The latest 'Steam Client Beta Update' fixes wired Steam Controller support on Linux

Can Update in wireless Mode the firmware and the SC is detected correctly now.

Neat, it only the virtual keyboards could be ported so they could be used with various DE's, that would make my living room PC almost perfect.

Just got a Steam controller a few days ago (thanks to amazon), and it updated the firmware wirelessly. That means I already have this version of Steam, right?

Now, for actually using the controller, I get the impression it's a great piece of gear hampered by a lack of sensible defaults. I tried Slime Rancher, for instance, and the default controls make it impossible to turn in the air when you're flying. Whoever assigned the defaults for that game clearly never actually tried them.

this explains a lot, wasn't sure why it wasn't working at all. I even started dual booting ubuntu and arch just to see if I was missing something. I just vaguely remember that it stopped working after the most recent firmware update.

There are two ways I see Steam Controller working

1. Ignore the two trackpads and exclusively use the joystick and ABXY buttons or

2. Ignore the Joystick and ABXY buttons and exclusively use the Trackpads and tigers with multi-click.

Too bad I couldn't unscrew the right trackpad & install a joystick I would buy 3 more Steam Controllers for FPS games.

The track pad is far superior to a stick for FPS.

The track pad is far superior to a stick for FPS.

Wut? No seriously I would like to hear your argument? For me I'm a billion times faster and preciser on twin joysticks.

Of course I know this is probably a case of "what works for me" and "what works for you" are totally different.

Neat, it only the virtual keyboards could be ported so they could be used with various DE's, that would make my living room PC almost perfect.

AFAIK there are accessibility tools for Linux that bring a Virtual Keyboard on the desktop. I installed Ubuntu (16.04) two days ago on my laptop and I noticed that it comes with one preinstalled (Onboard was the name, IIRC). I haven't tried it before I uninstalled it (does not offer any use for me) but I noticed that it can be triggered when a certain key is pressed and the first thing that poped in my mind was the ability to use that together with a Steam Controller - tho you wouldn't benefit from the dual key input (from the touch pads), and instead you would only use one of them, the one that is actually the pointer. It's not optimal but then again, you shouldn't have to type very often, if at all, from a couch/sofa console-PC.

Until Valve ports the Steam Virtual Keyboard to at least the most popular Linux DEs, that is, I think, the closest we can get. Sure, Steam Machines are supposed to only ever use Big Picture and never leave it, except when playing Steam games (which support that VK already), but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be useful, quite the contrary, and not just for the more advanced/technical users. Games, especially PC gamers, always want to get the most from their PCs and generally have no problem dealing with more advanced tasks, like leaving Big Picture on a SM and installing non-Steam games, like open-source games (e.g. OpenArena) or DRM-free games (many games are not available on Steam, and it can happen that you own some games but only DRM-free and not on Steam, I know I do)

The track pad is far superior to a stick for FPS.

Wut? No seriously I would like to hear your argument? For me I'm a billion times faster and preciser on twin joysticks.

Of course I know this is probably a case of "what works for me" and "what works for you" are totally different.

I have no personal experience on such things, but my understanding is that
--it depends on what you're used to and trained on, so that someone who's got muscle memory for years of twin joysticks will find them better
--but generally, for FPS those with about even experience with both typically find mouse + keyboard significantly more precise for things like aiming
--and mouse users have found that the Steam controller's trackpad mimics the mouse experience much more closely than any other controller

So, one would expect that for those with mouse experience the Steam controller would be better than a twin-joystick controller for FPS.

The Virtual Keyboard is not something that needs to be ported to specific desktops, it's a feature of Steam.

Neat, it only the virtual keyboards could be ported so they could be used with various DE's, that would make my living room PC almost perfect.

There is a quite correct one in sc-controller, activate if from the steam button.

The track pad is far superior to a stick for FPS.

Wut? No seriously I would like to hear your argument? For me I'm a billion times faster and preciser on twin joysticks.

Of course I know this is probably a case of "what works for me" and "what works for you" are totally different.

The argument here is one of relative vs absolute motion. With joysticks, you specify the speed at which you want your "pointer" (can be a camera) to move, while with a mouse/trackpad, you specify where to move (by directly setting a relative motion, so the terms are a bit inadequate). This is unarguably much better, since that's what you really want (set the position to a precise location). At least in theory. You can find movement with a stick more intuitive because of practice or superior hardware. Sticks can also be more precise with defaults settings, since they often allow to fine-tune the final position at low speed. On the other hand, you could decrease the sensitivity of your mouse/trackpad for quick, finer adjustments (a "sniper button", if you prefer). This is also analogue to aiming in FPS games, so those two actions can be often bound together. Some people prefer to use a gyro for those fine adjustments (personal preference again).
Compare rapidly changing directions (180) with a mouse/trackpad and joystick. There is an obvious difference. Some early console games even had a key to speed this up (instant 180), so the problem definitely exists.

On the other hand, when it comes to controlling a setting which can be matched 1:1 to the joystick position (turning it into an absolute control), this is arguably faster, and allows finer grained controls. Think of player movement in FPS, a steering wheel, a plane joystick, or even the position of something on a screen that you can move instantly, such as an aiming direction/spaceship position for a shoot them up.

Thankfully, the trackpads can also emulate this behaviour, something that a trackball or a mouse can't. This makes them a better fit for game controllers. Since they have a clearly defined area, you can use some absolute positioning in this area to emulate the behaviour of a stick or some buttons. You can also use an "endless scroll" with a fixed movement ratio (or, more likely, one which changes with the speed) to specify an absolute movement faster than you would be able to with a stick (since you have to wait for the position, which is translated to speed at a fixed ratio, to be integrated, as in, a real integral, into an in-game position).

I hope those arguments are convincing enough. (and redeable/clear enough, I am answering from my phone, sorry).

I am still waiting on the perfect absolute input solution, with direct brain communication, but that's not for tomorrow :)

(for those interested in this last point, there are a few consumers facing prototypes, the EPOC Emotive is one of them).
Edit: wow, the price for this headset really skyrocketed these past years. It was around $300 around 6 years ago for the full headset, IIRC.


Last edited by MayeulC on 21 Oct 2016 at 9:00 am UTC

LOL. I read "weird". ;)

LOL. I read "weird". ;)

Don't scare me like that, thought I actually spelt it like that for a moment!

The track pad is far superior to a stick for FPS.

Wut? No seriously I would like to hear your argument? For me I'm a billion times faster and preciser on twin joysticks.

Of course I know this is probably a case of "what works for me" and "what works for you" are totally different.

The argument here is one of relative vs absolute motion. With joysticks, you specify the speed at which you want your "pointer" (can be a camera) to move, while with a mouse/trackpad, you specify where to move (by directly setting a relative motion, so the terms are a bit inadequate). This is unarguably much better, since that's what you really want (set the position to a precise location).

Not always, for example try circle-strafing and aiming. Of course with the configurability of the Steam Controller there are workarounds for this: View video on youtube.com


Last edited by N30N on 21 Oct 2016 at 11:22 am UTC

This update totally torched my Steam directory - I think it may have crashed while updating so [this issue](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3409). Of course this only happened after I'd finished downloading Mad Max.

The cable issue was confusing when I was trying to set up my Steam Link the other week. The instructions on the Link said I had to connect the controller to a computer by USB to update the firmware, which didn't work.