
Valve replaces Steam Controller touchscreen with new analog face buttons - audiophilip_
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/03/valve-replaces-steam-controller-touchscreen-with-new-analog-face-buttons/
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thefreeman
I love the fact that they responded to feedback and adjusted their design
accordingly. While the original concept of a programmable touch screen
interface in the center of the controller was pretty cool, in practice it was
unwieldy.

Controllers are meant to be interacted with by touch. You should _never_ have
to look at it. A touch screen interface is completely useless for this type of
interaction.

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dgarrett
The entire point of the clickable touchscreen, as I recall, was that resting
your finger on it would bring up an overlay on the monitor, mirroring what was
shown on the touchscreen.

You would then move your finger to hover over what you wanted to select, then
click down the touchscreen. All without ever having to look at the actual
touchscreen, since it was all mirrored up on the monitor.

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Jasper_
Correct. They then realized that they could take the screen part of it out,
and then they realized that they already have a touchpad on the left and right
sides.

The team went over the full story in their SteamDevDays talk:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfN5WK7OzU8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfN5WK7OzU8)

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TazeTSchnitzel
On the touchscreen specifically:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfN5WK7OzU8&t=11m12s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfN5WK7OzU8&t=11m12s)

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bane
Now that the original d-pad patent has expired, a controller without a good
d-pad is a non-started IMHO. Analog controls are great, and this new design
looks cool, but for certain uses, a nintendo style d-pad has basically proven
to be the best 8-direction digital interface ever conceived...and it's amazing
how much the experience suffers when it's just a _little_ bit off.

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TillE
This isn't for games that would use a d-pad. That's what an Xbox 360
controller is for.

This is for games that would otherwise require a mouse and keyboard.

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null_ptr
Shouldn't the goal be to have a controller that's good for most games, though?
Why have several lying around?

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jerf
The goal of this controller is to be good with most _Steam_ games, which have
been designed for computers. Traditionally, console controllers predate the
games, the Steam box is trying to be a "console" that goes the other way.

Basically, imagine trying to create a "controller" that works well with
Civilization, and you're on the right track. (That isn't the only example, but
it's a nice, concrete one to try to think about.)

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Orangeair
They throw around the word 'analog' a lot, but I'm not seeing how that applies
here. Typically, buttons are a digital affair. Do these buttons have
continuous states, like a trigger? The article never explains this.

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bunderbunder
It usually means pressure-sensitive buttons. For example, a car driving game
might use them to give the player more control over throttle and braking.

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simias
IIRC the PS2's dual shock 2 had pressure sensitive buttons. It wasn't a
feature used by a lot of games. Nowadays only the shoulder triggers are analog
I think.

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kingcitrus
It's a shame, really. For example, Metal Gear Solid 2 used this to great
effect. If I recall correctly pressing square on the control would raise your
weapon but not automatically fire it until you actuated the button all the
way? It was finicky, but very cool.

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ditoax
I hated how they worked. The buttons did not have enough travel in them to be
comfortable to use in this way plus the way the thumb sits on the buttons it
is not a very comfortable way to control pressure like with your fingers on
the shoulder triggers. I am glad the Dual Shock 4 got rid of them and just has
two decent shoulder triggers.

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Pxtl
Yeah, the touchscreen seemed like a solution looking for a problem. The Wii-U
pretty-well demonstrated that gamers aren't really that interested in having a
screen nested in their controller, and it's _already_ got a good pointing-
device in the thumbpads. The only use for the touchscreen is private
information display... and I think the SteamBox is going to be predominantly a
single-player console so I doubt there would be enough usage of this feature
to justify this.

I mean, Nintendo has demonstrated a handful of games that use private
information for exciting effect, but not enough to justify the cost of a
screen in your gamepad. Simple good old-fashioned reliable face-buttons will
get far more use.

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faddotio
It's remarkable to witness a company that responds to criticism instead of
powering through it via reeducation campaigns and hype.

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lostlogin
Reeducation and hype is the middle course. Punishment, banning and denial is
the far end of the spectrum. Recent situations I can think of include forum
bannings, post deletions, account closings and statements denying there is a
problem.

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hetman
This may not be as sexy/novel as the previous design, but it looks supremely
more functional. I'm glad to see them using empirical results from testing
rather than trying to push some grand vision on the hapless gamers.

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hajile
The people who use these controllers are going to be at a massive disadvantage
compared to those playing with keyboard and mouse. Valve needs to conduct more
widespread testing with a trackball variety. That would allow controller users
to have a more even match.

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Pxtl
The intent is that the touchpad function as a trackball, and until I hear
otherwise I'm going to consider the possibility that the touchpad can function
as a trackball pretty well - the motion is similar, all your missing is the
haptics of the thing physically moving under your thumb.

Either way, there are no pro-gamers in the twitch-oriented genres that use
trackballs. So no matter what, the gamepad/trackball is going to be a
handicap. I think we're all just hoping for "good enough", not "as good as a
mouse". I'd settle for "good enough". The gap between a mouse and a thumbstick
is such a massive ocean that a substantial improvement, even if it doesn't
reach "as good as mouse" would be worth buying.

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hajile
Trackpads can't mimic the precision (a dot the size of a pinhead vs a fat
thumb). They can't get rid of their terrible z-axis problem (far worse than
mice -- and not present in trackballs). They also can't handle inertia well
due to lack of feedback (When you use a trackball, you become very adept at
flinging the ball and stopping it at the exact position you want).

As to pro-gamers, some of us remember when over half of the pro gamers used
nothing but trackballs (in preference to optical or mechanical mice). The
short story here is that trackballs didn't keep up with the newer laser
technology needed for better resolution, so the pros moved on to mice. There
are now some trackballs that use laser technology, but everyone (for better or
worse) has moved on.

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PhasmaFelis
The Steam controller gets less interesting with each new announcement.

Well, the twin touchpads were always the most exciting part, and they're still
here for now. Hopefully they'll survive 'til the end, and not get replaced
with another XBox pad clone.

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adt2bt
I'm not familiar with the original design. Can someone post a before/after
picture here?

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hadem
It can be seen in this article.

[http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/steam-controller-
impre...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/steam-controller-impressions-
a-case-of-love-and-hate-at-first-sight/)

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tiquorsj
That d-pad design is horrid.

