It’s still a negative because what if you decide you move away from Steam. Are you just going to throw the controller in the bin because you can’t use it elsewhere? Are you going to keep the entire Steam client on your machine just because you want to use the controller? And that’s assuming it’s easy to use the controller with non-Steam games. For example from the review they struggled to get the controller to work with KCD2 because they booted it through Epic launcher and they couldn’t set up the launcher through Steam so they had to take a completely different approach to set up the controller just for KCD.
My entire library isn’t on Steam and that includes games I play with a controller. If setting up non-steam games is a pain in the ass for this controller I’m just going to stick to my Xbox controller because that’s pick up and play.
You’d need to use Steam Input anyways to set up unique inputs like touchpads, capacitive sticks, and grip sensors other controllers don’t have.
Those features are kind of the point of the new Steam Controller and requires user set up on a per game basis, since they aren’t natively supported in games.
So it is pointless to spend more on the Steam Controller if you are just wanting a Xbox controller experience. It’s an enthusiast controller where the extra price is for the inputs other controllers don’t have to set up to be used in ways devs didn’t anticipate.
That said this controller for the price should have had a way to save profiles so they could be used without needing Steam running.
But configuring the controller to work with a game is not the same as configuring the game to make the controller usable. There are a lot of input devices with custom layouts that have its own software for configuring the device and make it usable with all sorts of games without requiring a configuration of the game to identify the controller. And Valve should do the same with the Steam controller, create a software solution that lets you use and configure the Steam controller without needing the entire Steam client and some workaround for games outside the Steam ecosystem. It’s pretty much standard practice for interface devices and I don’t think we should be letting Valve off the hook because Steam is the biggest storefront on the PC market.
Yeah it may seem weird. I don’t find the need for Steam Input to configure the controller weird, since I personally use it to do some unusual things with my controllers mixing mouse/keyboard/gamepad inputs on controllers ranging from the 8bitdo, playstation, to OG steam controller. When it comes to my controller use on PC I am rarely happy with the default controller setup, so need a remapper. And put in gyro into almost every game I play at the minimum.
But, am disappointed that the new Steam Controller didn’t put in support to save profiles so you don’t need Steam running to use. And that the default lizard mode when Steam isn’t running isn’t something more logical like having all the regular controller inputs being xinput so people can just use it as a regular xbox controller and the touchpads just behaving as a mouse and the click being mouse click for desktop navigation.
Oh. I wasn’t saying it should work without Steam Input, I meant Steam Input should work without Steam so you could use the controller without needing the entire Steam client.
It’s still a negative because what if you decide you move away from Steam. Are you just going to throw the controller in the bin because you can’t use it elsewhere? Are you going to keep the entire Steam client on your machine just because you want to use the controller? And that’s assuming it’s easy to use the controller with non-Steam games. For example from the review they struggled to get the controller to work with KCD2 because they booted it through Epic launcher and they couldn’t set up the launcher through Steam so they had to take a completely different approach to set up the controller just for KCD.
My entire library isn’t on Steam and that includes games I play with a controller. If setting up non-steam games is a pain in the ass for this controller I’m just going to stick to my Xbox controller because that’s pick up and play.
You’d need to use Steam Input anyways to set up unique inputs like touchpads, capacitive sticks, and grip sensors other controllers don’t have.
Those features are kind of the point of the new Steam Controller and requires user set up on a per game basis, since they aren’t natively supported in games.
So it is pointless to spend more on the Steam Controller if you are just wanting a Xbox controller experience. It’s an enthusiast controller where the extra price is for the inputs other controllers don’t have to set up to be used in ways devs didn’t anticipate.
That said this controller for the price should have had a way to save profiles so they could be used without needing Steam running.
But configuring the controller to work with a game is not the same as configuring the game to make the controller usable. There are a lot of input devices with custom layouts that have its own software for configuring the device and make it usable with all sorts of games without requiring a configuration of the game to identify the controller. And Valve should do the same with the Steam controller, create a software solution that lets you use and configure the Steam controller without needing the entire Steam client and some workaround for games outside the Steam ecosystem. It’s pretty much standard practice for interface devices and I don’t think we should be letting Valve off the hook because Steam is the biggest storefront on the PC market.
Like I said.
I read that and found it weird that you’d argue against my point only to turn around and agree with me in the end.
Yeah it may seem weird. I don’t find the need for Steam Input to configure the controller weird, since I personally use it to do some unusual things with my controllers mixing mouse/keyboard/gamepad inputs on controllers ranging from the 8bitdo, playstation, to OG steam controller. When it comes to my controller use on PC I am rarely happy with the default controller setup, so need a remapper. And put in gyro into almost every game I play at the minimum.
But, am disappointed that the new Steam Controller didn’t put in support to save profiles so you don’t need Steam running to use. And that the default lizard mode when Steam isn’t running isn’t something more logical like having all the regular controller inputs being xinput so people can just use it as a regular xbox controller and the touchpads just behaving as a mouse and the click being mouse click for desktop navigation.
Oh. I wasn’t saying it should work without Steam Input, I meant Steam Input should work without Steam so you could use the controller without needing the entire Steam client.