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Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

https://www.digitalfoundry.net/news/2026/05/valve-releases-steam-controller-cad-files-under-creat...
297•haunter•1h ago•83 comments

Show HN: Tilde.run – Agent Sandbox with a Transactional, Versioned Filesystem

https://tilde.run/
60•ozkatz•1h ago•37 comments

Appearing Productive in the Workplace

https://nooneshappy.com/article/appearing-productive-in-the-workplace/
57•diebillionaires•1h ago•10 comments

The bottleneck was never the code

https://www.thetypicalset.com/blog/thoughts-on-coding-agents
332•Anon84•2d ago•222 comments

The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

https://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/
21•downbad_•1h ago•25 comments

Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy

https://blog.cloudflare.com/agents-stripe-projects/
555•rolph•14h ago•315 comments

What makes a good smartphone camera?

https://cadence.moe/blog/2026-05-05-what-makes-a-good-smartphone-camera
24•zdw•22h ago•7 comments

StarFighter 16-Inch

https://us.starlabs.systems/pages/starfighter
589•signa11•15h ago•313 comments

Show HN: I built an open-source email builder, alternative to Beefree/Unlayer

https://play.templatical.com
15•oahmadov•1h ago•2 comments

CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”

https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/cara2
359•hakonjdjohnsen•2d ago•47 comments

Show HN: Hallucinopedia

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23•bstrama•54m ago•4 comments

Setting up a Sun Ray server on OpenIndiana Hipster 2025.10

https://catstret.ch/202605/srss-hipster202510/
97•jandeboevrie•6h ago•27 comments

The Thinking Plant's Man (2025)

https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-thinking-plants-man/
40•benbreen•1d ago•6 comments

CNN founder Ted Turner, a pioneer of cable TV news, dies at 87

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death
72•pseudolus•2h ago•54 comments

Reverse-engineering the 1998 Ultima Online demo server

https://draxinar.github.io/articles/2026-05-01-uodemo-reverse-engineering.html
174•notsentient•11h ago•41 comments

Knitting bullshit

https://katedaviesdesigns.com/2026/04/29/knitting-bullshit/
328•ColinEberhardt•12h ago•150 comments

Coverage Cat (YC S22) Seeks Fractional Engineer to Build AI-Native Growth Tools

https://www.coveragecat.com/careers/engineering/fractional-growth-engineer
1•botacode•5h ago

Batteries Not Included, or Required, for These Smart Home Sensors

https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2026/04/batteries-not-included-or-required-these-smart-home-sensors
150•gnabgib•3d ago•53 comments

245TB Micron 6600 ION Data Center SSD Now Shipping

https://investors.micron.com/news-releases/news-release-details/industry-leading-245tb-micron-660...
190•neilfrndes•13h ago•138 comments

Multi-stroke text effect in CSS

https://yuanchuan.dev/multi-stroke-text-effect-in-css
233•cheeaun•12h ago•31 comments

Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

https://www.anthropic.com/news/higher-limits-spacex
134•meetpateltech•1h ago•76 comments

Wolfenstein 3D for Gameboy Color on custom cartridge (2016)

https://www.happydaze.se/wolf/
100•ksymph•2d ago•17 comments

Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/6/vibe-coding-and-agentic-engineering/
121•e12e•2h ago•157 comments

YouTube, your RSS feeds are broken

https://openrss.org/blog/youtube-your-feeds-are-broken
275•veeti•16h ago•96 comments

Colombia hosts talks on exiting fossil fuels as global energy crisis deepens

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-04-26/colombia-hosts-talks-on-exiting-fossil-fuels...
10•PaulHoule•38m ago•0 comments

RAM prices are forcing companies to choose higher prices, worse specs, or both

https://gizmodo.com/shrinkflation-is-quietly-making-all-gadgets-worse-2000754565
86•cainxinth•4h ago•63 comments

Virtual violin produces realistic sounds

https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-engineers-virtual-violin-produces-realistic-sounds-0429
61•gmays•3d ago•41 comments

Our Continuation of MkDocs

https://github.com/orgs/ProperDocs/discussions/33
25•serhack_•2h ago•10 comments

Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-silent-nano-install/
1585•john-doe•1d ago•1054 comments

Why most product tours get skipped

https://productonboarding.com/articles/why-product-tours-get-skipped
198•pancomplex•20h ago•171 comments
Open in hackernews

Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

https://www.digitalfoundry.net/news/2026/05/valve-releases-steam-controller-cad-files-under-creative-commons-license
291•haunter•1h ago

Comments

matheusmoreira•1h ago
Amazing. This is gonna be useful for my handheld project.
KumaBear•1h ago
If only scalpers didn’t scoop up every unit
BadBadJellyBean•1h ago
I really wonder how many scalpers there were. I got one. I am not a scalper. Maybe it was just high demand for limited stock.
wldcordeiro•1h ago
These days it's hard to tell and there's always a mix of both with any high demand items so it makes the stock limits even more pronounced. With how Valve has done hardware releases lately though I imagine it's more a stock limitation.
embedding-shape•1h ago
> These days it's hard to tell

Is it really? I go to my "local" second-hand marketplace and I see countless of listings for the new Valve Controller. I think it's fair to say most of those aren't "Ops, I made a purchase and I can't return it" but most likely being scalpers. No doubt, some of them are fake as well, but regardless, tends to be fairly easy to see when things are being scalped or if it's actually just high demand, if it's the latter, you don't see tons of second-hand listings the day after it opened.

BadBadJellyBean•1h ago
I understand but you don't know how many people got one to keep it compared to how many just resell it.
embedding-shape•53m ago
> but you don't know how many people got one to keep it compared to how many just resell it

But you do? If someone puts it up on second-hand markets, they're not intending to keep it, they're intending to resell it, why put it up otherwise?

bluetidepro•39m ago
Right, they're saying you only see the side of the resellers, you have no idea the number of people who purchased it to keep it (like many of us in the thread). So in reality you may be only seeing less than 1% of stock for resell and not the 99% that are just buying it to keep it like normal. It's just confirmation bias that you assume everyone is buying to resell it cause that's all you're able to see.
opan•1h ago
I also got one and didn't think scalpers were the problem at the time. I have since seen eBay listings of people trying to sell the controllers (that they don't even have yet) for 3x the price, though, so they maybe did play a role. There was a limit of 2 controllers per Steam account and they sold out within 30 minutes, so not sure if bots were used or what. There wasn't a lot of time to mess around. I've seen a lot of people who wanted one couldn't get one. Personally I added it to my cart about 2 minutes before the official start time and then it took 12 minutes or so of retrying to actually check out.
bluetidepro•1h ago
I don't fully understand this narrative that is going around about scalpers and the controller. So many people online are claiming it was only scalpers who were able to purchase one. I am also not a scalper (as someone else said), and was able to purchase one. We don't know how many they actually had in stock in total but let's say it's around 30K, from what I have searched on eBay and other reselling sites it would only seem like less than 1% of the stock is being sold by resellers/scalpers. I think it was just a high demand product. I know scalpers are a problem in much of the entertainment industry right now, but it's also becoming a scape goat for anything you just weren't able to buy yourself. It's quite annoying and getting old fast.
iknowstuff•24m ago
It’s hard to participate in any gaming communities because you quickly realize they’re all kids who have no idea about markets but they all talk like foremost experts on every subject
Computer0•54m ago
I think valve typically has pretty good scalper protection. Was that not the case this time?
BadBadJellyBean•34m ago
I think nobody but valve knows and they are not telling us. We don't know how many units were sold and how the protections were (at least I didn't see anything). Some people seem to assume that scalpers are to blame when a product is sold out really fast (which is understandable when looking at past hardware releases).

Me, I don't think so. I just think people really wanted to get one.

DauntingPear7•29m ago
I got 2. 1 for me and 1 for my brother. I sat with the page loaded and waiting. It opened a few minutes early and I was able to still order a 2nd about 5 minutes into sale
roer•1h ago
I love the readme on the gitlab page [1]. It feels so.. friendly :)

> This repository contains CAD files for the external shell (surface topology) of Steam Controller and the Steam Controller Puck, under a Creative Commons license. This includes an STP model of each, an STL model of each, and an engineering drawing with critical features/keep outs for each.

Feel free to use these to make your own Puck holders, Controller sweaters, or whatever else you want to create!

Your Steam Controller is yours, and you have the right to do with it what you want. That said, we highly recommend you leave it to professionals. Any damage you do will not be covered by your warranty – but more importantly, you might break your Steam Controller, or even get hurt! Be careful, and have fun.

[1] https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/SteamHardware/SteamController

jandrese•1h ago
Imagine if everybody did this. You break some stupid plastic part on something? No need to throw it away, just print an exact replacement on the spot. Or maybe tweak it first so it's less flimsy then print the replacement.
embedding-shape•1h ago
Going a step further, imagine hardware manufacturers noticing specific defects, then publishing new updated CAD files for a part that lasts better than the last, for customers who already have 3D printers to print their own upgrades/"patches".
bluGill•38m ago
That can work, but 3d printing doesn't in general make for strong parts (layers). Most of the time you want some form of molding or CNC subtractive machining (either plastic of metal) - while some hobbyists have this, 3d printing is far more common. (and often easier)
gh02t•1h ago
This was always the dream for 3D printing, heck going back to classic Star Trek replicators and other science fiction. Granted, even with these models available it's kinda difficult to print large organic shapes like the main housing shells on most affordable consumer printers so I suspect there might not be too many people actually doing it. However, having the exact CAD files makes designing mods and 3rd party upgrades much easier.
kube-system•1h ago
Sounds like this is just the external dimensions? That's mostly just useful for creating accessories. That's not too special, Apple does this too. https://developer.apple.com/accessories/dimensional-drawings...
nvme0n1p1•53m ago
Those PDFs are useless.

If you want a purple Steam Controller, you can load Valve's STL into your favorite slicer, 3D print a new shell, transplant the electronics, and you're done.

If you want a purple MacBook, could you do the same with those Apple PDFs?

kube-system•51m ago
No, you can't, because it doesn't include any internal topology.

> This repository contains CAD files for the external shell (surface topology) of Steam Controller and the Steam Controller Puck

bisby•1h ago
This is why I bought a 3d printer.

Headphone piece broke. Replacement was covered under warranty. Once. After that it was $30 a pop from amazon for the replacement part. Both of the parts provided under warranty (it was a set of 2) broke in the same way.

Figured if the parts break that regularly, I would wind up spending $500 in just a few years on replacement parts, might as well just get a printer. The part already had a model available (it was apparently a common issue), and the printed version hasn't broken yet.

I know nothing about making models, so the fact that the community already had the replacement part ready to print for me was a huge win, and Valve doing this basically guarantees that there will be a variety of "Controller stand, with puck slot" and replacement part prints available. HUGE win.

bsimpson•40m ago
Fusion is a really cool tool to learn.

It's a flavor of 3D modeling called "constraint-based." You've heard the adage that if you give a million monkeys typewriters, eventually one will write something coherent? Constraint systems embody that same idea: There are infinite possible 3D models. You keep adding constraints until you narrow it down to only one possible solution that fulfills all of them.

tdb7893•56m ago
Large companies obviously are happy to screw their customers in various ways but I've had pretty good luck with smaller and especially more local businesses. I once had a jeweler gift me an ultrasonic cleaner when I asked them how best to clean a difficult to clean ring (presumably they had recently bought a new one).

Caring about the products they make and their customers seems like sorta the default for most people and large companies learn apathy eventually (or maybe it's mostly the companies that prioritize growth this way that become big). I wonder if less top down control at companies (especially by finance investors) would have them be better to consumers.

herpdyderp•1h ago
Sometimes I wonder what we did to deserve Valve and how long it can possibly last.
seanw444•1h ago
Gabe better be immortal.
wvbdmp•1h ago
He’s going to die in a fucking scuba diving accident, I have nightmares about it constantly
nialv7•42m ago
Have you warned Gabe about this
vablings•13m ago
I highly doubt it for a number of factors.

- Most of his dives look to be rec depth

- He isn't running any crazy gear like a CCR

- He has instant access to a chamber, so any DCS worries are virtually zero

- There is no go-itis for him. If weather is bad, he just packs up and sails to somewhere nicer

Out of all the rich people hobbies, scuba is about the safest

giobox•54m ago
I really wish the company would talk more about the post-Gabe transition, or at least begin to give us a rough indication of where the company plans to go.

Those of us who have been customers over 20 years often have a pretty significant investment in Steam content, and Gabe is getting old.

ecshafer•50m ago
AFAIK his son has been working there for quite a while and is the heir apparent.
seanw444•45m ago
I don't know anything about his son, but hopefully "don't screw up your father's legacy" is a core tenet for him. That news gives me slight hope.
deafpolygon•11m ago
They have a vat with brain hookups[0] waiting to place Gabe in, so immortality is nigh. No post-Gabe transition needed.

[0]: https://imgur.com/a/2XbM18n

edit: fixed image link

colechristensen•1h ago
I think many more companies would operate like this if acquisition and mergers were much more difficult.
benoau•1h ago
We let kids gamble so much money in games that they don't have to nickel and dime the adults.
franga2000•56m ago
That's true now, but Valve has been like this since the start, way before skins and microtransactions.
freehorse•49m ago
Most other companies would still nickel and dime the adults, though.
tapoxi•40m ago
They still do that, Valve popularized the concepts of battle passes (with Dota 2) and loot boxes (with Team Fortress 2). They also took a paid game with TF2 and added all that monetization after the fact.

Counter-Strike especially has a pretty nasty gambling scene that Valve refuses to control, even though its only possible because of their marketplace and APIs.

nananana9•36m ago
They also nickel and dime the adults, but only the ones who make the games.

It's fine though, because they're nice to players and they've brainwashed them into giving their money to Valve instead of to the developers who actually make the games they fucking play.

jdoe1337halo•32m ago
I agree that 30% is too large of a cut, but what would be appropriate? 15%? Steam does add a ton of value from an immediate audience, solid advertising opportunities, and amazing distribution for the developer.
Forgeties79•28m ago
Linux releases they only take 10% FWIW
Hikikomori•26m ago
How about charging for services rendered based on cost to produce them rather than some arbitrary number. Some effective competition would be good, but likely outcome is publishers taking more.
Forgeties79•20m ago
I feel like that just becomes another situation where bigger organizations get more bargaining power and get better deals, so you’re just kind of shifting problems. I’m not saying a flat percentage like they have is necessarily the best solution, but I’m not sure trading problems is a good idea either. Just seems like a different way for smaller developers to get screwed.
kay_o•14m ago
As that has done both sides of games, I would like to propose some doubts for people to consider on that is dissimilar to the standard b2b saas; for to clarity I'm not saying 30% is good

- One chargeback for your 5$ game can consume you 55$ or more, handful and you permanently lose the ability to accept the payment anywhere including future businesses outside of games

- Amount of people that will take parents cards is eye watering

- The value of offline payment acceptance in the form of physical cards (kids do not possess standard payment rails but can acquire your game on steam in the cash)

- They don't take flat 30% for almost a decade now

philipallstar•28m ago
"We" is the kids' parents, and I would assume it's the parents' money.
pjmlp•1h ago
Until the current management retires, as it usually goes.
ReptileMan•43m ago
In my experience family held companies do tend to keep their values somewhat intact on succession.
tjpnz•39m ago
I'm optimistic provided they continue to be privately held and don't parachute in a professional executive to be CEO after Gabe departs.
kridsdale1•33m ago
This is the answer. Enshitification is a requirement of the fiduciary duty of public companies. A private company can stay good forever.
thrownthatway•21m ago
Fiduciary duty doesn’t mean what you think it does.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042915/what-are-som...

ZekeSulastin•35m ago
If your “we” is Australia, you could have implemented consumer protections then sued Valve for ignoring them: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/valve-to-pay-3-million...
thrownthatway•28m ago
That was 9 years ago.

Are they compliant in the Australian market now?

giancarlostoro•33m ago
I just wish they made more games than they currently do. Their games are always nicely polished and unique / creative in their own respect.
Onavo•34m ago
I think at this point Steam might as well just release the hounds and let third parties build and sell steam compatible hardware (the Android play). Their own attempts have been, well, not great. Dealing with hardware supply chains is a very different game than software. They already have a platform, the hardware is purely for distribution. Whether they make a profit on hardware or not doesn't really matter. They are basically the opposite of Apple.
jdoe1337halo•31m ago
They tried this many years ago with the original steam machines, it went horribly. Also, you can install SteamOS or Bazite on most machines. Not sure what the issue is here.
Forgeties79•15m ago
SteamOS does not currently really work on modern desktops/laptops. You can force it but it’s really not made for it. They’re pretty clear about that, I think they even pulled down the OS download page from their site and now clearly mark it as for restoring old machines.

Likely to change soon though with the steam machine release

awkwardpotato•26m ago
Steam already supports 3rd-party controllers and VR headsets. SteamOS is available on several 3rd-party handhelds. What more do you need for "steam compatible hardware"?
stetrain•18m ago
As far as I know there's nothing preventing third parties from building and selling hardware with SteamOS or a similar software stack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteamOS

They aren't going to let you advertise them as Steam-branded hardware without an agreement, but there are multiple handhelds that have done so to be branded officially Steam Compatible.

hatsunearu•21m ago
Valve wasn't always like this. They were infamous for never allowing refunds, but due to EU regulations they just did a complete about face and has one of the friendliest refund policies in the ESD business. Probably just behind Costco or something.
legitster•11m ago
The introduction of the refund made them get rid of their deep discounted flash sales though.

Real OGs remember that you could get fairly new AAA games for a song on, like, a random Wednesday. It was part of the initial appeal of Steam. Those explicitly went away because of the refund policy. https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/4pnd4p/psa_yes_there... (People were really upset at the time)

Their new refund policy is great, but it wasn't completely free to consumers.

haunter•1h ago
Files are here: https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/SteamHardware/SteamController
vablings•1h ago
"FILE_DESCRIPTION((''),'2;1'); FILE_NAME('IBEX_SOLID','2025-11-20T09:57:55',('stevec'),(''), 'CREO PARAMETRIC BY PTC INC, 2020454','CREO PARAMETRIC BY PTC INC, 2020454','');"

Glad to see that valve is using the best CAD software :)

malfist•1h ago
>2020454

And the latest!

rjsw•1h ago
Using a data schema standard that was withdrawn in 2005.
vablings•50m ago
Nothing wrong with AP203, it has the most support in other software's. Obviously AP214 would be nice for colors but the model is probably shrink-wrapped (AP242 is not needed, nobody needs PMI)

Just because it was withdrawn in 2005 does not exclude its wide use in industry

rjsw•46m ago
They are not even using the newest version of AP203.

  #93459=APPLICATION_PROTOCOL_DEFINITION('international standard', 'config_control_design',1994,#93458);
I will feel free to ignore comments on AP242 from PTC if they can't be bothered to use it.
arian_•56m ago
More companies should do this when they discontinue hardware. The community will keep it alive longer than you ever would, and it costs you nothing.
cubefox•47m ago
This is the brand new Steam Controller though, not the old, discontinued one.
poisonborz•55m ago
Even if Valve and Steam is great and overall a blessing for the PC space, I don't like the direction they take with this controller. It only works with Steam, it can't work on a desktop OS without it, despite standard layout. It is a subtle move towards a walled garden.
Fire-Dragon-DoL•46m ago
Kinda. SteamOS is open source, so it's not really walled.

It's possible they deferred making generic drivers to release faster and those will come out later,kinda like steamOS windows drivers came out later

tapoxi•39m ago
The driver exists in the proprietary Steam client, not in SteamOS itself.
drakythe•7m ago
As someone else said, the driver is in Steam, not SteamOS. Even on a Steam Deck you have to run Steam in desktop mode to have the buttons on the deck work.
Aerolfos•40m ago
Microsoft has made such a mess of controller I/O that they were kind of forced to go with their jank translation layer made from scratch and running with their main product - it makes sense, especially built up piece by piece

Of course now that they've made controllers work properly, they'll use that work to support their own controller, and in particular enable features like analog triggers + gyro aiming + rumble (xinput can't do these simultaneously), extra buttons (xinput can't do this), and the trackpads (you guessed it).

And it is Windows, because on Linux the controller does work without Steam if you get the right drivers. It doesn't get the full features but it's functional as a gamepad, at least.

ZekeSulastin•32m ago
> It doesn’t get the full features but it’s functional as a gamepad at least

So it’s the controller and not Windows then, if partial functionality is okay (which seems fine to me).

bsimpson•36m ago
I'm not sure that's Steam's fault.

Windows is designed for gamepads to emulate an Xbox controller. All those Steam Deck competitors are implemented as an Xbox controller with a partial keyboard grafted on. That's why you need Legion Space or Armoury Crate to make them usable - they tell the controller firmware what keybindings to send for those rear paddles.

InputPlumber serves this purpose on Linux. Without it, you just get ABXY, start, select, nav, and shoulder buttons - the same layout that's been on the Xbox forever, because games don't understand the random partial keyboard that shares an internal USB hub with the Xbox pad clone. Thankfully on Linux, you're not stuck with one durable keybinding per paddle - once InputPlumber unifies that USB hub back into a controller, you can map all its buttons per-game with Steam Input.

It's not that Valve is making a proprietary controller - it's that the Windows gaming ecosystem assumes a proprietary controller, and Valve doesn't conform to that assumption. Instead, they provide a fully featured controller and let you configure it per-game in Steam. Considering Steam is the launcher most people use for most games, that's a totally reasonable tack.

junaru•36m ago
Id bet some money it has more to do with certification. Consoles ban 3rd party controllers that provide a competitive edge. Steam controller is exactly that.
raincole•30m ago
Wait, really? So if you have two copies of the same game, one bought from Steam and the other from Epic Store, Steam Controller will only work for the Steam one?
Karawebnetwork•22m ago
You can add any executable to Steam, not only the games they sell, as far as I know.
z_open•44m ago
How does it work if this is under the creative commons license? Can 3rd parties sell this controller per the model? Other 3rd party vendors got around this by making a very minor change.
throawayonthe•41m ago
There exist multiple CC variations, this instance is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 wouldn't let you sell it no

logicalappeals•42m ago
W valve - Good Guy Gabe does it again.