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Got my Steam Controller today (leminal.space)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
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As a lot of reviewers are saying, it feels very close to the Steam Deck controls. The trackpads are slightly different texture and a bit more refined (in a good way). The D-pad and face buttons feel good to me as a longtime gamer.

I'm used to the Xbox Elite 2 these days and this is quite a bit lighter in weight and feels more like plastic, but still solid enough (again, like the Deck). I do maybe prefer the 8-edged D-pad and I'll probably miss the trigger stops, but gyro and trackpads and grip sense should more than make up for it.

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[–] [S] 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Even more notes:

  • I often hate wireless gaming devices (e.g. mice) but this feels flawless. Inputs are very responsive, I'm not noticing any latency with the puck like I always seem to on bluetooth controllers. Yes I use my other controllers wired even if they have wireless.

  • I fired up Forza Horizon 4. Driving feels quite good overall. However I don't enjoy the rumble. Tried it on default (7 db), max (12 db), and low (4 db) so far. [CORRECTION: That's haptics intensity. I don't see an adjustment for rumble anywhere]. It feels very pulsey, like the little motors fire in 0.5 second butsts as I drift and powerslide, rather than rumbling continuously. It feels very similar when driving off-road, when those feel distinct on other controllers. It's honestly kinda distracting. I strongly prefer the Elite 2 rumble (or hell regular Xbox 360) and never once thought those needed any adjustment.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago*

    The Steam Deck and Steam Controller (2.0, but w/e) use Voice Coil Actuators spread throughout the device for both haptics snd rumble.

    They're both measured/set in decibels.

    https://www.electricity-magnetism.org/voice-coil-actuator/

    It could be that you've found something actually worth posting a bug report about on... well I'm not sure where lol.

    It could be a Steam Input issue, it could be a Proton issue, it could be both.

    It might be the case that the style of command the game sends is basically 'formatted' in such a way that its not being properly interpreted/translated the way it would be by the kinds of controllers the game was/is specifically designed to work with.

    As far as I can tell, while the Steam Controller and PS5 Controllers use VCAs... the Xbox One Controller uses a more old school, 'eccentric rotors', unbalanced psuedo wheels that spin on an axis.

    So... for a system like that, a straight pulse of linear input command would feel to get more instense, and then gradually taper off.

    If you give that ssme input to a VCA, it ... 'interperets it literally', if that makes any sense.

    Its kinda like VCAs are digital, and ERs are analog... sorta.

    So... there would have to be some kind of ... additional emulation required, basically, to translate rumble 'commands' that were made to work with an ER system, to a VCA system.

    Like uh, 2 seconds of ON would have to be translated into an accumulating VCA amplitude, that would then taper off after the ON input ceases, some kind of buffer.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I came from an elite 2 too. I think I feel the same about the vibration motors. I think the OG 360s are worse than the steams, but the Elites honestly seem about perfect to me.

    Also I haven’t measured it, but do the elites triggers feel much longer than the steam? I primarily use a controller to play FH5/motorsport and they feel shallower.

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