmy.ca
- cross-posted to:
- controllers@lemmy.world
- pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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Since i play mainly racing games with gyro and racing pedals, I’m seriously considering this one. More so because I’m using OG steam controller as my main controller.
It costs $99/€99/£85/$149 AUD
This is funny, because amer*can currency is nowhere near strong enough to be comparable to EUR now
For reference, $99 are like 85€ nowadays.
Thanks Obama
99€ is with tax and 99$ is pre-tax? No?
kinda-ish, but why is one price sans tax and the others with it
Cuz other countries have strong consumer laws that make it so the price you see is the price you pay. Whereas here in the US we like to hide things like taxes and fees to 1. Make consumers overspend and 2. Make consumers extremely aware of the taxes they pay so that anytime reducing taxes on the rich comes up they think “yeah, I hate taxes, let’s lower them!”
I was pretty excited for this controlled but $149 CAD is too much for me.
250hz? Competition is at 8k already.
This is a nothingburger of an argument. But yeah it’s kinda weird considering the rest of the tech they put in.
Huh? Polling rate is of huge importance for many players. There’s a reason response times are first on the list on Gamepadla.
On a controller ??? I am curious i would think it at most ads latency, so it gives new values every 4ms. But that is already measured in the latency test gamers Nexus did, and it performed very good. I think around 18ms (don’t quote me on that). And what is the reason it’s first on gamepedia ?(just curious not meant in bad faith)
While I kinda understand the steep price, not being able to use with other than Steam is a deal breaker for me. Yes, you can create shortcuts inside Steam and use the controller like that probably but still. On the other hand, I can use the old Steam controller even on a browser alongside with the rest of my OS.
That’s pretty huge to me too. My main use would be with Moonlight, an open source version of Steam Link, and if it can’t connect to that Android TV to begin with, it’s worthless.
Strange that the Xbox and PlayStation controllers are now more open and reusable.
I think it’s only Windows and Mac that are like that. Linux you can install just the steam-devices package for Valve hardware drivers.
Yeah, thinking about how SteamOS works, I think we might actually be in the clear.
The steam-devices package is just udev rules and the drivers are already built into the kernel, right? So there’s a good chance you’ll just already have the drivers!
(…in theory. Debian critters may want to run testing+unstable rather than stable for the next while, if the new steam controller needs specially written drivers that won’t be in current stable.)
– Frost
Probably. I haven’t looked that deep. I only know that Steam Flatpak asks me to install the steam-devices package from my distro for device support until I do.
Good to hear, good to hear.
fuck em
Scoring only 3.5 for software is pretty ridiculous, since Steam runs in every major desktop OS and SteamInput is crazy customizable. Most dedicated software for devices is either Windows-only or hot garbage (or both).
I feel like people, even here in this thread, have no idea what SteamInput is.
I dunno if maybe the original Steam controller had compatibility issues or what, but SteamInput has likely done away with all of that.
If anything, more reviews should lower the score for shitty software.
I love the OG Steam Controller, and I’m getting the new one for sure, but requirement to use Steam for full functionality is a massive downside.
“I don’t want a steam account” should be perfectly justifiable reason in itself. There is no technical reason why they can’t split up steam input from the steam client for base functionality.
Exactly. If Epic released a $99 controller that required EGS running to work people would be up in arms.
I have been thinking about this for a while, and I don’t think I would be.
A few reasons to back this up, firstly Epic have no hardware background and so I have nothing to have previous excitement over. Compared to Valve, where I have used the Index and I own the old steam controller and a Deck. Epic launching a controller just isn’t exciting to me.
Secondly, there are a load of controllers out there, and a lot of good controllers. If I was only able to use the controller within the Epic launcher, I would just get something else.
Thirdly, this would be an epic exclusive, I am not sure I would have actually head about it. They are impressively good at being a marketing black hole.
I would normally be pissed about it, and do tend to get annoyed at every other controller manufacturer who make it necessary to use proprietary apps to make full use of their controllers.
But in the case of Steam, I’m already using their input software with every other controller I use for the simple fact that it is that useful. Also, it’s probably only a matter of time before there are upstream kernel drivers.
The day GabeN dies I will fear for my game library and all the Steam hardware I’ve bought.
Valves contributions to Proton and Wine already leave Linux in a great place for gaming, with or without Steam. Post-Gabe Steam is simply a matter of going back to the high seas. 🏴☠️
If he’s worth his salt, there will be a decent replacement.
Hasn’t someone written a wrapper to use the original Steam Controller without the Steam client software? I thought that was a thing years ago.
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I want to meet the person who would consider buying this but doesn’t have a Steam account.
(I do not think this hypothetical person exists.)
It’s still a negative because what if you decide you move away from Steam. Are you just going to throw the controller in the bin because you can’t use it elsewhere? Are you going to keep the entire Steam client on your machine just because you want to use the controller? And that’s assuming it’s easy to use the controller with non-Steam games. For example from the review they struggled to get the controller to work with KCD2 because they booted it through Epic launcher and they couldn’t set up the launcher through Steam so they had to take a completely different approach to set up the controller just for KCD.
My entire library isn’t on Steam and that includes games I play with a controller. If setting up non-steam games is a pain in the ass for this controller I’m just going to stick to my Xbox controller because that’s pick up and play.
I’m thinking about the people like me who have a Steam account, want this controller, but would also love to use it at our friends’ places where there’s just a Switch 2 or a PS5.
For compatibility, I’m better off using 3rd party controllers.
It’s probably true by definition since I imagine the first batch will only be sold through the steam store 😅. I have the original steam controller and as I’ve been moving towards GOG and Itch my steam client and steam account remains vestigially just as a bloated steam controller driver. Honestly I would also accept it if they let us use the client completely offline without an account as well.
Then don’t buy the Steam controller. I would assume 99.9% of those interested in the “Steam” Controller will have a Steam account
Imagine if Xbox controllers only worked for Game Pass.
so they would have to write and support a completely new userfacing application that would have to run on 3 different OSes and inject into games upon launch. a bit too much effort considering 99% of the audience will use it with Steam.
It’s called driver config and it’s not a tremendously complicated bit of software. Most of its functionality doesn’t need to “inject into games” - it just needs to remap the inputs so the driver can present them in whatever way works for the game. If the game doesn’t support anything sensible, then maybe fancy stuff is warranted, and you might well miss out on that from a driver config utility. But that’s OK.
It would still be better if the controller did not require Steam in order to function.
Even cheap Chinesium USB controllers work out of the box with default drivers pre-installed with Windows and Android (don’t know about other platforms).
I imagine it’ll be a controller of major interest to get an open source driver mainlined in Linux. Less likely to end up plug and play on windows and mac but I can see something happening on those fronts too
Yeah, I reckon it’ll be supported in short order by mainline hid-steam, seeing as the deck controller isn’t much different.
I’ll probably get one for that reason, but I’m not pleased at the lack of dual stage triggers. I also prefer the pads for everything, so my OG will remain primary until it breaks. I’ll probably wait for a sale on this one or snatch additional OGs.
I just plugged in the old Steam Controller on my PC and it works for navigating around KDE just fine. No Steam Client running. Right pad is mouse, right trigger is click, joystick or left pad to scroll up/down.
Weirdly it stops working when I fire up Heroic Launcher so I’ll have to look into that. Works again if I also open the Steam client in the background.
I think that has to do with the old steam controller getting recognized as multiple HIDs, which means Heroic Launcher with activated Gamepad support might not actually work. Try deactivating gamepad support in Heroic (as counter intuitive that might be).
(Can’t try it myself because my ex got my 2 steam controllers for her PC to use as mediacenter from the couch + backup - we used it that way for a good decade and i have no issue learning something else, while she had to learn controllers from scratch when we met and it took a while, and i am not a sadist lol)
Edited to Add: You are using the so called “Snail Mode”, which in addition to being as slow as it gets regarding input sensitivity on the track pad, it also is a fixed configuration which cannot be changed. The right trackpad is a mouse (and identified by the system as such), while most of the buttons and the d-pad map to keyboard commands. Heroic sees a gamepad, but there’s actually no real gamepad input incoming, so it’s not XInput-compatible.
Thanks for all that!
sadly it won’t work with the Switch 2 I assume :c
Blame Nintendo and stop supporting them
Does anyone know if it functions as a normal xinput controller on windows without using steam?
The Controller requires Steam or the Steam Link app. I tested it on GeForce Now via my iPhone and while it did connect over Bluetooth
That doesn’t bode well, but thats also on an iphone.
According to GN’s video, from my understanding it’ll function as a trackpad+keyboard when not running Steam. Hopefully it’ll get an update or 3rd party solution to fix that at some point, but until then, I’ll probably hold off on looking for a way to buy it myself.
I have the old steam controllers and they behave like a mouse on my computers if steam isn’t running. Could be the same thing with the new ones.
According to gamers nexus that is the case.
Fuck. I was hoping to buy 4 for my kids. Imagine 5-8 y/o holding $400 in their hands.
each would be holding $99, innit?
Maybe they’re an octopus.
More, because plus tax!
2 + 2 friends, 4 controllers 🤣
I find it interesting that there appears to be a line (kids that grew up with a Nintendo DS) where people went from loving membrane buttons to hating membrane buttons.
To me, membrane buttons are an absolute Pro.
I don’t think all membranes are equal. Reviews so far are saying the face buttons here are rather quiet but also not as snappy as others (presumably comparing to Deck).
I’d be fine with membrane switches if there were split D-pad options for them. Don’t mind them for buttons, but ever since I got a Stadia controller, I haven’t looked back at membranes for D-pads.
And depending on what you play, membrane controller D-pads wear out unevenly - i had to toss my “Dead Cells”-Controller into my “backup hardware” bin because of the right side input being FAR more easy to press than the left side which messed up more than a few runs - to be fair it took around 6-700hrs of playtime to get there, but it does happen.
Right?! Not to mention the issue with dual inputs when rocking one direction back and forth on the d-pad. Noticed it as I was playing Hollow Knight on my OG Switch with the Switch Pro Controller’s infamous D-pad, which the Switch 2 Pro Controller didn’t even bother fixing.
I went with microswitch buttons for my current controller (cyclone pro) and I honestly regretted it, they feel harder to press and especially hard to spam fast compared to membrane.
Looks fantastic!
I cant pay 100$ for a single controller. Even if it seems like its everything I could want. Just cant spend that much.
While we’re on the subject. Who can recommend me and better cheaper alternative?
Depends on what you want from the controller. Very few have the track pads for example. But there are a lot of good controllers out there these days. I stuck with the Flydigi Vader 4. Gyro that can be mapped to right stick for motion controls in any game. 2 extra buttons, 4 extra back paddles (only 2 are particularly usable on the back). Great polling rate. Xbox ergonomics. Clicky mechanical face buttons. Analog triggers. Hall effect sticks. Customizable RGB but not too much of it. Has 2.4GHz dongle, works with xinput, dinput, and works on Switch.
I think Vader 5 is out now. I think it has TMR sticks but I’m not sure what else is different.
Gamesir Nova Lite 2 is a good budget controller with a lot of the same features for less than an official Xbox controller.
Gamesir G7 Pro is a good alternative to the Vader but I haven’t used it.
8BitDo makes some fun and unique controllers but their latency is not always great, and the ergonomics for the Ultimate feels off to me. I get a lot of use out of their Pro 2 controllers which are really nice for 2D games. They’re basically a Dual shock 4 + SNES controller. Also has gyro, paddles, xinput, dinput, and Switch modes. The Pro 3 is out now with a few more improvements but I’m good for now.
Happy with 8bitdo. Haptics are great.
I’m quite happy with my 8BitDo 2 Ultimate, which has many features of the Steam Controller like TMR sticks, 4 extra rear buttons and gyro and has a better polling rate at 1000 Hz and is cheaper (~$56). It does however lack the track pads and advanced haptic feedback of the Steam Controller.
Thanks!
I recommend the GameSir Super Nova. Probably the best controller I’ve ever used. Not really expensive; costs a little less than standard Xbox/PS controllers in my country. Works on all platforms and comes with a very nice charging dock.
A note for any Windows users. The controller works flawlessly out of the box on Linux, but I’ve been running into issues when trying it on my Windows work machine. For some reason it doesn’t work with the wireless receiver plugged into the charging dock, only with the receiver directly in the PC. Their Windows app doesn’t seem to fix the issue, but offers quite a few customization options.
No trackpads so not entirely better, but the Gulikit Es Pro are a lot cheaper.
Honestly I’ve never found a game where the track pads on the steam deck were ever actually… Useful compared to the normal thumbsticks. Or any games where they actually worked decently as a track pad for a cursor.
Genuinely what exactly is the point of them?
I use it for every first person game for example. It often requires some configuration effort to make it feel great. It’s a lot more precise and direct than sticks, especially when combined with gyro that activates on touch.
If you don’t want to spend time configuring control schemes and you don’t want trackpads or touch sensitive sticks, you’re much better off with a cheaper alternative.
I play a ton of mouse driven games that don’t have gamepad support and it works great there. I would not even consider emulating the mouse with regular sticks, but with touchpad it’s very comfortable
Could not disagree more. Literally any game with mouse input is 1000x more playable
Aiming is way more precise. Not as good as motion aim + Joystick, but there is also no other controller that can dynamically activate motion aim depending on how you touch the Joystick.
It’s essential for navigating menus and windows. Both on a desktop or browser, as well as in any game that clearly has a layout for use with a mouse. I played GuilWars2 on my SteamDeck just fine, thanks to the trackpad (and abundance of modifier keys).
Absolutely essential in Strategy games, where you have to select one of multiple units, pick fields … I don’t get, how people can do this with a Joystick. I know, some of the games are available on console too and work completely with joystic, but it’s just so cumbersome and unintuitive, compared to the trackpad.
What I also used in Guildwars, is the radial menu from Steam, to bind hotkeys to nested menu entries, easy to navigate on the otherwise unused left trackpad. I basically went in and added something like that to most games I play on the Deck.
Opus Magnum, Dwarf Fortress, Noita, Rim World… so many games would be unplayable on Steam Deck without the track pads.
Any game which uses the mouse as it’s main use, Abu game which needs buttons and hotkeys, Abu game which uses analogue input. I don’t think you’ve learned how to use it properly, and that’s okay but something to work on.
I’ve gotten use out of it in minecraft as a numpad. Add 9 buttons, mapped to 1-9, and you can get to any item in your hotbar without shoulder button spam. It’s basically the only way I use it but most of my steam deck hours are in minecraft so it balances out.
personally I like them a lot for cursors, it takes some getting used to but ig I’ve used laptop track pads a lot and I find it very comfortable and natural to use my thumb for it. definitely haven’t used it much for e.g. camera control in a 3d game though, feels awkward every time I’ve tried.
I wouldn’t be able to play factorio without them. I also like to make touch menus for things
I’m about to buy two, let’s gooooo
Polling rate is a hit of a bummer, but then again the Xbox Elite controllers I’ve been using have a lower polling rate and I haven’t really noticed - probably because I’d never use a controller for anything competitive.
Looking forward to clicky switch upgrade kits, love the ones I have for Steam Deck :)
Are there even any controllers with a higher polling rate, though ?
8BitDo Ultimate 2 Controller lineup is at 1000hz
Gamesir G7 Pro 8k and Razer Wolverine V3 go up to 8000hz
A polling rate of 250Hz means that the average latency added due to polling is 2ms. A polling rate of 1000Hz would mean an average of 0.5ms added latency.
Even on a 240Hz screen, the extra latency caused by the polling rate will most likely not amount to even 1 frame of extra delay compared to what you’d get with a polling rate of 1000Hz.
Bluetooth latency is likely going to be one order of magnitude greater than that. I wouldn’t worry about polling rate honestly.
With the trackpads it kinda changes things, I have the og Steam Controller and it polls at 125Hz which is noticeably sluggish on a 240Hz screen. The same might apply here for people using even higher refresh rates (360Hz and 240/480Hz dual mode are getting pretty common), though not nearly to the same extent. Just something to keep in mind.
With regards to the polling rate, I wouldnt worry about it. Gaming Nexus did a deep dive into the latency of the controller, and it is really good. Which is going to be signicicantly more important that the minute difference you would get from increasing polling rate over 250hz.
I’ll watch this when I get a chance, but I’m wondering if the puck actually polls at 1000 Hz but splits it up to 250 Hz per controller. That would be one way to design it for 4 controllers with common industry parts.
EDIT: Watched. GN didn’t check this or even speculate, but the measured latency was excellent with the wireless puck.
