When docked and using external monitor, stop resetting mouse cursor position after a few seconds of inactivity

[Oh The Folly]

Since using Steamdeck docked for the first time, it was confusing me why the mouse cursor (which was being controlled by an actual, wired mouse) kept resetting its position to the bottom right of the screen.

I realized now that after a few moments, the mouse cursor is disappearing. And then when you move the mouse again, the cursor has reset to the bottom right of the screen. That is the problem.

Could this behavior please be changed? When using a mouse and an external monitor, having the mouse position reset every time you don't move the mouse for a slight moment is frustrating to the point where putting it into words would be unpleasant.

It slows down being productive because you have to keep moving the mouse cursor back to the position it had been before it reset. And it also causes me to click the wrong thing sometimes because the mouse isn't where I expect it to be.

An option to turn off hiding the mouse cursor when docked and using an external monitor would really help. Remembering the cursor position even if the mouse cursor does get hidden, instead of always resetting it to the bottom right, would also help a lot.

Edit: Scrolling with the mouse wheel also does not do anything while the mouse cursor is hidden. This means once it gets hidden, you have to move the mouse to even be able to scroll the screen. Please change that so you can scroll with the mouse wheel even while the mouse cursor is hidden.

[phyrexianmetal]

having the same issue, this sucks

[Prezidentas]

when using mouse, you should be playing games on the desktop mode. that should fix mouse issues.

[Coffee]

Originally posted by Škoda 14Tr:

when using mouse, you should be playing games on the desktop mode. that should fix mouse issues.

Thats not a fix, thats a workaround lol. And a crap one.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by Ꝙ Ghosthunter Ꝙ:

Originally posted by Škoda 14Tr:

when using mouse, you should be playing games on the desktop mode. that should fix mouse issues.

Thats not a fix, thats a workaround lol. And a crap one.

that's just how it works. you use the controller interface for the controller.

[phyrexianmetal]

Originally posted by Škoda 14Tr:

when using mouse, you should be playing games on the desktop mode. that should fix mouse issues.

except this isn't a fix and some games actively run worse in desktop mode.

[Oh The Folly]

Originally posted by Škoda 14Tr:

when using mouse, you should be playing games on the desktop mode. that should fix mouse issues.

Apparently you don't own any games that won't play fullscreen in desktop mode. I don't know why a developer would ever design a game that can only run in a window, and can't be expanded to fullscreen, but it happens.

On the other hand those games are fullsceen in game mode because of how gamemode works. Saying "just play in destop mode" is saying "Just play with a worse experience." Not to mention that desktop mode uses more resources so some games perform worse than in game mode.

Game mode shouldn't handle the mouse so stupidly when docked. It's an oversight and something that needs to be fixed.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by Oh The Folly:

Originally posted by Škoda 14Tr:

when using mouse, you should be playing games on the desktop mode. that should fix mouse issues.

Apparently you don't own any games that won't play fullscreen in desktop mode. I don't know why a developer would ever design a game that can only run in a window, and can't be expanded to fullscreen, but it happens.

On the other hand those games are fullsceen in game mode because of how gamemode works. Saying "just play in destop mode" is saying "Just play with a worse experience." Not to mention that desktop mode uses more resources so some games perform worse than in game mode.

Game mode shouldn't handle the mouse so stupidly when docked. It's an oversight and something that needs to be fixed.

You press alt+f3 and then force it into fullscreen thru KDE. Every single game can go into fullscreen that way.

[Oh The Folly]

Originally posted by Škoda 14Tr:

You press alt+f3 and then force it into fullscreen thru KDE. Every single game can go into fullscreen that way.

That's not working.

First of all, when I press alt+f3 there's a "more actions" option. "Fullscreen" shows there, but it's grayed out and can't be turned on. Can't be done that way apparently.

As Fullscreen can't be chosen, the option that sounds like it would make the most sense is "configure special application settings." Using that, for the .exe of the game, I set Fullscreen there to Yes, with "apply initially."

That makes it "fullscreen" but with an ugly and distracting window border and title. So then I set "no title bar and frame" to Yes. But, that does not get rid of the frame.

I tried a different approach. I removed those settings (fullscreen and no frame).

Then I set "maximized vertically" and "maximized horizontally" to Yes, with "apply initially." That does nothing, including when restarting the game. It's still windowed, the same size as it originally was.

Then I changed "apply initially" to "forced" but again, the window size is unaffected. Including after closing and restarting the game.

So then, what precisely are the exact steps to make a game fullscreen using alt+f3, without a window border/title showing?

[Prezidentas]

I believe the fullscreen option gets grayed out when the size of the window cannot be changed. try setting the game into windowed or windowed fullscreen - might have better results.

[Oh The Folly]

The game already is windowed, so I don't understand where I'm supposed to set the game to windowed or how that would help.

I don't see an option for windowed or windowed fullscreen anywhere. Even using alt+f3 and "configure special application settings" I don't see any options to set the game to windowed or windowed fullscreen.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by Oh The Folly:

The game already is windowed, so I don't understand where I'm supposed to set the game to windowed or how that would help.

I don't see an option for windowed or windowed fullscreen anywhere. Even using alt+f3 and "configure special application settings" I don't see any options to set the game to windowed or windowed fullscreen.

in the game options itself

[Oh The Folly]

That does make it use full screen. But there's a weird scaling issue. It's hard to describe. Text looks uneven, It's like some horizonal lines on the screen are taller than other ones. It looks pretty ugly. I definitely wouldn't want to play a game like that.

I did not remember it being like this in game mode, so I checked it in game mode again. There is no scaling issue in game mode. It looks perfect there in fullscreen. It's crisp and there's no distortion.

I'm trying to give desktop mode a fair shot but it really does not seem designed well to handle games that don't play nicely with being made fullscreen. Game mode is specifically designed to handle things like this, and it works very, very well.

If you think there might be a way to get rid of the fullscreen distortion on desktop mode I'd be interested. But I have not seen anything that lessens the need for game mode to handle mouse better when docked.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by Oh The Folly:

That does make it use full screen. But there's a weird scaling issue. It's hard to describe. Text looks uneven, It's like some horizonal lines on the screen are taller than other ones. It looks pretty ugly. I definitely wouldn't want to play a game like that.

I did not remember it being like this in game mode, so I checked it in game mode again. There is no scaling issue in game mode. It looks perfect there in fullscreen. It's crisp and there's no distortion.

I'm trying to give desktop mode a fair shot but it really does not seem designed well to handle games that don't play nicely with being made fullscreen. Game mode is specifically designed to handle things like this, and it works very, very well.

If you think there might be a way to get rid of the fullscreen distortion on desktop mode I'd be interested. But I have not seen anything that lessens the need for game mode to handle mouse better when docked.

I get what you mean. Does your game support setting resolutions in windowed mode? Perhaps you could set it to windowed and then 1280x800?
I really hope this works out for you.

[Oh The Folly]

There's no 1280x800 option and I don't see anything else I could change to affect it. It looks like there's no solution to make it look good fullscreen in desktop mode.

I own a number of 2D games with pixel graphics which aren't designed with scaling in mind, and which run windowed without a built in fullscreen option. In fact, I found that a different game (which is also 2D but has a fullscreen option) also doesn't look right fullscreen in desktop mode. Yet in game mode it look perfect. So I'm sure there's going to be more games where in desktop mode it just doesn't look right no matter what I try.

I don't know if it's amazing that Valve got everything looking so good fullscreen pretty much no matter what in game mode, or if it's plain terrible that desktop mode just can't do what game mode does with ease, when it comes to scalling and getting a crisp image fullscreen when docked.

From what I'm seeing, docked desktop mode only seems to have an advantage if you want to play a 3D game higher res than game mode will let you. Or if you need to do some configuring or messing around with files.

Otherwise, from my experience game mode is still the best way to play even docked. Except for stupid inconvenient things like the mouse behavior in game mode, which I really hope they fix.

[Coffee]

Originally posted by Oh The Folly:

There's no 1280x800 option and I don't see anything else I could change to affect it. It looks like there's no solution to make it look good fullscreen in desktop mode.

I own a number of 2D games with pixel graphics which aren't designed with scaling in mind, and which run windowed without a built in fullscreen option. In fact, I found that a different game (which is also 2D but has a fullscreen option) also doesn't look right fullscreen in desktop mode. Yet in game mode it look perfect. So I'm sure there's going to be more games where in desktop mode it just doesn't look right no matter what I try.

I don't know if it's amazing that Valve got everything looking so good fullscreen pretty much no matter what in game mode, or if it's plain terrible that desktop mode just can't do what game mode does with ease, when it comes to scalling and getting a crisp image fullscreen when docked.

From what I'm seeing, docked desktop mode only seems to have an advantage if you want to play a 3D game higher res than game mode will let you. Or if you need to do some configuring or messing around with files.

Otherwise, from my experience game mode is still the best way to play even docked. Except for stupid inconvenient things like the mouse behavior in game mode, which I really hope they fix.

Which pixel games you speak about?