The Steam Controller

[Hoodoo]

It has come to my attention that this controller exists. It's cheap. Is this the best controller for PC?

 

[AetherVagrant]

I want one if its possible to map it to emulate mouse in pc games running on android.
So far its not great but nothing else allows for the same flexibility of control. As in there are better controllers, but none that let you trackpad and dpad in the same device

 

[Hoodoo]

What's the point of this controller tho? Are there any games where using this controller is better than either mouse and Keyboard or a standard Xbox/PS4 controller?

 

[Excidium II]

What's the point of this controller tho? Are there any games where using this controller is better than either mouse and Keyboard or a standard Xbox/PS4 controller?

The point is that they were trying to sell the idea of living room console-like PCs and they needed a controller that could play mouse-driven stuff. Didn't see much viable from what I've seen on videos.

 

[Sam Ecorners]

It's pretty shit

 

[nikolokolus]

I bought one awhile back, but haven't really been able to get used to it. It just has a very weird feel to it that isn't exactly egonomic or intuitive (and I've never really been a console user except for the original Nintendo way back in the day, so it's not a matter of deprogramming muscle memory or anything like that.)

 

[Metro]

Use a mouse for 99.99% of the games you play and buy some cheap $10 controller for Dark Souls 1/2/3.

 

[Davaris]

Sigh... The dream is to lounge around and play mouse driven games. I don't want to sit bolt upright in a chair, because I'm not a lego brick. Why is something like that so difficult to make?

 

[Ellef]

Sigh... The dream is to lounge around and play mouse driven games. I don't want to sit bolt upright in a chair, because I'm not a lego brick. Why is something like that so difficult to make?

Use wireless gear and hook your PC up to a TV if you can't sit stand playing at your desk.

 

[sullynathan]

get an xbox controller

 

[Mexi]

Sigh... The dream is to lounge around and play mouse driven games. I don't want to sit bolt upright in a chair, because I'm not a lego brick. Why is something like that so difficult to make?

Use wireless gear and hook your PC up to a TV if you can't sit stand playing at your desk.

I have that set up right now. It's not that good. Controller is king for just lounging around and playing games. Keyboard and mouse suck for that, just too damn bulky.

As for controllers. XBOX controller is the best. I've read the reviews on the Steam controller after asking how they were, and the reviews aren't good. Said the XBOX controller is still superior.

 

[Steve]

Just use a PS3 or a XBOX controller. I've heard that the Steam controller's touchpads are awkward to use as it's kinda weird to keep track of where the middle point is, as a more traditional thumbstick would just spring back to middle.

What's the point of this controller tho? Are there any games where using this controller is better than either mouse and Keyboard or a standard Xbox/PS4 controller?

It's part of the Valve's living room invasion alongside with Steam link and Steam machines. It's designed so you could comfortably play more traditional PC games (slow strategy / CRPGS) on the couch. Haven't heard anything good about it except that it's very customizable.

 

[Nryn]

I've owned one for a few months, and I'll share my experiences with the controller. The two major things it's got going for it is the mouselook and customization.

The right trackpad has a big advantage over the traditional right analog stick and that is mouselook for camera control. In 3rd person games like Dark Souls, Arkham games, etc. the controller gives you the 1:1 camera control that a mouse offers and panning the camera using a traditional right analog stick pales in comparison.

The customization along with the community created profiles is essential to the controller's function. The customization runs the gamut from simple quality of life changes to outright reworks of how a game controls. An example of a simple but effective customization option: by mapping the 'B' button to the one of the two buttons on the underside of the controller, one can finally sprint and pan the camera in Dark Souls games without having to adjust one's grip; with the traditional 360 controller, camera control while sprinting necessitated adjusting one's grip in order to place one's index finger on the 'B' button and one's thumb on the right analog stick.

The advanced customization includes the ability to mode shift the entire controller to a new set of bindings on a button press, and revert back on releasing the button. This leads to crazy shenanigans where one can map all the keys of a keyboard to the controller. Other nifty options include a mouse region feature that targets point and click movement in isometric games.

The biggest failing of the controller has got to be the left trackpad when used in platformers. Even a shitty dpad like the 360 controller's is far better because haptics-backed touch control is a poor substitute for the feedback that an actual button press provides. I'd argue that even a keyboard is better for platformers in this instance.

While the right trackpad is noticeably better than the right analog stick for aiming in shooters, the mouse still performs far better than either option.

 

[Hoodoo]

Is there any place that lets you try this out? Best buy, Walmart, Gamestop...?

 

[Mr. Pink]

I own two (one got shipped to me for free for no reason). It's pretty shit. the only useful thing about it is that the gyroscopic controls are quite good. every time I use it, it just makes me wish I had a real controller or kbm.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I'd just use my Dualshock(TM) 4(TM)

 

[Hoodoo]

While the right trackpad is noticeably better than the right analog stick for aiming in shooters, the mouse still performs far better than either option.

How much better is it?

Do you think you could play a strategy game with it? Turn based first, then real time second, assuming non competitively.

Is is comfortable to use and is the trackpad accurate? Does it locate where on the trackpad your fingers touch (for a mouse based game I would assume this is necessary) or only the motions?

 

[Nryn]

How much better is it?

Do you think you could play a strategy game with it? Turn based first, then real time second, assuming non competitively.

Is is comfortable to use and is the trackpad accurate? Does it locate where on the trackpad your fingers touch (for a mouse based game I would assume this is necessary) or only the motions?

Aiming: The right trackpad can be mapped to a normal mouse input with high DPI. This allows sharp 180° turns that traditional right analog sticks struggle with. The problem with just mapping the right trackpad to to a high dpi mouse is that the sensitivity becomes too high to aim comfortably. To combat this, community profiles include a low sensitivity gyro aim assist option to carefully line up shots. As an analogy, think of those gaming mice that have an extra 'Aiming' button that decreases the overall mouse DPI on button press, and reverts it on release. It's used mostly in competitive shooters where the default high DPI enables fast scanning of the environment, and the 'Aiming' button allows easier headshots due to the decreased DPI.

The best (subjective, of course) aiming profiles for the Steam controller work on a similar principle. In 3rd person shooters, I set the low sensitivity Gyro to be enabled when I press the Left Trigger to aim. In 1st person shooters, I set the Gyro to be enabled when the controller registers a touch on the right trackpad. This should give you a basic idea at the aiming options available with the controller, and how they differ from a traditional right analog stick. By the way, even without the Gyro assist, it's easy to get better results at aiming with just the right trackpad compared to the right analog stick, due to the 1:1 response. As with nearly everything about the controller, it requires getting over that initial steep learning curve and practice.

Strategy games: Strategy games are probably the best showcase of the controller's capability over a traditional gamepad. The right trackpad serving as a mouse and the ability to map all the important keyboard hotkeys to the controller (through mode shifting) are huge enough, but there's also the mouse region feature; Essentially, you can mark an area of the screen and assign that to the trackpads or even the analog stick. For example, I can mark the minimap as a mouse region and assign that to the right trackpad when I hold down the right bumper. Touching the top of the trackpad now corresponds to directly clicking on the top of the minimap which then causes the screen to jump to that position. Touching left will cause the screen to jump to the western part of the map, and so on. An illustration (look at the bottom left of the screen where the minimap has been assigned as a mouse region):

Spoiler

Real time strategy games are the most tricky, not because the inputs cannot be mapped, but because the real time nature multiples the already steep learning curve associated with the controller.

On a related note, it works very well for turn based RPGs -- I finished Dragonfall on the controller, and had no issues whatsoever. RTwP RPGs are trickier, but the mouse region feature helps a ton yet again.

Spoiler

The picture above is similar to how I mapped the controls for Pillars to the controller to test. I created a mouse region around the main character and mapped that to the left analog stick. When I pushed the stick up, the game registered it as a mouse click in the top area of the circle, and the character moved up. Hence, controlling movement became very easy. One can do the same to nearly every isometric point and click movement game provided there's a way to center the camera on a selected character.

Comfort, Ergonomics, etc: Design-wise, the right bumper is closer in functionality to the right bumper in the 360 controller's. I prefer the R1 and L1 buttons found in dualshock controllers instead. The A,B, X, Y face buttons were very strange at first, due to their odd placement, and I had to keep looking down at the controller as I kept hitting the wrong buttons. But muscle memory kicked in after finishing my first game, and I've had no other issues since. As for the trackpad functionality questions, as the mouse region examples show, they are incredibly powerful in what they are able to achieve.

On an ending note, I want to reiterate that this controller does a terrible job with left Dpad centric games, such as platformers and fighters, and I'd advise against buying one if those games are going to see the most play. For other console centric games, I find it hard to go back to my 360 and dualshock 4 controllers after having gotten over the steep learning curve involved.

 

[Achilles]

It is a fantastic controller, especially if you mostly play mouse-driven games.

 

[Zarniwoop]

You know what's an even better controller if you mostly play mouse driven games?

A mouse.

#rekt

 

[Hoodoo]

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or you're just an imbecile but it's about playing games with the comfort of a controller and an increased accuracy.

I set the low sensitivity Gyro to be enabled

I'm not exactly familiar with that term. What is it?

 

[Mr. Pink]

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or you're just an imbecile but it's about playing games with the comfort of a controller and an increased accuracy.

I set the low sensitivity Gyro to be enabled

I'm not exactly familiar with that term. What is it?

gyroscope. cursor moves slightly when you rotate/tilt the gamepad. It's quite accurate and much more precise than the touchpads. the only time I didn't hate using the steam controller was playing Metro Last Light using gyro to aim. Felt like an arcade game. Definitely the best feature.

I don't think the touchpads are very precise unless you lower the sensitivity. If you lower the sensitivity, you lose your ability to turn quickly. Acceleration alleviates this problem somewhat, but that makes your movement unpredictable. The best way to go (for shooters and 3d games) is high sensitivity touchpads, and low sensitivity gyro for finer aiming.

 

[Hoodoo]

Strategy games: Strategy games are probably the best showcase of the controller's capability over a traditional gamepad. The right trackpad serving as a mouse and the ability to map all the important keyboard hotkeys to the controller (through mode shifting) are huge enough, but there's also the mouse region feature; Essentially, you can mark an area of the screen and assign that to the trackpads or even the analog stick. For example, I can mark the minimap as a mouse region and assign that to the right trackpad when I hold down the right bumper. Touching the top of the trackpad now corresponds to directly clicking on the top of the minimap which then causes the screen to jump to that position. Touching left will cause the screen to jump to the western part of the map, and so on. An illustration (look at the bottom left of the screen where the minimap has been assigned as a mouse region):

Can you map things similarly using the left trackpad. Or does it only work as a D pad?

What was the point of making it touch in your opinion?

 

[Lyric Suite]

In 3rd person games like Dark Souls, Arkham games, etc. the controller gives you the 1:1 camera control that a mouse offers and panning the camera using a traditional right analog stick pales in comparison.

Too bad that doesn't matter because the camera in Dark Souls is not tied to gameplay. Xbox controller still wins for games like that.

 

[Nryn]

Can you map things similarly using the left trackpad. Or does it only work as a D pad?

What was the point of making it touch in your opinion?

The left and the right trackpads are interchangeable. You can map the trackpads to any of the following:

Dpads
Face buttons
A standard left analog stick
A standard right analog stick
Mouse with an optional trackball mode
A trackball mouse with inertia that is read by the game as a right analog stick
A scroll wheel that can be flicked up and down and eventually comes to a stop (mostly used in shooters to cycle weapons)
Mouse regions
Touch menu: One can divide the touchpad into numerous sections and can map keys to each one. For instance, I can map the function keys F1-F12 to the left trackpad, or the keys 1-9, etc.

The trackpads are near useless when mapped to buttons that need to be pressed near all the time. Unfortunately, this is the case for Dpad heavy platformers or fighters. The tradeoff is that the trackpads can be used for a variety of other functions, and this is their strength. The trackpads can also be mapped to multiple functions at once, and that's what the dpad sacrifice gives the controller; for instance, the left trackpad can be assigned to the number keys 1-9, and through the use of a modifier, can also double up as a mouse region minimap used to quickly jump around the screen. The other benefit is that the controller works with every game -- even those without controller support. So visiting older games that predate the xinput standard of the 360 controller or playing those genres that don't function at all with a traditional controller is not really an issue, as far as compatibility is concerned.

Too bad that doesn't matter because the camera in Dark Souls is not tied to gameplay. Xbox controller still wins for games like that.

Mouselook allows for instantaneous panning of the camera and superior responsiveness in camera control. I agree that the single player in DS3 does not benefit much due to both the camera lock on and the mostly 1 on 1 encounters. But in multiplayer, especially when going 1v2 or 1v3, the far more responsive camera makes it easier to keep tabs on multiple opponents.