The issue comes down to how the device interacts with your computer. Just like the original version, the new Steam Controller has no native Windows drivers. This means the hardware relies entirely on the Steam app to function properly. If you do not have the game running via Valve’s storefront app, your shiny new gamepad turns into a useless piece of plastic.
Gamers Nexus also reported this and there are a lot of other news outlets also covering this. It is kinda the same as with the steam deck where I noticed that the inputs just don’t work until steam is launched. I really don’t like that I have to have Steam running for this controller to work. I don’t know if it is a dealbreaker for me, yet, but it really put a damper on my enthusiasm about it
Really well written out response, thank you! I havent streamed games from my PC in awhile but IIRC you connect the controller to your phone and it passes the inputs through to your PC as if the phone in the controller. I could be completely wrong on that but if true then Id think it would be quite problematic to get it to work if it required something proprietary, no?
Also for the project thing I was meaning less software and more electronics/robotics. Vavle didnt intend for the steamdeck to be used as a robotics controller but because of the nature/spirit of the Steamdeck people often use them as controllers. I think even Disney uses them to control some of the robots that move around their parks.
The full point is a peripheral you own shouldnt be tied to an account to work and a peripheral that does not provide the same functionality as other peripherals at or below its level should be criticized. Theres no reason for the drivers to not be a standalone download or at least for the basic functionality to work like any other xinput controller. I really like Valve but I think this move is still pretty stupid and ultimately harmful to the consumer. It steps away from the sorta open, not-supported-but-will-not-hinder-creativity theme theyve been doing with their recent hardware.
Remember the Spotify car thing?
You bring up a lot of good points, but something I would to add is that there is a reason why you wouldn’t want it to act like a standard xinput device without steam.
One big usecase for the steam controller is as the primary (and possibly only) input for a HTPC (such as the steam machine). So having the controller act as a basic keyboard and mouse without steam (ie: lizard mode) allows you to navigate menus that a standard controller can’t such as pre-boot Operating System menus or BIOS menus without having to breakout a keyboard and mouse.
As I am understanding it right now it doesn’t work that way though. Its just a plastic brick until Steam is launched. If it DID work that way that would be sick and I really hope I am wrong.
I think you are describing just one category of a way to stream, when you talk about connecting your controller to your phone, and then the phone acts as a wireless middleman to your PC.
You… can just directly, wirelessly, connect a controller to a PC via a 2.4ghz dongles, usb dongles, bluetooth connections… many ways to do this exist. The Steam Controller uses a usb dongle (which also doubles as a wireless charger for the controller when physically connected), and it also works via bluetooth (iirc).
Streaming is not the same thing as connecting a controller, not necessarily. You can stream the game rendering output from your PC to a TV, or to a phone, or to another PC… and you could do that over a local network, or you could do that from like a server farm across the internet, to a local device that doesn’t have to involve the controller, at all.
Like when you are watching a livestream … thats likely a phone camera or usb camera, streaming, live, to your device.
There are many different protocols and standards for streaming different kinds of content, to and from different kinds of hardware, via differing physical transmission methods, which may or may not support various kinds of input/output as well. Some of these are proprietary, some are open source, some work on some operating systems, specific hardware architecture (x86 vs ARM)… etc.
I do hear what you are saying when a proprietary tech is involved anywhere in the loop. Yes, it is always possible that one day, that could blow up in your face.
However, as best I am aware, SteamInput is a totally open standard… its sort of like a game engine where the source code is ‘available’, but it isn’t fully open to be freely modifiable.
You bring up robotics. You can make a robotics controller program in Godot, I’ve seen people do it. Godot also has an opensource plugin that supports SteamInput. So you could make a robotics project that works with a Steam Controller in that way. I’d say its pretty likely there are other game engines that support Steam Input as well, or other projects that do this in their own way.
But yes, it is always possible that Steam could become evil when Gabe retires/dies.
However, just as others have noted that proprietary designed Nintendo controllers have had people develop software for them that enables them to work on non Nintendo products… I would be amazed if that is not basically the case for the Steam Controller within a year or two, if it isn’t functionally already the case via stuff that’s been developed for the Steam Deck, that would only need updates.
Why does Valve not use a totally open universal standard?
Because no existing totally open universal standards supports all of the input and control functionality that the SteamInput system does.
Steam has a whole system of controller configs, hosted on Steam: A game publisher can issue an ‘official controller template’ for their games on Steam. Through Steam, users can tweak and customize and rebind keys and buttons and commands, and create their own controller templates for games… you can save these locally, tie them to your Steam account so they’ll work across devices, sort of like cloud saves, or, you can even publically upload these controller templates so that other users can use them, and then they can modify them, make their own version, etc.
Would all of this ideally be totally open source?
Yes.
But… Valve had to invent all of this, so they based it off of what they already had, that encourages people to use it with their platform, which is at least currently, a very open and featureful platform, at least as far as platforms go.
They are, after all, in a platform/console war, with other corpos, where said other corpos all have publically traded stocks and thus more money snd also investors they must please, whereas Valve does not.
Valve is not a third party, universal peripheral manufacturer.
They are a first party peripheral manufacturer.
Hopefully this reads less as an ‘I think this is totslly morally correct’ defense, than it does as an explanation.