What is this button?

[Turbo]

Did anyone get any printed documentation with the deck? I only got a little booklet in the power supply box that has regulatory stuff.

What is the tiny button at the top left between the d-pad and the left stick for? It doesn't seem to do anything.

Also, R4/L4/R5/L5 don't seem to be recognized, in desktop mode anyway. They are recognized in the Test mode under Settings/Controllers.

Regards, T

[bean]

1. no printed manual, there is a pdf on the steamdeck page
2. It depends based on what you are doing but essentially it will be your 'select' button in games. (as in game controllers with select and start) In other apps it does other stuff but not always
3. If you are using the desktop mode then Steam has to be open (can be minimized) in order for most of the controls to work. Big Picture mode has more settings that you can set to your liking for using the steam deck in desktop mode.

[invision2212]

If you are in game on gaming mode and press the steam button and go to controller you can set any button for any action.

For example if the left analog click is run I change it to a back button so the analog doesn’t get beat to death.

[Mizufluffy]

You can find the official button names and other tech specs in here:
https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

In some other controllers the button between d-pad and left stick is known as "Select" button and the one on the right side between ABXY and right stick is known as "Start" button.

As for R4/L4/R5/L5, those most likely don't have default actions in the desktop mode and have to be configured separately.

[Turbo]

Thanks for the answers. But, what do you mean by "steamdeck page"? The store page has a steamdeck booklet, but that isn't instructions. Nothing jumped out at me on steamdeck.com.

Thanks, T

[Turbo]

Originally posted by Mizufluffy:

You can find the official button names and other tech specs in here:
https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

In some other controllers the button between d-pad and left stick is known as "Select" button and the one on the right side between ABXY and right stick is known as "Start" button.

As for R4/L4/R5/L5, those most likely don't have default actions in the desktop mode and have to be configured separately.

Thanks, I did see that picture on steamdeck.com. The View/Menu buttons you call Select/Start (like on PSx) are configurable in DuckStation, but don't actually do anything when the application runs in Desktop mode so something is amiss. I assumed the system was overriding their function.

[derram]

There's currently a bug in desktop mode where the desktop configuration overrides all game specific configurations.

Basically, if you want to use a gamepad you're stuck with game mode and if you want to use a keyboard and mouse you're (mostly) stuck with desktop mode.

[Turbo]

That's a bug? Okay. Here more detail on my issues. Running DuckStation. In Gaming mode, it treats presses on the d-pad and the left trackpad as the same inputs (same with right stick and right trackpad).

I know this because, wen I configure DuckStation in Gaming mode, pressing on left of d-pad or left of left trackpad assigns the same input.

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by Turbo:

Did anyone get any printed documentation with the deck?

Valve being Valve, instead of cutting down trees to help you get acquainted with your Steam Deck, they instead created a small (free) game:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902490/Aperture_Desk_Job/

[Bobby]

The button is the "select" button by default. But you can configure it to do anything really.

Desktop mode has a desktop configuration that is used. Non-steam applications need to be launched from game mode to get controller configurations, otherwise the desktop configuration will be used.