Steam Controller owners could find they can now make the most of everything the new Valve hardware can do, even in games not running on Steam. Thanks to the new controller’s new features being added to Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL), the device’s full range of controls can now be accessed by application developers who use this software.
SDL is a cross-platform software library that provides a hardware abstraction layer that makes it easy for applications to access the features of supported hardware. It’s effectively one step up from a hardware driver and is analogous to DirectX or OpenGL, but crucially, it’s cross-platform, which means the new best PC controller in the world can have its features accessed by a wide range of operating systems, including Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows.
The upshot of this added Steam Controller support is that software that uses SDL no longer needs Steam to be running (to perform its automatic input translations) to access the Steam Controller’s full range of features. This was already the case for generic gamepad inputs (and gyro support), but now the Steam Controller’s touchpads, capacitive stick touch, and grip sense handling are also supported.
SDL is supported by thousands of games, but tends to be more commonly used for emulators and open-source ports of games, rather than the latest triple-A titles. However, given the transformative quality of the Steam Controller’s trackpads for controlling mouse-centric games – as explored in my Steam Controller review – it could revolutionize the playability of many older titles.
It’s also not the case that any game that uses SDL will automatically support the new features, thanks to this update. Instead, the developer will likely need to add support to their games that use SDL.
Nonetheless, this is another feather in the Steam Controller’s cap, and another reason to add your name to the Steam Controller waiting list. Even though, ironically, you will need a Steam account to add yourself to that list.
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