Upcoming Controller Fragmentation?

[poofyhairguy]

One awesome thing Microsoft did for PC gaming is give us the ability to easily use the Xbox 360 controllers with our PCs. Nowadays many console ports assume the player has a 360 controller, and will either automatically map the buttons (maybe even showing buttons presses in the GUI) or easily give you a profile. Thanks to this and Big picture Mode in Steam couch-based PC gaming has never been better.

But the 360 controller is long in the tooth, and soon MS plans to give us an adaptor for the Xbox One controller. On top of that Steam has its own controller that they are putting out with their Steamboxes, which might further fragment the PC gaming couch audience.

Is anyone else nervous that these new options will kinda mess up a good thing and move us away from having a standard? Or are the buttons all close enough on these controllers not to matter?

 

[local]

Nervous? I am excited. I cannot stand the Xbox controller and refuse to use one. Many games now will not recognize my Logitech controller or it is a pain to get it to work.

 

[Aikouka]

Apart from different button naming, as long as the controller's driver supports XInput, it should work just like the 360 controller.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Well the Xbox one controller at least isn't functionally different from the xbox 360 controller. I'm pretty sure the same mappings would work with it unchanged.

The steam controller is a different animal though. I haven't heard anything clear on exactly how it will be handled. Will there be games coming out with specific steam controller support? Perhaps all the steamos games are required to support it out of the box?

It seems like a lot of games will have to see it as a keyboard and mouse combo to work. Maybe the mappings will be handled on the driver level with premade profiles and such. If that latter option is the case with all games then it shouldn't present a problem in terms of controller fragmentation.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Apart from different button naming, as long as the controller's driver supports XInput, it should work just like the 360 controller.

Yeah but that only unifies the actual inputs. Is there some equivalent standard that tells the game what controller you are using so that way when it says " hit ___ button" the right button is displayed?

That is what is so awesome about the now, with so many Full Controller Support games within the game menus it tells you the correct button to press on a 360 controller. It really makes for a console-like experience, like I am using some badass custom Xbox 360.

I will say that I feel better now that I actually look at controller pictures:

It looks like SlitheryDee is right and the buttons are the same. That means as long as the Steam controller flops the success of the Xbox One controller won't be enough to fragment things from where they are now. Games can continue to show the same buttons!

Heck that downright gets me excited about the Xbox One controller adaptor, as the D-Pad on that controller looks much much better than the 360 one. Then it will feel like I have a badass Xbox One!

 

[Aikouka]

Yeah but that only unifies the actual inputs. Is there some equivalent standard that tells the game what controller you are using so that way when it says " hit ___ button" the right button is displayed?

No, because the games lack the assets (i.e. button images) to show any buttons that are not the same as a 360 controller. The companies most likely just use the same assets that they used with the 360 version. That's also why when you use an Xbox One controller it will tell you to hit Start or Back, but both of those don't exist on the Xbox One controller. However, if you hit the corresponding button that replaced Back and Start (I forget exactly what they are), it works fine.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

The Steam controller won't fragment anything more than the KB/Mouse already does. It is a KB/Mouse setup in a controller housing, that's the point of the thing. And flop? Shame on you for the suggestion. It will be glorious. GLORIOUS!

 

[poofyhairguy]

And flop? Shame on you for the suggestion. It will be glorious. GLORIOUS!

Yeah my bad, looks like I overreacted. Valve (yet again was smart) and their controller uses the SAME BUTTONS as the 360 one:

So the standard will remain in place!!!! So exciting!

Now I just need to decide if I want the Xbone One controller or to pre-order a steam one. I like that I might be able to use the steam one on games like CS: Go.

 

[JujuFish]

It looks like SlitheryDee is right and the buttons are the same.

Unlike Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft don't go crazy with their controller iterations from one console to the next.

 

[Gryz]

Get x360ce.

X360ce is a free tool (and open source) to let you combine one or more input devices, and make them look like an xbox-controller. That means you can make any gamepad look like an xbox-gamepad. Or make your racing steering-wheel look like a gamepad. You can even combine multiple devices if you wish (e.g. steer plus footpedals).

It takes 10 minutes to download and install it. After that it might take 10 to 30 minutes to set up and test. Maybe a little longer if you want to check out all features. E.g. you can change dead-zones and sensitivities of your thumb-sticks, shoulder-buttons, etc. It will work with any game (that uses DirectX for input) and any devices that can be seen in DirectX.

I use it to make my joystick look like a gamepad. I use that joystick in combination with a trackball. Works perfectly. I started using x360ce because I wanted analog steering in GTAV. I now use it in TW3, so I have analog movement for Geralt. I probably will end up using it in all games that have analog inputs from a gamepad.

So don't worry too much about gamepads. You can make em all look the same. The only downside is that the help-texts will tell you to press the wrong button. But you get used to that pretty easily.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

This really doesn't matter at all, most game engines can take in direct input (a feature of directx) and that allows anyone to build a controller and map the buttons to functions that can be used in games.

Controller "support" is there in most games, it's just not always pre-configured or comes with a fancy controller in game graphic, the vast majority of games tend to work pretty well with the huge array of controllers already available for the PC and as long as someone writes a driver.

In the case of Xbox/PS3 or other external systems if their controller is popular and they don't make a windows driver then someone else probably will, motionjoy make drivers for most older xbox/ps controllers which works just fine.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The only downside is that the help-texts will tell you to press the wrong button.

 

[Martimus]

I have a cheap Logitech controller, and it automatically maps too. Most controllers will automatically map with modern games, so adding one more isn't likely to change much.

 

[cbrunny]

I have the XBone controller and use it wired. I really like it - a huge improvement over the 360 controller. If there is suitable purpose, I'll take a look at the elite version as well when that launches.

I don't see this as an issue for some time to come though. Xbox controllers will reign supreme on PC until there is a new standard in button configs more than anything else. Despite their form factor differences, PS & Xbox controllers are basically identical, and many other controllers attempt to duplicate this.

Steam controller will flop even though it looks really cool.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

OMG there's that word again.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Yeah but that only unifies the actual inputs. Is there some equivalent standard that tells the game what controller you are using so that way when it says " hit ___ button" the right button is displayed?

That is what is so awesome about the now, with so many Full Controller Support games within the game menus it tells you the correct button to press on a 360 controller. It really makes for a console-like experience, like I am using some badass custom Xbox 360.

I will say that I feel better now that I actually look at controller pictures:

It looks like SlitheryDee is right and the buttons are the same. That means as long as the Steam controller flops the success of the Xbox One controller won't be enough to fragment things from where they are now. Games can continue to show the same buttons!

Heck that downright gets me excited about the Xbox One controller adaptor, as the D-Pad on that controller looks much much better than the 360 one. Then it will feel like I have a badass Xbox One!

If I use my Dualshock4 on PC, it says press A and I press X instead. Y= triangle, b = circle, x = square, and A = cross

 

[cmdrdredd]

Yeah my bad, looks like I overreacted. Valve (yet again was smart) and their controller uses the SAME BUTTONS as the 360 one:

So the standard will remain in place!!!! So exciting!

Now I just need to decide if I want the Xbone One controller or to pre-order a steam one. I like that I might be able to use the steam one on games like CS: Go.

I dunno, I don't like how the steam controller looks at all. Seems like it might be harder to use for some games too.

 

[poofyhairguy]

It does look heavy. Like if you threw it in a pool it would simulate a belly flop (THERE IS THAT WORD AGAIN!).

 

[smackababy]

I am certainly not nervous. As long as games continue to use DirectX, the trusty ol' Xbox controller will continue to work. Once Windows gaming becomes less prevalent (yeah, that ain't happening anytime soon), I might worry, but currently, nope.

The Steam controller itself, looks terrible for any kind of gaming, honestly. Why would I want some kind of oversized D-Pad that is also a touch pad? That sounds like a terrible way to control anything. There is a reason people buy mouses* to go with their laptops. Everyone but Apple can't figure out how to make a touch pad that isn't completely awful, and even then, doing any real fine tuned work is tricky.

*The plural of the computer interface mouse is actually mouses, not mice, though both are accepted as correct.