Any way to use controller without Steam Input?

[dinosauriac]

Gamepad support used to be fine, but the new update forces Steam Input which isn't great for PS4 controllers.

I have to disable DS4Windows when running this and instead go through the agonizingly slow process of entering binds in the Steam Input menus. Amazingly it actually saved the changes for once, but needing to pretty much exit the game each time if all I want to do is change joystick sensitivity isn't ideal.

[dinosauriac]

The controller mapping in Steam Input for swapping to crowbar also doesn't work.

Edit: somehow this did start functioning after getting the gravity gun.

[dinosauriac]

Now for some reason my sprint button got swapped with primary fire when restarting..? Have rebound it in Steam Input settings again but no idea how that happened.

I also noticed there is still apparently the option to set keybinds for controller in the keyboard menu in-game, but it feels dangerous to attempt using that now. Several had strange mapping names that I assume correlate to what's set in Steam's controller window?

[dinosauriac]

nope, that's the whole problem. previously there was built-in controller support using standard SDL directinput which worked fine, no need for steam input. after the anniversary update this is no longer included in HL2.

[dinosauriac]

i mean, *technically* you can use DS4 Windows in conjunction with Steam Input, the problem is you get competing inputs, so every button fires twice and controller sensitivity goes haywire. so there's not really a choice, have to play with Steam Input and no DS4 Windows or leave the driver enabled and get whacky inputs that makes it pretty much unplayable :/

[Rocket]

You need a 4 year college degree to understand Steam Input, DirectInput, Xinput, Big Picture Mode, and 3rd party controller apps and how to make them all play nice with each other or at least not break something else when in use.

Anytime I've tried using or figuring out Steam Input my head spins and nothing works right.

I don't know why some devs have such a hard time understanding that with PC gaming, Keyboard and Mouse and controllers need to work the expected way on launch, without tinkering.

Kind of mind blowing coming from Valve honestly, considering Steam Deck and Big Picture Mode are a not so small part of their ecosystem's appeal.

[dinosauriac]

It's just surprising to me that Valve couldn't integrate it fully into the game itself instead of having to go into essentially a separate settings application.