News - Steam controller design updated – sans centre touch screen

[HEXUS]

Also Steam now has 75 million active users, up 10 million in three months.

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[tealsuki]

"The reason was "Not because it's not useful, but because we're evolving," he said."

More like some absolute crap got in under the radar and everyone wanted their money back

[Dooms]

Beta is Beta. They have never said it was the finished product and I'm happy they changed it if it wasn't working.

[Chadders87]

So now it is just a regular old gamepad with touchpads instead of sticks.

I was actually looking forward to the central digital button and the multitude of possibilities, but now can't think of a real reason to move from the 360 controller.

[Dooms]

Still interested in it for the 1:1 touch pad mapping on the thumb pads making it usable in RTS's and other games that need a mouse. The demo videos show it working very well and it's something that you cannot do (or do comfortably) with analogue sticks.

[Chadders87]

Still interested in it for the 1:1 touch pad mapping on the thumb pads making it usable in RTS's and other games that need a mouse. The demo videos show it working very well and it's something that you cannot do (or do comfortably) with analogue sticks.

When playing RTS' I like using keyboard hot keys quite alot (Select all units on screen, Open various recruitment screens, resource management actions etc). The original design made it sound easy to replicate this using the touchscreen.

For FPS' and RPG's, I had dreamed of using it as an inventory manager.

Now the only draw is the touchpads as you say, but for e that's not enough to replace the k&m / controller with an universal device.

[Odeas]

I think they may bring back the touch screen in a more deluxe version of the pad.
It seems a lot of effort and hours have already gone into getting it working but pushes the cost of the pad too high.

They'll want a low cost pad for a high number of sales and to bring the cost of steam machines down which will likely include a pad.

Hovering over the pad mid game sounds very messy, would only suit slow paced games I imagine.

I'll stick with a KB&Mouse and 360 pad unless I see some highly rated reviews!
I'd probably want said touchscreen version, or at least a non-touch screen!

[Dooms]

When playing RTS' I like using keyboard hot keys quite alot (Select all units on screen, Open various recruitment screens, resource management actions etc). The original design made it sound easy to replicate this using the touchscreen.

For FPS' and RPG's, I had dreamed of using it as an inventory manager.

Now the only draw is the touchpads as you say, but for e that's not enough to replace the k&m / controller with an universal device.

Oh I'm not saying I would replace KB/Mouse - They are never going away for FPS or RTS/RPG - However as long as it works I will make use of it when I'm in a sofa mood

[CampGareth]

AA batteries? That's the worst of both worlds in my opinion. Wired is fine, no batteries but it's a bit tricky to sit far away from a big TV. If you're going to make it wireless use lithium-ion, it's cheap, adds far less weight than AAs, stops a load of low voltage battery problems. If you want an easy design use 18650 cells which are produced in their millions for laptops and are pretty much AA shaped, just remember to spend the extra 2 cents buying a 1-2A charging circuit so 5 minutes charge covers a few hours playing time.

[miniyazz]

AA batteries? That's the worst of both worlds in my opinion. Wired is fine, no batteries but it's a bit tricky to sit far away from a big TV. If you're going to make it wireless use lithium-ion, it's cheap, adds far less weight than AAs, stops a load of low voltage battery problems. If you want an easy design use 18650 cells which are produced in their millions for laptops and are pretty much AA shaped, just remember to spend the extra 2 cents buying a 1-2A charging circuit so 5 minutes charge covers a few hours playing time.

Li-ion batteries have their own drawbacks especially surrounding charging/risk of explosion/fire etc. Not that they wouldn't be a better choice, but 18650 batteries would add far too much bulk. They may be AA-shaped but they're certainly not AA-sized, they're substantially longer and thicker with well over twice the volume! (over 17,300mm^3 vs <7,700mm^3). Obviously there are smaller Li-ion batteries available which would be more suitable..

[CampGareth]

Li-ion batteries have their own drawbacks especially surrounding charging/risk of explosion/fire etc. Not that they wouldn't be a better choice, but 18650 batteries would add far too much bulk. They may be AA-shaped but they're certainly not AA-sized, they're substantially longer and thicker with well over twice the volume! (over 17,300mm^3 vs <7,700mm^3). Obviously there are smaller Li-ion batteries available which would be more suitable..

Oh yeah, health and safety means an AA battery wins (i.e. it's energizer's problem that things don't work or maybe explode, not mine), but 18650 can be swapped (not recommended but hey) which is the main downside of lion defeated. The rule I was always taught was if you want it to be light (PS3 controller is 65-100g lighter than xbox 360) and you don't care about self discharge (i.e. it will get drained from normal use well before 6 months is up) then you want lion, there aren't really any non-explodey reasons against it. What's a health and safety law suit compared to using AAs which nothing else in the world uses (and are generally unpleasant), not even your odd electronics like an MP3 player or camera, heck even TV remote controls are AAA these days because self-discharge has been fixed.

[Chadders87]

I use a wireless keyboard and mouse when a game requires it, and a controller when it works well enough. Both in big picture mode from sofa.

The steam controller was meant to bridge the gap between the two devices and it would have succeeded. But in my opinion, removing the touch screen button was a mistake.

[GalacticAlien]

They should just put a touchpad on it for mouse control.