The Steam Machine and Steam Frame are probably delayed, but they still intend to release them in the first half of this year.
They said they planned to have a concrete launch window and pricing by now, but hardware pricing/shortages have made that hard to pin down.
Just… Say no. I appreciate they answered the very next question I would have asked, but answer the question that you added to your own FAQ. Maybe it’s my autism nitpicking but this really gets under my skin.
But they answered the question. Valve can only guarantee that games are compatible with Steam Overlay compatible games. They don’t want to commit to a “yes” or “no” for stuff outside Steam, and then be liable for that answer if it does not work as advertised and then get sued to the ground. So you cannot blame them.
I don’t know on Windows, but on Linux you most likely can use the controller to play on any game. It’s just not supported and guaranteed by Valve.
Windows is pretty much the same as Linux, it exposes the raw events from the device and it’s up to the app to handle them. Pretty sure the overlay handles that by sitting between the OS and the game and e.g. translating everything to Xbox style controls if the game needs it (And getting out of the way if it doesn’t)
Outside of that, well Valve added support for the controller to SDL, so anything using it will be fully supported. But then the game needs to actually be using a new enough version of SDL, otherwise it’ll just see a generic controller device, and that can be hit or miss.
Not entirely the same, if the drivers are builtin into the Linux Kernel. I don’t know if the Steam Controller drivers will be Open Source, so maybe its the same.
It definitely looks like it’s going to be a standard USB HID type device, if their SDL support is anything to go by.
They probably said it like that because you can add any executable to steam as a non-steam game and activate the overlay. apparently some programs don’t work? that’s news to me.
Well any game or launcher or emulator have to support the controller or type of controller. In example Valve cannot guarantee that all functionality (like the trackpads and motion controls) are supported elsewhere.
They don’t really have to support the controller, though. Steam input lets you map controller inputs to kb/m inputs, so no degree of controller support is required. If there are any programmes that don’t work (which is possible, there are weird quirks in any system), I’ve certainly never encountered them.
Does steam input run on the controller itself or the device it’s connected to though?
It runs as part of steam, so you would need to add the program you want to use to steam as an external program and start it through steam. Steam Input then runs as a translation layer around the other program. At least that’s how it works on the Steamdeck.