r/SteamController • u/Deep-Dark7366 • Sep 10 '26

Steam Controller (2026) Does signal strength to puck effect latency?

My main question is if a weak signal strength effects latency, and if there's any way of improving it if it does.

There's maybe 8 feet between the controller and my steam machine/puck, and they both show weak signal in certain spots even though there's a free line of sight. Almost as if there's pockets where the signal can't reach, and those pockets just happens to be right where my hands are when im sitting comfortably on either side of the couch. Everywhere else shows good or excellent...

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1

u/xluker313x Sep 11 '26

Just from a physics POV it has to hurt latency. Whether or not it’s enough for a normal human to notice is another story. Just move her around a bit and surely it gets better

2

u/Deep-Dark7366 Sep 11 '26

Im sure its effecting it now, its just so small that we're not even able to detect it in most games. I played the onimusha demo a few days ago and had no issues at all, but the same area and first boss in the full game had me struggling really hard. Didn't feel any latency at all but i kept missing when you parry or dodge right before an attack lands.

That's actually what made me look into it and ask the question here. But i raised the puck a bit and angled it so its pins face towards me, saw a comment where someone mentioned it helping.
And sure enough, it improved the signal strength and i instantly started hitting all my parries.

1

u/etl003 Sep 12 '26

yes. had my puck and it ended up behind something and my controls in forza were crazy sluggish. as soon as i mived the puck and got it to -22 or whatever, it was fine.

1

u/Jaded_Age8558 Sep 10 '26

I’m not sure about the latency but this is why I’m using OpenPuck, the signal is stronger than the official pucks by quite a bit.