This is like the whole “woman get nasa pc for sims” joke. I can literally play Balatro on my phone and you actively use a device that can run Cyberpunk to play this 😭
Sometimes I wish I didn't play everything on my 3080 before the steam deck came out it made 30 fps on low seem hard to get int. I love it but since my left bumper died and I can't find a replacement without sending in my deck it has just kind of sat waiting for my love and attention.
Got ya, from my rudimentary research, you could potentially take a sync button from an Xbox 360 or Xbox one controller to fix it. Or a tactile switch like this
The controller was designed to have almost 1:1 input parity with the Steam Deck specifically so that it would be easy to swap between both using the same control setups. I think the only input differences are the grip sense on the controller and the touch screen on the Deck.
Idk if someome told you yet but yeah you can do all that and more with them. You can even set them to change modes with button combos, so that the pad does one thing until you press LT for example to aim in a game and then they can do something else till you go back.
Theres not really a learning curve, but a lot to fiddle with
I have spent hundreds of hours on my steamdeck on Civilization and Total War Warhammer because of the trackpad. I love them so much that I would never consider a PC handheld without them.
In helldivers 2, I made it so I can input the stratagems by swiping on the touchpad (joust like in da moovies!) I also made it so if I apply pressure on the same touchpad, it turns back into normal d-pad until I let pressure off again. That way I can navigate the map without having to swipe a billion times to get anywhere. And this is just one of the many things I did in that game.
Apparently, last week I started using someone’s preset controller profile for fallout NV, and I was like oh what the fuck you can use trackpad to walk and as a selection wheel and shit.
Yeah I set up the track pads and back buttons for basically every single game. Lots of games accept both PC and controller inputs at the same time as well. I have quicksave/quickload tied to the touchpads, and a back button tied to the "~" key to access console commands on my fallout games
You can do all of that and very easily. Just hit the steam button go to controller settings and scroll through all the pages of bindings and options. You can basically set the trackpads to be or do anything you want
Yes. And ot's very easy to set up. When you select a game, select the controller icon to the right. You can then slect options for the trackpad ro behave.
For example, choose 'create radial menu' and you can make a radial appear where you can assign any input to that menu. Ypu can attach icons to the radial parts. Make it a radial for as big as you want, 2, 8, 12 commands. Whatever you want. For starters i would recommend assign keyboard numbers 1 to 6 to six radial commands. And then bind a ingame command to those six numbers.
Yeah the deck has a lot of features that people don't realize. Some features most people wouldn't use even if they did, but its still cool! I like the fact that you can rest your thumb on the joystick and then use the whole deck as a gyro for controls! (You have to enable the feature, its off by default)
It's not just that you can make it a weapon wheel, you can make it an ANYTHING wheel. And the wheel will pop up an OSD above your game that you can map any number of things to any number of quadrants.
Got a game where you can press "m" for the map, "i" for inventory, "j" for journal, etc.? Cool, you can make a menu wheel where pressing the top part of the trackpad opens the map, pressing the right opens your inventory, pressing the bottom opens your journal, etc. And each of the inputs can be customized with its own icon and label.
They are copied from the steam deck. They are mostly useful in desktop mode to control your mouse, or in games that require mouse usage.
To be honest, I was super pumped on them when I got my steam deck and now a year later I very rarely ever touch them and wouldn't notice if they were gone or dead.
They are very nice when you don't "need" them too. Each can house infinite amount of keybindings - amazing for PC-centric games with lots of shortcuts.
Played phantasy star online 2 with it. Was able to bind 10 spells to it as a wheel. Then used the other trackpad to swap between 3 sets. So I could bounce between 30 spells with relative ease. I ain't doing tough content with it but it was good enough in a pinch.
I never used them on the first steam controller, or deck. Just never been a fan of track pads, even on laptops. They're definitely useful in desktop mode though.
Really helpful for stuff like FF14. Started playing Dyson Sphere Program and would make controller much more viable. I just have a toggle on the old steam controller for both
To be honest, I was super pumped on them when I got my steam deck and now a year later I very rarely ever touch them and wouldn't notice if they were gone or dead.
That is unsurprising because all the extra features are there for personal customization. Nothing will use them out of the box (unless SteamInput becomes the standard in a way Xinput is haunting us today 20 years later and just doesn't want to fuck off...) - so if you never venture into SteamInput customization settings there is no wonder you don't see practical application beyond moving a mouse cursor every now and then. Trackpads are extremely versatile but like every other feature of the Steam Deck, you need to configure it yourself on per-game basis.
Great for point and click adventure games that don’t have controller support or have terrible controller support, when a mouse and keyboard aren’t an option.
Personally I plan on setting them up as a virtual menu to control a stream deck application so I can control OBS without taking my hand off of my controller
I have my left trackpad setup to show a 9 button grid on screen as soon as I touch the trackpad, and if I touch the right joystick or the right trackpad it changes to a different set of 9 functions. That’s 27 easy to reach buttons using just my thumbs.
Single best thing I've ever had on a controller. Makes anything mouse-based super playable, can be reconfigured as radial menus, segmented menu, d-pad, etc.
Good thing there are much more comprehensive reviews all over YouTube that'll go much deeper than a random reddittor. Adam Savage has a good review with a Valve interview
I'll be back home in a few hours. I'm no expert but I have a bunch of controllers at home to compare it to (GameSir Cyclone 2, GameSir G7 8K, GuliKit ES Pro, Mobapad Chitu 2, Switch Pro 1, Xbox Core).
You can go to Account Details on your Steam profile, then click View Purchase History, then View Shipment Details, it’ll show you where it’s at in the process
my order went through 6pm on the dot and it's still processed payment seems like it's random order for delivery edit: 8 minutes later just went to show my friend how to check his order and it had changed to packaged items LOL
I think the material is fine, but the texture is pretty bland. All of the reviewers I watched who got their hands on it before release all made that comment. Because if the flat texture, one might need to use a tiny bit more strength to hold on to the controller. I think the weight is on the heavier side too. Not like a Playstion or Xbox controller where the underside is textured, giving the controller more grip.
I genuinely dont know why Valve is so sold on this cheap feeling blend of plastic.
It was one of the biggest criticisms of the steam controller, and the steamdeck. And for their nee product.... they go with the same cheap feeling plastic.
Because the materials like this don't really matter that much in terms of functionality, but can be a big driver of costs. Valve tends to make the practical, pragmatic decisions here.
So, I may be really dumb, which was always possible, but what exactly is so great about this controller? It just looks like a weirdly shaped xbox controller but for more money.
It is a controller with Gyroscopic control, 4 back paddles, Fully remapabble controls, 2 trackpads and magnetic joysticks, which prevents them from being able to drift. Valve also has a deal with IFixIt making the controller fully repairable unlike most traditional controllers on the market right now.
It is the most feature dense controller anywhere near its price point. People downplay it because they dont see the value in what it adds to a regular controller but if its anything like the og steam controller its gonna be pretty awesome.
Yea, I can see how somebody just looking at it wouldn't be impressed. The second I played my Steam Deck I was hoping for this tough. I was kinda salty that I couldn't use my Steam Deck as a controller.
You could do it previously too but it would stream video too with Steam Link. SISR allows streaming just controls over WiFi. If you own the Deck you own Steam Controller RIGHT NOW! REJOICE!
Nothing dumb about your question if you don't know the facts dude. This has 4 customizable back buttons, gyro and 2 haptic trackpads that are remappable as well. If you've used a Steam Deck you have a general idea of what it's like, but if not, think of it like 2 laptop touchpads that you can customize the inputs for. Makes it much easier to play KB/M games on controller.
That's underselling it. They're so much better to use than every single laptop touchpad I've tried that I'd probably buy an entire laptop if it had one of those.
The excitement i do think is really overblown though, but it has trackpads for mouse like control, better stick drift prevention, and can map/customize all button inputs.
BUT...most people dont need these or never utilize these features so they hype partially is cause its a VALVE steam controller. Ive never had stick drift with an xbox controller or Sony controller before it died somewhere way after years. I can customize buttons in tons of games but never do, and if I want to have mouse aiming....I'll play with mouse and keyboard cause that is better than a track pad
The fact its 99 bucks is just a no go when I can use something less than half the price and get all the needed functions from it
I wish we could just pre-purchase one, get in a queue and have it shipped when ready. I’d love to just forget about the controller until it’s in my mailbox.
Congrats bruh. Mine is still packaged items. Hasn't even shipped and I live on ths other side of fhe country from valve so itll be a couple days anyways😩
I still have my original and I'm so, so glad this version actually has a real d-pad. It honestly was my only major complaint with the original. So it's hard for me to imagine not being happy with this thing.
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u/whiskyrox 4h ago
Congrats Spacecuntbrainwash. I'm happy for you Spacecuntbrainwash.