Steam Hardware
A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to Steam Hardware or Steam OS in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
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I'm a big proponent of https://www.8bitdo.com/ultimate-2c-wireless-controller/ which is a great controller at a low price. That's why I cannot really sympathize with people complaining about the SC price. Just get an alternative. There are plenty.
I got a good deal for their older Pro 2 model last year and yeah it's pretty good for the price honestly. Linux functionality is a bit dodgy though. Like, it kinda works but I need to set it up regularly for some reason. Switch mode is only partially supported and I can't get the back buttons to work whatsoever on any mode. I switched to the Sony DualSense for most things but I'm willing to pay a premium price for the Steam Controller.
Back to your point though: Yes, there are good alternatives. Especially if you're looking for something specialized like N64 emulation. 8BitDo got it for you. But man the Steam Controller seemss neat.
8BitDo regularly releases firmware updates for their controllers (and dongles!). You might want to try the missing functionality after an update.
I have one of those, they go on sale for $20 or less all the time. Works great.
That being said... i'm not here complaining about price, i'm complaining about value. Show me why this is worth what they are asking. I can and have dropped hundreds of dollars on quality peripherals many times. So far all it has is a valve logo on it. I'd buy two vaders over this any day, and that's just one direct example.
Just a point to consider that I didn't see you mention: a lot of times those aftermarket controllers don't work well with linux. The auxiliary/extra buttons aren't able to be used. This won't really be the case for steam controller since it's made by valve and will have all the proper driver support built in.
My Razer wolverine V2 is a prime example.
Try switching between Xinput and Dinput mode. You can get the extra buttons to work with one of them usually (AFAIK).
Im full time Linux these days at work and at home.
I have gotten four different third party controllers to work, and really only PopOS gave me issues with them. All just are recognized and “just work” on cachyos.
I just haven’t struggled with peripheral compatibility on computers really since the olden days when we transitioned away from dos and early windows to USB… and then again from 16bit drivers to 32 or again to 64bit. But I do know some devices are a problem for some people I suppose.
You already have a Steam Controller built into your Steam Deck. If you haven't made custom steam input mappings to utilize the touchpads and capacitive sticks with gyro, then this is not going to appeal to you.
If you want to see what that's all about there are videos on Steam Input for the Deck and all the cool things you can do with it. Once you have that the way you like it you wish all controllers could do it (or at least I do).
So this is a niche product for people who utilize all the control surfaces that the Deck and the original Steam Controller offer. If you don't then it's overpriced and not worth it.
We have a winner. A niche like any other… and steam input isn’t exclusive to steam hardware at all lol, third party controllers get all this and more. We all win!
Steam Input is not exclusive to this controller, correct. However the inputs that this controller has and exposes to Steam Input are. There is no other controller in existence that supports dual touchpads and capacitive gyro. I'm not sure why youre being so argumentative. It's not for you, move on.