Yeah, this is something that I’ve been wanting for a while now too. I flip flop between my steam deck and a steam-machine-like desktop pc with an original steam controller for a while now, and not having my control mappings translate from one to another has been annoying (but in an understandable way). This is gonna be sweeeeeet.
Comment on Steam Controller
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 16 hours ago
As a big fan of the Steam Deck, something I want to emphasize here is that even if you don’t want the joysticks or the touchpads on the Steam Controller and wish they had picked one or the other, this kind of setup means the controller has essentially the same layout as the Steam Deck which is HUGE for ease of finding custom control schemes already uploaded by the community for complex games.
I prefer joysticks+gyro over touchpads and so for me the touchpads might seem superfluous, but I heavily use them for virtual menus in all of my control schemes I make for complex games with lots of controls and inputs. The nice thing is that even though I am in the minority of people in that I prefer joysticks + gyro to touchpad for aiming, because the Steam Deck and Steam Controller both have two touchpads and two joysticks, somebody who is touchpad centric can use a control scheme I make pretty much right out of the box just by flip flopping the touchpad and joystick bindings so the virtual menus live on the joysticks instead.
I think this will be one of the subtle things people look back on and credit the Steam Deck and now new Steam Controller for having, it might seem silly and extraneous to have both touchpads and joysticks but it opens up a very wide range of capability and also makes it easier for touchpad and joystck focused players to share custom keybinding schemes with each other.
thurstylark@lemmy.today 14 hours ago
fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 hours ago
You say that because you prefer joysticks, but imagine using touchpad for camera movements and then going for buttons. Hella uncomfortable, something that was a plus in the old steam controller. Basically a downgrade.
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
I think the easy solution here is release an identical controller except switch the location of the touchpad and joysticks. I think this would also be good for people with all different kinds of hand shapes as someone who likes joysticks but has small hands might prefer the same controller as someone who has large hands and prefers touchpads and equal and opposite for a second version with the touchpads on top.
fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 hours ago
I agree, no way in hell we are getting it though lol.
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
Probably not, but it might be suprisingly economical given you are making a product that simultaneously targets two niche ends of two market at once (people who have larger hands and use touchpads and people who have smaller hands and use joysticks) and it would compliment the new steam controller perfectly.
I am sure it would be more costly, but you wouldn’t presumably have to change thatttt much about the controller and it wouldn’t really change keybinding stuff just you would have to change the steam ui to reflect the changed position of the joysticks and touchpads.
jared@mander.xyz 16 hours ago
I thought I’d use the touch pads more but gyro is the first thing i set up in most games.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
This is wild to me. Holding my arms perfectly still is practically impossible for me. The idea of a game using my pose and unconscious arm movements as input is positively gameplay-wrecking.
Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
The joysticks on the steam deck are touch sensitive and can bet set as the gyro aim activation you can also set it to be a combination of that + another button so aim down sight and finger on aim joy could activate it if you want or some other combination. Its slick as shit
5too@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I have mine set so if I want it to stay still, I lift my thumb off the movement joystick, turning off the gyro control. If I still need to move, I nudge from the side where the e sensor isn’t
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
You use both thumbsticks for identical movement control?
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
I play shooters and rts games with a gyro toggle, and I only toggle gyro off when I am putting my steam deck down or some other random thing. To each their own!
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Super weird to me. I can’t imagine playing DOOM like that.
Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
Same, I always have to disable it or greatly dial it back, for example in fallout nv I leave it on with low sensitivity while I’m holding the trigger to ads, so I can have the fun aiming experience when I want to, what I really can’t stand is “thumb on joystick activates gyro” MF I leave my thumb on the thimbstick when I want to use it, why would I want to trigger gyro?