I love what hobbyist are doing with these custom hardware builds. On the picture the form somehow reminds me back to the Dreamcast controller from 2000, if someone remembers. It did not have trackpad, but the form looked similar uncomfortable. But it felt great in the hands. And knowing how great the Deck in the hands feel, I am sure his creation would be very nice to hold. It’s just the image does not imply this for me.
Very impressive he build his own trackpads, that fit the specifications of the Deck. There are no ready to use Deck trackpads one can buy at all! The entire thing is published as Open Source project to build your own. I cannot. Maybe a company takes this and makes a product to sell. I would totally buy a good and functioning one for a premium price.
But I predict Valve will 1 year before the Steam Deck 2 hopefully release an official Steam Controller 2. A man can only dream (unless you are talented like that guy)…
Translucent purple housing hell yeah
If the split controller works screw waiting for the Steam Controller, I’ve been waiting for a good PC joycon set.
This has some of the same issues as the Legion Go, in that it’s too chunky to play split. Also the superfluous touchpads that make it be too large (I’ll be taking no questions on this issue at this point).
But I do really want something like this for PC commercially.
Why though? Specifically the thing about wanting PC joy con split controllers? What does that add?
Ergonomics. It adds the option of my broken old wrists to not have to hold themselves at whatever arbitrary angle the probably younger and certainly healthier designer decided wasn’t causing immediate pain to them.
So yeah, having specific accessibility needs can suck and for my specific brand of those the joycon are an amazing option.
Also, playing a game with your hands by your sides or under a blanket or whatever adds a TON to the sense of immersion.
I hadn’t considered it until seeing this thread and don’t really expect it but it actually would be sick as hell if the Steam Controller 2 could be split in half, I might not use it all the time but man the option would be cool.
It’s a shame that Joy-Cons are the only standard controllers that do this because they suck so hard for other reasons lol
I love them and if PC connectivity with them wasn’t so terrible and laggy they’d be my go-to.
Since they don’t play nice with PC I’d take a literal carbon copy. Love the button d-pad, love the size, love the layout.
I get most people don’t, and that makes sense, but for my particular set of appendages they are pretty much ideal. I’d pay good money for that exact thing just better built and for other platforms.
Instead whenever somebody tries they either make them even smaller for phones or they try to make them as big as a console controller, which doesn’t work at all. For a split controller you need to be able to wrap your hand all the way around the thing and there is no need for a handle-like bump (those are so you can leverage both hands on the controller at once using your palm).
The only other form factor I’d consider for a split controller is… the Wii-mote.
The Wii-mote was cool and did the thing I need it to do. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with a symmetrical dual stick config, so it’s not very practical. The Joycon are more plausible as a modern controller replacement.
In the meantime I just use the least offensive PS3-layout controllers I can find for 3D games (with lots of braces and frequent pauses) and a leverless controller for 2D games.
I am actually also one of the weird(?) ones that likes the button d-pad. My main issue with them is I just don’t like where the sticks are positioned, I find it really uncomfortable attached or split tbh (also the whole drifting thing, but that’s not a comfort issue lol).
I will say I LOVED the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, it was fantastic for games built around it. I still occasionally use one (and a USB sensor bar) when emulating Wii games on my computer. They nailed the ergonomics of those.
The nunchuck was super comfortable. I think the boxy stick idea for the remote itself made sense conceptually but you probably would want to smooth it out a bit otherwise.
But yeah, agreed, it was surprisingly functional, all things considered. And cheaply made in the right ways. Everything I said about joycon would still apply if the thing was wired. Razer, I think, did a wired split controller for PC. I never got to buy one before they were discontinued, and they’re a bit of a collectible these days.
That’s a really delightful bit of hackery. Props to the creator.
