'Steam Box' gaming console

    One thing I would miss with these is the fact that you dont get as much feedback with these as you do with a physical thumbstick on a controller. That's from my experience using touch screen phones and tablets. I read that it will support a variety of features, much more than just rumble? What are those features exactly? It's still not the same as physically pushing a thumbstick and getting that direct, mechanical feedback, and definitely not like using a mouse.

    What makes you think there's no tactile feedback? I'm actually pretty sure they made them so that the underlying layer has feedback of touch, sort of like the gate in a joystick.

    Concerning the tactile feel:

    Quote

    A billion times better [than a standard touchpad]. It feels like you're using a device rather than just gliding your finger, I think to a surprisingly large degree thanks to the subtle audio feedback that sounds like a tiny Price is Right wheel spinning or something. It's hard to explain. I suspect you can disable that, either at the dev level or player level, but it grew on me really fast. I don't really like using trackpads in general. But we were playing Broken Age (traditional point and click adventure game) on this thing and it felt great; I don't think we're going to need to do any special control support for it at all, it just worked.


    If this thing ends up supporting loads of old games then that alone is pretty awesome in terms of back catalogue gaming. It sounds like they're trying to make this at LEAST a drop-in keyboard/mouse replacement for couch PC gaming, and of course something far better for developers that fully utilise it. Amazingly, a simple, high-quality, and widely usable way of doing this does not exist for PC gaming.

    BTW, clickable touch screen? What an obvious yet sweet idea!

    [Blocked Image: http://abload.de/img/gabepadx7jsn.png]


    Also:

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    "It also became clear that “rumble”, as it has been traditionally implemented (a lopsided weight spun around a single axis), was not going to be enough. Not even close.


    The Steam Controller is built around a new generation of super-precise haptic feedback, employing dual linear resonant actuators. These small, strong, weighted electro-magnets are attached to each of the dual trackpads. They are capable of delivering a wide range of force and vibration, allowing precise control over frequency, amplitude, and direction of movement."

    I think this is sweet

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    In order to avoid forcing players to divide their attention between screens, a critical feature of the Steam Controller comes from its deep integration with Steam. When a player touches the controller screen, its display is overlayed on top of the game they’re playing, allowing the player to leave their attention squarely on the action, where it belongs.

    when i was reading the first part i was just thinking "we are just moving the problem of clutter away from a screen... creating the one of distraction of looking at another screen", so i got owned.

    Wow I cant wait to play mario and street fighter on that.


    It seems like they were trying to fix FPS and 3rd person on a gamepad. As long as they allow traditional dpad capable controllers and joysticks I'm cool. If not I'm gonna punch valve in the dick.

    Quote from Al Anselmo~Intelect0

    "clickable touch screen"? What's new about it?

    (sorry if I didn't get the joke ._.)

    The whole screen functions as a button, so you can "hover" by using the touch screen and push it in to "click". Seems like an interesting idea and should make it easier to port mouse based menus to the touch pad I guess (hover for tooltip, etc.).


    Showing the touchscreen on the main screen is also pretty cool, especially when combined with the fact that you can hover instead of just clicking.

    Quote from Synthesizer

    The whole screen functions as a button, so you can "hover" by using the touch screen and push it in to "click". Seems like an interesting idea and should make it easier to port mouse based menus to the touch pad I guess (hover for tooltip, etc.).


    Showing the touchscreen on the main screen is also pretty cool, especially when combined with the fact that you can hover instead of just clicking.


    It's also all about tactility, although your point is also true and will be great for navigating desktops and RTS games. One of the biggest hurdles with touch screens, pads, etc is a lack of satisfying feedback — it's why games so often feel shitty to play on iPhones and iPads even tough they have 'buttons' on the screen. It might seem silly, but just being able to click a button on the screen will feel so much better — I expect that many games will divide the touch screen into a bunch of big buttons.


    Combined with the innovative feedback touch pads, it looks like Valve has been thinking about feedback and tactility more than most hardware manufacturers. Everything I'm seeing and hearing about this thing makes it looks like it's simply going to feel great to use, and more importantly for the first time bridge that huge gap between consoles and PCs that prevents RTS games, shooters, etc from being truly satisfying for those used to a keyboard and mouse.

    Quote from Thrik

    The whole screen functions as a button, so you can "hover" by using the touch screen and push it in to "click". Seems like an interesting idea and should make it easier to port mouse based menus to the touch pad I guess (hover for tooltip, etc.).


    Showing the touchscreen on the main screen is also pretty cool, especially when combined with the fact that you can hover instead of just clicking.


    It's also all about tactility, although your point is also true and will be great for navigating desktops and RTS games. One of the biggest hurdles with touch screens, pads, etc is a lack of satisfying feedback — it's why games so often feel shitty to play on iPhones and iPads even tough they have 'buttons' on the screen. It might seem silly, but just being able to click a button on the screen will feel so much better — I expect that many games will divide the touch screen into a bunch of big buttons.


    Combined with the innovative feedback touch pads, it looks like Valve has been thinking about feedback and tactility more than most hardware manufacturers. Everything I'm seeing and hearing about this thing makes it looks like it's simply going to feel great to use, and more importantly for the first time bridge that huge gap between consoles and PCs that prevents RTS games, shooters, etc from being truly satisfying for those used to a keyboard and mouse.


    Thanks for the replies!


    I haven't noticed the "hover" thing. So it would be possible to touch the screen without sending an action, right? I think that's a problem in nowadays' smartphones, because as soon as you touch their screen you are already sending an action.


    So, in Steam Controller, we'd be able to hover, and click? That's pretty neat.

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