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I would be willing to give it a try as well. If it really does work that well, it could very well bridge the gap between the PC and console markets.
Looks like it was designed for FPS games first, every other genre second.
From reading the description the point of the trackpads in lieu of an analog stick seams to be that a trackpad offers a higher resolution input. The description of the haptics was pretty interesting as well. The whole thing is hackable so I guess we'll see what interesting things people come up with.
I was just thinking sports games would be miserable on this thing.The action buttons are everywhere. Lol. Looks like it was designed for FPS games first, every other genre second. I don't think this is that playable with NBA 2k14.
It'd be pretty nice if there was a way to swap out the track pads for more traditional control (ie: analogue, d-pad, or button array) when you needed to (racing, fighting games).
I was just thinking sports games would be miserable on this thing.
I'm more interested in how this whole new platform will affect game development. Will games have to be written/customized for the Playstation, XBox, Windows OS based PC and now Steam OS environment as well?
I was just thinking sports games would be miserable on this thing.
Well Valve filed a patent all the way back in 2009, then another updated one in 2011 for exactly that concept - a controller with interchangeable modules - trackball, stick, pad, etc. Don't have it handy but easily googled.
Chris Remo, designer and writer at The Cave developer Double Fine played a couple different games with the Steam ontroller: Double Fine's upcoming point-and-click adventure game Broken Age and already-released The Cave. "We just plugged it in, and it worked," he said. "We didn't have special support for it or anything. It worked really, really well. I was really impressed with the mouse imitation. It doesn't feel like a trackpad."
Remo said the controller has a tiny speaker in it that offers audio feedback – a subtle "tick" sound that increases and decreases in speed (he compared it to the Wheel of Fortune wheel's sound), depending on how you use the track pad. If you "fling" your thumb across the trackpad – if it's mapped to the mouse – the ticking increases in speed, and slows down as the virtual momentum of your action slows. "It sounds like there's actually a mechanical device in there, which really makes it feel mechanical, but not in a clunky way," Remo said. "It just feels really high-tech and precise. … I can't stand trackpads on laptops, and this felt really good to me. There was almost no learning curve as far as accuracy goes."
"It feels like you're moving your thumbs over a rough surface, though it's all virtual," Ichiro Lambe said. "From a tech standpoint, think about something that can click whenever you tell it to... Simple example: you move your finger 1 inch up, and it ticks 10 times...You flick it up, and it starts ticking, like you've spun a wheel."
Yes, the SteamOS will be available for download on Friday as well.