Is there a way to customize the touchpads to act like a trackpad?

[Numenorean]

I am having hard time to use the Deck for anything that require mouse input. In Steam mode the pad is too sensitive and it is hard to use it as mouse replacement, unless there is a way to reduce its sensitivity.

And in desktop mode it is a pain to use the touchpad as mouse because it is also too sensitive and the left click require you to push the pad; which end up moving the arrow when you try to click. I would like to use these pads as a touchpad on a laptop, so reduce sensitivity and have the tap to click instead of full press.

Is this something that can be changed somewhere? the desktop experience is quite a pain to be honest, unless you use mouse and keyboard

[ReBoot]

As for reducing sensitivity, have you checked the input settings screen? Last weekend, I've lowered mouse cursor sensitivity for Talos Principle on the Deck, so yeah, it can be done.

As for clicking, when you're on the desktop, hold the Steam button. That will make your triggers your mouse buttons. For games, refer above to input settings, I've made triggers my mouse buttons in TeamSpeak and Human Resource Machine this way.

[Prezidentas]

desktop controls are fully customisable already, though you wont have tap available for the trackpads

[ugafan]

When you select a game you want to play, there is a controller icon on the right side of the screen. Clicking on that will open up a screen to edit the controller layout.

While playing a game it can be accessed by pressing the Steam button.

While in desktop, you can access the desktop configuration by clicking on Steam and opening big picture mode (upper right corner next to your profile picture). Once in big picture, click on the settings (gear icon). Base Configurations. Desktop configuration.

On the configuration screen, the trackpad settings are above the picture of the Steam Deck.

How to set up a left mouse button tap:
1. Go to additional settings
2. Touch binding. Bind left mouse button (regular press)
3. Click on touch binding again.
4. Press Select button.
5. Add activator Long Press
6. Bind empty binding. (between musical note and controller icon)
7. Decrease Long press time 3 clicks to left.
8. Turn off haptics for long press and regular press.

To save you some time I created a desktop configuration that has low mouse sensitivity and tap to click. Also, you said you had a problem with the cursor moving when clicked, so I turned off cursor movement when clicked.

I also added scroll and mouse back and forward on left stick. Web page zoom on L4 and R4.

Copy link. Paste and go in Firefox address bar. Open link.
steam://controllerconfig/413080/2809680474

Important: Once configuration is open, use the touch screen to apply it and press done.

[bean]

it is kind of a pain to reply to specific messages when using the deck in gaming mode but this is a reply to ugafan's post.

way to go above and beyond, ty kind stranger

[Man's Best Friend]

You'd think that touchpad settings would be handled in the desktop settings panel, but I guess this will have to do.

[xep]

Originally posted by ugafan:

How to set up a left mouse button tap:
1. Go to additional settings
2. Touch binding. Bind left mouse button (regular press)
3. Click on touch binding again.
4. Press Select button.
5. Add activator Long Press
6. Bind empty binding. (between musical note and controller icon)
7. Decrease Long press time 3 clicks to left.
8. Turn off haptics for long press and regular press.

Copy link. Paste and go in Firefox address bar. Open link.
steam://controllerconfig/413080/2809680474

Important: Once configuration is open, use the touch screen to apply it and press done.

This should be stickied. Thank you, kind stranger.

[Marlock]

Originally posted by HTTP Error 418: I'm a teapot:

You'd think that touchpad settings would be handled in the desktop settings panel, but I guess this will have to do.

That's Valve being less friendly towards opensource than they could (despite being more friendly than the entire competition)

The Steam Controller had no linux driver until linux devs made one without help from Valve... before that it only worked if Steam was running (with the app working as a userland driver)... when kernel support first appeared , the userland solution in Steam even conflicted with it, then Valve worked around the conflict. Now you can use the touchpads in Steam Controller similarly to a laptop touchpad when steam is not running, but the more complex interactions are still only provided by the steam app.

AFAIK the built-in controllers on the Steam Deck followed a similar path.

You can check the 3rd-party "SC Controller" app to ensure a more robust interactivity and configurability when steam is not running... last I checked they didn't support the Steam Deck built-in controls yet but were obviously working in it. It's not as complete as Steam's but it's still damn great compared to every other app i know.

[Turbo]

Am I adding an extra command for touching the pad? Where is the musical icon thing?

[W.]

Originally posted by ugafan:

When you select a game you want to play, there is a controller icon on the right side of the screen. Clicking on that will open up a screen to edit the controller layout.

While playing a game it can be accessed by pressing the Steam button.

While in desktop, you can access the desktop configuration by clicking on Steam and opening big picture mode (upper right corner next to your profile picture). Once in big picture, click on the settings (gear icon). Base Configurations. Desktop configuration.

On the configuration screen, the trackpad settings are above the picture of the Steam Deck.

How to set up a left mouse button tap:
1. Go to additional settings
2. Touch binding. Bind left mouse button (regular press)
3. Click on touch binding again.
4. Press Select button.
5. Add activator Long Press
6. Bind empty binding. (between musical note and controller icon)
7. Decrease Long press time 3 clicks to left.
8. Turn off haptics for long press and regular press.

To save you some time I created a desktop configuration that has low mouse sensitivity and tap to click. Also, you said you had a problem with the cursor moving when clicked, so I turned off cursor movement when clicked.

I also added scroll and mouse back and forward on left stick. Web page zoom on L4 and R4.

Copy link. Paste and go in Firefox address bar. Open link.
steam://controllerconfig/413080/2809680474

Important: Once configuration is open, use the touch screen to apply it and press done.

Bro. You're awesome.
Was looking for this everywhere. Trying different combos to replicate a normal trackpad. Luv ya

[Yog-Speggoth]

If you're trying to do this in game mode on the steam deck, you want "Cleared from parent" as the command for the long press.

E.g.
1. Go to controller settings
2. Touch binding. Bind left mouse button (regular press)
3. Add an extra touch binding
4. Bind "Cleared from parent"
5. Set activator to Long Press
6. Decrease Long press time 3 clicks to left.
7. Turn off haptics for long press and regular press.

Full credit to Ugafan, he posted elsewhere that the game mode setting for the "Empty binding" is now called "Cleared from parent".

[Guy_Manley]

Originally posted by Yog-Speggoth:

If you're trying to do this in game mode on the steam deck, you want "Cleared from parent" as the command for the long press.

E.g.
1. Go to controller settings
2. Touch binding. Bind left mouse button (regular press)
3. Add an extra touch binding
4. Bind "Cleared from parent"
5. Set activator to Long Press
6. Decrease Long press time 3 clicks to left.
7. Turn off haptics for long press and regular press.

Full credit to Ugafan, he posted elsewhere that the game mode setting for the "Empty binding" is now called "Cleared from parent".

Thanks, I've been using this for over a year and today I deleted and needed to remake it, but steam input has been different since the unified big picture update.