17 hours
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- JojoWakaki@lemmy.worldEnglish2 hours
Change my mind: Xbox-X controller are best controllers.
They are asymmetrical, arguably better from ergonomics. They have replaceable batteries (AA rechargeable batteries have been a thing for half a century). If the battery gets too old to hold a good charge, i can get new (rechargeable) batteries without having to fiddle about to change the internal batteries.
It’s about €60 which goes on sale occasionally and can grab it as low as €40. Perhaps lower but that’s the lowest I’ve seen.
The downsides: due to replaceable AA battery, hull effect sticks are impossible due to them requiring a consistent output. Mouse movement is not a thing unless if you are on steam then it can be programmed different ways (mouse bindings or pressing xbox button and right analog stick and bumpers).
37 minutesThe downsides: due to replaceable AA battery, hull effect sticks are impossible due to them requiring a consistent output.
So basically it’s the worst controller imaginable?
- Butterphinger@lemmy.zipEnglish46 minutes
hull effect sticks are impossible due to them requiring a consistent output.
record skip
wat?
Stick placement is not really a factor for ergonomics for me. I had used an xbox controllers for a long time, but now I have a PS5 controller as my current go to. The biggest thing that makes a difference is shape and how it sits in your hands, and for me the PS5 controller is just simply better than the Xbox controller.
I think the best way I can describe the difference between the two is that to be comfortable the xbox controller sits on my fingers where as the PS5 controller sits in my palms. I can also throw in a few other examples of this, PS4 sits in my fingers, but also has the worlds worst and most uncomfortable triggers. The Switch pro controller sits mostly in my palms and is better than the xbox controller but only has digital triggers.
As for the battery, internal batteries are annoying if you can not replace them. According to gamers nexus you can tear down and replace the battery fairly easily in the steam controller, and apparently valve plan to work with iFixit again for spares. So I don’t think this is a big difference either way because of the benefits you get from having the higher powered internal battery.
That also leads to by far the biggest pro. Repair-ability. The steam controller if it is supported like the steam deck is just going to be better.
- muhyb@programming.devEnglish8 hours
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.
- 6 hours
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.
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
- warmaster@lemmy.worldEnglish6 hours
Fuck. I was hoping to buy 4 for my kids. Imagine 5-8 y/o holding $400 in their hands.
- 8 hours
While we’re on the subject. Who can recommend me and better cheaper alternative?
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.
- excral@feddit.orgEnglish8 hours
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.
- 12 hours
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).
- sanpo@sopuli.xyzEnglish13 minutes
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.
- tomalley8342@lemmy.worldEnglish15 hours
“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.
- dangrousperson@feddit.orgEnglish2 hours
Then don’t buy the Steam controller. I would assume 99.9% of those interested in the “Steam” Controller will have a Steam account
- MurrayL@lemmy.worldEnglish14 hours
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.
- AnimalsDream@slrpnk.netEnglish7 hours
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.
- warmaster@lemmy.worldEnglish6 hours
The day GabeN dies I will fear for my game library and all the Steam hardware I’ve bought.
- 12 hours
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.
- 11 hours
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.)
- nullify3112@lemmy.worldEnglish2 hours
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.
- tomalley8342@lemmy.worldEnglish10 hours
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.
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.
- 11 hours
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).
- Stupendous@lemmy.worldEnglish8 hours
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
- 11 hours
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.
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?
- Anaeijon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish3 hours
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.
- nullify3112@lemmy.worldEnglish2 hours
Opus Magnum, Dwarf Fortress, Noita, Rim World… so many games would be unplayable on Steam Deck without the track pads.
- KiwiTB@lemmy.worldEnglish5 hours
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.
- 8 hours
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.
- SandLight@lemmy.worldEnglish9 hours
I wouldn’t be able to play factorio without them. I also like to make touch menus for things
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.
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.
- 12 hours
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.
- 16 hours
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.
- Viirax@piefed.socialEnglish3 hours
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.
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 :)
- ugo@feddit.itEnglish12 hours
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.
- 12 hours
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.
