Valve continues to tinker with the gamepad that is made specially for the studio’s PC-console hybrid Steam Machine. The company overhauled it last year, then this year asked fans to design the controller for them. In a new update, Valve unveiled the latest iteration of the gamepad.
Many of the tweaks are to make the gamepad able to emulate a mouse. ”One of the community’s biggest discoveries was how well FPS aiming worked when you combined trackpad and gyro input,” noted Valve in the blog. Now, to do sharper turns, tilting the controller while swiping in that direction makes it easier.
As for real-time strategy games, the new controller has Mouse Regions, to configure an entire trackpad onscreen. ”For example, when holding a grip button, you can make your left trackpad map to the minimap, so it’s easy to move your camera around the whole map.”
There will be some additional software to help configure the controller as well. A new HUD option allows players to see the exact feedback onscreen that the controller is giving. Players will have the ability to transfer their gamepad configurations to a friend’s Steam account, and Valve is promising to bring gamepad support for non-Steam games as well.
