Steam is getting expanded Xbox controller support

[Theorry]

A recent beta update for Steam has added new features for gamers using Xbox controllers. One of the more interesting additions is for Xbox Elite controller users, who can now use Valve's software to bind the accessory's rear paddles in controller configurations. The feature gives players more flexibility with how to use the extra inputs on the premium controller.

Other updates for Xbox controllers include the ability to bind the Series X gamepad's share button in controller configurations, and the ability to use more than four Xbox controllers with Steam at a time. Support for trigger rumble has also been added for games using the Windows.Gaming.Input API.

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The Steam beta client also includes a new drop down menu for PS5 controller users, which lets them customize the controller's LED. It can now be permanently enabled or disabled, or else enabled only when multiple controllers are connected. The update also adds support for the Wooting Two keyboard, which has features like analog key input.

For now, these new features are only available in Steam's beta client, which you can opt into by going into the Settings menu, selecting Account, and using the drop-down menu in the Beta participation section. The Xbox controller features will also need to be enabled in the General Controller Setting section of Steam's settings, and require a driver to be installed.

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Steam is getting expanded Xbox controller support - The Verge

 

[Jawmuncher]

This is good, heard the new controllers were kinda iffy on PC support. But if Steam is doing their thing that'll fix that up for the most part.

 

[Yudoken]

It's embarrassing how barebones the native controller support is on pc.
3rd party tools e.g. for DS3/DS4 controllers have much more to offer but you don't have that for Xbox controllers.
Even the simplest thing like quickly deactivating a controller or switching the controller position is a annoying hassle.

Valve is really doing amazing work with their controller support.

 

[Carian Knight]

Finally, trigger rumble. I have to test it on Dirt 5.

 

[Ryszard]

That's great. Which games are going to be affected by the addition of the trigger rumble? Is there a way to find out?

 

[.exe]

Even the simplest thing like quickly deactivating a controller .

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Holding the guide button still worked to turn it off, last time I checked. Or Guide + Y, if you've got Steam running.
Thankfully I don't recall having to change controller order. I want to say I saw an option for it in Steam once, but I can't find it anymore so I'm probably mistaken.

 

[Yudoken]

Holding the guide button still worked to turn it off, last time I checked. Or Guide + Y, if you've got Steam running.
Thankfully I don't recall having to change controller order. I want to say I saw an option for it in Steam once, but I can't find it anymore so I'm probably mistaken.

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Of course you can hold 5 seconds to turn a controller off but do you know what? This is a terrible solution.
Taking the battery off is much quicker especially if you have multiple controllers plugged in. With a DS3/DS4 (I'm using SCP Toolkit) It's a simple button combination either on the keyboard or pad. There's even a software solution for 360 pads only which reduced it to 2 seconds and it's a big difference. Switching controller ports (or simply turn on/off devices) is a messy ordeal if people want to use their own controller/arcade sticks.

Gamepad control customization (including controller deadzones, profiles like no vibration and much more) is seriously one of the things that just gets left out despite it being quite important. Steam does a good job but does not excuse MS inability to get to work on a native solution.
They had over a decade and decided to do nothing.

Edit:
Some people are misunderstanding and hang on on the 5 seconds to deactivate the controller.
It's one of the many, many things that needs to be improved.
I mentioned many examples which needs to be improved upon.

 

[Dr Doom]

Finally paddle key binding

 

[Doskoi Panda]

Finally paddle key binding

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Incredible to finally see it. Been using reWASD to do it (since reWASD can bind the paddles to anuthing you want, not just Xbox buttons) but it is gonna be way more convenient to have that functionality built into Steam.

 

[HMD]

Now throw in support for wireless Xbox One controllers without a USB dongle please. (Or make the dongle available internationally...)

 

[Tora]

Can Microsoft please support the share button on PC? It's so annoying, can't bind it to shadowplay and half the games that I play aren't on Steam

 

[AndyMc1888]

It's embarrassing how barebones the native controller support is on pc.
3rd party tools e.g. for DS3/DS4 controllers have much more to offer but you don't have that for Xbox controllers.
Even the simplest thing like quickly deactivating a controller or switching the controller position is a annoying hassle.

Valve is really doing amazing work with their controller support.

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Bit of a weird take , giant bomb brought up this point and its first I've thought of it in that Xbox is largely to thank for pc ports being what they are today. Before they let you natively use a 360 controller on pc console third party games got really shitty pc ports or were half arsed. Native plug in every controller support changed that and normalised it and then lead to third party hacked together support for DS I assume through hacked together uses of the same hooks. I'd have hoped Sony with the few pc releases would follow suit soon bht doesn't seem likely now

 

[Bobbetybob]

It's embarrassing how barebones the native controller support is on pc.
3rd party tools e.g. for DS3/DS4 controllers have much more to offer but you don't have that for Xbox controllers.
Even the simplest thing like quickly deactivating a controller or switching the controller position is a annoying hassle.

Valve is really doing amazing work with their controller support.

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I very much enjoyed my Xbox controller running out of battery in the middle of a Hades run, despite having the Gamebar crap turned on. Could it not have at least warned me at some point?

 

[gozu]

So, Microsoft couldn't do this in 7 years? it took us 7 years to get trigger rumble and Valve had to do it, NOT microsoft?

Sony is doing a horrible job with their controllers on PC, but they don't own windows.

This is utterly unacceptable. A goddamn joke. Shining incompetence to the nth degree. Zero motherfucking excuses.

Seriously. What the fuck?

Anybody who is tempted to come up with excuses for Microsoft, please roll your tongue in your mouth 7 times before doing so, and maybe reconsider.

 

[Wilf Netherton]

I very much enjoyed my Xbox controller running out of battery in the middle of a Hades run, despite having the Gamebar crap turned on. Could it not have at least warned me at some point?

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One of the downsides to using off-the-shelf changeable batteries is that the hardware will have much less useful information on battery performance to work with. So probably not.

 

[BeI]

I heard that Valve was working with Microsoft a while back to get support for rebinding the paddle buttons on the Elite controller, but nothing came of it for a while. Good to see some support finally came along.

 

[Bobbetybob]

One of the downsides to using off-the-shelf changeable batteries is that the hardware will have much less useful information on battery performance to work with. So probably not.

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Never had an issue with my Xbox though, it will sometimes give you a battery warning 3 hours before they run out and sometimes give one 3 minutes before they run out but you at least get one.

 

[Wilf Netherton]

Never had an issue with my Xbox though, it will sometimes give you a battery warning 3 hours before they run out and sometimes give one 3 minutes before they run out but you at least get one.

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Ahh, I see what you mean. They could at least provide a guesstimate.

 

[Animismus]

It's embarrassing how barebones the native controller support is on pc.
3rd party tools e.g. for DS3/DS4 controllers have much more to offer but you don't have that for Xbox controllers.
Even the simplest thing like quickly deactivating a controller or switching the controller position is a annoying hassle.

Valve is really doing amazing work with their controller support.

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I was appalled when I figured out that I could not make custom assignments for the back padels on my fucking expensive Elite (v1). Now it has thumbstick drift as well. I feel like this is the last premium control I am buying. I was pretty happy - for more than 10 years - with my xbox 360 wireless. I played a lot of games with it and it survived 4 major windows revisions and god knows how many PC upgrades.
I've been using my DS4 more and more now that I have mothballed my PS4.

 

[Jazzem]

Controller support is honestly probably the biggest reason I want games on Steam over other launchers, especially using Switch pro controller primarily on PC. I desperately hope Windows and everything else can catch up on that

 

[Vash63]

Bit of a weird take , giant bomb brought up this point and its first I've thought of it in that Xbox is largely to thank for pc ports being what they are today. Before they let you natively use a 360 controller on pc console third party games got really shitty pc ports or were half arsed. Native plug in every controller support changed that and normalised it and then lead to third party hacked together support for DS I assume through hacked together uses of the same hooks. I'd have hoped Sony with the few pc releases would follow suit soon bht doesn't seem likely now

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XInput is a terrible solution for Sony or any other controller manufacturer to use. It's an incredibly locked down API that doesn't allow even a single button or feature that is not present on the current Xbox controller, you'd basically just be giving complete control over your product's feature set to Microsoft. It doesn't even support gyro on controllers despite it having existed since the PS3 era.

They should either support a fully featured API that isn't tied to any controllers or OSes, like the Steam Input API, or just use basic DirectInput and count on game developers to use SDL2 or SIAPI to generically map to the controller for them (or both).

 

[TeenageFBI]

So, Microsoft couldn't do this in 7 years? it took us 7 years to get trigger rumble and Valve had to do it, NOT microsoft?

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Unless I'm mistaken, trigger rumble is supported in Windows 10, but only in UWP apps. I know I felt some really non-standard rumble in Forza Horizon 3!

Don't get me started on UWP or the awful Microsoft Store. The feature should have been in the Win32 driver years ago.

 

[gozu]

Unless I'm mistaken, trigger rumble is supported in Windows 10, but only in UWP apps. I know I felt some really non-standard rumble in Forza Horizon 3!

Don't get me started on UWP or the awful Microsoft Store. The feature should have been in the Win32 driver years ago.

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Looks like you are correct

Well if they thought it was a differentiating feature that would make a difference, they were as wrong as when they thought Ninja could rescue Mixr, but that would explain it.

Definitely not a pro-consumer move, whether deliberate or an accidental result of ...institutional forgetfulness, I cannot tell. Both are possible.

 

[Alvis]

gozu TeenageFBI

Trigger rumble IS supported by normal win32 games TODAY. It works perfectly in Death Stranding for example.

However, it only works if you use either the OFFICIAL wireless receiver, or a cable. It does NOT work via Bluetooth. Also, it stops working if you enable "Xbox controller configuration" in Steam, which I assume is what Valve fixed now.

 

[TeenageFBI]

gozu TeenageFBI

Trigger rumble IS supported by normal win32 games TODAY. It works perfectly in Death Stranding for example.

However, it only works if you use either the OFFICIAL wireless receiver, or a cable. It does NOT work via Bluetooth. Also, it stops working if you enable "Xbox controller configuration" in Steam, which I assume is what Valve fixed now.

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That's good to know, thanks. I didn't notice anything when I played Death Stranding at launch but I guess I have that option enabled in Steam. I should try it again!

 

[Alvis]

That's good to know, thanks. I didn't notice anything when I played Death Stranding at launch but I guess I have that option enabled in Steam. I should try it again!

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Also, remember that rumble in Xbox controllers silently turns off without any kind of warning if the battery level in the controller is low (you can check the battery in the controller by pressing win+G or by oppening the xbox accesories app)

 

[Miggytronz]

Maybe this support will help games with 0 support with updates?

 

[spool]

Can you map the paddles any way you want, or are they limited to duplicating the face buttons?

 

[anariel]

I keep waffling on whether I want an elite controller or a dualsense for my next PC controller, and the current lack of certain features being supported on both make it hard for me to decide. Not sure this moves the needle much, but it's nice to see the support regardless.

 

[MrBob]

Excellent. Been waiting for a way to remap the rear paddles to different functions instead of presets.

 

[BlueKaty]

Of course you can hold 5 seconds to turn a controller off but do you know what? This is a terrible solution.

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It is 5 seconds... 😐

 

[yyr]

and the ability to use more than four Xbox controllers with Steam at a time.

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As someone who is currently planning a game that may support up to 16 simultaneous players, I like this.

 

[Winnie]

A bit sad that you still can't change the default config of the controller and that you need to map one by one each game :/

 

[eonden]

As someone who is currently planning a game that may support up to 16 simultaneous players, I like this.

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Don't worry, the chances of that sticking around for long are pretty low. Valve has put in and out "more than 4 xbox controller" support in the beta at least once a month. Mainly because xinput was only made to work with top 4 controllers, so it bugs out with more lol.

 

[Gelf]

I very much enjoyed my Xbox controller running out of battery in the middle of a Hades run, despite having the Gamebar crap turned on. Could it not have at least warned me at some point?

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If you want a notification I've been using this: https://github.com/NiyaShy/XB1ControllerBatteryIndicator

Saves me from going near Gamebar.

 

[jediyoshi]

Unless I'm mistaken, trigger rumble is supported in Windows 10, but only in UWP apps. I know I felt some really non-standard rumble in Forza Horizon 3!

Don't get me started on UWP or the awful Microsoft Store. The feature should have been in the Win32 driver years ago.

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Not the case, trigger rumble is definitely supported in the Steam version of Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

 

[Sia]

I am playing Hades right now with a dual sense on steam. Everything works fine, rumble, button prompts are correct, everything is working great

 

[maximumzero]

I wonder if this fixes the Series X controller regularly disconnecting.

I jumped out of the beta when Series X compatibility hit the regular version of the app, guess I'll have to opt back in.

That being said, Steam's controller interface has always been super confusing.

Not the case, trigger rumble is definitely supported in the Steam version of Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

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Trigger rumble also happens in Death Stranding's PC release.

 

[A Grizzly Bear]

I wonder if this fixes the Series X controller regularly disconnecting.

I jumped out of the beta when Series X compatibility hit the regular version of the app, guess I'll have to opt back in.

That being said, Steam's controller interface has always been super confusing.



Trigger rumble also happens in Death Stranding's PC release.

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I think the disconnecting is an issue with the controller firmware. My series X controller disconnects randomly when playing on the console.

 

[fluffydelusions]

I am playing Hades right now with a dual sense on steam. Everything works fine, rumble, button prompts are correct, everything is working great

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I had weird issues playing with the duel sense(wired). Did you also have to set custom properties in the launcher to get it recognized? Also had in game weirdness...like it would say press R2 to gift an item but it would never work I had to kind of walk around the person I wanted to gift and it would randomly gift them. That got annoying cause it would constantly alter doors randomly.

 

[Sia]

I had weird issues playing with the duel sense(wired). Did you also have to set custom properties in the launcher to get it recognized? Also had in game weirdness...like it would say press R2 to gift an item but it would never work I had to kind of walk around the person I wanted to gift and it would randomly gift them. That got annoying cause it would constantly alter doors randomly.

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I am also using a wire, 10ft long lol. No issues like the ones you are describing. When I first plugged in the controller steam just said something like profile loaded without me really doing anything with it. Controller worked without any tinkering

 

[fluffydelusions]

I am also using a wire, 10ft long lol. No issues like the ones you are describing. When I first plugged in the controller steam just said something like profile loaded without me really doing anything with it. Controller worked without any tinkering

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Weird. I'm using the wire that came with the PS5. The controller was recognized with steam and everything but hades didn't seem to like it and I had to set a launcher option for it to work and it had that in game weirdness I described. Haven't tried any other games yet.

EDIT: I checked playstation config in big picture mode and it seems to be working fine now.

 

[maximumzero]

So it's cool that the Xbox's Share button works now. I was able to set it to function similarly to the Switch's capture button: Quick press takes a screenshot within Steam and a long press saves an instant replay, which I've set to the last 2 minutes and 30 seconds of gameplay.



Considered setting it to just record video but it's rare that I want to record video on its own, I generally want the footage of something interesting that's just happened.

 

[Aldo]

That's great, I just hope one day we'll be able to turn off or lower the luminosity of the xbox button, which is mindblowingly bright especially on a Series X controller.

 

[J75]

That's great, I just hope one day we'll be able to turn off or lower the luminosity of the xbox button, which is mindblowingly bright especially on a Series X controller.

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Yes, please! This is so annoying on a dark room!

 

[Edward850]

Unless I'm mistaken, trigger rumble is supported in Windows 10, but only in UWP apps.

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You can use it outside of UWP but it requires the use of COM objects, which aren't always the simplest thing to setup. However the bigger problem is you obviously can't load this in Windows 7, so making an application that can reference both the old and new APIs but still even launch on the older OS isn't quite straightforward. However SDL2 just very recently added support for referencing the trigger rumble from HIDAPI, so that should make them directly addressable now for anybody running SDL2 in their engine (like us!).

 

[Cyanity]

Okay, now how about the ability to know the remaining charge of the damn thing?

 

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Steam Input is the true killer app.

 

[BasilZero]

Steam Input is fantastic.

Maybe I'll go from a DS4 to a Xbox controller in a few years.

I went from a Xbox 360 controller to a DS4.

 

[Zuly]

Decided to fiddle around with Steam Input. Made pressing the Share button the Steam screenshot button and a long press of the Share button into my Shadowplay clip shortcut.