Durante said in the other thread that he is using the Steam Controller to play the game. I don't know the setup, though.
Edit: Well, there it is
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Steam Controller Thread | Comfy Couch Sold Separately
- Thread starter Nzyme32
- Start date
Durante said in the other thread that he is using the Steam Controller to play the game. I don't know the setup, though.
Edit: Well, there it is
It works great. I wouldn't want to play it with any other controller.
Cross-gate works for me. Everything is more centrally accessed and matches to the indentations, which is more helpful for me personally. I just plant my thumb in the square deadzone and roll it around with the occasional slide adjacent to that square deadzone. This works really well for shmups and platformers like Keroblaster that do need 8 directions (4 overlaps). Where this falls apart for reasons I can't quite understand is fighting games. I am just much more comfortable with the standard 8 slices and using the mid to outer parts of the left pad. Perhaps it's the movements being used. I'm also testing touch only activation, which feels like I'd need to learn from scratch so far, but I'm putting more time into it for the sake of seeing how it goes with plenty of time.
Great. Might still try with PS4 for old time's sake but that may just make PC truly the best choice.
capylikesgames
Banned
I'm not really sure how to explain my issues with the left pad... I think the best comparison I can make is, you know how you don't really know how far you have to press an analog trigger until it takes input? For me, the left pad feels like that. I know there's a general area I have to move my finger into, and the haptics help to know the action is inputted, but activation isn't immediate. What I mean is that I have to slide in that direction until it activates, whereas with a regular d-pad, you just pivot in the general direction you want to move in, which is immediate. So there's a tiny delay to my actions, if that makes any sense. Same with deactivating; I have to think about it and slide out of there. The size of the left pad doesn't help at all, in this case. Since games that rely on digital movement tend to be a lot more about precision, it really hurts during gameplay. And then sometimes I misstep in the middle of frantic scenes by overshooting the deadzone, which messes me up. Less of a problem in click-to-activate, but I find my thumb getting exhausted very easily as it grinds across the left pad.
It was fine for games with two primary directions, such as Super Meat Boy and Downwell, but when I used it for games like Touhou 6 and Dustforce, the "delay" I described, coupled with the increased amount of directions just knocked me off. Even in a top down RPG like Earthbound, where immediate movement isn't important, moving around still felt a bit clunky due to this. Ness would have a very small delay turning to the right direction as I swiped across the left pad. I'm sure with practice, I could get better at it, but the left pad doesn't really bring anything above what the analog stick provides in digital mode + haptics on, so I don't really find it worth investing time into. Yes, the analog stick technically isn't immediate like a real d-pad, but it's area is much smaller, so it feels a lot more snappy than the left pad does. I've yet to have any issues with it; heck, I'd say it's a perfectly fine d-pad substitute that doesn't take too much effort to learn.
There's tons of love for the left pad being used for movement within the community, and I wish I could understand it. I will probably give it another shot down the road, and stick with it with a more extended period of time, regardless of my gripes, but I haven't really been in the mood to experiment too much with the device lately. Right now college has shoved itself into my already crammed schedule, and by the time I reach the weekend, I just kind of want to sit down and play some games on my TV without too much hassle, haha.
I think your point of view is perfectly accurate just as many others who don't have success with the left pad. I don't know why it works out for me even though I know exactly what does work for me, so I can only guess that it must by highly individual. It also bares pointing out that I am sure I have experimented with the left pad more than most would, so it may be that something is very different with how I play
I actually just tried out the Cross-Gate suggestion, Nzyme. And that works pretty well for me in both Darius Burst and Freedom Planet once I found the ideal deadzone level.
I think if Valve can just get the haptics to be a bit stronger, both the left D-Pad as a cross-gate and the analog stick emulating a D-Pad will work out very well.
I think if Valve can just get the haptics to be a bit stronger, both the left D-Pad as a cross-gate and the analog stick emulating a D-Pad will work out very well.
The lost config isn't the end of the world, though it's still completely unacceptable that it can happen. I can make it again.I'm sorry to hear that.
I'm much more concerned with the broken update that they just pushed on me. I guess I just have to cancel my plans to play Kingdoms of Amalur, seeing as it's one of the games that was rendered unplayable? There's no way to roll back to a previous version, is there?
I'm playing it right now and it's working fine. But I'm playing the Steam version.
Edit: I'm on the beta client.
M_A_C
Member
what do you guys think of THIS DEAL? How do the souls games play on the controller?
Wrestlemania
Banned
Haven't tried them, but can't see how they wouldn't work fine. Not sure there would be much advantage over a normal controller though, and the bumpers on the Steam controller aren't as nice as the Xbox One or PS4 pads.
The souls games play very, very well with them. I have over 200 hours of Dark Souls 1 using the Steam Controller.
Nabs
Member
There's at least one massive advantage: never having to take your thumbs off the stick to use the d-pad. You can place it on the right pad with a mode shift.
This exact thing happened to me with FFXIV. Made the game completely unplayable. Super disappointing. The controller worked a lot better when it was first released. Now it's pretty broken.
Good to know someone else can have fun with Cross-gate. I haven't heard many people talk about it or try it. Often seems like I'm one of the few that has found some great use from it.
Oh wow!
I've been using Dark Souls 1 with the Steam Controller with mouse-like joystick on the right pad as well as the outer edges of the right pad being clickable to be the dpad and the centre to start targeting. Grips are use item and roll / dodge etc. Plays fantastically in my opinion. Love it, with the minor gripe of the maximum camera speed not being enough for the best possible camera movement, but still pretty good with the right sensitivity / max value compensation.
I think I figured out what the issue is, or at least a workaround for it. It seems that if any other gamepads are recognized by Steam (you can see by going to Settings -> Add/Test in Big Picture mode), the Steam controller will defer to it and identify itself as controller #2, 3, etc. and any game that expects input to come only from controller #1 will stop working with it. To get it working again, try unplugging all other controllers and uninstalling anything that creates a virtual controller (eg. XInput wrappers for your DualShock 3/4). It's annoying, but at least we can continue using the controller in the meantime.
Steam Controller Update
- Added an option to automatically change action sets based on cursor visibility. An action set can be switched to when the mouse is visible, then back to the first when it's hidden. Only works with hardware cursors, not software ones. Useful for games which hide the mouse while in game, but have mouse driven menus or UIs.
- Improved touchmenu mode-shift support, so touchmenu buttons fired on release of a mode-shifted trackpad button fire reliably.
- Added developer support for custom touchmenu icons. Developers can now include their own set of icons for use in touchmenus.
- Fixed action set on-screen indicator with non-Steam games
- Fixed Controller HUD with non-Steam games
Nabs
Member
Awesome! I can't wait to see a dev take advantage of custom touchmenu icons.
This right here is exactly what I'm talking about. This is absolutely fucking bananas, and probably has whoever did it feeling pretty damn clever, but it's all completely moot if they can't get the basic functionality to work reliably. Maybe learn to walk before you go off running, OK?
Also: A whole new reason to get mad at clueless Japanese programmers who can't figure out how to hide the mouse cursor during gameplay!
Do you have a setup you can recommend? I'm going to start playing DS3 when it's released and was wondering how to setup the controller. I guess mostly stock but something else for the grip buttons?
One grip as an extra B button so you don't have to do the claw to sprint, and if DS3 has the option to map jump to L3 like you could in 2, use it and map L3 to the other grip so you can have a real honest to god jump button.
Got mine at launch, ordered through Steam and had it shipped to Sweden in a couple of days. Don't actually remember how long it took, but it was within reason.
Started playing Mark of the Ninja with the Steam Controller, using the top binding set. It is set up so that you pretty much always use only the touchpad, triggers and grips, except item switching which is the analogue stick (acting as a dpad). The left and right pads are analogue sticks with click being B and A respectively. Dual stage triggers do the usual trigger functions, but click but left and right click are Item and Grappling hook respectively
Took me about 10mins to have it click in my head, and I'm astonished at how well it works. Feels awesome.
Only thing I don't get (and I assume is some bizarre bug) is the left pad as analogue stick can't go up or left in the menus, despite working perfectly in game. Not sure if it is the Steam Controller or the game itself at fault (not got a 360 pad anymore to test it)
Took me about 10mins to have it click in my head, and I'm astonished at how well it works. Feels awesome.
Only thing I don't get (and I assume is some bizarre bug) is the left pad as analogue stick can't go up or left in the menus, despite working perfectly in game. Not sure if it is the Steam Controller or the game itself at fault (not got a 360 pad anymore to test it)
To add to the above, something I really like is to use the right trackpad as a dpad when you click it. Using the settings below I can even continue clicking the center to lock-on the camera. It's perfect to change items and weapons without letting the left stick go. The most important setting in the second image is the "Outer ring Binding Invert".
Can confirm this is so damn good in Dark Souls 1 and I assume will be even better in DS2 where the control options for mouse / sensitivity options are better. Considering the DS3 offer for the Steam Controller, there may be some native support thrown in that may improve on what folks are doing in DS1 and 2
I just came up with an improvement to my jumping control scheme: After mapping your preferred grip to the B button, set up a mode shift for the face buttons and replace the A button with L3 when holding down that grip. That way you can use the A button to jump, which feels great, and the other grip is free to be used for whatever you want.
I still think I like the Haptics/Large Deadzone combo that makes a fake arcade stick better; it's what I've been going to when I play Darius. But the cross-gate setup certainly works way better than any other method I've found for the pad.
Having a strange issue where the changes I make in my controller profile are no longer being recognized by my game -- it is using the 'old' settings no matter what! For example, X button:
Currently mapped: C Key
Used to be mapped: A Key
What happens when I press in-game: A Key
I've even removed the buttons as a method of input with no change. Game was responding to changes perfectly just a moment ago. Any ideas?
Currently mapped: C Key
Used to be mapped: A Key
What happens when I press in-game: A Key
I've even removed the buttons as a method of input with no change. Game was responding to changes perfectly just a moment ago. Any ideas?
I got hooked by the Dark Souls 3 deal... but reading a bit more about the controller I have a bad case of buyers remorse.
My Xbox 360 pad has been having issues so I decided to buy this to replace it. Will it work for that basic function? All the other stuff was just icing on the cake for me.
My Xbox 360 pad has been having issues so I decided to buy this to replace it. Will it work for that basic function? All the other stuff was just icing on the cake for me.
Unless you hate mouse joystick (emulates a mouse with joystick input) I think it may even be a little preferred.
Gets annoying when support breaks randomly though, and it's not just with Steam updates. Mad Max used to allow simultaneous mouse and joystick input, then broke it recently.
mntorankusu
Member
It really depends. It will "work" for pretty much anything that an Xbox 360 controller works for. But there's no d-pad and there's no right analog stick, so you can't expect it to work out of the box with every game as well as a 360 pad does. You have to be willing to fiddle with the controller configuration dialog a lot when a game doesn't work well.
If you like fiddling with that kind of thing, you'll love it. Otherwise, you might hate it. I can't imagine liking the Steam Controller if I wanted it to "just work."
capylikesgames
Banned
Hey everyone, just wondering; is there any way to use mouse joystick to send left stick input? Older games like Resi 4 and Twin Snakes would use the left stick for aiming, but I can't seem to find a way to set that for mouse joystick.
I don't think they'd make a promotion like this without a working default layout. From experience, the controller works fine with DS games, so you should be OK granted Valve is doing their job right.
Actually, booting up Mad Max again it really does kind of feel like it's right now the "weeelllll I could work great with Steam Controller but fuck you" game. You can't adjust sensitivity for the right stick (seriously?) and joy/mouse support that worked before doesn't now. You can go into the .ini to adjust the stick sensitivity though.
Thinking maybe for now it'd be best to do a mode shift where I can toggle between the mouse and right joystick. Hopefully they update it being part of the monthly bundle.
Thinking maybe for now it'd be best to do a mode shift where I can toggle between the mouse and right joystick. Hopefully they update it being part of the monthly bundle.
I know that works but I don't like to do that because Steam won't keep tracking of time played. When I tried Fallout 1 I just save my config I want as desktop settings.
I know it's not a proper solution, but you can change the in-game setting so you'll aim with the second stick. I think that's even the default in the Steam version.
mntorankusu
Member
Nope. I've been crying about this for a while. There are lots of older/emulated games that could use this, they've inexplicably singled out Mouse Joystick as the one place to restrict which stick we're allowed to use as output.
They've been pretty dense with things like this. They just added A/B/X/Y and LS as mode shift activators less than a month ago-- they had been drip-feeding the rest of the buttons to us since launch. I have no idea what they were thinking.
Edit: You can work around this in Dolphin using its input configuration, though. Right click on each axis direction to open the advanced input configuration dialog. And then, as an example for Up:
Code:
(`Left Y+`) | (`Right Y+` & `Shoulder R`)And then modify it to match each direction. That will make Dolphin accept input from the right stick as the left stick while RB is held.
Soodanim
Gold Member
If only I'd known this deal would pop up - I only bought my controller a f couple weeks ago. A deal like that made sense for Xcom with it being a proper mouse and keyboard game, but I didn't expect to see it for a controller game. Oh well.
I'm susceptible to buyer's remorse, but disliking it after using it probably just comes from not having found a setup you like yet. For me disabling nearly all of the haptic feedback improves things, then it's just about tweaking the sensitivity if things aren't to your liking. Pressing the steam button takes you to where you left off in the menus, so tweaking isn't a tedious affair at all. Once you get a bit of a feel for most of the settings you'll be fine.
If it helps, I used the Steam controller to finish off Dark Souls 2 and once I had it set up to my liking it was great. I was trying various community ones for a while but settled on a basic controller with right paddle being B and a full pull of the left trigger mode shifting the trackpad to be pure mouse input with low sensitivity for when I'm aiming. That's the beauty of the controller: you can have a standard controller layout but with the advantages of mouse look when you need it and other little tweaks.
If it helps give you ideas, I'm also replaying RE4. I used a community profile that has aim on right trigger soft pull and fire on left trigger full pull.
I will say this much against it: when it comes to speed I prefer to use m+kb like in system Shock 2, which I started and finished recently. That does have a nice developer made layout though. It can never truly replace a mouse for aiming, nothing will.
The same applies to the d-pad, but in a more obvious way: it will never replace a physical one, and for 2D platformers you'll want to use a traditional one. That said, coming from a 360 pad the bar isn't set that high.
Steam controller sits in the middle somewhere. It's there for comfort and convenience, and it does that well. I don't think it's a purchase you'll regret as such, you just need to learn when it's best to use it.
Oh, I've just though of another use: controller mode for games that don't really support it properly, like Oblivion. That's a nightmare on PC with controllers, and I once tried mods and all sorts. This is the perfect way to play it with a controller.
Edit:
Another example I just set up is AC2. Dual stage triggers allow me to have high profile on right trigger soft pull and add A to the full pull, so that you don't have to hold 2 buttons for half of your play time. Add X and B being on grips and you're barely using the face buttons. It's little tweaks like that that can improve things massively without you realising it needed to be done.
There's some truth to that, but for every game that uses the right stick for camera control the default layout (with trackball mouse emulation mapped to right stick, and for my personal preferences slightly changed to low friction) already works better than a thumbstick.
All of this is YMMV of course.
Yeah, with a few freak exceptions that probably just need .ini tweaking like Mad Max for the most part anything that has a standard setup for right analog sticks can easily be preferable over a standard controller. Some like Dark Souls can be kinda odd in that the layout advantage of the DS3/DS4 is tossed here (using "the claw" to change items or run while keeping look controls) but can be made up for with the grips so it's more of a learning curve there. Then there's the games that you select weapons or whatever with the right stick, that's where it can fall flat although setting it to emulating analog stick input may make even that more a matter of preference.
MrCompletely
Member
I'm using the Steam Controller currently playing through Dark Souls 1 and it works really well. Ive also used it a lot to play Dragon's Dogma, XCOM 2, Spelunky, and a ton of Rocket League.