This guy will have to wait for his younger brother.
It was available to buy starting noon local time. I refreshed the page until the buy option became available, but kept getting an error when submitting payment. Waited about half an hour and now it’s sold out. Ni modo I guess.
if you can’t find one I’d recommend getting a ps5 controller instead: it at least has one trackpad and a gyro, and works well with steam input.
I find the gyro is more useful than the track pad for mouse input, with an activation button set to capacitive touch on the track pad, or set to the aim button such as left trigger for shooting games.
I’m a huge fan of the Dual Sense. Best haptics I’ve ever felt, awesome triggers, etc.
That said, the track pad on it isn’t at all comparable to the ones on the Deck (and I’m guessing this new controller).
Even if games did let you bind it to anything and use it as a mouse for FPS games (it doesn’t), the size and placement is super awkward for that use
steam input.
The PS5 DualSense is definitely the second-best choice if you can’t get a Steam controller. It has comparable features, although I personally feel like the touchpads are placed in suboptimal position compared to the Steam controller. It also has comparable build quality, unlike Microsoft’s various iterations of Xbox controllers that all have absolutely disastrous build quality.
dog help you when (not if) your dualsense gets stick drift tho
Yeah, I’m on my third. It’s fucking bullshit to be honest.
committing return fraud is entirely justified
Why PS5?
why not any of the other good controllers out there. https://gamepadla.com/
We all know the “trackpad” on the ps5 controller is not really the same at all. Potentiometers for joysticks are unheard of in high quality controllers these days- everybody is using Hall Effect or TMR.
It’s not like games really make use of touch controls these days, at least not the ones releasing on PC with high popularity like Crimson Desert.
PS5 controller specific, there is no dongle. You’re stuck wired or bluetooth. Bluetooth is generally the worst for latency on any controller, and aside from a couple of very specific models with very low bluetooth latency it’s really bad compared to a dedicated dongle / 2.4G.
that’s what steam input is for…
I don’t want to fuck with controller settings to create unique bindings and controls for a feature that has no meaningful value add.
If I wanted four extra buttons or something, i’d just use the extra shoulder buttons and paddle buttons on the back of my controllers. There’s no reason to do this though in crimson desert that I know of, the stock controller binds are awesome.
the steam controller also probably isn’t for you in that case…
I’m willing to bet the overwhelming majority of people buying this who aren’t just scalpers jumping on the ~$200-$300 ebay price tag will never, ever create custom binds for those pads man.
I’ve created several, and I don’t own a Steam Controller yet.
And I’ve also used countless community layouts created by others.
Steam Input is fucking awesome. If you know, you know.
the community creates a lot of custom layouts too, so you just need to scroll down the list and find one. The default ones also generally work pretty well and are easy to modify. It’s just like changing your controls in any pc game.
Id hazard a guess that while the majority of people don’t change their controls, those sort of people also don’t tend to buy a steam controller.
I’m completely familiar with community layouts as a steam deck user.
The point for those to me is creating controls when a developer does not have them themselves.
I have been using specialty peripherals for multiple decades, starting from when they used serial and peripheral ports. I’m quite aware of being able to bind buttons from flight sticks, yokes and other devices in games in many different ways. I still can’t find a good use case in any game i’ve played for those touchpads though, especially not if I have an R4/L4 and back paddles (because cardinal direction keybinds are an easy ‘oh it’s x extra buttons!’)
Would be awesome if someone could chime in with actual examples of how they are so awesome in a game like crimson desert, pragmata, stardew valley, dynasty warriors origins, nioh 3, monster hunter wilds, or even games that aren’t really controller games like cyber knights: fliashpoint or factorio or something.
I know some people use the trackpads for games that really ought to use a mouse and keyboard like non-controller FPS games, and RTS games… but I still don’t see a real reason why I would want to try and suffer through trackpads intead of a real mouse or even a trackball mouse on a couch htpc scenario.
I’ve been using it a lot in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. I use the trackpad in the inventory and map and similar menus, and the gyro for aiming when holding the left trigger.
That game was particularly annoying however as it disables mouse and keyboard inputs when it detects a gamepad button press or joystick… so I had to spend about an hour mapping all the controls to the keyboard and mouse output from the controller via steam input, despite the game having native DS5 support (that support completely ignores the trackpad and gyro 🤦)
My biggest gripe with the dualsense is the battery life. I get maybe 3.5 hours from it if I’m lucky and that’s just watching media, literally barely using at all.
Sounds like Sony cheaps out on batteries with their PS controllers and has for some time. I have had battery issues with my PS 4 controller (that I barely use) and that’s part of the reason I was looking forward to the steam controller – battery life.
I don’t have any of those 😅 🤷
I’ve not had stick drift… yet… (all of my Nintendo switch nunchuck controllers that I barely use however… all have stick drift 😅)
I’ve never noticed any input lag, but maybe my bt receiver is decent or something 🤷
there’s quite a few community layouts for the DS5 in steam
That gamepadlia site doesn’t appear to have a filter for trackpads…
Nintendo will fix your joycon stick drift for free (they have to, court order). Unless they stopped doing that.
Yeah, the typical experience for people doesn’t expose them to what’s out there for controllers. Maybe you’ve heard of 8bitdo in passing or have seen the really shitty hori conrollers in your childhood (or any of the other archaic garbage brands that used to exist and were handed to little brothers everywhere as the shitty controller.) Times have changed. I think the non-major brands are better now. I have only tried a small sample of what is out there, but have yet to be disappointed in the $25-$65 range. Can’t speak to the stupid expensive $100-200+ controllers like what razer makes. I usually check reviewers.
Bluetooth as a tech has all kinds of issues for users. Just takes a bad driver update and it’s not working right. Dongles just work, like cables. Plus some controllers are horrible on bluetooth. Latency most people don’t notice without a side by side comparison, but it’s always there. I do use controllers with bluetooth, generally when I have no other option or a dongle isn’t convenient. It’s common for dongles to be included with and removable from charging base stations nowadays, like what comes with the ~$55 8bitdo ultimate wireless 2.
The trackpad filter though you’re looking for doesn’t exist because nothing else works like the valve deck/controller pads. The ps5 one is not really the same without the feedback and awkward placement imo.
I haven’t had stick drift myself either since the 360 days, but I don’t game full time on a controller. It’s one of those every now and then on a specific game i’ll use it. Have a ps5 but hardly played it so the controller is still like new… but I had an xbox elite series 2 controller have shoulder button issues with less than 100 hours used, which led me to look at “off brands” that changed my mind about how to approach controllers overall.
Will say that joystick tension adjustments are awesome, as are adjustable triggers. Most other features are pointless for me but I know macros can be useful for some. The trackpad thing is a hard sell though because the game has to have a meaningful implementation (still waiting to find one of those. Maybe someone with a deck that uses them heavily can chime in…) or you need to setup a custom controls in steam’s direct input somehow to make use of it in a game.
I have a steam controller too and I find the placement of the thumbsticks and face buttons awkward so I tend to use the PS5 one instead, and I don’t find the trackpad placement on it too bad. steam controller trackpad placement is definitely way better though.