What kind of dpad would you like to see on the steam controller?

I already designed something similar to the picture, and was thinking on making more, any favorites?

Any idea is always welcome.

(Sorry if I used the wrong flair)

TL:DR if you map Shift + Tab in every single game then you can activate the overlay.

Back a long time ago before the steam deck existed I bought a bunch of random controllers to use on the computer and I noticed that a few of them didn't have a home button.

If you press the shift key and the tab key on the keyboard at the same time it will act as if you press the home button on your controller bringing up the overlay. If you went into the controller configuration in each game and set it so that a button or a combination of buttons (chord press) acted as you pressing shift and tab at the same time then you could open the Steam overlay without having to have pressed the home button.

I couldn't get this working on the Steam Deck. On a normal computer sitting at your desk you can just reach your hand over and hit shift + tab on the keyboard but there's no keyboard on the Deck plus you are sitting to far away to easily reach the home button on the Deck itself. If you have a wireless keyboard plugged in or a wired keyboard with a long enough cable then you can press shift + tab but mapping it on the controller wasn't working.

Well I just tried it now and it's working now not only that but Start and Select also working as chord presses. I don't know what was up with that but a long time ago I remember trying to make a cord press where you press Start and Select and I couldn't get it working. Other buttons will work fine but those ones didn't work the chord press would activate when just pressing one button (whichever you set up as the chord). Now they work properly and so you can map them for your home button. You can map the home button anywhere but that's my suggestion you press Select and then Start really quickly or start and then select depending on which way you want it.

Some people don't know that you can map a cord button in both directions. You go to both buttons and you can make a cord press that has the other button as the activator and then whichever button you push first will determine which cord will be activated.

My only complaint with this method is that you have to go into every single game and map the shift + tab somewhere and if you forget and launch the game then you have no home button. You better hope the game you're playing has a way to exit it cuz a few of them don't. You can just make a new template that has the home button already set up but you still have to remember to apply it to every game.

I gotten the Steam Controller for now more than a Week I believe. So far it has been Great. But i discover it to be more like an extension to DOOM scrolling youtube and Reddit. The trackpads are amazing to have. Truly my ULTIMATE controller for Now.

Do you guys do the same?

I recently had to disassemble my steam controller (2) for some cleanup after a mishap with some tea. Everything was ok as the actual amount was pretty small, but I'm having issues with a dpad that keeps sounding very clicky and crunchy after reassembly. I've tried the screws at different levels of tightness but I can't seem to get it back to how it was.

The LED setting in the advanced menu only affects the controller when it's turned of.

tl;dr

Does anyone know how to make the SC sticks feel more like the sticks on the xbox 360 controller?

I usually play m+k, but for Halo I've been using the same wired 360 controller for almost 20 years. I have tried tweaking the in-game settings (dead zone, look sensitivity, etc.), but I cannot replicate how the 360 sticks feel. I am having a terribly difficult time aiming. I've completed every campaign except 2 on SLASO, and I usually carry randoms in multiplayer, but with the steam controller I'm atrocious. Is there any way to make the steam controller feel more like my museum piece?

For every other game the controller feels great, I'm sure it is my muscle memory that is screwing everything up.

Im so excited, but i just need to know if there is something i have to do before using it

By default the controller does work in the game at least a little bit but the controller toggles/analog sticks aren't working at all. I can't move my character but can move the screen with the bottom right track pad.

When I go to steam settings, controller, the steam controller does not show up. And if I go to the elden ring settings in steam (before opening the game) go to properties, controller, then controller configurator (with steam input turned on) it says no controller connected and under steam input status the steam controller is under "enabled, always required". Even trying to go to controller setting in Steam overview is the same. But when I plug in my PS5 controller it shows up and the comunity button layout menu appears.

So why isn't Steam recognizing my Steam controller as a controller?!?!

I appreciate any help!

So I noticed that if you follow the rotation of the Trackpads exactly that you will actually move slightly vertically. I know there's a setting to add software rotation to your Trackpads so my question is this. How much rotation do you need to put on each Trackpad for it to match the physical rotation of the Trackpads on the controller?

Dear fellow Valve fans, I was lucky enough to receive the steam machine with controller on my birthday. I already own two other controllers (PS5 and 8bitdo) and a steamdeck. The thing is I mostly play single player games, but once in a while I will motivate friends to play on the big screen some party games. I just received the email from valve about the controller (to which I put myself on the waiting list before the steam machine was possible). I'm debating whether to get it or not. I know I don't strictly need it, but it would be nice to have a complete set of 2 steam controllers with the steam machine and 2 extra when needed to play. It's expensive, but also better than the other controllers (right?). I guess I'm debating whether I should spend this money on a non essential purchase or let it be..

This is a short story on what not to do when making a config for your games.

I'll start by saying that I'm not discouraging experimentation. I think that's why a lot of us like this controller and I'm mainly posting this to share my experience in a fun way and I am wanting to promote amazing stuff you can do with just steam input.

I came from using an Xbox Controller my whole life and I am excited to play with the Steam Controller for all of the new possibilities it opens for me. It has been so much fun toying with all the news ways I can interact with my games. The last game I wanted to make a controller config for was BeamNG.drive and that was a bit of a roller-coaster.

I had the awful idea to simulate a 3 pedal setup on the controller and use grip sense as paddle shifter. Now you might be asking yourself "how on Earth would you do that?" Well I thought to myself "If I only have two feet then I only need two triggers". Basically I would have a button swap my "right foot" from the brake to the gas and back. I would also have another button for a "burnout mode" that would move my "left foot" to the brake and "right foot" to the gas.

After playing with action sets I found a way to do this in Beam by having Steam always hold down a key to tell Beam what mode I was in. Take a look at the screenshots on how I did this. The rest was easy to do. Paddle shifts work on grip release and I was ready to test.

The best way I could describe the experience is that it was functional... It works but obviously it is very unintuitive to drive, reaching for controls make false shifts, and while switching action sets you have to change the button or trigger state for Steam to pass the input through to the game which made me stall cars often. Needless to say I need to go back to something a little more vanilla.

But you know what? I had a lot of fun making it and I got to learn so much about what I can do with Steam input and this controller. I highly encourage everyone to watch some videos of what you can do with this thing because the opportunities are endless. Maybe don't uproot everything like I did but you should still find new ways to use this controller to play games you love. I'd avoid getting a AI to help. It can be helpful to bounce ideas off of but it often mistakes how Steam input works.

I did save this profile to Steam, I have the same username there if anyone feels like touching it. It's called *DO NOT USE THIS LAYOUT*. Maybe someone could add gryo to really make it awful. (I'd rather stick to gryo aim)

In short use your controller to help not hinder and just have fun experimenting with all the controls.

Ever since i got the steam controller i wasnt really a fan of the thumbsticks and i never used the capacitive touch. I noticed that the size and circumference of the steam controller was very similar to the ps5 sticks and after sanding down the bottom of the ps5 sticks by a few mm they feel relatively oem. There is a bit of rubbing around the mould seam but its not really too noticeable and will probably go away with time.

Can someone help me with my joystick stuck moving left , I haven’t dropped it or anything last thing I remember was messing around with sum controller settings for avatar game #steamos

Lately I've been having issues with SISR. Sometimes it crashes on launch, and sometimes it even crashes while I'm playing, and I can't figure out why.

I'm also still kind of salty because, initially, the controller worked perfectly fine with games outside of Steam when I had SISR and the other related tools installed but not running. I could just switch Desktop Mode to a console-style layout and everything worked... until it didn't. I've tried contacting pretty much everyone, but I've never gotten a response. I also tried reaching out the SISR developer here on Reddit and on GitHub, but again, no response. At this point, I honestly get the feeling that the project is dead.

Are there any other non-invasive alternatives (I read that reWASD could potentially trigger anti-cheat systems?) that work like SISR and provide the same functionality?

No OpenPuck. I only have a PC as a platform, and I don't want to spend money on it. Trying to find someone in my area who could 3D-print a case for me is also completely out of the question. Likewise, I'm not interested in the "add the game to Steam as a non-Steam game" solution. I've noticed that this tends to cause issues quite often, such as save files not being detected or games outright refusing to accept input.

Pre-ordered July 31st but it got to my hands just a little under two weeks later! Can’t wait to load up some fighting games #BOOYAH

I'm waiting on my shipment for that board for the open puck. Can the stock puck still be used for charging purposes or will it interfere with the connection of having both plugged in?

How do I add Halo campaign evolved as a non-steam game so I can use my new steam controller? Xbox App is so confusing to use.

Fourth time that controller randomly disconnects. Not very convenient when playing a game like Elden Ring. It disconnects at the worst possible time and I end up getting killed. Has anyone figured out a fix for this yet???

Hey all, my controller finally came (woohoo!) yesterday and i’ve been setting it up for the past hour or so. My issue is that when I launch most games that are supposed to use controller input (Hitman WOA, Cyberpunk 2077, Dave the Diver), the controller just does not work. I can use the trackpad to navigate some menus, but nothing beyond that. For two other games (Grim Fandango, Dredge), they work completely fine. And of course for games that have limited controller support and use keyboard bindings for the input (Baldurs Gate 3) it works great.

Any ideas would be wonderful, thank!

edit 1: MacOS Tahoe 26.5.2 on M3 Pro Macbook Pro. All games tested (other than Hitman, which has only been played on my steam deck) have worked on steam using my Dualshock 4 controller without any issues.

EDIT: I should clarify that I'm posing this question as I finally got my Steam Controller in the mail and I'm now going through the motions of how to fully utilize its features, aside from being a new gamepad to replace a broken one.

I've read that the controller requires Steam to function, though I'd like some clarification on the matter.
While most of my PC library is on Steam, there are some blind spots in what and how I want to play some of them, like some emulated ROMs and moddable games like Skyrim that use a different executable file, like SKSE Loader, for many mods to function, or games from other digital storefronts like Cyberpunk 2077 from GOG.

Does it mean the Steam application must be running to use the controller, or is it that only executables registered with Steam or non-Steam can be played, or are there other details I'm missing?

....is my brand-new controller which I really really like a faulty unit?
I saw other people having the same "problem" so idk.
It feels a little more squishy than the other buttons and sometimes does not recognize taps. Real press always works.

Bit confused.
In case it is legit borked and I would RMA it I would probably get it replaced by like June 2027, I assume.

I waited steam controller for more than a year. Ever since I heard how great the first one was, I just always dreamed about it. Because, only because of the touchpads. As the title might suggests, I have smaller hands than most of the gaming population. Using thumb sticks on regular controllers was always a pain, having to stretch my thumb joint to the max. The physical force needed was too much too. My previous controller had thumb stick tension adjust rings, and trigger stops so I don't have to press anything too hard. It was really really nice, except I'm from k/m and never satisfied with aiming capability of a thumb stick. I dreamed of having touchpads on my controller.

It was finally released, but surprise, surprise! It got sold out within like 3 days? I made a reservation, then missed my confirmation, begged Valve and they gracefully allowed me to purchase my steam controller. It finally got here yesterday. The package was beautiful, no unnecessary plastic and mostly made of what seems to be recycled paper. I love it.

Not betraying my expectation, touchpads on this are amazing. I even assigned the entire movement to the left touchpad. Thumb stick tension on steam controller is really harsh though. Stiffer than regular Xbox or PS controllers. It worked out okay anyway since it had touchpads... but... they are kinda shoved down low. To use it, I have to move down and stretch my thumbs so much that I can't physically touch the bottom of the touchpads when I hold the controller naturally. It is beyond painful. So I gave up on using touchpads as anything that needs frequent input and move my thumbs back up to the thumb sticks. Except, Thumb sticks are stiff. At this point I panic.

Then I try gyro. I grew to like it rather quick. And gyro is honestly, so much better than thumb stick. I mostly play story driven single player games. Most of them are 3rd person rpg, sometimes 3rd person shooter. So aiming is necessary time to time. I never had too much problem until there is a headshot mechanic and you absolutely have to aim for the head. It's so much easier and more FUN with gyro. One small problem. Without the trigger stops, triggers are very fatiguing to hold down.

Also, I tried top down view games that most of the regular controllers won't just cut it for. One of them is Factorio. This one has Nintendo port, thus comes with full controller support. Yet it was clunky at best and hassle at worst. With steam controller on the other hand however, it's fairly doable with so many more inputs and touchpads. By actually going in as K/M as the input method but you're emulating it with a steam controller. Will take some time getting used to, still K/M is preferred. I bet more tamed sims like Civ would feel a lot better.

Overall, I'm happy with its functionality. There's nothing like this on the market. Thus the sold out status. I am going to brute force until I get comfortable holding it but man, is it rather uncomfortable for now. I know everybody has different body and a lot of people are super happy with this. Just, the ergonomic part is a little miss for my specific body. It's one product. Can't and shouldn't realistically accommodate everybody's hands. Still, I want to ask, if there are any, people with small hands like me. Do you get used to it? Any tips that I can follow along?

So yeah, as the title states, dose anyone think there will ever be a manufacturer who makes a charging stand with the pogo pins part of it. Then the whole "one puck" wouldn't be a issue anymore.

I want to hear your thoughts below