Leaker here is Brad Lynch, who generally seems reliable as a leaker for Valve software and products. He was also the source for the leaked renders of the steam controller.
Leaker here is Brad Lynch, who generally seems reliable as a leaker for Valve software and products. He was also the source for the leaked renders of the steam controller.
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.
Hell, you can make the gyros act as a mouse/joystick input, in several different modes, maybe only when you hold the aim button down, if you want that.
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.
EDIT:
There is also an onscreen keyboard functionality, which pops up a keyboard overlay, and then you use both trackpads as basically two thumbs on a smart phone, sort of.
So, if you’re playing a game that is 99% controller input, but has a few UIs popups where you get prompted to type in your name or something like that, or I guess even a chat box in an mmo, you can handle it with this.
Also also: Most/Many games come with preset default Steam Input layouts made by the developers. Also, Everyone who uses Steam is capable of basically uploading their control schema for any game to the cloud, and then you are capable of grabbing it and using it.
So, with some games, the developer provided inputs are good, sometimes users develop alternate schemes that are actually better/quite popular, or, maybe you could be the one to make a better config that people like!
I really like how rotating the camera works on the track pad - the right track pad works as a right joystick, but crucially has momentum. So I could do a quick swipe on the pad and the camera would continue moving for a moment after. It also allows fine speed control by changing how quickly I swipe. Once I got used to it, I could make very quick and accurate orientation changes. Much better than joystick imo where you have to hold it down, using up your thumb for a second or two while you turn. As a bonus, the track pad also could be used as buttons so your thumb is already in position to get mashing again.
If they’re the same track pads as on the Steam Deck they don’t actually physically click in anywhere, but they have really good pressure sensitivity and can be configured to deliver a haptic feedback “click” back to your thumb when you press hard enough. It feels just like clicking a physical button, but it’s all a clever electronic illusion.
To test this on a Deck, try clicking with the unit switched off and keep trying as you hit the power button and it starts up.
I genuinely thought my Deck had a defect when the trackpads didn’t click when it was asleep. Like I had somehow ruined the trackpads.
The haptic feedback is so god damn good, it fooled me.
The first generation of controllers clicks. Or at least it simulates clicking so much I don’t realise it isn’t, but I’m pretty sure it does
Ah, you’re correct!
It quite literally fooled me, but you are right.
And the haptics feel fantastic, you can’t really judge it correctly without feeling it
I think they actually use a setup of basically … something like minature subwoofers, but I’m not 100% sure of that.
It’s voice coils all the way down, baby!
I don’t like fiddling with configuring a controller. On consoles it typically just works.
You’re allowed to not fiddle with it.
There is a system for official or community configurations, on a per game basis. Being able to customize that further, and easily, is the best of all words, and I very often wish one could do something similar on consoles.