Steam's various controllers api support is amazing and I simply couldn't live without it

texhnolyze · Feb 8, 2019

My experience with The Division 2 beta regarding Dualshock 4 controller support made me realize this.

I've been spoiled with The Division 1. Being on Steam, I simply had to turn on my controller to play the game. Everything works flawlessly, including the vibration. Last night, I started The Division 2 beta and I was surprised that it actually supports DS4 natively. I was happy until I started shooting, where's the damn vibration?

I tried running DS4Windows but it only made the game recognizes 2 controller input which made it unplayable, so I closed it. Then I searched on Google to find that people has been asking about DS4 vibration fix in Ubi forums since 2014, when the game originally launched. I also found a similar thread asking the same question in 2018. They never fix it. At this point, I was absolutely gutted. I almost dropped the game altogether (yes, just because it lacks of controller vibration). But then I remember that you can add non-Steam games to enjoy Steam features, including controller support. At first, it didn't work because I added uplay launcher (old guides say that), but after I added the game's exe directly, it finally works and I can play with DS4 & vibration.

This shows how important Steam is for me. It's not blind fanboyism. I simply need its features to get the most enjoyment of my gaming. Without Steam, I'm at the mercy of the developers whether they want to support my controller of choice or not. At least I have a DS4, it receives native support in lots of games more than ever before. But imagine how it is for less popular controller owners like DS, Switch Pro, Steam controller, etc?

Without Steam, people are forced to use an XBox controller, or else you need to hope that the devs would support your controller. For DS4, you can at least use DS4Windows which would solve most problems, but the other controller would be rendered useless. I've read reports that the Steam controller doesn't even work on Ashen, an Epic Store exclusive game. Thankfully, there's Steam. With Steam, you can add non-Steam games and play any game with your preferred controller. I'm not sure when, but it seems that it's been updated that you can hook the game's .exe file directly to run it as non-Steam game. A few years ago, it was a huge hassle to setup.

Without Steam, millions of controllers would be unusable on PC. And it saddens me to see that many people really wanted to see Steam failing.

Patitoloco · Feb 8, 2019

Question, do I still have to use Big Picture mode to use this?

Because I don't want to use Big Picture mode.

Theswweet · Feb 8, 2019

Yeah, controller support on Steam is second to none. Even down to having an option to automatically swap A/B in games for Switch Pro Controller layout.

texhnolyze · Feb 8, 2019

Patitoloco said:
Question, do I still have to use Big Picture mode to use this?

Because I don't want to use Big Picture mode.

No, you don't have to. You can uncheck it on Steam settings.

GrrImAFridge · Feb 8, 2019

The neatest thing about it is that Valve provides button prompts for all officially supported devices, so if you use the Steam Controller API instead of Xinput, you have native button prompts for all major controllers.

GhostTrick · Feb 8, 2019

Yup, some people are taking a lot of things for granted.
Some might not care and its fine. But yeah these are the kind of things that should ve mandatory support today.

Chief Malik · Feb 8, 2019

its the biggest reason why I DO NOT want to use anything else. GloSC is a hack workaround that barely works.

qrac · Feb 8, 2019

texhnolyze said:
Without Steam, millions of controllers would be unusable on PC.

This is just not true. Controlers worked well before Steam in the 80s/90s, sure there were some hassels but I had a generic gamepad in the 90s and could play most if not all of my games then with the gamepad.

But yeah, steam has made it easier to configure and use controllers. I use it for SteamLink with Nintendo Pro Controller. Lacking vibration thou..

Joe Spangle · Feb 8, 2019

Totally agree. Its so good its ridiculous. Makes comfy couch PCing so easy. The amount of flexibility to create your own control schemes is amazing.

texhnolyze · Feb 8, 2019

qrac said:
This is just not true. Controlers worked well before Steam in the 80s/90s, sure there were some hassels but I had a generic gamepad in the 90s and could play most if not all of my games then with the gamepad.

But yeah, steam has made it easier to configure and use controllers.

Yes, but it was decades ago. Most games today won't even recognize generic gamepads anymore. You'd need x360ce.

Arulan · Feb 8, 2019

Steam Input and the Steam Controller are the reason I find using a controller a viable alternative for some games. The range of options and flexibility of the software is just incredible, and the controller itself directly addresses the problems controllers have faced for decades.

A few months ago I was casually playing some PlayStation games through emulation using Steam's In-Home Streaming to my Steam Link which automatically detected my DualShock 3 controller. It couldn't have been easier.

Ge0force · Feb 8, 2019

Steams controller support is amazing. I really don't understand people praising Epic for keeping games away from Steam, while Steam is offering so many features that no other store has.

qrac · Feb 8, 2019

texhnolyze said:
Yes, but it was decades ago. Most games today won't even recognize generic gamepads anymore. You'd need x360ce.

Well that's true. I've used x360ce and have a xpadder license, and I can't really say that they don't work because they work and they do the same thing as steam function wise. Steam is just easier, but controlers work without steam today as they did decades ago.

It should be more like: "Todays games don't work with controlers as they used to. You have to use Steam, x360ce, xpadder or some other application to get them to work, and in my opinion Steam does the work best", not "Controlers don't work without steam".

dsk1210 · Feb 8, 2019

Ge0force said:
Steams controller support is amazing. I really don't understand people praising Epic for keeping games away from Steam, while Steam is offering so many features that no other store has.

Can the games from EGS games be added to Steam and the functions used that way?

I used to play Destiny 2 added as a shortcut through Steam using the steam controller but it stopped working one time and I have never been able to get it working again, pretty much killed my interest in the game.

I know Origin games can be a pain the arse to get controller options working with it.

GhostTrick · Feb 8, 2019

qrac said:
This is just not true. Controlers worked well before Steam in the 80s/90s, sure there were some hassels but I had a generic gamepad in the 90s and could play most if not all of my games then with the gamepad.

But yeah, steam has made it easier to configure and use controllers. I use it for SteamLink with Nintendo Pro Controller. Lacking vibration thou..

I wouldn't say they worked well. For a lot of games it was a mess. For others it was a lot of tickering.

qrac · Feb 8, 2019

dsk1210 said:
Can the games from EGS games be added to Steam and the functions used that way?

I used to play Destiny 2 added as a shortcut through Steam using the steam controller but it stopped working one time and I have never been able to get it working again, pretty much killed my interest in the game.

I know Origin games can be a pain the arse to get controller options working with it.

I've played Fortnite on SteamLink with Nintendo Pro Controller. Some configurations needed but it does work.

GhostTrick said:
I wouldn't say they worked well. For a lot of games it was a mess. For others it was a lot of tickering.

Well that is true. I remember that my gamepad worked fine for the games I used it with. I think it was a hit or miss situation with gamepad (drivers) and support in the game back in the days.

Issen · Feb 8, 2019

qrac said:
This is just not true. Controlers worked well before Steam in the 80s/90s, sure there were some hassels but I had a generic gamepad in the 90s and could play most if not all of my games then with the gamepad.

But yeah, steam has made it easier to configure and use controllers. I use it for SteamLink with Nintendo Pro Controller. Lacking vibration thou..

I remember this time and holy shit I do NOT want to go back to it. Numbered prompts, axis issues, manual configuration in every game, some outright not being compatible at all...

The stuff of nightmares.

Adamska · Feb 8, 2019

It always amazes me that people actually rely on Steam for using controllers. I do know I could look into how Steam does it, but I've been using modern controllers on PC since before Steam ever made any sort of functionality for that and never really had issues that couldn't be solved, be it using some generic USB controller to using PS3 and PS4 ones.

spineduke · Feb 8, 2019

Rukumouru said:
I remember this time and holy shit I do NOT want to go back to it. Numbered prompts, axis issues, manual configuration in every game, some outright not being compatible at all...

The stuff of nightmares.

The variety of PC controllers and the lack of a standard really made it a mess - a lot of devs couldn't accommodate every option out there, and even then, there were a myriad of comparability issues.

remember this?

Paz · Feb 8, 2019

PC controller threads evoke horrible memories and emotions for me, as someone who made a game that had to support a ton of different controllers and operating systems and work with evolving third party drivers/programs across all those operating systems.

I'm pretty sure even now Steam's controller support, if enabled, breaks some elements of Dual Shock 4 support in my game, which is supported perfectly if you just plug it in.

I think the most horrendous story we ever had was a bug in Windows 10 that would register controllers twice in certain circumstances, once as Direct Input and once as Xinput, which is normally impossible and would lead to us joining in a second player for them on character select when they pressed a button and the game being basically unplayable for them controlling two characters at once. I think that but might still exist actually, just much rarer, and we implemented a 'force single player' launch option to solve it for the 1/100000 players who hit it.

Dunno why I'm bringing all this up here other than to say that shit's crazy out there and I'm glad you seem to have found a happy place with your controller setup.

Tizoc · Feb 8, 2019

Does anyone know how to force it on games I add to steam but always ask me if I want to run them (as administrator)?
I've patched a game and it created another .exe to launch the game, but when I add it to steam, my controller configs never load for it, neither does Steam overlay.

Patitoloco said:
Question, do I still have to use Big Picture mode to use this?

Because I don't want to use Big Picture mode.

jUST TO Add, long as a controller is connected, you can assign your own controller config to ANY game.

spineduke · Feb 8, 2019

Tizoc said:
Does anyone know how to force it on games I add to steam but always ask me if I want to run them (as administrator)?
I've patched a game and it created another .exe to launch the game, but when I add it to steam, my controller configs never load for it, neither does Steam overlay.

jUST TO Add, long as a controller is connected, you can assign your own controller config to ANY game.

I've done it for Dauntless recently - just add it as a "non-steam" game and it'll work right off the bat.

GhostTrick · Feb 8, 2019

Adamska said:
It always amazes me that people actually rely on Steam for using controllers. I do know I could look into how Steam does it, but I've been using modern controllers on PC since before Steam ever made any sort of functionality for that and never really had issues that couldn't be solved, be it using some generic USB controller to using PS3 and PS4 ones.

How is that surprising when it's the most powerful, easy and convenient tool for controller support ?
It's also the most reliable. Sure, no issue couldn't be solved, but you still had to do a lot of thinkering, requiring you sometimes to quit the game. Here, if a game has a shoddy controller support, I just press the guide button and change a few things. And it's done.

Deleted member 41520 · Feb 8, 2019

I'm having to disconnect my Steam Link frequently this month to use the Ethernet cable, and it makes me realize just how invaluable the device is to me.

I literally play any noteworthy multiplatform game at my sofa with the controller of my choice with my super powerful rig on the other side of the room

Controller universal functionality isn't so great via steam link, but as long as you plug something in you're usually good

What a time to be alive

Tizoc · Feb 8, 2019

Darksiders Warmastered had odd controls for me when I played it with the default settings, like the camera rotating like mad. I game with a DS4, and the issue seems to be for non X1 controllers from what I gathered.
Found a community config for it and applied it and all my problems were vanished. It's neat that you could save (for steam games only at least) configs for others to use as well.

dsk1210 said:
Can the games from EGS games be added to Steam and the functions used that way?

I used to play Destiny 2 added as a shortcut through Steam using the steam controller but it stopped working one time and I have never been able to get it working again, pretty much killed my interest in the game.

I know Origin games can be a pain the arse to get controller options working with it.

Yes. You can add any game to steam, and config the control for it.

Alvis · Feb 8, 2019

Adamska said:
It always amazes me that people actually rely on Steam for using controllers. I do know I could look into how Steam does it, but I've been using modern controllers on PC since before Steam ever made any sort of functionality for that and never really had issues that couldn't be solved, be it using some generic USB controller to using PS3 and PS4 ones.

I really, really doubt you're "amazed" by the concept of people using 1 software that supports PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch Pro, and generic controllers out of the box instead of using a different piece of software per individual controller. Not to mention you can remap each controller per-game if you wish, even using gyro and other stuff.

It does not amaze you. At all. I'm sure you are bright enough to understand why people would prefer Steam. Stop pretending otherwise, I already know you from the EGS threads...

Anyway OP, you can add the game as a non-steam game. Of course that doesn't play nicely with ALL games, but I remember not having any problems adding Assassin's Creed Odyssey (uplay version)

Tizoc · Feb 8, 2019

spineduke said:
I've done it for Dauntless recently - just add it as a "non-steam" game and it'll work right off the bat.

That's what I did, but it doesn't work. To elaborate
1- I add the non-steam game 'Patched.exe' to steam
2- When I launch the game it always asks if I want to run it (as administrator)
3- Steam overlay doesn't run on the game and as such any controller configs I'd had assigned for it

Xiofire · Feb 8, 2019

The SCAPI is one of the best things Valve have ever done for PC gaming, and it goes so unnoticed and underappreciated.

Valdega · Feb 8, 2019

Thankfully, Steam is just another launcher with a bunch of features that nobody uses or cares about.

Adamska · Feb 8, 2019

Xharos said:
It does not amaze you. At all. I'm sure you are bright enough to understand why people would prefer Steam. Stop pretending otherwise, I already know you from the EGS threads...

I fully declare my ignorance when it comes to how Steam handles controllers. If you're so obsessed about my post history, you should know that. I tried it once some time ago and thought it was underwhelming, but I fully admit it could've been something I configured wrong or didn't want to bother making it work. Which is why it amazes me, as I assumed most people simply used solutions that predated Steam or that don't rely on Steam altogether.

GhostTrick said:
How is that surprising when it's the most powerful, easy and convenient tool for controller support ?

Like I said before on some other thread, I need to look into how it works one of these days. It's just that currently I've been using DS4Windows and have like zero incentive to change since it works so well.

John Dunbar · Feb 8, 2019

does the switch pro controller work now just by plugging it in? way back i tried but couldn't get it to work while ps4 worked just fine.

Alvis · Feb 8, 2019

John Dunbar said:
does the switch pro controller work now just by plugging it in? way back i tried but couldn't get it to work while ps4 worked just fine.

It does. But if you had installed a third party driver that made it work before Steam you have to unistall that first. My gf had that problem, she installed a weird driver and program to make the controller work, then steam implemented it, and it didn't work. I solved it by simply unistalling that driver, Steam picked it up perfectly right after that, both via USB and via bluetooth.

Adamska said:
I fully declare my ignorance when it comes to how Steam handles controllers. If you're so obsessed about my post history, you should know that. I tried it once some time ago and thought it was underwhelming, but I fully admit it could've been something I configured wrong or didn't want to bother making it work. Which is why it amazes me, as I assumed most people simply used solutions that predated Steam or that don't rely on Steam altogether.

Like I said before on some other thread, I need to look into how it works one of these days. It's just that currently I've been using DS4Windows and have like zero incentive to change since it works so well.

And don't you think that trying it out in order to understand why people use it is a better use of your time that saying "WoW I sUrE dOn'T uNdErStAnD wHy YoU wOuLd UsE tHiS fEaTuRe" every time someone mentions it?

I mean you surely seem interested in the topic, so why don't you try it out? And if you aren't interested why do you keep informing everyone that it amazes you that people actually use it and that you use a different program? It just seems weird that you're both interested enough in the feature to always reply with "wow people use this!?!?!!?" yet disinterested enough to still "don't understand how it works".

texhnolyze · Feb 8, 2019

John Dunbar said:
does the switch pro controller work now just by plugging it in? way back i tried but couldn't get it to work while ps4 worked just fine.

It should.

Switch Pro controller is a recent addition. Perhaps it was recognized as 'Generic gamepad' by Steam before the official support. But now, there's a tick-box for that.

Tizoc · Feb 8, 2019

John Dunbar said:
does the switch pro controller work now just by plugging it in? way back i tried but couldn't get it to work while ps4 worked just fine.

It should. Worse case scenario, do the following-
Go to Settings>Controllers>General controller settings
Make sure the Switch Pro Controller is ticked on, restart steam and it should recognize it.

texhnolyze · Feb 8, 2019

Adamska said:
It always amazes me that people actually rely on Steam for using controllers. I do know I could look into how Steam does it, but I've been using modern controllers on PC since before Steam ever made any sort of functionality for that and never really had issues that couldn't be solved, be it using some generic USB controller to using PS3 and PS4 ones.

If you actually read my OP, there's no other possible way to enable DS4 vibration on The Division 2 without Steam.

Steiner_Zi · Feb 8, 2019

To be honest controller support is not perfect even on Steam. I fired up Evoland on Steam yesterday and DS4 was not working at all in the game. Turns out, the developer did not bother fixing gamepad support after a Win10 update broke it so you had do some tinkering yourself and run some file as admin to make it even recognize your controller (let alone properly support it).

Controller support is something that will always be superior on consoles IMO, you just plug in your controller and you know 100% that it will be natively supported without any issues.

tyfon · Feb 8, 2019

Pardon my ignorance, but why is so many using xbox 360 controllers instead of xbox one controllers?
I'm a DS4 guy myself and it's miles better than the DS3..

Steam is awesome with controllers in linux as well even if the DS4 is supported properly naively there.

UsoEwin · Feb 8, 2019

I appreciate what Steam is doing. But I also wish more games had native DS4 support. At least it seems to be getting better and better every year. Was using DS4tool/inputmapper for so long.

Tizoc · Feb 8, 2019

Steiner_Zi said:
To be honest controller support is not perfect even on Steam. I fired up Evoland on Steam yesterday and DS4 was not working at all in the game. Turns out, the developer did not bother fixing gamepad support after a Win10 update broke it so you had do some tinkering yourself and run some file as admin to make it even recognize your controller (let alone properly support it).

The Controller config allows you to override those issues, and at least the could be a few community made configs that could help you find a suitable controller set up.
Right click game>Edit controller config>Browse configs>Community
Alt. if non are available use the 'Templates', and try one of them to see if resolves the issue.

I don't own Evoland 1 on Steam sadly, and Evoland 2 doesn't have custom configs (so I assume it runs fine), so see if Evoland 1 has them.

Controller support is something that will always be superior on consoles IMO, you just plug in your controller and you know 100% that it will be natively supported without any issues.

I wasn't aware I could natively use my DS4 with a Switch or Xbox One :V

Alvis · Feb 8, 2019

Steiner_Zi said:
Controller support is something that will always be superior on consoles

Wow, I wasn't aware there was a console that supported any controller in existence, including but not limited to 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and Switch Pro controllers, including gyro and touchpad for controllers that have that. Which one is it? You made me curious!

texhnolyze · Feb 8, 2019

Steiner_Zi said:
To be honest controller support is not perfect even on Steam. I fired up Evoland on Steam yesterday and DS4 was not working at all in the game. Turns out, the developer did not bother fixing gamepad support after a Win10 update broke it so you had do some tinkering yourself and run some file as admin to make it even recognize your controller (let alone properly support it).

Controller support is something that will always be superior on consoles IMO, you just plug in your controller and you know 100% that it will be natively supported without any issues.

True. But that's not Steam's fault at all. If the devs don't bother to give a controller support for PC, no program can help you to play with one.

There's usually an alternative by emulating keyboard and mouse controls, but I never a fan of that except for certain games. For example, I played Guild Wars 2 fully with a controller. There are even some community templates you can use, even though the game is not on Steam and doesn't support controller at all.

tyfon said:
Pardon my ignorance, but why is so many using xbox 360 controllers instead of xbox one controllers?
I'm a DS4 guy myself and it's miles better than the DS3..

Steam is awesome with controllers in linux as well even if the DS4 is supported properly naively there.

It was the most common controller and lots of people still use it. On top of that, there are lots of pretty cheap counterfeit/fakes X360 controllers out there which register as one. I used to have one and it only lasted for a year or so before the analog is broken.

Doomshine · Feb 8, 2019

tyfon said:
Pardon my ignorance, but why is so many using xbox 360 controllers instead of xbox one controllers?
I'm a DS4 guy myself and it's miles better than the DS3..

Steam is awesome with controllers in linux as well even if the DS4 is supported properly naively there.

I came to close to buying one myself because it was the best supported controller on PC for a while, but now I just use my DS4.

Deleted member 3897 · Feb 8, 2019

Pre-Steam controller support was so fucking frustrating and annoying. Having to download different drivers and programs that I had to tweak for 1 hour for almost each game is not a time I want to go back to.

BernardoOne · Feb 8, 2019

It's crazy how much better it makes controllers themselves than on consoles, too. Being able to use DS4's gyro aiming for basically any game is a godsend. Meanwhile there's a pathetically low number of games on PS4 that support it.

Thekeats · Feb 8, 2019

tyfon said:
Pardon my ignorance, but why is so many using xbox 360 controllers instead of xbox one controllers?
I'm a DS4 guy myself and it's miles better than the DS3..

Steam is awesome with controllers in linux as well even if the DS4 is supported properly naively there.

Simply comes down to cost. Why upgrade something like a controller when your old one works perfectly fine? Only reason I upgraded to the one controller is that the buttons where sticking on the old 360 controller.

Alvis · Feb 8, 2019

BernardoOne said:
It's crazy how much better it makes controllers themselves than on consoles, too. Being able to use DS4's gyro aiming for basically any game is a godsend. Meanwhile there's a pathetically low number of games on PS4 that support it.

Playing The Evil Within with a Switch Pro controller with gyro was amazing. I hate aiming with a controller, but at the same time the keyboard controls felt awkard. I configured the Switch pro controller on Steam to emulate a mouse with the gyro, but ONLY when I held ZL (which is the aiming button). I also set up the right stick to act as a regular stick when not holding ZL, but as a mouse when holding it, since the game would get crazy if it got right stick and mouse inputs at the same time. That's the only "trouble" I had, so in total I had to change two (2) things. Boom, best of both worlds, gamepad controls but good aiming. Played the entire game like that... and on Linux, no less (I was fiddling around with Proton at the time). It was a fantastic experience from start to finish.

Tizoc · Feb 8, 2019

Xharos said:
Playing The Evil Within with a Switch Pro controller with gyro was amazing. I hate aiming with a controller, but at the same time the keyboard controls felt awkard. I configured the Switch pro controller on Steam to emulate a mouse with the gyro, but ONLY when I held ZL (which is the aiming button). I also set up the right stick to act as a regular stick when not holding ZL, but as a mouse when holding it, since the game would get crazy if it got right stick and mouse inputs at the same time. That's the only "trouble" I had, so in total I had to change two (2) things. Boom, best of both worlds, gamepad controls but good aiming. Played the entire game like that... and on Linux, no less (I was fiddling around with Proton at the time). It was a fantastic experience from start to finish.

I have a DS4, any chase you could upload this for future use?

Alvis · Feb 8, 2019

Tizoc said:
I have a DS4, any chase you could upload this for future use?

Sure, I'll upload the template as soon as I get home!

It's for the Switch Pro controller but Steam lets you import it anyway and "converts" it automatically

BasilZero · Feb 8, 2019

Patitoloco said:
Question, do I still have to use Big Picture mode to use this?

Because I don't want to use Big Picture mode.

You have to use Big Picture for the first connect.

Afterwards , all you have to do is turn on Steam, and then press the power button on the controller for it to start - no need for Big Picture after that unless you want to add a new controller to the mix.

Using my DS4 wirelessly and have had no issues with it when playing on Steam :)!

medyej · Feb 8, 2019

Steam Input is amazing. They basically took all the best features that it used to take dozens of controller programs to get working and made it in one place and easy as hell to use. The functionality of the Steam input configurator still impresses me, especially that itself is completely controller compatible.

Steam's various controllers api support is amazing and I simply couldn't live without it

RPG Site

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS

Self-requested ban.

Saw the truth behind the copied door

Prophet of Regret

Saw the truth behind the copied door

Saw the truth behind the copied door

User requested account closure

Saw the truth behind the copied door

Saw the truth behind the copied door