Plus other major manufacturers! From a Valve presentation for the Steam Controller at Steam Dev Days:
[quote]
Soon we will be shipping an update that adds full configurability to controllers other than the Steam Controller. This means that players can pair their PS4 controller directly to their PC and use all the configurability options available to the Steam Controller, including use of the PS4 touchpad and gyro.[/quote]
[quote]
We’re adding support for all major controllers, so you can worry less about drivers and more about your game. We’ll even provide ready-to-use in-game hint glyphs.[/quote]
Valve is doing some really interesting stuff. They’re basically creating their own alternative API to DirectInput and Xinput which will automatically show the correct glyphs for supported controllers and allow for an incredible level of remapping. It’s an open question if they will allow non-Steam apps to use the API, but that would be really nice for devs who want to provide DRM free versions of their games, etc.
As far as I understand, non-steam games work perfectly fine with the Steam controller if you launch the exe through Steam, so I don’t see why not. All they seem to be doing is enabling full remapping capabilities and support for other controller types now.
You can actually configure it in Windows now but it’s not as smooth as doing it in Big Picture. Once you’ve nailed your config down you don’t have to enter Big Picture again.
This is great news though. One of the greatest things about the Steam Controller is being able to configure it so much, so being able to do this with all the other major controllers is terrific. That touchpad on the DS4 could be really handy.
When my friend visited with his Steam Controller, Steam identified him and his personal configs and automatically assigned them so when we jumped on Rocket League he was ready to go straight away. No idea whether this is a Steam client thing or the controllers store the configs but it was really neat. I’d love to see this sort of functionality extended to other controllers too. Great for party play.
Steam just added full Xbox 360 and Xbox One controller support mapping.
[quote]
Added XBox 360, Xbox One, and Generic X-Input controller configurator support. This allows all recognized controller types to use the advanced mapping features of the Steam Controller Configurator. Note that because X-Input currently lacks per-controller means of unique identification, all controllers of that type will share personalization and configuration settings. As they share the same inputs, Xbox 360/One/Generic controllers will all see each-others configurations when browsing. Automatic conversion will be attempted when loading configurations from other controller types.
Unrecognized Generic X-Input gamepad style controllers will be recognized by the Steam Controller Configurator once their buttons have been assigned to match a generic gamepad layout.
Recommended configurations specified for a game by the developer will now attempt to assign based on Controller Type. [/quote]
Here is a great article on just how indepth the Steam Controller Configurator is. I had no idea it was this powerful.
It’s what Microsoft should have done years ago instead of DXInput.
Yes, and the Dualshock4’s gyroscope is supposed to be great for controlling first-person shooters. It works just like the Steam Controller’s, but with more traditional joysticks for those that couldn’t get used to the touchpads.
One thing I find really annoying is that when I’m using the PS4 controller while streaming PS4 gameplay to my PC, when I press the PS button, it brings up Steam to the forefront on my desktop. This doesn’t happen with the 360 controller or X1 controller. Only the PS4 controller. I couldn’t find a setting in Steam anywhere to put a stop to it either.
This sums up everything about Valve/Steam. A digital storefront that is a gateway to PC gaming and allows you to keep your games easily up to date, a networking framework for devs to get wired up and running with multiplayer, messaging, achievements, and cloud saving. Not to mention the tools it provides for developers to quickly upload new builds to Steam, set up Beta branches, etc.
All of these are things that Microsoft should have done, but they instead spent their efforts trying to find ways to get PC gaming to die so people would buy titles on the Xbox instead.
That’s not true at all, there were factions within Microsoft championing PC gaming, and they got things like GFWL started. The problem is that MS as a whole didn’t buy into PC gaming, and other factions pulled resources and let them die in a sort of benign neglect due to a flurry of political infighting and general incompetence. This had the end effect of hurting PC gaming, true. But that wasn’t their goal.
Exactly, just like I said, they wanted it to die. ;)
It sure appeared it was the goal of at least some part of Microsoft. And why not? They weren’t making money from game sales on PC, and they already had a virtual monopoly on the OS. They’re dumping billions of dollars on a gaming machine where they get a nice cut of every game sold, so I’m sure they would much rather people buy the games from there, not on Windows.
[quote=“KevinC, post:16, topic:126479”]
They weren’t making money from game sales on PC, and they already had a virtual monopoly on the OS. [/quote]
MS makes money when people use computers, much like Google makes money when people use the web. It’s just indirect, unlike the licensing fees on Xbox.
I personally would not use Windows if I wasn’t a PC gamer. I’d completely switch to MacOS.
