emudeck multiplayer

[✪ Captain Slow]

hi guys

i just installed some roms on my deck with the tutorial explained on emudeck.com.
i have to say its quite great so far! games run flawless

but i am planning to use multiplayer on one deck very soon, and i wanna be prepaired as good as possible.
so, my plan is to connect 2 switch joycons, an cbox pad and probably a ds4 to my deck with bluetooth, and playing ssb melee with dolphin over the steam surface.
anyone tried that? local multiplayer on one deck?

[Marlock]

it will probably work fine, as long as the game supports local multiplayer (doable from steam on normal linux PCs), and the bluetooth receiver handles multiple simultaneous connected devices...

about the second part, not sure about the Deck's bluetooth hardware, but I've seen it work on linux laptops before so the software should allow it... here is a link about the limits of the bluetooth specification itself, regardless of OS:
https://dataoverhaulers.com/connect-multiple-bluetooth-devices/

Bluetooth-equipped smartphones and laptops can connect to multiple devices at once. The latest Bluetooth 5 specification allows up to 7 device connections simultaneously to a primary device in active mode. Some Bluetooth accessories may use the same Bluetooth profile or functionality, which may conflict.

the mixed controller types shouldn't be a problem in itself, but did you use each of those with the Deck one by one already? steam is a bit unreliable with controller support, so testing how it behaves with them is important

[Rahabib]

Unfortunately its not plug and play.

First, you can sync two XBox controllers to the Steam Deck. For Xbox controllers, make sure you upgrade the firmware on them on a Windows PC (XBox updates wont do the trick) or the Steam Deck will not allow you to sync via Bluetooth. It will say its paired but your controller will not recognize it and not work. Other types of controllers you are on your own. Once you have the controllers synced to the Steam Deck, both controllers will work on the UI and in Steam games as expected...

... But for Emudeck, it wont. Emudeck is specifically configured for the steamdeck controller. It will not recognize external controllers out of the box. When you first launch it may give you a message about it using steam input instead of controller input, however the the Emulationstation UI will still let you use the controller just fine. Its when you launch a game that the controller stops working. At first, I thought it was because it was recognizing the steam controller as controller 1 and the xbox controller as controller 2, but the game just doesn't recognize the controller at all. I am not sure how to configure the additional controllers yet without screwing it up when I am not docked - hence my lurking in these forums/discussions.

Thankfully, with a USB to HDMI adapter, you can just plugin to a TV and it just works. I had my doubts it would be so straight forward, but it worked.

[Rahabib]

so after playing around with it a bit more. I found there is a "hidden" feature (not really hidden just not obvious, because you have to be in game and have already connected controllers before it shows up) that you can re-arrange the controllers. Hit the three button setting button and in one of the menus there is a "re-arrange controller order" button. Click that, and you can move your controller to 1st instead of 2nd. With this, you can now you can play single player games.

However, if I connect two controllers and put them as 1st and 2nd, the second controller isn't recognized.

So close...

[ale]

@Rahabib did you get any further with multiple external controllers?

[personausermike]

Tagging myself in. So far usb to dock is the only way...which at first is disappointing but I'm used to aying ps2 with cords so at least one is now bluetooth...if this method works, about to try it now...

[personausermike]

You can use almost any bluetooth controller while docked 1 player. 8bitDo, Xbox, PS4, PS5.

BUT I tried EVERYTHING for 2 players. Checked in the menus, plugged in bluetooth and nothing works. As mentioned above, once you boot up the game, it only registers your deck and 1 controller as both player 1.

[Marlock]

did you guys try disabling Steam controller support for those controller types in steam setting?

Steam Controller API (and the way it exposes the controlles) might be what's making the multiple controllers be treated as just one, and disabling this does not prevent them fron working if the game has built-in controller support too

[personausermike]

I haven't done that. I'm a total newb, so I'm lost as to where and how to do this

[Marlock]

in desktop mode you can go into steam settings then look up the gamepad configs and one of the options there is enabling/disabling steam controller support for each type of controller (the types are Steam Controller, Playstation 4, X-Box and Generic)

in gaming mode I wouldn't know if the same setting exists, but hopefully if you set it on desktop mode it applies there too

[personausermike]

I think I found it, right clicked on Steam, went to actions>settings>controller and don't see anything like it. Just notification disables

[Iscir (TOES)]

Originally posted by personausermike:

I think I found it, right clicked on Steam, went to actions>settings>controller and don't see anything like it. Just notification disables

Thank you again. I'll give that a try.

[personausermike]

Originally posted by Iscir (TOES):

Originally posted by personausermike:

I think I found it, right clicked on Steam, went to actions>settings>controller and don't see anything like it. Just notification disables

Thank you again. I'll give that a try.

That didn't work, I'm hoping Marlock replies

[personausermike]

BREAKTHROUGH! FOUND OUT HOW AND MADE MY OWN TUTORIAL.

Update to the video: ANY two of the controllers that are compatible work
https://youtu.be/Tlp6KQ0sDn0