Better Than a Mouse and Keyboard? Steam Controller Review and Giveaway | Dramel Notes

Every decade there’s a revolution in game controller design. In 1983 Nintendo released the first directional pad. In 1997 we received the ergonomic DualShock. In 2006 the Wii Remote brought motion controls. Now we have Valve’s Steam Controller.

The $50 Steam Controller (for Windows, Linux, and Mac) combines all the lessons learned from the past 30 years of gamepad development. Then it throws a curveball in the form of dual touchpads and an endless degree of customization.

The main virtue of the Steam Controller is its broad compatibility with any game, including games outside of Steam — with a minimal amount of effort. But it also makes for an amazing media center remote. The fine blending of functionality with configuration simplicity make it the only choice for PC gamers with a console fetish. On the other hand, the Steam Controller suffers from its share of difficulties – including Valve’s bizarre decision to wipe out its library of key-bindings for those using the Steam client beta.

So after 50+ hours of experimentation and hardcore useage, here’s my take on one of the greatest gamepads ever made – and at the end of this review, you can enter to win one for yourself.

Why I Gave the Steam Controller a 10/10

Let’s start off with why the Steam Controller is the most important gaming and HTPC tool of the decade:

First, my living room won’t accommodate the large peripherals required of PC games, like a mouse, keyboard, and desk large enough to hold both. A small controller saves on space. Second, I own a single computer (and no console) in my living room for entertaining guests and need a wireless controller to keep people from tripping over stray wires. Third, many games – particularly older titles – don’t work properly with console controllers, unless laboriously configured. If a controller could play any game, it’d be a must have accessory.

The Steam Controller isn’t perfect, but none of its flaws make it worse than its competition. Even the $150 Xbox Elite controller doesn’t solve the problems common to console controllers used on PCs.

So here’s what the Steam Controller does:

• Brings the console gaming experience to the couch of a living room
• Brings ease of configuration to an otherwise complicated mess
• Eliminates the need for a keyboard and mouse on living-room PCs

Here’s what it doesn’t do:

• It doesn’t improve on mechanical keyboards or mice for competitive FPS or RTS players
• It doesn’t work well on mobile devices

Valve published a video of why they designed the Steam Controller:

It’s designed for Steam Machines, but not really. Now that you know the controller’s purpose, let’s take a look at the hardware.

Hardware Analysis

Thanks to iFixit’s glorious teardown, we know the Steam Controller’s guts. It uses the state-of-the-art in embedded Bluetooth controllers and a high degree of modular design, suggesting a long service life. On the downside, the controller suffers from an iffy battery design choice. iFixit rated it an overall 8/10 for repairability, but noted that the controller’s most likely to fail component is the analog stick – and this isn’t user-repairable.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Steam Controller is its location of manufacture: The United States. Valve published a video of how the Steam Controller is made.

As you can see, the construction is almost entirely automated. But does the hardware measure up to our expectation?

Hardware Specifications

• Sensor package: 6-axis sensor suite, including accelerometer and gyroscopic sensors
• Bluetooth chip: Nordic nRF51822 Bluetooth with Low Energy extension (requires wireless dongle). It’s technically compliant with Bluetooth 4.2 standards.
• Range: Approximately 5 meters
• Battery life: 80+ hours
• Haptics: Dual haptics, attached to the touchpads and also perhaps the pressure sensitive triggers
• Buttons: 1 analog stick, 2 touchpads, 2 pressure sensitive triggers, 8 buttons — 13 buttons total
• Internal speaker: Unknown but capable of playing MIDI formatted music files
• Batteries: Two AA batteries (alkaline recommended by Valve)
• Also included: microUSB cable, USB cradle, 2 x AA alkaline batteries

Judging from iFixit’s teardown, two things come leaping out: first, Valve opted to use a Bluetooth chip to implement a proprietary wireless connection. This means that a firmware update could add full-blown Bluetooth support and mobile compatibility. At present the Steam Controller requires the wireless dongle in order to connect to any device, which rules it out as a potential gaming pad for Android and iOS devices, unless you own an OTG adapter. (Note: I couldn’t get the dongle recognized on my Nexus 9.) That’s a tremendous oversight given that the largest revenue stream for gaming comes from mobile platforms. However, if Valve did launch an Android application store, they could easily update the firmware on the Steam Controller to make it mobile compatible – and dongle free.

I should also point out that both the PS3 DualShock and Xbox controllers offer compatibility with Android. The Bluetooth pairing process sucks, but if you get it working, it’s generally stable and broadly compatible across most titles.

Second, there’s an accelerometer and gyroscopic sensor embedded within the pad’s logic board. That means the controller can function in two capacities: As an Air Mouse (or gesture, 3D remote) and as a wheel for driving games. In wheel mode, the controller can be turned like a real steering wheel. Here’s an example of wheel-mode in Project Cars:

The Steam Controller squeezes two AA batteries into its handles, beneath a removable panel. The added weight in the handles provides excellent balance — at no time does the controller feel uncomfortable or unwieldy.

Unfortunately, most rechargeable batteries do not properly fit the cramped battery slots. I tried a variety of batteries. Shorter rechargeable batteries won’t eject properly. Longer rechargeable batteries won’t fit at all. I reached out to Valve’s customer service – their official response:

Valve’s customer service isn’t particularly accommodating – so after some shopping around, I found suitable rechargeables: Eneloop, non-Pro editions. These feel a bit on the tight side, but they do work. Any rechargeable battery length slightly shorter than 50mm should also squeeze in. But anything around 51mm will not fit.

It’s important to note that rechargeables will not recharge when the controller is connected via microUSB cable to a power source. To my knowledge, this is an inherent limitation of all devices capable of handling both alkaline and rechargeable batteries.

How Does the Steam Controller Feel?

The Steam Controller on first use feels similar to a Sony DualShock or an Xbox controller. Of the two, it’s closer in feel and heft to an Xbox controller. But the touchpads aren’t like anything in the console world.

The touchpads can function in multiple modes. There’s too many to describe, but the basic configuration options include emulation of mice, trackballs, and analog sticks. Its haptic feedback varies depending on the mode you’ve selected. For example, in trackball mode, dragging a finger across the surface solicits haptic pulses — like a real trackball. However, its analog stick emulation feels awkward and borderline unusable. It works, but could use additional refinement. I think the trackpad could be retextured to let users know when their thumb touches the center of the pad. Too often, I found my thumbs drifting off target, sometimes activating the wrong function.

Like most modern console controllers, Valve’s gamepad sports dual grips, which makes marathon gaming sessions less punishing on the hands. The batteries location within the grips gives the Steam Controller a low center of gravity, making it feel more balanced and centered than other console controllers. Overall, it’s as comfortable as any other modern console controller.

Another interesting feature is the use of the left analog stick. When held in both hands, users can pick between the left touchpad or the left analog stick — I generally prefer using the left stick and mapping additional functionality to the directional pad. However, there’s an endless degree of customization available and much of how you use the pad depends on the game you’re playing. Customization is a cornerstone of why the controller feels different from game to game.

Aside from key customization, there’s a fair amount of physical customization available. While there’s no coating to the black matte plastic of the grips, it wouldn’t be difficult to add pistol-grip tape to its handles. If you like controller mods, you can even find them online. There’s already customised Steam Controllers available.

Customization

Describing the Steam Controller as customizable is like describing Antarctica as cold. There’s an almost unlimited number of customization and gameplay tweaks available to users. I can’t explain all of them, but let’s take for example the basic controller layout.

Each of the keys, of course, can remap as another key or gamepad button. In addition, users can map directional keys, keystrokes, mice inputs, and other features to the touchpads and gyroscopic sensor. The gyroscopic sensor should be extremely familiar to those familiar with the Wii Remote, where physical movements translate into game inputs.

For example, a common first person shooter (FPS) key-binding (or customized Steam Controller layout) is to aim a weapon by moving the controller around and the left touchpad to manipulate the camera. Here’s a video demonstrating how efficient and intuitive gyro-assisted controls are:

I think we’re at the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the Steam Controller is capable of. The future may bring control schemes that are even better than what we have today.

Community Sourced Key Bindings

After a great deal of experimentation, I don’t even bother creating custom key-bindings. There’s a tremendous number of individuals out there who are geniuses at designing custom controls — and thankfully, their designs are all available through Steam. Users need only select their game and choose Configure Controller and then choose Browse Configs (or hit X) from the menu.

Then select Community and a long list of key-bindings will appear, along with the number of other users with the same controls. Most of the time, the control scheme at the top of the list is best, although sometimes a gem shows up a little bit further down the list.

Unfortunately, if you use the Steam beta client, then most of the community-sourced key-bindings may not be available. I found that after downgrading to the mainstream version of Steam, the community designed control layouts reappeared — although my controls did not function properly and I had to return to the beta version of the client.

While the Steam Controller’s community continues to amaze me with their creativity — Valve’s beta program is tedious to deal with.

Game Compatibility

The Steam Controller works with every game I’ve tried in Steam (which is around a dozen titles) and also includes compatibility with a wide range of non-Steam games. There’s several genres of game that the Steam Controller isn’t particularly great at, though.

Real Time Strategy Games

The Steam Controller’s biggest weakness is Real Time Strategies (RTS). The controller isn’t quite responsive enough and can’t squeeze in enough key-bindings to meet all the hotkey demands of a competitive player. While you can find Star Craft key configurations that work well with the Steam Controller, there’s a learning curve and it will never feel as fluid as a keyboard and mouse. That said, the Steam Controller is the only gamepad that even approaches usability on RTSs.

But I wouldn’t recommend it for anything other than casual RTS play.

Turn-Based Strategy Games

Unlike RTSs, turn-based strategy games are slower paced (our pick of 6 unforgiving strategy games). I initially hoped that they’d be playable with the Steam Controller. Unfortunately, after playing a number of strategy games, such as Xenonauts and Might and Magic III, the harsh reality set in. The Steam Controller worked fine in both using community configured control schemes, but a keyboard and mouse felt faster and more responsive.

It’s worth noting that Valve included a special configuration option for the D-pads, known as Mouse Region, which lets the user tighten up controls in top-down strategy games. Mouse Region turns the touchpad into a map of the visible field, within the game. Touching any part of the pad will activate the corresponding region on the screen. And the size of this area is configurable, so users can increase the field or decrease it depending on their needs.

Mouse Region hasn’t been fully explored yet in strategy games, so there’s still room for growth. But as it stands, you are better off playing strategy games with a keyboard and mouse.

First Person Shooters

PC First Person Shooters (FPS) have been traditionally unplayable using console controllers. The Steam Controller makes a great deal of progress toward bringing mouse-like controls with its touchpad, but the sensitivity still feels slightly off. Valve added a gyroscopically assisted aiming mode, which allows the user to switch on the controller’s gyroscopic sensor, whenever aim mode is enabled. This allows the fine-tuning of aim, whenever shooting from the hip isn’t accurate enough. When implemented properly, it gives Steam Controller users aim that approaches – and perhaps eclipses – mouse and keyboard users.

As a Home Theater PC Remote

The Steam Controller doesn’t just control games. Valve also added desktop functionality. That means you can use the gamepad to control any application on your computer.

Unfortunately, there’s a few caveats: you can minimize (or hide) the Steam client, but you cannot close it entirely – otherwise you lose control of the gamepad. Users must also update to the latest beta version of the Steam client, to get access to the large catalog of community-designed controls.

Speaking of which, because of its six-axis (accelerometer and gyroscope) sensor, the controller can function as an Air Mouse once the appropriate community-sourced key binding is loaded. If you’ve already installed the Steam beta client, then there’s a long list of options. But be careful of the beta. It can cause problems.

Problems

Dysfunctional Beta Program: While I love the Steam Controller, I do not love Steam’s beta client. Somehow, Valve managed to erase all the community designed key bindings for those on the beta client. The beta client is purely opt-in, meaning you need to sign up for it. However, after signing up for the beta and then reverting back to the mainstream version of the Steam client, I found my controls wouldn’t work properly. Apparently, the Steam Controller’s firmware needs to match the client version – or something. More or less, don’t sign up for the beta, unless you need to.

No Android or iOS: Because Valve chose to ignore Bluetooth compatibility, the Steam Controller doesn’t work across multiple devices. Valve also missed out on publishing applications on the Android platform, which is currently the largest source of gaming revenue out of all gaming platforms. This is a tremendous failing on Valve’s part.

Firmware Updates: The Steam Controller suffers from a serious firmware update issue. While the first firmware update went through without difficulty – a later update (December 15^th) wiped out all of my personal controller settings. This is probably because I’m using the Beta Steam Client. The 10/15 update also removed the entire library of community designed key-bindings.

Battery Compatibility: The Steam Controller is designed to accept AA (14500 form-factor) batteries 50mm in length — the standard size of an alkaline battery. Unfortunately, many rechargeable batteries are 51mm in length, or use a flush negative (anode) terminal. This causes extremely tight fits, which prevents battery ejection using the levers inside of the controller. Valve’s official response to what I would define as a manufacturing fault is that users shouldn’t use rechargeable batteries. On top of that, the Steam Controller doesn’t report the correct remaining amount of battery life for rechargeables.

Steam Controller Summary

In case you find a 2,600 word article overly long, here’s a quick summary of who will like the Steam Controller and who won’t. I’ve also included a quick summary of the good and bad points of the Steam Controller:

Target Audience

Who Will Like a Steam Controller?

• Anyone who enjoys console games
• Anyone with a living room PC

Who Won’t Like a Steam Controller?

• People who play games that don’t exist on consoles

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

The Good

• Usable as both an HTPC remote and gamepad
• Comfortable and lightweight
• Infinitely customizable
• Easy to configure
• Vast library of community created custom controls
• 6-axis sensors offer gyroscopic aiming
• Long battery life of 80+ hours
• Frequent firmware updates continue to expand functionality

The Bad

• Requires a dongle
• Limited iOS and Android compatibility
• Valve doesn’t recommend you use rechargeable batteries
• Some multiplayer games don’t automatically support two Steam Controllers
• Emulation of an analog stick on a touchpad sucks

The Ugly

• The Steam Client Beta is really dysfunctional when used with the Steam Controller

Steam Controller Giveaway

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How to Add Your Music Library to Steam and Use the Steam Music Player | Dramel Notes

Steam’s Music Player allows you to add a MP3 file stored on your computer to a local music library and play it back — inside or outside a game, with a controller or keyboard and mouse. This would be particularly useful on a Steam Machine or living-room gaming PC in Big Picture Mode.

This works in Steam on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Steam OS. You can add music and play it back either from the desktop interface, or through Big Picture Mode.

Add Your Music Library From the Desktop

To get started, click the “Steam” menu in Steam and select “Settings”. Click over to the “Music” tab in the Settings window.

Click the “Add” button and add one or more directories on your PC that contain music files. By default, Steam automatically scans its own directory for soundtracks and your user account’s “Music” directory. Click “Scan Now” to have Steam detect the music when you’re done.

If you regularly add new music files to your library, click the “Scan at Startup” checkbox and Steam will automatically scan your library for new music when you load it. You’ll have to either relaunch Steam with those option enabled or visit this window and click “Scan Now” to find new music.

You can adjust other options from this window, too. For example, you can have Steam automatically pause music when you start an application, and control whether it’s automatically paused while you’re voice chatting within Steam. You can also choose whether you want to see a notification when the track changes.

Play Music From the Desktop

To view your music library, you can visit the “Library” tab in Steam, click the label at the right side of your search box, and select “Music” to view your music library instead of your game library. You can also just click View > Music details to view your music library.

If you have some games that include soundtracks installed, you might see some music here even if you haven’t provided any of your own music yet.

Start playing music back from your library and the music player will appear. You can also select View > Music player to open it.

Of course, this feature is particularly useful because you can control music playback from within games without Alt+Tabbing. After all, Alt+Tab can cause problems with many games.

To do this, open the Steam overlay within a game. The default shortcut for this is Shift+Tab. You can customize the shortcut from within Steam by clicking Steam > Settings, selecting “In-Game” in the Settings window, and providing a new shortcut here.

At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a “Music” link. This will open the music player in the overlay and allow you to control playback. Just press the overlay shortcut again — Shift+Tab by default — to quickly close the overlay and get back to the game.

Add Your Music Library From Big Picture Mode

You can do this same thing from within Big Picture Mode. These settings are shared, so if you’ve already set this up on the desktop, you won’t have to set it up separately in Big Picture Mode.

However, if you have a Steam Machine or just a living-room PC running Steam, Big Picture Mode will allow you to set this feature up and control playback with just a controller.

In Big Picture Mode — launch it by clicking the controller icon at the top-right corner of the desktop if you’re in desktop mode — use your controller or mouse to select the gear-shaped settings icon at the top-right corner of the screen.

Select “Music” under Audio on the Settings screen.

This screen provides the same options for configuring your music library. To add new folders containing music, select “Setup music library” and add the folders in the dialog that appears.

If you have a Steam Machine and you don’t want to mess with the file system, you should just be able to put some music on a USB flash drive or external hard drive and plug it into your Steam Machine. Then, select the drive from this window. This would work on any computer to enable access to music stored on a removable drive, of course.

Play Music From Big Picture Mode

The Music Player works similarly in Big Picture Mode. To access it, visit the “Library” section and select the “Local Music” category on the left.

You’ll see a thumbnail-style list of all the albums available on your PC. Select an album and you’ll be able to play the entire album or a single song from it.

When you do, the Steam Music Player will appear. While you’re playing music, there will be a music note button at the top-right corner of the main screen that allows you to quickly pull up the music player.

While in a game, you can pull up the Steam Overlay — using the keyboard shortcut, by pressing the Steam button on a Steam Controller, or by pressing the Xbox button in the center of an Xbox Controller. You’ll see a “Now Playing” box with the music that’s currently playing. Select it to open the music player.

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This feature is a bit basic, but Valve may improve it in the future. Possibilities include integration with Spotify, Pandora, and other music-streaming services. Valve will hopefully add support for more than just MP3s in the future, too.

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How to Remap Your Xbox One Controller Buttons | Dramel Notes

Unlike with past consoles, now Xbox One users can remap the buttons on their controller, allowing them to create the gaming experience that works for them.

However, changing the buttons on the controller isn’t as easy as going to the Settings app. Nope, Microsoft decided to make things a little more difficult. Don’t worry, though, because the process isn’t too painful.

First, you’ll need to download an app called Xbox Accessories. The easiest way to do it is to just search for “Xbox Accessories” using the console’s built-in search function. You can also browse the apps on the Store and get it that way.

Once you have the app installed, you may need to connect your controller to the console using a micro-USB cable to update it before you can make any changes.

From there, you can click Configure, and then make all kinds of changes. For example, you can swap triggers so the left trigger will be on the right and vice versa. You can also invert the sticks, which means that you inverted players won’t need to do it in the settings for every game.

Of course, there’s also the option to remap each button. So if you wanted the A button to be Left Bumper, you could do that.

This app is not just for the new Elite controller, though there are additional options for it, since it comes with the additional triggers on the back. Regardless of which controller you have, you can tweak it to your needs with the Xbox Accessories app.

What changes are you going to make to your Xbox One controller, if any? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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How to Remap Buttons on Your PS4 for Improved Control | Dramel Notes

Despite some intrusive notifications (that you can turn off) on the system itself, the PS4’s controller is pretty great and well-suited for all kinds of games. Interestingly, Sony added a feature into the console this year that came quietly: button remapping.

Disabled 1 handed gamer. I only play PS4 because a console update allows you to remap buttons to suit you. If Xbox 1 gets this, let me know!

— Packwolf (@Bertholomey) July 17, 2015

Designed as an accessibility feature for those who can’t reach the buttons that they need, anyone can take advantage of this feature to re-assign the control schemes for their favorite games.

To get started, head to the Settings menu of your system, then scroll down to Accessibility. At the bottom, select Button Assignments; you can also check Add to Quick Menu if you’d like to see these options when you long-press the PS button.

Now you need to Enable Custom Button Assignments and Customize Button Assignments once the above is checked. From here you’ll see a grid of buttons that lets you re-assign anything away from its original state, except for the touchpad and PS button.

If your favorite game doesn’t let you change the controls in a way that fits you, you can override them here (e.g. swapping melee and crouch for shooters).

Note that this changes the buttons at the hardware level, so if you change O to R3, your game will still say “Press R3 to crouch” and you’ll have to press O to do so. It takes a bit of getting used to, so it’s probably not a good idea to customize the controls for every game.

Don’t forget that you can upgrade your PS4’s hard drive if it’s getting too full of games!

What games will you remap the buttons for? Will you have a use for this feature? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment!

Image Credit: Alex Ionas via Shutterstock.com

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How to Remap Buttons on Your Steam Controller | Dramel Notes

Valve’s Steam Controller isn’t just designed for new games. Unlike other controllers, it’s designed to be backwards-compatible with as many games as possible — even ones designed for keyboard and mouse controls. To make the controller work with a game, you may need to tweak is controller profile.

The Steam Controller works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Valve’s own Steam OS, so this is useful on any gaming computer running Steam. Valve is trying to offer an alternative to the Xbox controllers so many PC gamers opt for.

Launch Big Picture Mode

Connect a Steam Controller with Steam in desktop mode and you’ll be told to enter BIg Picture Mode to make the controller work as well as possible. Click the controller icon at the top-right corner of your Steam window to enter big picture mode.

You can also just press the “Steam” button on the center of your controller to launch big picture mode.

Choose a Configuration to Start With

Each game in Steam has its own controller profile. When you launch a game, Steam will use the settings you’ve configured for that game. You don’t have to manually remap the controller’s buttons systemwide each time you want to play a new game.

Navigate to the game you want to play in your Library. If you’ve selected a game that wasn’t designed for the Steam Controller, you’ll see a yellow warning banner saying “Controller Configuration Required” on that game’s page. This only appears if you’re using the controller, not if you’re navigating Big Picture Mode with a keyboard and mouse.

Launch the game and you’ll be prompted to select a configuration template. If you’re lucky, this is the easy part.

If the game has a “Recommended” configuration, you’ll probably want to look in that category and choose that one. If you don’t want to mess with button mapping yourself, you can also try the “Community” category and choose a button mapping scheme another Steam user has created.

Valve wants to simplify this process, and you’re encouraged to share your button mapping profile publically. Over time, the most popular, approved controller profiles will come to the top, and this shouldn’t be quite as necessary.

If the game doesn’t have any recommended or community-created controller profiles, you’ll need to choose the “Templates” category and select either “Gamepad with Precision Camera/Aim”, “Gamepad”, or “Keyboard (WASD) and Mouse”. The first is ideal if the game was designed for a gamepad but also supports a mouse, the second is ideal if a game already has support for Xbox 360 controllers or another type of gamepad, and the last is designed for games which were only developed with keyboard and mouse controls in mind.

If you’re not sure which to choose, just pick your best guess. You can change it later.

Modify Your Controller Profile

You can modify your controller profile afterwards. To do this while the game is running, press the “Steam” button at the center of the controller and select “Configure Controller” in the on-screen menu that appears. To do this while the game isn’t running, navigate to the game’s page in your library, select “Manage Game”, and then select “Configure Controller”.

Either way you launch the controller configuration tool, the same interface will appear. If you’re not happy with the template you chose earlier, press the blue “X” button on the controller from here to browse available configuration templates and select a new one.

To start modifying the selected template, select one of the items on the screen with the controller and press the green “A” button to start customizing it.

You’ll be able to configure a wide variety of settings — everything from mapping buttons on the controller to specific keys on the keyboard and mouse buttons to choosing the level of haptic feedback. For the touchpads and joystick, you can choose whether they should function as a directional pad, button pad, mouse, joystick, trackball, touch menu, or something else. Triggers can be customized in a variety of ways — you can choose different actions for soft and hard pulls, customize sensitivity, and choose any number of other settings.

Explore the interface and configure the controller to your liking. Remember, you can do this while the game is running in the background and leave the interface to test your new settings before customizing them again.

When you’re done, press the red “B” button to leave this interface or press the yellow “Y” button to save your new profile. You can save it as a private profile accessible only to you, or make it publically available to the larger Steam community.

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The sheer amount of options available for configuring your Steam controller can be daunting. Many games should play okay with one of the default templates, however. And, as more game developers and gamers get their hands on the Steam controller, Steam should eventually fill up with recommended profiles for a larger number of games. This will make it easier to start playing without tweaking the Steam controller to work well with a specific game. But those tweaks will always be there for you to use.

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