I have one and didn't have any issues buying, nor heard anyone have any issues buying in the past... In fact, the Steam Controller was considered a flop.
I don't really understand this argument. Is your position that if scalpers didn't exist you'd have a better chance of getting this product?
Scalpers have no effect on the supply of a product, they only affect the demand of the product and specifically they reduce the demand for the product by increasing the price.
I love the readme on the gitlab page [1]. It feels so.. friendly :)
> This repository contains CAD files for the external shell (surface topology) of Steam Controller and the Steam Controller Puck, under a Creative Commons license. This includes an STP model of each, an STL model of each, and an engineering drawing with critical features/keep outs for each.
Feel free to use these to make your own Puck holders, Controller sweaters, or whatever else you want to create!
Your Steam Controller is yours, and you have the right to do with it what you want. That said, we highly recommend you leave it to professionals. Any damage you do will not be covered by your warranty – but more importantly, you might break your Steam Controller, or even get hurt! Be careful, and have fun.
Even if Valve and Steam is great and overall a blessing for the PC space, I don't like the direction they take with this controller. It only works with Steam, it can't work on a desktop OS without it, despite standard layout. It is a subtle move towards a walled garden.
I assume(hope?) it is usb device class HID(or whatever the equivalent is for blootooth devices), this is well understood and there will be SDL/independent drivers for it in a day.
On the one hand Microsoft's Xinput is sort of nice for standard interoperability. On the other it is sort of a crippled specification, woefully inadequate for anything other than a xbox controller, their earlier direct input driver spec(xinput is a shim on top of this) was more capable. but I still don't think it can specify a touchpad.
On Linux, whenever I connect to my computer without steam running, it will show up as a standard USB HID device. This means, funny enough, I can use the trackpads like a mouse n stuff on my desktop environment.
However, SDL3 (and SDL2 via sdl2-compat and SDL1 via sdl12-compat with sdl2-compat (lol)) supports the steam controller. This means that, without using steam, I get native gyro support and stuff in software like Ryujinb and Citron.
Furthermore, at least on linux, there is sc-controller which is a userland driver that makes the steam controller present itself as a standard Xbox controller. Of course, this means you aren't gonna be able to use the fancy features directly in the game, but it does mean for software that doesn't use SDL and isn't on steam directly, it will act as an FOSS alternative steam input layer. Also, it even has Cemuhook motion server. This mean before SDL3 added gyro support for the steam controller (giving any emulator using SDL3 and SDL2 via sdl2-compat gyro support native), you could have still used gyro controls. Also, with Proton now, I think there is a flag to tell Proton to use SDL input method instead of steam input. I think this means (i have to test it), that you can use SDL to use steam controller with proton outside of steam.
I think on windows, we will see something like sc-controller.
I do wish there was some kind of stand-alone driver for it. But I think part of the problem is also Windows themselves whos gamepad support is a pile of dog crap for anything that isn't a direct xbox controller replacement. Even retro gamepads pretend to be an xbox controller because they know if they don't 90% of games will be broken.
I wish people stopped spreading misinformation like this.
No the controller works for any game, outside of steam, without steam launched.
The only restriction is that to configure the controller, you need steam.
Otherwise, you can select a profile for desktop use that is mkb or a generic gamepad, and run your games through that.
Of course, you won't have many of the modern features, since XInput does not support anything fancy. Want these features on your controller (not just the steam one, the 8bitdo, the switch 1/2, etc..) you will need modern input API... which are provided by Steam!
There was and probably will be third party applications to configure the controller outside of Steam.
It is NOT a walled garden at all and imo, the best of both world.
How does it work if this is under the creative commons license? Can 3rd parties sell this controller per the model? Other 3rd party vendors got around this by making a very minor change.
Compare it to Sony who still put potentiometers in their controllers. Good luck desoldering and replacing that once analogs inevitably start to drift. It's super easy to damage something else in the process as I learned.
I'm no big Sony supporter or even a fan of the PS5 controllers, but changing the sticks is not that scary. I find reassembling the whole thing cleanly harder than swapping out a stick assembly.
The pain point was desoldering the old analog, I found a lot of other people online struggle with this particular part.
It's probably way easier if you have proper soldering setup at home, which won't be true for average person just expecting an easy fix. I understand how it can be quick and simple for someone with more experience
I sometimes watch "Ben Heck Hacks" live-streams rebuilding game controllers for people with disabilities [1]. People like him are what these files are for.
I know multiple people whom are quite attached to 10+ year old mice that haven't been manufactured for quite some time, and would like to keep the familiar shape and design.
Dont care about controller, memory card or deck charger or whatever other irrelevant addition to existing products you have. I just want an update on the Frame. And yesterday too. Thank you for very much for your time and attention. Until our eyes meet again.
Looks like a super cool feature for disabled players.
Regular controllers are good for people with the default number of arms, legs and fingers.
But if you have some kind of disability, it's often pretty unique.
Regular game/computer controllers for disabled folks were pretty pricey last time I've checked.
AFAIK, 3d printing is not that expensive. Many places have hacker spaces or just people who print for almost free.
So I guess it's a huge win for people who need accommodations. I'm very happy for that!
I'm not disabled myself, it was just the first thought I had when I've read the news.
They also did this for the original steam controller, which I used a lot. When the back panel broke (its a trigger and battery cover) I was able to 3d print a replacement that has held up great.
The joysticks in the STP file don't seem to properly import into Plasticity; the STL files don't have this problem. Though I appreciate that there is even STP at all!
81 comments
[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 78.2 ms ] threadScalpers have no effect on the supply of a product, they only affect the demand of the product and specifically they reduce the demand for the product by increasing the price.
> This repository contains CAD files for the external shell (surface topology) of Steam Controller and the Steam Controller Puck, under a Creative Commons license. This includes an STP model of each, an STL model of each, and an engineering drawing with critical features/keep outs for each.
Feel free to use these to make your own Puck holders, Controller sweaters, or whatever else you want to create!
Your Steam Controller is yours, and you have the right to do with it what you want. That said, we highly recommend you leave it to professionals. Any damage you do will not be covered by your warranty – but more importantly, you might break your Steam Controller, or even get hurt! Be careful, and have fun.
[1] https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/SteamHardware/SteamController
Glad to see that valve is using the best CAD software :)
I assume(hope?) it is usb device class HID(or whatever the equivalent is for blootooth devices), this is well understood and there will be SDL/independent drivers for it in a day.
On the one hand Microsoft's Xinput is sort of nice for standard interoperability. On the other it is sort of a crippled specification, woefully inadequate for anything other than a xbox controller, their earlier direct input driver spec(xinput is a shim on top of this) was more capable. but I still don't think it can specify a touchpad.
On Linux, whenever I connect to my computer without steam running, it will show up as a standard USB HID device. This means, funny enough, I can use the trackpads like a mouse n stuff on my desktop environment.
However, SDL3 (and SDL2 via sdl2-compat and SDL1 via sdl12-compat with sdl2-compat (lol)) supports the steam controller. This means that, without using steam, I get native gyro support and stuff in software like Ryujinb and Citron.
Furthermore, at least on linux, there is sc-controller which is a userland driver that makes the steam controller present itself as a standard Xbox controller. Of course, this means you aren't gonna be able to use the fancy features directly in the game, but it does mean for software that doesn't use SDL and isn't on steam directly, it will act as an FOSS alternative steam input layer. Also, it even has Cemuhook motion server. This mean before SDL3 added gyro support for the steam controller (giving any emulator using SDL3 and SDL2 via sdl2-compat gyro support native), you could have still used gyro controls. Also, with Proton now, I think there is a flag to tell Proton to use SDL input method instead of steam input. I think this means (i have to test it), that you can use SDL to use steam controller with proton outside of steam.
I think on windows, we will see something like sc-controller.
Wait what?? Is this true? How did I not know this important detail?
No the controller works for any game, outside of steam, without steam launched.
The only restriction is that to configure the controller, you need steam.
Otherwise, you can select a profile for desktop use that is mkb or a generic gamepad, and run your games through that. Of course, you won't have many of the modern features, since XInput does not support anything fancy. Want these features on your controller (not just the steam one, the 8bitdo, the switch 1/2, etc..) you will need modern input API... which are provided by Steam!
There was and probably will be third party applications to configure the controller outside of Steam. It is NOT a walled garden at all and imo, the best of both world.
It's probably way easier if you have proper soldering setup at home, which won't be true for average person just expecting an easy fix. I understand how it can be quick and simple for someone with more experience
1: https://www.youtube.com/@BenHeckHacks/streams
I know multiple people whom are quite attached to 10+ year old mice that haven't been manufactured for quite some time, and would like to keep the familiar shape and design.
Dont care about controller, memory card or deck charger or whatever other irrelevant addition to existing products you have. I just want an update on the Frame. And yesterday too. Thank you for very much for your time and attention. Until our eyes meet again.
Regular controllers are good for people with the default number of arms, legs and fingers. But if you have some kind of disability, it's often pretty unique.
Regular game/computer controllers for disabled folks were pretty pricey last time I've checked.
AFAIK, 3d printing is not that expensive. Many places have hacker spaces or just people who print for almost free.
So I guess it's a huge win for people who need accommodations. I'm very happy for that!
I'm not disabled myself, it was just the first thought I had when I've read the news.
And then there was the N64 controller...
It just provides you with two different ways to hold it: one where you're using the D-Pad, and one where you're using the analog stick.
I'm not claiming it was the pinnacle of controller design or anything, but it was fine.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/353370/announcements/detail...
It's information age. Information about publicly offered stuff should be public.
Unfortunately we rely on voluntary heartwarming gestures like this one and reverse engineering attempts by hobbyists.