The third important statement from Valve: the new revolutionary game controller

The new operating system SteamOS, designed for games, Valve has already announced, she announced the gaming system, the so-called Steam Machine, on the basis of which this operating system will work. Now it's time for the third important announcement from Gabe Nyel's company - the announcement of a new and revolutionary game controller that allows you to enjoy games from the Steam online library right from your couch in the living room.

Valve writes that she spent the last year experimenting with various input methods and realizing that none of the game manipulators on the market is suitable for implementing her plans, she took and created a completely new type of game controller.

Its most important feature is that instead of the usual D-pad and the standard set of buttons, under the thumbs of the player will be two huge high-precision trackpad. At the same time, the trackpads themselves will also play the role of buttons - each of them can be pressed. According to Valve, the use of trackpads allows for more accurate input than was possible with conventional portable controllers. The company promises that the resolution of trackpads will be comparable to the resolution of a computer mouse.

A special pride for Valve here is that the Steam controller was designed in such a way that it can support absolutely all (old, current and future) games that are in the online library (no matter what genre they are). Even very old and those who did not initially have support for controllers. The company has developed a special API that makes the game "think" that you are using the usual keyboard and mouse set.

In addition, Valve notes that its controller does not make any compromises, as do most of the current gaming manipulators on the market. Steam-controller allows you to minimize the delay in the transfer of data and thereby most comfortably enjoy your favorite game. And those games for which aiming accuracy is important in a larger field of view will now be able to get the support of all the charms of high resolution trackpads for uncompromising positional control.

Valve believes that one of the most important aspects in its new game controller is tactile feedback. In this case, the usual vibration feedback here will be clearly not enough. Therefore, the new Steam-controller uses a new generation of ultra-accurate tactile feedback, which involves the use of two linear resonant drives - strong, weighted and at the same time compact electromagnets attached to both trackpads. They offer a wide range of power and vibration settings, while giving you precise control over the frequency, amplitude and direction of their movement. In other words, they give the player an idea of ​​the speed, boundaries, thresholds, textures, damage, and any other indicators and events that game developers want to notify the player. According to Valve at the moment it is the widest tactile channel of information from those that exist on the market. The system is so cool that it allows you to even play sound waves on it and literally use the touchpad also as speakers. Amaze your friends!

Another important part of the Steam controller is the touch panel located in its center, which is both a display and a button. Valve notes that this detail is very important to support all games from the Steam catalog and offers a virtually infinite number of different actions that would require the same innumerable number of physical buttons.

The player touches the display, selects one of the available actions and confirms it by tapping the screen. Not by touch, but pressing, because the screen is also one big button. The display can be used for scrolling or radial menus, displaying additional information from the game and other input modes, which will be invented by the imagination of game developers.

At the same time, the players will not be forced to divide their attention into two screens (the controller and the TV) - the controller screen will be duplicated on the TV screen right in the game.

Since the controller itself is at the prototype stage and will be delivered with the first batch of 300 prototype consoles, the original version of the manipulator will not have a touch screen (instead of it there will be four buttons) and will also be wired. By the release of devices, the controller will acquire a touch screen and become fully wireless.

Now about the buttons. In total, the Steam controller has 16 buttons. Half of them (including two at the back) the player can press without lifting his fingers from the trackpads. In this case, all parts of the controller are arranged symmetrically, and the software will allow switching modes for right-handers and left-handers.

Valve promises to release a special configuration utility that will allow anyone who wants to customize the controller's control for their loved one and their favorite games. In this case, your configuration can be put in open access, so that other players can use it too. In general, the company strongly hopes that the community itself will help it in all aspects of the development of this game manipulator, and therefore promises to release the necessary software tools and information - from industrial design to electrical engineering.

Another important detail that is worth noting here is that the controller will work with all computers. Even those that were not designed specifically to work with SteamOS.

For more information about the revolutionary game controller from Valve, as well as get answers to the most frequently asked questions, you can by passing by this link .

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/computers/trete-vazhnoe-zayavlenie-ot-valve-novyj-revolyucionnyj-igrovoj-kontroller.html.