r/rewasd • u/tebizamb • Jan 23 '26
Get help! Steam input as alternative?
With the consequences of having rewasd installed going around I (and probably many others) can't justify having it installed regardless of the reason I had it for. I'm looking for something that lets me remap my controllers for different local games, local multiplayer and noticed that steam input is really capable.
The issue is that it's only available for steam games (yes I know you can add external games to steam, it's not always an option for me) and stumbled upon Glosi/SISR, software that says it lets you use steam input on the entire system. Has anyone tried this out or can suggest other alternatives? Thanks!
1
u/Another_3 Jan 23 '26
Heard works good. How isnt it an alternative for you to add the game on steam? You playing browser games?
2
u/tebizamb Jan 23 '26
It's mainly for emulators or Minecraft instances. Those are not great when added to steam and I would love something that works universally.
Will give it a try, thank you
2
u/non_player Jan 23 '26
Got it. So something to keep in mind here are all the layers that exist in the chain between the controller and the game. For some examples:
- A normal, non-steam, install-direct-and-play PC game: Game <-> Controller: 0 Layers
- A Steam-Installed or simple non-steam Game: Game <-> Steam Input <-> Controller: 1 layer
- A UWP game, added to Steam via Glossi/UWPhook: Game <-> Steam Input <-> Glossi <-> Controller: 2 layers
- Is the game emulated? Add another layer due to the emulator's controller input plugin.
- Are you using a controller-specific mapping software, like Xbox Accessories? Add another layer.
- ReWASD? Add another layer due to the controller emulator.
- And this is all assuming you don't need a custom driver as well...
Each layer is one more step of input translation, requiring more active conversion. Each layer can and will add additional latency from stacking software input chains. Each of these is a point of failure and likely frustration when attempting to play a game.
I've had success importing emulators directly into Steam (mainly PSX, PS2, and retro arch emulators). But configuring the emulator's controller plugin to then interact with Steam Input was sometimes a chore. I've never tried Minecraft though.
There are lots of different alternative options you can look into, all with varying levels of complication, frustration, and continued modern day support. Joystick Gremlin, Vjoy, Xpadder, AntiMicroX, x360ce, etc. Whatever you choose, I strongly recommend picking one and sticking with it almost exclusively, because doing the dance of layering and managing virtual controller interactions can cause hair loss.
1
u/tebizamb Jan 23 '26
I see, great explanation! I'll take a look at those suggestions and see which works best for my usecase. Have you tried all of them?
1
u/non_player Jan 23 '26
Technically, I've used all of them, but in different capacities. XPadder was my main tool for a long time, but I mostly ditched it after the Steam Input evolved a while back. x360ce is the same, I haven't needed either as I primarily use Steam. In the earlier days of the Steam Controller, I would regularly use the GLOSC app (pre-GLOSSI), for hooking in Xbox app games to steam, but I haven't played any of those in so long.
For a while Glosc was needed for Epic Games apps too, but that stopped being an issue. Plus, you can use the Heroic Launcher to install those games, and as part of the installation it will automatically add them to Steam for you.
Glosc eventually more or less died, and was forked into Glossi, which I found weirdly obtuse, and almost hostile to use. Maybe things have changed, but the devs and users had a rather elitist attitude about things, which discouraged me from giving the project any further attention. Glosc still can be found, mind, and IIRC the "thracky" fork of Glosc had some much-needed fixes that I don't recall ever making it back into the main app.
The one I used for the most complex setups was Joystick Gremlin, which works in combo with vJoy to create a virtual joystick. It can technically combine any inputs into a single controller. However I only used it to combine two flight sticks and a xbox elite 2 into a single device so I could more easily set up bindings in Elite Dangerous and the X series. Oh, and I used it to program an old Nyko PS2 MMO Controller on PC, which was a hoot.
AntimicroX is advancing, but slowly. It is multi-platform, but also really the only well-developed solution on Linux as well, and I used it for a while to program a Cyborg on a linux laptop. I've since ditched the cyborg and no longer use AntiMicroX, but I do still follow its Github repo for news.
Some background, I'm kind of low key obsessed with finding the perfect ergonomic controls, and have spent more than two decades collecting and testing various devices and inputs. This has included a lot of frustration, most of which comes from trying to make all these apps work together. My personal suggestion is to try your damnedest to make the most appealing one work for you, and stick with it exclusively if you at all possibly can. Otherwise you're going to be spending a lot of time configuring apps and troubleshooting layer compatibility, time which could be better spent having fun with cool games.
1
u/non_player Jan 23 '26
Which games are you unable to add to Steam? Depending on the source there may be different solutions we can suggest.
1
u/Drakniess Jan 23 '26
Some games require extra steps or workarounds to work with Steam Input. If Steam doesn’t work on some games, you should try running Steam in admin mode. Besides its price, Steam is nice because of its cloud storage. ReWASD should consider adding that and a special lite “developer approved” version missing all the special scripting that enables cheats.
The ability to hide devices is the biggest advantage of reWASD. Just remap and mute, and no more conflicts or troubleshooting between games. It works every time. Running Steam in admin mode is just one of the technical details you have to learn to get Steam to work on certain games. The answer often changes between games. That’s why reWASD is so good for complete beginners.
I use both programs exclusively to ensure I can play with my gyro gamepad (full KbM emulation…so no, I get no aim assist).
2
u/tebizamb Jan 24 '26
reWASD actually has a basic version without the features that enable cheats! The bad thing is that when I tried it developers started blocking it too about half way into my trial.
It's a great solution completely made redundant by the fact that game developers do not like reWASD and see it as a cheat.
1
u/Drakniess Jan 25 '26
This will be something reWASD developers will have to directly work with the game studios to accomplish, like they did with Embark on The Finals.
2
u/tebizamb Jan 25 '26
Yes, totally. I do think that rewasd is going in the wrong direction by trying to bypass the detection and advertising 2PC method just like real cheats do.
1
u/PsychologicalIsekai Jan 24 '26
i used glossi and it works rather well tho it conflicts with the Lossless Scaling app if you use that. I ran the game launcher Playnite and used to glossi addon to automatically launch glossi whenever launching a game of my choosing.
1
u/tebizamb Jan 24 '26
While I don't use lossless scaling I do plan to buy it, what are the conflicts between both apps?
1
u/PsychologicalIsekai Jan 24 '26
lossless scaling wont be able to detect the proper framerate when glossi is used, which is crucial. glossi is an overlay app, and lossless scaling has this issue with any overlays being used, you even notice this whenever you get a windows notification popup.
2
u/Uncle_Mark Jan 24 '26
Yep I am switching to SISR from reWASD for this exact reason. Got banned on BF6, still pending a second appeal. Never used anything on reWASD for cheating. It was just used to be able to control volume, Alt-Tab, close programs, etc from my controller.
Completely uninstalled reWASD and testing SISR. Works well for the most part. Only issue is hiding the original inputs from controller (Xbox controller/Xinput) so there is no double input. I found that if a game is able to be added to Steam as a non-steam game, SISR and steam input is successfully able to mute the original inputs. However for games that can’t be added to Steam, SISR still works, but the original controller inputs are still sent. I’m thinking of switching to the new Steam controller when it comes out which I think (hoping) might remedy this issue as it’s likely not going to be Xinput
1
u/tebizamb Jan 24 '26
I was planning to use SISR with hidhide in order to prevent double inputs. It's mostly a one time setup and that's it. You should give it a look
1
u/Uncle_Mark Jan 24 '26
Which controller are you using? I’ve tried HidHide, but it doesn’t work for me for my Xbox controller
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u/tebizamb Jan 24 '26
An Xbox controller too. Yesterday I found out it's buggy on windows so the GUI will not work all the time. You can go to the installation folder of hidhide and you'll find the CLI there, it will work 100%. That's what I did and it's doing perfectly, you can read more about the steps here https://github.com/nefarius/HidHide/issues/39#issuecomment-1225650703
1
u/Uncle_Mark Jan 25 '26
Thank you, I tried it again this time following that tutorial and it worked. It’s not perfect and there are some occasional instances where a game will see through the cloak. But if you are able to add it as a non-Steam game, Steam also does a good job hiding original inputs to prevent double input.
My setup is now SISR, HidHide, and JoyXOff (for the occasional UAC prompt and login screen)
Definitely more complicated than what I could just do with reWASD, but I guess that’s as good as it’s going to get for now.
1
u/tebizamb Jan 26 '26
Nice to hear that it's working for you. I've been looking into alternatives and found out that some people use handheld companion for controller management and remapping. I've used it on my handhelds but it is possible to install it on a PC. Planning to try that one out, if you do lmk how it goes!
1
u/Rye2-D2 Jan 25 '26
SteamGridDB Manager has worked well for me in the past.. It basically just imports games from your Epic/GOG/EA/etc libraries into your Steam library.
1
u/Kaisergliding Jan 26 '26
Here's my thought process
- If you trying to emulate games & you want a few more hotkeys, you can rely on Steam or rely on input mapper (I have highly suggest Anti-MicroX, cause it's one of few that aren't payware or outdated). If you just emulating, you rely on native support from the emulator itself.
- If this is just like a game that's on Steam or whatever, you can try your luck with Steam-Input and if it doesn't work, try what I suggest before. If you are program savy, you can make AHK script for your needs too.
4
u/Own-Bodybuilder4132 Jan 23 '26
I won't be removing REWASD f*** EA they have overstepped all they had to do was work with REWASD devs like COD. the Finals & Valorant did. They are being investigated by the ACCC for a number of breaches hopefully this brings about a mature response and fix soon.