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[PeterVenkman]

Ah that's right, I've had issues with that before and forgot. I'll check that out when I'm home later. Thanks!

I had this problem in Overwatch when I had the joystick as a joystick instead of WASD - it was really noticeable with mercy where heals would take ages to switch or come out at all. Such a bummer.

 

[capylikesgames]

Also, I don't know if it's my controller or what, but I can trigger the Steam button by hitting Back and the Left Grip at the same time. >_>;

Do you have back and left grip bound to shift and tab? Pressing the Steam overlay shortcut keys through the Steam Controller will do that. I usually just remap the commands that cause it.

Hmm, currently set for zoom. If I make soft pull zoom, does it stop pressing that button when I hard pull?

No, that button will stay held, though you can define it to do otherwise in the trigger's menu.

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

I had this problem in Overwatch when I had the joystick as a joystick instead of WASD - it was really noticeable with mercy where heals would take ages to switch or come out at all. Such a bummer.

Yeah I was tolerating a mixed gamepad with mouse input setup for a while, but I kept having an issue with Mercy's heal getting "stuck" on a player. And joystick mouse doesn't work well at all, which is why I'm now just going with a full KBaM config. I'd like to have kept the analog movement, but oh well.

 

[Evilmaus]

So my controller arrived today and I'm looking for some pro-tips from you experienced users.

I've not actually set it up or anything yet. Does anyone have any advice on how I can adjust to it more easily, or general settings or rules that tend to work well for most things?

 

[Sophia]

Do you have back and left grip bound to shift and tab? Pressing the Steam overlay shortcut keys through the Steam Controller will do that. I usually just remap the commands that cause it.

Yuuup, that would be it. I was playing Overwatch and left shift was on the grip + tab on back. XD

 

[Veal]

Is anyone else having issues with the controller not going into lizard mode? Ever since the feature was announced, it never worked for me. In fact, I can't make the controller act like a keyboard and mouse unless steam is running. Which lizard mode was supposed to remedy.

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

So my controller arrived today and I'm looking for some pro-tips from you experienced users.

I've not actually set it up or anything yet. Does anyone have any advice on how I can adjust to it more easily, or general settings or rules that tend to work well for most things?

That is an extremely broad question.

Generally, for first-person shooter games a lot of people have had a good experience using the right pad for larger movements while utilizing the gyro for fine aiming. I often use the left trigger full pull to activate the gyro although many people use right pad touch. I bind my most-used face buttons to the paddles to minimize having to take my thumb off the track pad.

 

[capylikesgames]

So my controller arrived today and I'm looking for some pro-tips from you experienced users.

I've not actually set it up or anything yet. Does anyone have any advice on how I can adjust to it more easily, or general settings or rules that tend to work well for most things?

I think I've said this already on this page, but it's worth repeating since this is usually the first genre people try: lower or disable smoothing on the trackpad for shooters. Valve has it way too high by default, and it muds up your input. Setting it to 5 is probably the most you want, though I recommend having it off altogether. And for 2D games, set the analog stick to directional pad mode with high haptics and a high deadzone. 3/4ths through is a nice setting. Works a lot better than the left pad from my experience.

 

[Crayon]

So my controller arrived today and I'm looking for some pro-tips from you experienced users.

I've not actually set it up or anything yet. Does anyone have any advice on how I can adjust to it more easily, or general settings or rules that tend to work well for most things?

Start with community bindings. Popular games have more. When looking, start at the top of the list but peak into the config and see if the buttons are labeled. It's very helful when getting used to things. While playing the game, you can leave the overay set to the controller config overview where you can see all the labels, and flip back to it very quickly with the home button. You can even set the buttons to appear onscreen when you press them.

I think I've said this already on this page, but it's worth repeating since this is usually the first genre people try: lower or disable smoothing on the trackpad for shooters. Valve has it way too high by default, and it muds up your input. Setting it to 5 is probably the most you want, though I recommend having it off altogether. And for 2D games, set the analog stick to directional pad mode with a high deadzone. 3/4ths through is a nice setting. Works a lot better than the left pad from my experience.

I'll chime in and say that some of us like the left touch for a dpad. It's one of my favorite dpads now.

 

[capylikesgames]

I'll chime in and say that some of us like the left touch for a dpad. It's one of my favorite dpads now.

It's definitely doable in most games when given time. Personally, I like it in crossgate + touch-to-activate mode for sidescrollers that primarily use left and right. However, anything that heavily uses all eight directions and require snappy movement kills it for me. I find it too big of a space for quick adjustments, and that coupled with no real advantages makes me stick with the left analog in digital mode. It's still definitely worth trying out, though! I've heard enough people have success with it to not doubt it, I just haven't had any luck getting accustomed to it.

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

I'll chime in and say that some of us like the left touch for a dpad. It's one of my favorite dpads now.

I love it as a d-pad when it's not used for movement (more like a four-button selector) and of course without requiring a click. I wish it could function simultaneously as a d-pad and an outer-ring scroll wheel though.

 

[capylikesgames]

I love it as a d-pad when it's not used for movement (more like a four-button selector) and of course without requiring a click. I wish it could function simultaneously as a d-pad and an outer-ring scroll wheel though.

Yeah, no-overlap mode in a 3D game that uses it for ammo switching, navigation guide, etc is lovely. I think they probably designed it with that in mind, moreso than anything else.

Now that I think about it, would putting four microswitches under the left pad, rather than having it be one big button, be a detriment in any way? I was kind of hoping that was the case before launch. You'd still have touch capabilities, it'd just also have the ability to be tilted like a regular d-pad. As it is, the pads have a bit of a tilt when pushed in, it just lacks immediate input. Though now that I think about it, it's probably too big of a change for them to consider doing for the revision.

 

[Deadstar]

Anyone know a way to turn off the controller beep when you turn it on? The controller has a light on it, I don't need it to beep.

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

I agree capy, that would be a good addition. I mean, technically you could do that with the existing hardware since the touchpad is aware of your finger's position when you click. You wouldn't need separate switches.

 

[capylikesgames]

I agree capy, that would be a good addition. I mean, technically you could do that with the existing hardware since the touchpad is aware of your finger's position when you click. You wouldn't need separate switches.

Tilting as is works with horizontal directions, but it doesn't with vertical directions. The pad gets confused when you tilt up or down, at least based on what I've tried and heard of it. Having each direction be its own click would get around that, since it wouldn't be basing it on the center of your thumb.

 

[Crayon]

It's definitely doable in most games when given time. Personally, I like it in crossgate + touch-to-activate mode for sidescrollers that primarily use left and right. However, anything that heavily uses all eight directions and require snappy movement kills it for me. I find it too big of a space for quick adjustments, and that coupled with no real advantages makes me stick with the left analog in digital mode. It's still definitely worth trying out, though! I've heard enough people have success with it to not doubt it, I just haven't had any luck getting accustomed to it.

I layer the dpad with a mode shift. I use the touch only with a very wide dead zone and underneath I have it set to click with a small deadzone. I'm not sure if it has actual advantages to a real dpad or even analog stick, but I find it crisp, accurate and pleasant to use.

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

Tilting as is works with horizontal directions, but it doesn't with vertical directions. The pad gets confused when you tilt up or down, at least based on what I've tried and heard of it. Having each direction be its own click would get around that, since it wouldn't be basing it on the center of your thumb.

I don't understand what the issue would be. The pad knows where your finger is and registers a click. The direction the pad is tilting is irrelevant, it's just a matter of the software interpreting the combination.

 

[Walpurgis]

Anyone know of a good configuration for Total War? I tried playing Shogun II yesterday using a community config but couldn't progress in the tutorial because I couldn't tell my selected units to walk to the village. I did discover gyro though!

In general, how well does the SC work with Total War? This is my first Total War, btw.

 

[capylikesgames]

I don't understand what the issue would be. The pad knows where your finger is and registers a click. The direction the pad is tilting is irrelevant, it's just a matter of the software interpreting the combination.

I don't mean the direction the pad is being tilted, I mean the area your thumb is in when tilted in a vertical direction isn't specific enough for the left pad to read properly. Like, when you tilt your thumb down, it's laying flat between the deadzone and the south directions, so it alternates between both inputs instead of only sending down. I'm not really sure how else to explain it, but I do recommend trying it out yourself.

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

I do see what you're saying, but if you're laying your thumb across the pad the way you're describing, you're doing it wrong (or at least in a way incompatible with how I'm thinking about). Just the tip of your thumb should be touching it.

Let's get visual.

Currently, the left pad click can only be assigned one function (mode shifting notwithstanding). What I propose is this:

The controller knows my thumb is touching the bottom quadrant of the pad (red circle). Why can the software not recognize a pad click as a different input than the other quadrants? There's only one physical button that is "clicking", or course, but the software could use these two factors in concert. You could even take this a step further, having each touch region of the pad act as a separate mode shift for any button!

 

[capylikesgames]

This is already how the directional pad mode works on the controller, no? Minus a mode shift listing for each direction. Having to swipe your thumb across the pad while pushing down is really uncomfortable, though. You're grinding on it, which compared to a traditional d-pad tilt, takes a bit more force, and feels uncomfortable. Maybe not in more relaxed games, but in games that require quick directional changes, like Super Meat Boy, it's a tiring motion. At least, from my experience.

Having four switches underneath the pad rather than one gets around this. Tilting is now doable, which would relieve the extra movement needed in the left pad's current d-pad solution. And when it's not in digital mode? Just have all the switches count as a single input. It also shouldn't have a pivot point. I have a Logitech controller with a d-pad that lacks a pivot point, and it's never been a detriment. It would also help in the case that you need to press in the center of the pad for any mode that isn't directional pad.

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

Ah, I gotcha. I think you and I are talking about different things, but I do now realize that it already does what I'm describing. I agree that it would be better to have four switches, in any case.

 

[CloudyTuba]

I've been wanting to try this controller for a long time now and I finally purchased one in the recent Amazon sale.

I'm having a hell of a time adjusting, guys. Two nights now I've tried to use it. I still can't quite figure out how I'm supposed to comfortably hold the thing, nor how exactly I'm supposed to lay my thumb on the pad. It seems really awkwardly shaped. Holding my thumb still, my crosshair is still twitching around making aiming difficult. I move too fast when attempting small movements and too slow when attempting fast turns.

I'm guessing I need to turn up smoothing more, plus lowering sensitivity but upping acceleration.

Since it is so customizable I'm going to keep playing with the settings, but I feel like I'm fighting with the controller. How were your early experiences?

 

[Grinchy]

Since it is so customizable I'm going to keep playing with the settings, but I feel like I'm fighting with the controller. How were your early experiences?

I was much more angry with it, but same issues. IMO you just have to be frustrated with it for a while until it feels right. I also feel that it's best to use it for a game you have never played with a controller before during the break-in phase.

 

[Crayon]

I've been wanting to try this controller for a long time now and I finally purchased one in the recent Amazon sale.

I'm having a hell of a time adjusting, guys. Two nights now I've tried to use it. I still can't quite figure out how I'm supposed to comfortably hold the thing, nor how exactly I'm supposed to lay my thumb on the pad. It seems really awkwardly shaped. Holding my thumb still, my crosshair is still twitching around making aiming difficult. I move too fast when attempting small movements and too slow when attempting fast turns.

I'm guessing I need to turn up smoothing more, plus lowering sensitivity but upping acceleration.

Since it is so customizable I'm going to keep playing with the settings, but I feel like I'm fighting with the controller. How were your early experiences?

The hardest thing..... is that most of us just have no muscle memory in the bank for thumbing a trackpad.

I tried a lot of setting like you are describing but I had been overestimating my ability to "just learn" and underestimating my thumbs ability to get super-steady and precise over time.

 

[Anteater]

Just finished Shadow Warrior with it, maan the controller is so good

I couldn't get it to work with Shogo probably because it has a launcher and running the exe directly would crash the game, so the solution was to set it up on the desktop config

Wildstar plays ok, it's boring with the stupid WoW quests but I learned to use soft press on the trigger buttons through it, it's nice for shogo because the game has a jump and double jump I can map to the same trigger

 

[capylikesgames]

I feel like there's really not enough evidence of the trackpad working well in shooters (if anything, there's a lot of doubt towards it), so I uploaded some gameplay of me playing Quake 2 exclusively with trackpad aim a few hours ago. Not a perfect playthrough, but I wasn't aiming for one, honestly. I still think it shows off that it's pretty competent when configured properly.

I'm having a hell of a time adjusting, guys. Two nights now I've tried to use it. I still can't quite figure out how I'm supposed to comfortably hold the thing, nor how exactly I'm supposed to lay my thumb on the pad. It seems really awkwardly shaped. Holding my thumb still, my crosshair is still twitching around making aiming difficult. I move too fast when attempting small movements and too slow when attempting fast turns.

I'm guessing I need to turn up smoothing more, plus lowering sensitivity but upping acceleration.

You really want as little of your thumb on the pad as possible. Bend it and use only the tip. Don't have your sensitivity too high, either. The highest I recommend is being able to do a full 180 from the left side to the right. Also, I don't recommend any sort of filtering. Setting smoothing and acceleration off will give you the best experience. Make sure acceleration is off everywhere, btw. The game or Windows might have it's own acceleration on by default, and that's usually the culprit when my aim doesn't feel precise enough.

Fighting with the controller is natural, we all had to go through it at first, mainly because Valve doesn't really have a solid guide for it, plus their defaults aren't the best. Lucky for you, most of us already went through that, and figured out the best settings in the process, so. ;'>

 

[Sophia]

Heh.... reading your description reminds me of how I totally get thrown off playing Overwatch. Swapping from mouse to Steam Controller where right trigger is fire really messes with me as Zarya. Maybe I should swap them. >_>

I agree about turning off all the smoothing options. Definitely makes a world of difference.

 

[capylikesgames]

Heh.... reading your description reminds me of how I totally get thrown off playing Overwatch. Swapping from mouse to Steam Controller where right trigger is fire really messes with me as Zarya. Maybe I should swap them. >_>

Oh, it's absolutely something you should consider. The thing about having the right trigger as fire is that you're moving two fingers really close to each other, and one's bound to affect the other, something you don't want while you're aiming with the trackpad. In particular, I found it hard to adjust my aim when using a weapon that required me to rapidly pull the right trigger. I mean, I'm not sure if you can overcome that, but I found it more convenient to switch fire to the left trigger. Looking back, it didn't take me too long to adjust. Around two days at the most.

 

[Anteater]

i can't get the touch menu to work with non steam overlay compatible games like shogo

oh well

 

[morningbus]

i can't get the touch menu to work with non steam overlay compatible games like shogo

oh well

Well, yeah. Touch menu needs the overlay to be able to display the touch menu.

 

[jadjei]

Has anyone played Deus Ex with the Steam controller? Does the controller have enough buttons to play the game?

 

[Quote]

Has anyone played Deus Ex with the Steam controller? Does the controller have enough buttons to play the game?

I tried closer to the controllers release and there are setups, but none of them good in my opinion. That control scheme is so weird.

 

[Nabs]

I tried closer to the controllers release and there are setups, but none of them good in my opinion. That control scheme is so weird.

Nzyme created a good config with dual touch menus (Augmented Controller Bindings).

Link: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=187021409&postcount=3712

Has anyone played Deus Ex with the Steam controller? Does the controller have enough buttons to play the game?

 

[HassanJamal]

Finished and completed Call of Cthulhu a few days ago and playing with the steam controller felt great, loved using the back grip buttons.

Currently playing TimeShift with it now. Tried using the right touch pad as a mouse and was horrid, this time currently using the mouse as a view adjuster and the gyro for aiming, and so far, its ok especially since I can stop time and makes the experience tolerable.

Hasnt solidified its place as a good substitute for FPS for me yet.

 

[capylikesgames]

Currently playing TimeShift with it now. Tried using the right touch pad as a mouse and was horrid, this time currently using the mouse as a view adjuster and the gyro for aiming, and so far, its ok especially since I can stop time and makes the experience tolerable.

Hasnt solidified its place as a good substitute for FPS for me yet.

The trackpad is lovely for shooters, but you'll have a bad time if you don't mess with it, as the default settings don't work well with that genre. I recommend looking at my video a few posts back, I talk about optimal trackpad settings for shooters in its description.

 

[Quote]

Nzyme created a good config with dual touch menus (Augmented Controller Bindings).

Link: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=187021409&postcount=3712

Ooooh, I was thinking of the latest one. My bad.

 

[Nabs]

Huge Steam Beta with a lot of Steam Controller improvements:

Steam Controller Activator Update

Steam Controller

• Added support for Controller Activators
• Activators sit between inputs (like a button) and outputs (like a keypress) and allow for a variety of new behaviors and functionality
• Current activators include Normal Press, Long Press, Double Press, Start Press, Release Press, etc.
• Activators have their own settings, so they can each have haptics, delays, toggles, cycle bindings, turbo, etc.
• There is no limit to the number of activators on an input, so a single button can have a normal press, a double press, multiple long presses of different durations, etc. each of which execute independently and fire off their own bindings with their own settings.
• Mode shifts are also activator based, so mode shifts can now toggle or have special functionality like only on Long Press.
• Internal file format has been reorganized due to these changes, so new configurations are not backwards compatible. Any changes made to an existing configuration will not work in previous builds
• All existing configurations are converted into the new format and carry over the appropriate settings and bindings
• Added the ability to copy and existing Action Set into a new Action Set when creating one. You now have a dropdown of all existing action sets to copy from on create.
• Fix for zombie controllers when resuming from suspend with a dongle in a suspend-powered USB port.
• Gyro optimizations which in certain cases reduce latency.
• Fixed footer showing toggle game actions button when using action sets on legacy configurations.
• Fixed Action Sets being visible and selectable at the top of the UI while in binding/activator editing modes.
• Fixed Gyro Mode Button being visible and selectable while editing other modes.
• Fixed Footer not appearing in the desktop configurator.
• Fixed Controller Beep potentially browning out in low battery situations.
• Fix for register controller dialog only showing up in the main Steam window and not the overlay if you turn on a new controller while in-game.

 

[Nzyme32]

Huge Steam Beta with a lot of Steam Controller improvements:

Steam Controller Activator Update

Ooh boy. This will get a lot of use. Only thing I dread is the process of the old bindings being updated to the new format. Last time they did that it made all kinda of duplicates and the bindings I had uploaded didn't move across so had to get reupload.

 

[atr0cious]

Huge Steam Beta with a lot of Steam Controller improvements:

Steam Controller Activator Update

I've been checking this thread once a day for this update. Gonna spend tomorrow just changing binds, really excited.

 

[Oreoleo]

Probably worth pulling this out and repeating it:

Internal file format has been reorganized due to these changes, so new configurations are not backwards compatible. Any changes made to an existing configuration will not work in previous builds

If something in the beta breaks and you try to roll back, any configs you made or edited WILL NOT WORK.

Better to get out in front of the complaining now.

 

[Nzyme32]

Probably worth pulling this out and repeating it:



If something in the beta breaks and you try to roll back, any configs you made or edited WILL NOT WORK.

Better to get out in front of the complaining now.

I think the trick for me will be that I don't mess with anything that I am not happy to lose

 

[capylikesgames]

Huge Steam Beta with a lot of Steam Controller improvements:

Steam Controller Activator Update

I knew something was up when button presses were sending a haptic response! The new menu for button presses is ridiculously huge, I can't wait to spend time updating my current bindings to account for all the things they've added.

EDIT: Thanks for the heads up, Oreoleo. I guess I'll just save my edits as new config files for the time being.

 

[Unai]

Huge Steam Beta with a lot of Steam Controller improvements:

Steam Controller Activator Update

This will help so much in some games.

 

[Foxyone]

Please tell me some of this stuff at least works with the Start and Back buttons.

 

[Unai]

Please tell me some of this stuff at least works with the Start and Back buttons.

I just cheked and it does!

 

[Foxyone]

I just cheked and it does!

You can finally do something like have holding the Back button turn the Start button into Alt-tab? My most wanted feature for months

 

[Mailbox]

So I updated and looked at stuff. A lot seems to be broken in this update.

Grips, Start/select, bumpers do not work at all on desktop config.
You can't use the new options via Mode Shifting.
in fact, mode shifting via pad clicks seems broken. I used to have pad click = d-pad for scrolling on desktop. Doesn't work anymore

are these problems happening to anyone else?

 

[Unai]

You can finally do something like have holding the Back button turn the Start button into Alt-tab? My most wanted feature for months

Oh, you want modifiers to those 2 buttons. That's not an option right now.

 

[Mailbox]

okay fixed the problems with desktop (mostly) by just resetting the config and editing it back to how i like it.

The problem is that they moved the turbo functions to the new settings, which aren't usable buttons in mode shifts. :/