Valve's Reveals Steam Controller; Designed As A Keyboard-Mouse Replacement | TechTree.com

Valve's Reveals Steam Controller; Designed As A Keyboard-Mouse Replacement

Replaces joysticks with trackpads; incorporates touchscreen, 16 buttons, and advanced haptic feedback.

 

The busy week of Valve's Living Room centric announcements has finally concluded. On the heels of the SteamOS and Steam Machines, the final announcement concludes the trinity of large screen PC/Mac gaming with a bespoke controller dubbed, well, Steam Controller. The controller is obviously still in the concept stage, but it's designed to be more FPS-friendly by eschewing the analogue thumbsticks for a pair of high-resolution trackpads.

The fundamental design aim of the controller is to resolve the primary bug-bear most PC gamers have with console oriented controllers — their inability to play well with FPS, simulation, and strategy games. The Steam Controller tries to address this by combining the speed and precision of a mouse, with the comfort and couch-friendliness of a game pad.

"Driven by the player’s thumbs, each one has a high-resolution trackpad as its base. It is also clickable, allowing the entire surface to act as a button. The trackpads allow far higher fidelity input than has previously been possible with traditional handheld controllers", says the marketing blurb on the announcement page. Valve goes on to say that the design intends to mimic the keyboard-mouse combo, sans the requirement for a desk.

The controller will incorporate an advanced form of vibration that will not only give the regular feedback of shunts and hits, but also deliver more precise sensation of force and better tactile response. This is achieved by incorporating a pair of dual linear resonant actuators with each trackpad. These strong electromagnets "are capable of delivering a wide range of force and vibration, allowing precise control over frequency, amplitude, and direction of movement". Valve goes on to boast that their version of haptic feedback incorporates more bandwidth than any other solution—enough to play back audio waveforms and function as speakers, even.

Valve's Reveals Steam Controller; Designed as a Keyboard-Mouse Replacement

The controller includes a touchscreen bang at the centre, which can be leveraged by developers to add anything from information and extra features to even custom buttons. A deep integration with Steam also means that anything displayed on the controller's touchscreen is also mimicked on the TV to prevent distraction. It should be interesting to see where developers take this Nintendo Wii-U-esque concept.

A total of 16 buttons on the front, as well as the rear of the controller have been designed to allow gamers to access important functions, while still being able to use the trackpads. What's more, the controller features a legacy mode that should let it be recognised as a keyboard and mouse combo for maximum compatibility. Like the rest of the OS and hardware, the Steam Controller has been designed to be complete hackable, with Valve even encouraging the spirit of modding.

By the end of the year Valve aims to release the controller in beta to 300 people, who will also receive prototypes of the Steam Machine. Full hardware specifications of the Steam Machine prototype will be revealed next week.


TAGS: Gaming

 
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