"Dead zone" for dragging on the touch screen?

[雪花牌电视机 SnowTV]

Just got mine this week, super hyped. And one of the main reason is that I want to try OSU!, a rhythm game, on the Deck.

The touch screen feels responsive enough with the tapping input. However, when I'm dragging on the screen, there seem to be a delay, or more likely, a "dead zone" in which the cursor only moves after your finger moves a little bit.

The reason I think that this is a software "dead zone" is because after the cursor starts moving, if you stopped, then keep dragging along the same direction, the cursor seem to move immediately this time.

I noticed this issue while testing OSU!, but I just tested on this website:
https://tecagile.com/online-touch-screen-test/
At least on my device, the tapping feels very responsive, however there is clear "lag" when I drag my finger across the screen.

Oh and, seeing all my 10 fingers on the screen is still very impressive.

Really hope this "dead zone" is something at the software level that Valve can release an update to let us change that (or if we can already do that, someone please pass me the wisdom). If not, ah well... I'm still going to love my Deck, just a little disappointed.

[Zychon]

I know a lot of operating systems have trouble with touch interfaces where an alternate click function is dependent on you holding your finger on the screen for a second or two. The system picks up very slight movements and never activates the alt-click. I can see this a little on my deck, but it's so small I have to peek under my finger to observe it. Hopefully this is adjustable.

[MrSandman]

There is quite a delay. I'm going to try on win 11 and update the post.

[MrSandman]

Same delay on win11

[雪花牌电视机 SnowTV]

Originally posted by Zychon:

I know a lot of operating systems have trouble with touch interfaces where an alternate click function is dependent on you holding your finger on the screen for a second or two. The system picks up very slight movements and never activates the alt-click. I can see this a little on my deck, but it's so small I have to peek under my finger to observe it. Hopefully this is adjustable.

Is "drag and move the cursor" an alt-click tho? But I think your theory has some ground, too.

[雪花牌电视机 SnowTV]

Originally posted by MrSandman:

Same delay on win11

Yea, I'm guessing it's a low-level behavior. Hopefully it's not completely baked into a chip...

[fender178]

Mind you that Steam OS 3 is using an older version of KDE Plasma which is the Desktop Environment that Steam Deck and Steam OS 3 use and there have been updates to the desktop environment that improves touch screen controls for navigation. Valve just needs to apply these updates to Steam OS 3.

[雪花牌电视机 SnowTV]

Originally posted by fender178:

Mind you that Steam OS 3 is using an older version of KDE Plasma which is the Desktop Environment that Steam Deck and Steam OS 3 use and there have been updates to the desktop environment that improves touch screen controls for navigation. Valve just needs to apply these updates to Steam OS 3.

Is that causing the delay in the "Desktop Mode" as well?

Also I'm really wondering if it's an unintentional behavior or actually an intentional decision to make this "dead zone". Because personally I feel that the touch/tap behavior is actually pretty good.

[MrSandman]

I installed xinput package and i calibrate the touchscreen. Now im trying to do fine tuning for touch tracking sensibility


.
(deck@steamdeck xinput_calibrator)$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Valve Software Steam Deck Controller id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ FTS3528:00 2808:1015 id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Valve Software Steam Deck Controller id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ acp5x Headset Jack id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ FTS3528:00 2808:1015 UNKNOWN id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]
(deck@steamdeck xinput_calibrator)


(1)(deck@steamdeck xinput_calibrator)$ xinput list-props 13
Device 'FTS3528:00 2808:1015':
Device Enabled (162): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (164): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
libinput Calibration Matrix (323): 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, -1.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
libinput Calibration Matrix Default (324): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
libinput Send Events Modes Available (283): 1, 0
libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (284): 0, 0
libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (285): 0, 0
Device Node (286): "/dev/input/event5"
Device Product ID (287): 10248, 4117
(deck@steamdeck xinput_calibrator)$


Then i wrote the full command for do a default touchscreen configuration.

xinput set-prop 13 --type=float "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000

Now im in researching for fine tuning.

PD: Touchscreen config are from xorg/wayland, not kde.

[雪花牌电视机 SnowTV]

Originally posted by MrSandman:

I installed xinput package and i calibrate the touchscreen. Now im trying to do fine tuning for touch tracking sensibility


.
(deck@steamdeck xinput_calibrator)$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Valve Software Steam Deck Controller id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ FTS3528:00 2808:1015 id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Valve Software Steam Deck Controller id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ acp5x Headset Jack id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ FTS3528:00 2808:1015 UNKNOWN id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]
(deck@steamdeck xinput_calibrator)


(1)(deck@steamdeck xinput_calibrator)$ xinput list-props 13
Device 'FTS3528:00 2808:1015':
Device Enabled (162): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (164): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
libinput Calibration Matrix (323): 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, -1.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
libinput Calibration Matrix Default (324): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
libinput Send Events Modes Available (283): 1, 0
libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (284): 0, 0
libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (285): 0, 0
Device Node (286): "/dev/input/event5"
Device Product ID (287): 10248, 4117
(deck@steamdeck xinput_calibrator)$


Then i wrote the full command for do a default touchscreen configuration.

xinput set-prop 13 --type=float "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000

Now im in researching for fine tuning.

O M G

[fender178]

Originally posted by 雪花牌电视机 SnowTV:

Originally posted by fender178:

Mind you that Steam OS 3 is using an older version of KDE Plasma which is the Desktop Environment that Steam Deck and Steam OS 3 use and there have been updates to the desktop environment that improves touch screen controls for navigation. Valve just needs to apply these updates to Steam OS 3.

Is that causing the delay in the "Desktop Mode" as well?

Also I'm really wondering if it's an unintentional behavior or actually an intentional decision to make this "dead zone". Because personally I feel that the touch/tap behavior is actually pretty good.

Not sure. The issues listed in this thread could be any number of things.

[雪花牌电视机 SnowTV]

Originally posted by fender178:

Originally posted by 雪花牌电视机 SnowTV:

Is that causing the delay in the "Desktop Mode" as well?

Also I'm really wondering if it's an unintentional behavior or actually an intentional decision to make this "dead zone". Because personally I feel that the touch/tap behavior is actually pretty good.

Not sure. The issues listed in this thread could be any number of things.

Agree

[MrSandman]

The screentouch delay exist. Its a confirmed bug for sure.

[雪花牌电视机 SnowTV]

Originally posted by MrSandman:

The screentouch delay exist. Its a confirmed bug for sure.

It's mainly the dragging delay, right?

[Raija]

Whats your thoughts on the Steam Deck vs the Switch?

[雪花牌电视机 SnowTV]

Originally posted by Raija:

Whats your thoughts on the Steam Deck vs the Switch?

In which aspect, to be specifically? Because it is too difficult to just compare these two devices.

If you are only asking about the touch screen, I didn't test Switch's screen thoroughly to give an opinion. As far as I'm using it, Switch's touch screen serves its purpose.

If I'm using the Steam Deck's touch screen like how I use the Switch's, I would have no complaint with Steam Deck's touch screen, either. But since you can do so much more with the Deck, which in my case is playing OSU!, I discovered this issue.