sp3ctr4l
@sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on Got my Steam Controller today 2 days ago:
The Steam Deck and Steam Controller (2.0, but w/e) use Voice Coil Actuators spread throughout the device for both haptics snd rumble.
They’re both measured/set in decibels.
electricity-magnetism.org/voice-coil-actuator/
You might try fiddling with the in game rumble settings, if there are any.
If not… well presumably the ‘Game Rumble’ tick box switch thing is set to the right, ‘on’, in the page with the db levels you were on?
It could be that you’ve found something actually worth posting a bug report about on… well I’m not sure where lol.
It could be a Steam Input issue, it could be a Proton issue, it could be both.
It might be the case that the style of command the game sends is basically ‘formatted’ in such a way that its not being properly interpreted/translated the way it would be by the kinds of controllers the game was/is specifically designed to work with.
As far as I can tell, while the Steam Controller and PS5 Controllers use VCAs… the Xbox One Controller uses a more old school, ‘eccentric rotors’, unbalanced things that spin on an axis.
So… for a system like that, a straight pulse of linear input command would feel to get more instense, and then gradually taper off.
If you give that ssme input to a VCA, it … ‘interperets it literally’, if that makes any sense.
Its kinda like VCAs are digital, and ERs are analog… sorta.
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 5 days ago:
I was an executive level data analyst for an international logistics middle man company, based in Seattle.
Yes, correct, you cannot infact outsource that just as easily, it is, as I said, an entirely different animal, with many different kinds of problems and costs, and potential problems and potential costs.
An enormous amount of logistics ultimately comes down to who knows, who, who introduces who to who, and who has what kind of reputation, with who.
You either pay a firm like the one I worked for a considerable premium in order to have them manage every single step of the process, every single link in the chain… or you try to do all that on your own, maybe hire a few new expert people to figure out how to do that.
I am arguing as if Valve is not a logistics company.
You are arguing as if you do not know anything about logistics at all.
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 5 days ago:
It would seem we shall have to wait a bit then, to continue our attempts at science.
… it is a good thing, that science is fun.
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 5 days ago:
Yep, you got it.
And yep, high property value areas?
Yep, gets worse fast.
You end using something along the lines of an overflow lot, and that overflow lot probably doesn’t have the same level of access, security, reliable climate control, etc.
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 5 days ago:
Oh its telling of me, huh?
Tell me you’ve never worked in an industry that made or moved actual things without telling me you’ve never worked in an industry that made or moved actual things.
Active number of users on servers you are paying someone else to physically operate and maintain has nothing to do with orchestrating an international manufacturing and shipping program.
Its an entirely different animal.
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 5 days ago:
… Maybe somebody who just actually got one could weigh it for us, lol.
… Did any of us actually manage to get one?
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 5 days ago:
Yeah, people in general seem to not understand that stock sitting in a warehouse = you burning money to pay for renting that warehouse, or space in that warehouse.
You have to be… mega-giant huge, your own logistiscs system, for that to basically not be the case, you have to be Amazon, Walmart, something like that.
Even then, that factor still exists, its just mitigated by the overwhelming scale.
And actually, with… oil/gas basically now permanently notched up to another tier, even in the best case scenario… this pressure just gets worse.
Also, even before the Deck, the Index was basically the same way.
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 5 days ago:
Part of it is just a genuine gamble.
You can try to model demand for a kind of thing that has never specifically existed before.
You will probably fuck that up at first.
Early signs point to -> they significantly underestimated demand.
By how much exactly… shrug?
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 6 days ago:
Valve doesn’t have the scale.
They’re nowhere near as big of companies as Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony.
They retooled the place that was making Steam Decks… into being the place that makes Steam Controllers.
Because that would be more affordable than renting out and kitting out an entirely new production somewhere near Shenzen or whatever.
They’re not big enough to get first dibs, preferential contract bulk pricing, from component manufacturers.
In the ocean they’re swimming in?
They’re bass or salmon, compared to dolphins, sharks, orcas.
I made a joke about this being an ‘artisinal, small batch’ controller in another thread, but it basicslly isn’t a joke, if you understand the scales involved.
- Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers 6 days ago:
Hah, I actually yesterday ran the same math as you just did, for total # of controllers, and yeah, we got the same result.
~42,000 if you don’t take excess packaging weight into account, yeah, probably between 35k and 40k if you do.
Now, you’re the only person (or outlet, for that matter) I’ve seen even try to do the actual math on scalp counts so uh… yeah, seems reasonable to me.
Yeah, I was telling people, like… half a year ago, that Steam sells direct to consumer, not via a retail store, so, that inherently cuts down on scalping, because they can indeed impose their own hard limits on buys per customer… barring the existence of basically a bunch of scalper fake steam accounts, which… doesn’t appear to be the case, otherwise yeah, you’d expect a larger proportion of scalper listings on secondary marketfronts.
Now I haven’t followed things close enough to see the stuff about ‘2 per txn’ vs ‘2 per Steam Account’, but I mean, what you say there also seems plausible.
tl:dr Good work, passes my smell test!
- Comment on 50 T of "game consoles" imported by Valve in the past week 6 days ago:
… It does also at least attempt to provide you with choice, curated content as well.
- Comment on 50 T of "game consoles" imported by Valve in the past week 1 week ago:
I think they’re literally just shoving shit out the door as fast as they can, and their initial production runs were … kind of done in the middle of rampocalypse/tariff nonsense, round #(i forget).
Because you’d have to be an idiot to not realize the world economy is headed for a Great Depression, therefore they need to make money ASAP on hardware, before people’s budgets contract dramatically.
I also think they seem have to have just genuienly underestimated demand.
I don’t think we’ll be seeing newly made Steam Decks soon, iirc, they retooled the actual Steam Deck facility … to make the Steam Controllers.
Probably more likely to see the Steam Machine and Frame, and then a Steam Deck 2 at some point in the future, presuming we do not at that point live in the Fallout timeline.
- Comment on 50 T of "game consoles" imported by Valve in the past week 1 week ago:
Oh my god, we need to make ‘Canadian units of measurement’ a thing.
- Comment on 50 T of "game consoles" imported by Valve in the past week 1 week ago:
Or you can use your brain, and use context clues to deduce the correct interpretation.
- Comment on 50 T of "game consoles" imported by Valve in the past week 1 week ago:
So I guess at this point the Steam Controller and Steam Machine… arguably count as a ‘small batch, bespoke’ game console/device?
- Comment on Steam Controller shows signs of life, as leaker suggests that Valve has received its "first large quantity" shipments 3 weeks ago:
I think they actually use a setup of basically … something like minature subwoofers, but I’m not 100% sure of that.
- Comment on Steam Controller shows signs of life, as leaker suggests that Valve has received its "first large quantity" shipments 4 weeks ago:
Ah, you’re correct!
It quite litetally fooled me, but you are right.
- Comment on Steam Controller shows signs of life, as leaker suggests that Valve has received its "first large quantity" shipments 4 weeks ago:
I guess worth noting for Steam newbies:
The trackpads can be configured to act as basically any possible kind of input.
You can break them down into 4 way buttons, 8 way buttons, 2 buttons, one button… make them work as a joystick, or as a mouse… they click in a bit at multiple points…
So, if you prefer a different kind of thumbstick orientation, you can basically emulate it.
Literally all of the buttons on one of these things can be reconfigured to do a whole bunch of crazy shit, you can make macros, you can make it so that a little hud popup with scrollable selectable options pop up, you can make combos of key presses do different specific inputs, you can make a turbo function… etc.
Anything you run through Steam can be made to work this way with the Steam Input system they invented for with the Steam Deck, the Steam Controller 2.0 is basically a shrunk down Steam Deck without the PC and screen.
- Comment on Steam Controller shows signs of life, as leaker suggests that Valve has received its "first large quantity" shipments 4 weeks ago:
I mean, arguably… it isn’t a D Pad if its actually seperate buttons.
But anyway, with the Steam Deck, which the Steam Controller 2.0 is basically a scaled down version of, that doesn’t have the whole computer and screen… you can at least get after market uh… contact boards?
I’m not sure of the term, but like the internal platter board thing, that the dpad/abxy buttons actually physically connect to, with the trigger/switch mechanisms.
For my deck, I got a kit that replaces the original ones with ones that are much ‘clickier’, like a mechanical keyboard as compared to a membrane keyboard.
It has more tactile and also audio feedback, beyond just being more responsive… that was like $30 bucks or something?
For a while, it was the case that to do this kind of mod, you’d have to do your own solder, but I waited and eventually somebody in China somewhere started making ones that are pre-soldered, and just require an appropriate screw driver and some dexterity to install.
So… if the Steam Controller takes off, I’d say give it 6 months, and by then something similar will probably exist for it.
- Comment on Steam is adding support to show estimated FPS for your hardware before buying a game 5 weeks ago:
A neat trick you can do with heavier games on … at least an OLED Deck (not sure if this is doable on the LCD version)…
You target 45 fps, min, lock the max frame rate at something like 45-50, then, use VRR set at a 1:2 ratio, so you get 45 fps at 90hz.
In many games, this generally, at least imo, ends you up with a smoother and potentially graphically higher quality than just targeting 60 fps / 60 hz.
- Comment on Amazon hits sellers with 'fuel surcharge' as Iran war roils global energy markets 5 weeks ago:
So… its dynamic pricing, applied to their vendors.
That’s sure to be a stable paradigm.
- Comment on SteamOS 3.8.1 Preview: Second Clutch 1 month ago:
I am equally annoyed that it took them this long to finally get around to it, but happy that they did.
- Submitted 1 month ago to steamdeck@sopuli.xyz | 0 comments
- Comment on Microsoft is ending the Windows Update nightmare — and letting you pause them indefinitely 1 month ago:
You’d have to be an idiot to trust this.
- Comment on Microsoft is working to eliminate PC gaming's "compiling shaders" wait times 1 month ago:
Lol.
I am now trying to imagine like…
A torrent client, that is JIT Lua, and you just ‘stream’ the game, as you download more of it.
- Comment on Microsoft is working to eliminate PC gaming's "compiling shaders" wait times 1 month ago:
pulsegeek.com/…/shader-pre-caching-on-steam-deck-…
Ok, so, its kind of both:
Shader pre-caching means compiling GPU programs ahead of play to avoid on-demand stalls. On Steam Deck, the path usually includes prebuilt Vulkan pipelines distributed by Steam, plus local caches created by DXVK for DirectX 9 and 11 and by VKD3D for DirectX 12. This two tier approach mitigates runtime work and smooths frame pacing when new materials or post processing effects first appear.
…
Caches consume storage and can become stale after game patches or driver changes. When mismatches occur, the system may recompile anyway, so the saved time diminishes.
…
Shader stutter often traces to pipeline state changes that force compilation or shader specialization. With Vulkan, pipeline objects encode fixed state to avoid per draw setup, which shifts cost to creation. Pre-caching amortizes that by compiling pipelines during downloads or first launches. The effect is fewer spikes, especially during initial encounters with enemies, weather transitions, or new regions. Still, certain shaders depend on runtime constants or device specific details, which can prevent perfect reuse.
So, you may be downloading various prebuilt components, and you may be pre-caching/pre-compiling local files based off of those prebuilt components, and the game/gpu/driver.
- Comment on Microsoft is working to eliminate PC gaming's "compiling shaders" wait times 1 month ago:
… forty minutes?
Good lord.
I think the longest amount of time I’ve spent compiling shaders on a Steam Deck is for Cyberpunk 77, and it can’t have been much more than 5 minutes.
… Either that or trying to get a Switch emulator to properly pre-compile shaders.
But anyway: This is an unaviodable thing that has to be done when the game relies so heavily on GPU shaders.
You have to actually generate those shaders, before you can use them, and that’s gonna be specific to your hardware.
So what MSFT is doing here is just pre-compiling them for I guess … every game they offer, with every Nvidia GPU/driver update, and then having a cloud system that allows you to download them instead of compiling them on your end.
So basically its kinda like downloading a game + hardware specific driver, sort of.
Also, I… I’m not sure, but I don’t think Steam does this.
Yeah, its indicated that shader compilation is happening in the ‘Download’ section, but so are ‘File Operations’ - aka, cleaning up loose files and doing memspace management …
I am pretty sure you are just actually compiling the shaders on your own hardware, its just visualized to the user as a step in the ‘Download’ section, to get across the idea that the game isn’t ready to be played untill all those steps are complete.
Or, you can change a setting somewhere, and it just skips that step so that it isn’t part of the initial ‘Download’ process, and instead occurs the first time you hit play, or, after any game/driver update that has delta’d the shader code.
- Comment on Steam Machine update, Valve now says all three new products will ship this year (Updated) 2 months ago:
… Like, a Canon printer/photocopier?
So its just projectile vomiting generated images of the scene you likely intended to describe?
- Comment on [Deck] Make it make sense 2 months ago:
I also hate the default setting.
I changed it to uh, left thumpad moves the mouse, left thumbpad click is middle click, remap the right pad to be 4 way buttons, top and left to left click, bottom and right to right click.
Moved scroll to L2 and R2, or you could map them to up and down on a joycon, or the dpad, or L1 and R1, etc.
- Comment on Steam Deck is out of stock in the US? 2 months ago:
Valve can take the risk on doing actual innovation because they functionally have a large pool of ‘fun money’, that does not come with a board of shareholders attached to it demanding that it constantly be making next quater profits be as high as possible.
You save up that fun money fund, and when an actual good idea gets committed to, you can now actually just fund at least a moderately sized go at it.
… and, because its … you know, their money, with no shareholder or lender strings attached to it… they could fail completely, and then just eat the loss.
As opposed to now having to reorient other segments of the company to make more money to make up the difference to the board or lenders.