Literally the only way to play XCOM 2 with Steam In-Home Streaming and Controller (other than Steam Controller)

[wabe]

1. Connect controller to your host PC
2. Launch XCOM 2 normally from host PC with the following launch options: "-noRedScreens -nostartupmovies -review -LANGUAGE=INT"
3. Remove controller from your host PC (XCOM 2 tells you to reconnect the controller, don't)
4. Launch XCOM 2 streaming from client PC by going to library and clicking STREAM
5. Connect controller to the client PC
6. You should now be able to control the game from the client PC with your controller (XBOX 360 controller in my case)

If you don't follow these steps exactly the good old BIG PICTURE hijacks your controller and forces its own ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mouse+kb configurations to your controller REGARDLESS of what settings you set for the controller in Big Picture mode.

I have contacted both XCOM 2 and Steam support for this issue but they are willing to do NOTHING in order to fix this. Contacting Steam support results in them saying "contact the developer's support" and contacting XCOM 2 support results in them saying "contact Steam support". Brilliant customer service indeed!

[Arcitens]

This is really, really frustrating. And I don't think it applies only to in-home streaming. I think it applies to just any time you try to launch the game from Big Picture Mode, which was making it nearly impossible for me to play with my controller. Someone - Steam or 2K - needs to fix this.

[wabe]

It has something to do with the fact BIg Picture refuses to play nicely with games that does not have "full controller support" tag on their store page. If it is missing, Big Picture forces its own mouse and keyboard emulation and it cannot be turned off (even if you specify so in the settings).

When XCOM 2 was released it did not have full controller support and apparently they can't add that to the store page afterwards. Well, at least there is SOME way to play like this. I bought Steam Link specifically for this game, but needless to say, using it is out of the question since that thing is the definition of Big Picture.

[ByTheNumbers]

Better than my case. My controller makes XCOM 2 stutter like there's no tomorrow for some weird reason.

[Chard]

I hate big picture mode. If I ever want to play from the couch I'll just use a lap desk and a wireless mouse. It's a decent gaming mouse so I've got a ton of extra buttons with tactical shortcuts bound to them.

[Mr. Nice]

Well technically X2 doesn't have full controller support, since you have to use keyb/mouse to turn on controller support in game first time. Still, Steam really shouldn't mess around with controllers when you've unticked all that rubbish at both ends.

[wabe]

Originally posted by Mr. Nice:

Well technically X2 doesn't have full controller support, since you have to use keyb/mouse to turn on controller support in game first time. Still, Steam really shouldn't mess around with controllers when you've unticked all that rubbish at both ends.

Is this true? My game selects the controller layout automatically when the controller is plugged in to my machine. Anyway, that's hardly a reason to label the game with "partial controller support" when the game is otherwise 100% playable with a controller.

[Mr. Nice]

Originally posted by wabe:

Is this true? My game selects the controller layout automatically when the controller is plugged in to my machine.

You would have had to enable controller support the first time. However, with the way the config files work, it's quite possible that if you start the game without the controller plugged in, so it falls back to keyboard/mouse mode, that unless you go into options and save settings, the controller option is still enabled in the .ini file, so it will attempt to start with the controller enabled next time, and so on.

Originally posted by wabe:

Anyway, that's hardly a reason to label the game with "partial controller support" when the game is otherwise 100% playable with a controller.

Well, getting a little off topic now, but I get the point of a hard line on the difference between "partial" and "full" controller support as marked in the store. "Full" means that you can never have to touch another input device in game for any reason, even the first time after install. Anything less is partial support.