Unplayable with a controller

[razor]

Hi everyone,

Have bought this game today just to figure out that it's totally unplayable with a Steam Input controller (mine is the PS5 one). For some reason, the game settings screen doesn't offer left/right stick dead zone adjustments (which is okay, but still). But the most horrible thing is how it handles the "look" joystick and gyro aim.

When you enable gyro aim under Steam Input ("Gyro To Mouse"), it doesn't allow you to aim precisely: small controller movements are not registered at all, so the whole thing feels jerky. The right joystick feels "wooden" as well.

In comparison, the Hunter Call of The Wild (COTW) works perfectly, even with the default settings: the gyro aim is very smooth and both joysticks respond precisely, with acceleration that depends on the deflection angle.

Is there any way to make it playable with this setup? Maybe some "hidden" config settings?

[VictoriaHuntress]

I'm using an XBox Controller that works just fine with both games. In this game, they refer to the joystick control settings as 'input sensitivity', which seems to be similar to dead zone. They don't use the term left / right to identify the joysticks. You have some control over walking speed that is proportional to the joystick angle. I don't recall how that compares with COTW. They call them 'Look' and 'Zoom' controls. I think Look is the right stick and Zoom is the left stick

[razor]

Originally posted by VictoriaHuntress:

I'm using an XBox Controller that works just fine with both games. In this game, they refer to the joystick control settings as 'input sensitivity', which seems to be similar to dead zone. They don't use the term left / right to identify the joysticks. You have some control over walking speed that is proportional to the joystick angle. I don't recall how that compares with COTW. They call them 'Look' and 'Zoom' controls. I think Look is the right stick and Zoom is the left stick

Thanks VictoriaHuntress!

Unfortunately, I tried both options, and it didn't affect the dead zones at all, just the sensitivity. Seems like the problem is some kind of a hardcoded dead zone for both joysticks and the mouse look (gyro aim). When I rotate the controller, the game doesn't react until the gyro acceleration hits some threshold, meaning that the small movements are not registered. This makes it impossible to aim precisely and shoot at long distances especially.

I still hope there is some workaround though.

[VictoriaHuntress]

Originally posted by razor:

Originally posted by VictoriaHuntress:

I'm using an XBox Controller that works just fine with both games. In this game, they refer to the joystick control settings as 'input sensitivity', which seems to be similar to dead zone. They don't use the term left / right to identify the joysticks. You have some control over walking speed that is proportional to the joystick angle. I don't recall how that compares with COTW. They call them 'Look' and 'Zoom' controls. I think Look is the right stick and Zoom is the left stick

Thanks VictoriaHuntress!

Unfortunately, I tried both options, and it didn't affect the dead zones at all, just the sensitivity. Seems like the problem is some kind of a hardcoded dead zone for both joysticks and the mouse look (gyro aim). When I rotate the controller, the game doesn't react until the gyro acceleration hits some threshold, meaning that the small movements are not registered. This makes it impossible to aim precisely and shoot at long distances especially.

I still hope there is some workaround though.

Do you have the proper driver for a PS5 controller,-to-PC and the most recent update? I'd check that next.

You could always bite the bullet and buy an XBox controller?

[vassilevb]

I am using a software, called DS4Windows. I've never had issues with it and with any game I've tried so far (Overcooked, Steep, FIFA 16, THPS HD, Tekken 7, Mortal Kombat (2011), Mortal Kombat X, Xenon Racer, Metal Slug, and at least 10 other indie titles, I can't recall their names at the moment).
I am using a DualShock 4 (PS4) controller, but it supports your DualSense (PS5) as well.

While I would not play WotH with a controller due to my personal habits, I'd highly recommend trying it:
https://ds4windows.dev/

I am delighted by how it made my life a lot easier, compared to, for example, Steam Input. I've tried the latter because of other people (and their PCs, personal software preferences and controller preferences), and, boy, oh boy, the setup and fine-tuning really eats your nerves.

Good luck!

[razor]

Originally posted by vassilevb:

While I would not play WotH with a controller due to my personal habits, I'd highly recommend trying it:
https://ds4windows.dev/

Thanks vassilevb and VictoriaHuntress for your help! I've figured out how to fix this. I decided not to try ds4windows because I already have it and it essentially does the same thing as Steam Input: makes the game think that you're playing with an XBox controller.

After a thorough investigation, I found that the game does indeed use the built-in deadzones that you can't adjust in the UI. I don't know why the game developers didn't think about it, but it's still possible to manually edit Unreal Engine's config *.ini files.

To anyone who is experiencing the same problem:

1. Open `<Your User Folder>\AppData\Local\WayOfTheHunter\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Input.ini` in your preferred text editor
2. Add the following lines:

[/script/engine.inputsettings]
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName="Gamepad_LeftX",AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.00,Exponent=1.f,Sensitivity=1.f))
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName="Gamepad_LeftY",AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.00,Exponent=1.f,Sensitivity=1.f))
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName="Gamepad_RightX",AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.00,Exponent=1.f,Sensitivity=1.f))
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName="Gamepad_RightY",AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.00,Exponent=1.f,Sensitivity=1.f))

3. Save the file
4. Launch the game and check the deadzones on your both left and right sticks

The default deadzone value, I believe, is 0.25, which is huge. After applying the suggested config, you must choose the gyro mode under Steam Input: pick "As joystick", because the most used "Gyro To Mouse [beta]" will still produce jittery output (seems like another bug that appears in some Unreal Engine games).

It's a shame the developers didn't respond to my report even in Discord. I've spent almost two hours configuring this stuff, so I have almost no time left to actually try out the game before deciding whether I want to claim a refund. Anyway, let's hope the game is still worth it even after all the struggles I had with it!

Thanks again to everyone who responded here!

[VictoriaHuntress]

Originally posted by razor:

Originally posted by vassilevb:

While I would not play WotH with a controller due to my personal habits, I'd highly recommend trying it:
https://ds4windows.dev/

Thanks vassilevb and VictoriaHuntress for your help! I've figured out how to fix this. I decided not to try ds4windows because I already have it and it essentially does the same thing as Steam Input: makes the game think that you're playing with an XBox controller.

After a thorough investigation, I found that the game does indeed use the built-in deadzones that you can't adjust in the UI. I don't know why the game developers didn't think about it, but it's still possible to manually edit Unreal Engine's config *.ini files.

To anyone who is experiencing the same problem:

1. Open `<Your User Folder>\AppData\Local\WayOfTheHunter\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Input.ini` in your preferred text editor
2. Add the following lines:

[/script/engine.inputsettings]
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName="Gamepad_LeftX",AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.00,Exponent=1.f,Sensitivity=1.f))
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName="Gamepad_LeftY",AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.00,Exponent=1.f,Sensitivity=1.f))
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName="Gamepad_RightX",AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.00,Exponent=1.f,Sensitivity=1.f))
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName="Gamepad_RightY",AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.00,Exponent=1.f,Sensitivity=1.f))

3. Save the file
4. Launch the game and check the deadzones on your both left and right sticks

The default deadzone value, I believe, is 0.25, which is huge. After applying the suggested config, you must choose the gyro mode under Steam Input: pick "As joystick", because the most used "Gyro To Mouse [beta]" will still produce jittery output (seems like another bug that appears in some Unreal Engine games).

It's a shame the developers didn't respond to my report even in Discord. I've spent almost two hours configuring this stuff, so I have almost no time left to actually try out the game before deciding whether I want to claim a refund. Anyway, let's hope the game is still worth it even after all the struggles I had with it!

Thanks again to everyone who responded here!

Nice. I thought I would give this a try.
It turns out that in Photo Mode, a 0% dead zone causes my camera to move spontaneously with no way to stop it, other than exiting photo mode.
I changed the DZ settings to 5% and that solved the Photo Mode problem for me.
You might want to test your Photo Mode, just in case.