Player One writes "Although Valve always talked about the touchpads and buttons of the Steam Controller, it seems that it has some hidden features that only some users know about. While you can set your Controller to emulate a keyboard and mouse combo, there is a little hidden option that can allow you to aim by doing motions in the air. Of course, this won’t be accurate or sensitive enough to give you precise control, but it can be a great tool for fine-tuning your aim when you can’t get that 100% accuracy on the pad."
TheGamer Writes "I really tried with the Steam Controller. Valve's first foray into creating its own bespoke gamepad tailored specifically for PC gaming was, putting it mildly, poorly received. It launched in 2015, but by 2019 the company had quietly discontinued it. However, while everyone was gleefully dumping on it, I was determined to get my money's worth. I bounced off it immediately like everyone else, but I thought: Valve is smart."
They should of added some sort of center point on the right track pad, maybe a dip in the center or a slight bump, I think that could help in games for controllers?
They really just needed the second stick for me. A control scheme alone the lines of the deck would have been a big improvement
Still use it for controlling my living room pc. Never liked it for games. One neat thing is the scroll-wheel function by dragging your finger around the perimeter of the left circlepad - clockwise for down, counter-clockwise for up.
It's primary value truly is in games that don't support any kind of controller input. You can do a decent job of grafting something usable for games with only direct mouse input, like strategy games and the like, thanks to the touchpads.
Outside that? The customization is really quite excellent, but it is almost impossible to use in place of a traditional controller in a lot of circumstances. It's a nice niche option to have, but I was certainly never able to have it completely replace an XB or PS controller when a game called for one.
Valve's newly revealed Steam Deck is the Frankenstein resurrection of two of their most notorious products, the Steam Link and the Steam Controller.
The same could be said about the Switch. It is a combination of the WiiU game pad and the nunchucks. Neither of those were incredible devices either but the refined combination of the two created a highly successful device.
The nunchuck was one of the most successful accessories in gaming. It made a ton of Wii games better
It was so good they immediately transitioned back to traditional control schemes after the novelty wore off from grandparents playing Wii bowling twice and ordering a Wii fit.
@ Not
Wii U utilized nunchucks
Switch had a configuration that mimics the nunchuck configuration
Why does it feel like the media is trying to kill this thing before it gets a chance to even be released?
Yeah I don't really get it. I know Valve have a sketchy history when it comes to hardware but to me it seems the Steam Deck gets far more right than it gets wrong.
Of course we've only seen games playing on prototype systems but already it seems really polished and well thought out. I have faith that the Steam Deck will be a success. I've reserved a 512gb model and the estimated availability is Q2 2022 (UK) so plenty of time to see how it progresses in the coming months. Right now I think it looks really promising, but if, when it launches it's not all that, then I'll cancel and I'll have lost nothing. If, on the other hand, it proves to be every bit as good as promised then I'll be happy to be in the queue 👍
@King_noctis
I didn't say anything about CBR, don't put words in my mouth 😕
but at the same time yeah whoever wrote could be a Nintendo fanboy
Because its open source. And the media like closed systems that they can control through proxy.
Yes but you’d have to really dig inside to do such a thing, I’m sure people will make step by step YouTube videos on how to upgrade parts, tho you’d void the warranty.
It is cool and all,.. but the thing is huge,.. might as well get a gaming laptop at that size
Lol it's barely 2 inches longer, you want me to get a big ass gaming laptop cuz of 2 extra Inches? Make it make sense
Seems you can't please everyone. I've read another comment saying the battery is not long enough. Well, a larger battery would mean the handheld would be much larger and heavier, and possibly a little pricier. Now you're saying it's too huge. Well, if it's smaller then the thing would suffer from a hardware downgrade, and cooling might be affected. Then someone else will say it's too weak. It's an endless cycle of complaints
Valve has lost a patent lawsuit over the Steam Controller to the tune of $4 million — and it could have to pay out even more based on the court's decision.
gotta love those patent trolls, invent something in a drawing and start suing people, scum
Goes to show you that the patent system is extremely flawed. Should not be able to be a patent without a working prototype at least. If you're to lazy, not intelligent, or creative enough to take your idea from a scribble on some paper to an actual somewhat working product, you should not be allowed a patent.
Most that file patent law suits like these are just con artist looking for the quick easy buck. If these losers spent half as much energy following through on these supposed patents they would probably make more than they do from these lawsuits considering their lawyer is the bigger winner after their cut.
This isn't really a patent troll. They warned Valve ahead of time to change their design because it was infringing their patent. Valve released the controller anyway.
Patent trolls don't warn companies, they just sit and wait.
Clearly someone didn't read the article. They aren't patent trolls if they "warned," Steam before hand that they may potentially be infringing on their patent well before the controller was released for sale. Then again, it's no surprise the average IQ of comments here is just barely room temperature.
Ironburg Inventions is a subsidiary of Corsair, which also owns Scuf. Hardly a patent troll when they have had the design on the market for many years.
Let's see if this new controller they are working on infringes on another patent Ironbug warned Valve about the controller potentially infringing on the patent yet they still sold it. That right there shows that Valve knew and still moved a head to release it so they are at fault for this one.
Read the patent and look at the pictures... The patent has two analog sticks and 1 track pad on the left side. Vavle's controller has 2 track pads and an analog stick. The pictures on the patent look like that were made by a 10 year old trying to draw a controller. The track pad and analog sticks as like the same size in the troll's patent and look exactly the same...
https://patents.google.com/...
Part of that quality patent summary:
"The present invention provides a hand held controller for a video game console having a hard outer case and a plurality of controls located on the front and top edge of the controller. The controller is shaped to be held in both hands of the user such that the user's thumbs are positioned to operate controls located on the front of the controller and the user's index fingers are positioned to operate controls located on the top edge of the controller. The controller further includes one or more additional controls located on the back of the controller in a position to be operated by the user's other fingers.
In one embodiment, each additional control is an elongate member which is inherently resilient and flexible such that it can be displaced by a user to activate control function.
Preferably, each elongate member is mounted within a respective recess located in the case of the controller.
Preferably, each elongate member comprises an outermost surface which is disposed in close proximity to the outermost surface of the controller such that the user's finger may be received in said respective recess.
Preferably, each elongate member has a thickness less than 10 mm thick, more preferably less than 5 mm thick, and most desirably between 1 mm and 3 mm."
Such quality...
If you want to see a real patent not by a troll, check out Sony's PS5 controller patent.
https://www.freepatentsonli...
Replies(3)
i mean, they've been warned ahead of their release of the controller.
but i feel like 4 mio. is like pocketchange to them at this point.
It's probably just seen as part of the cost of doing business, they're the most profitable American company per employee, I doubt they will have any issue paying it.
Not the first time this type of lawsuit happened. 4 million is peanuts compared to the Immersion vs Sony patent lawsuit where Sony loss and had to pay 97 million plus licensing fees for prior years totalling 53 million. They had to remove the force feedback from the PS3 during the early years until they made an agreement with Immersion. I still have one of those non-force feedback controllers (because "tilt" was the future haha) . MS was sued too, but settled out of court and actually purchased 10% shares of Immersion lol. What that meant was when Immersion won the lawsuit against Sony, MS benefited too
