The Steam Controller’s now out in the wild, and it’s so nice, we’ve written some impressions of it twice. If just having the thing in your hands (assuming you grabbed one in time) isn’t enough for you, you’ll probably be glad to know that Valve have shared the CAD files for it, meaning techies who fancy modding or designing accessories for it can get cracking.
“Today we’re making the CAD files for the external shell (surface topology) of Steam Controller and Puck available for download under a Creative Commons license,” Valve wrote in a quick announcement post. “This includes an STP model of each, an STL model of each, and an engineering drawing with critical features/keep outs for each.”
Dipping into the read me file that comes with the files, which you can find here, Valve added that while “your Steam Controller is yours, and you have the right to do with it what you want”, they “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,” the Steamyfolks said. “Be careful, and have fun.”
So, maybe don’t go wild if you’re not a seasoned inventor like Archie from classic British kids show Balamory. These files being shared should also result in plenty of unofficial Steam Controller accessories made by other people hitting the shelves at some point soon, and as our very own James has shown in the past, you might not regret buying such things (Disclaimer: You also very much might regret buying such things).
While the Steam Machine’s still currently lurking in the priceless ether thanks to RAMnarök, Valve will also be releasing CAD models for that too once it arrives. In that case, custom front panel designs will be the obvious mod of choice out of the gate. After all, who could resisty printing a big picture of Gabe Newell’s face, an anime girl, or an anime girl with Gabe Newell’s face on the front of their new games box?
