Alternative to Deadzone Fix in 3 Steps

[Chapy]

Hey, guys. This is my alternative to using Durazno's deadzone fix so you still have smoother movement, but no worries about being softbanned or need for external programs. It's really simple, just use Big Picture mode to configure your controller's left stick to your liking.

Step #1: Open Steam Controller Configuration

there are two ways to do this:

1. Right click on Dark Souls II (SotFS or original) and choose "Edit Steam Controller Configuration"
   
2. In Big Picture mode find the game in your library, got to "Manage Game", and then "Controller Configuration"

Step #2: Change the Deadzone and Anti-Deadzone Settings

Once you're there, click on the left or right stick go to "Additional Settings" where you'll see three columns of options. In the left column move "Dead Zone Inner" 10 to the right. Then, in the right column move "Output Anti-deadzone" to about 13-16 to the right (I have mine at 15).

Your deadzone preview should then look something like this[i.imgur.com]

Step #3: Enjoy!

Yup, that's all! Now you can play DS2 with decent movement! Of course you can change any of these settings to fit your preferences, but this is what I did.

Hope this helps!

[JellyPuff]

Note that after setting up controller configs for any game through Steam/Big Picture, your controller may act weird on non-Steam games, while Steam is running in the background.

While Steam's running, your controller will basically turn into a KB/M substitute (nifty if you have a controller with a touchpad, like the Steam one). You could navigate your desktop with your controller now, while Steam's running, so that's...something.

I wonder if you can turn that off, while keeping your controller configs w/o having to exit Steam. Please let me know, if you find such an option. Thanks.

[Chapy]

Originally posted by Jellypuff:

Note that after setting up controller configs for any game through Steam/Big Picture, your controller may act weird on non-Steam games, while Steam is running in the background.

While Steam's running, your controller will basically turn into a KB/M substitute (nifty if you have a controller with a touchpad, like the Steam one). You could navigate your desktop with your controller now, while Steam's running, so that's...something.

I wonder if you can turn that off, while keeping your controller configs w/o having to exit Steam. Please let me know, if you find such an option. Thanks.

Oddly I don't have that problem when using my PS4 controller. Don't know what could help there.

[JellyPuff]

This is why i've said it "may" happen. Depends on your controller and how Steam recognizes it, i assume. XBOX360 Controller user here. Might got the best compatibility, but damn, that's one horrible D-Pad.

[Chapy]

Sure thing on that lol

[Chapy]

Just bumping this for anyone who cares. If you know anywhere else that would appreciate this info please share it wherever. Don't need to credit me or anything, I just want more people to know about this alternative.

[Sigourney Weaver]

Thanks dude makes the game 90% more enjoyable, put off playing through Dark Souls II because the deadzone fix didn't work for me but this did.

[DOUKNOUKKEM]

amazing it just works the game is suddenly so much more enjoyable god bless valve

[Tactical_Wombat]

This is the most amazing thing ever, suddenly the game feels so much better.
I never even thought that there might be a fix, I always thought there was something slightly wonky about the movement but I never bothered to look into it, stupid me.

[Noerki]

Thanks. Durazno didn't work for me.
Do you have any idea how this works? Is it overwriting Dark Souls' own settings? It feels counterintuitive to activate a deadzone here.

Btw it looks like there are no numbers for these settings anymore, just an unscaled slider.

Why did FROM implement a huge deadzone for the PC version anyway? :D

Edit: looks like it doesn't work for me... my character still can't run circles, but rather squares. Still feels like there are only 8 directions on the left analogue stick instead of analogue movement.

[ShortSnaxx]

Good stuff.

[General Titmouse]

This worked for me -- thank you SO much!!!

[DBW]

awesome thanks

[Neato]

This worked when the duranzo mod didn't. Oddly it seems more sensitive when turning to the right than left. Slight left turn seems to still have a dead zone like it did before during 8-direction movement.

I'm betting the reason this works is that the steam controller config prevents the duranzo wrapper from working at all.

[Rishun]

Should I do the same adjustment to the right stick? Compared to the first game the camera movement seems kinda off tho

[LeXa2]

I'm in process of re-visiting Dark Souls 2 these days. When I was playing DS2 Dx9 back right after the release I used original x-box 360 wired controller and things were working more-or-less smooth - to the extent it can be applied to generally jerky DS2 controls. But at the very least I hadn't had any problems doing jump attacks and guard breaks.

Since then I had long ago switched to Logitech F710 wireless which had proven to be reliable and smooth pad (at least for my way of using it). But it turned out that analog sticks on F710 have slightly different usable range and it results in really huge problems to reliably execute jump attacks or guard breaks in DS2. Problem is not in the controller as I do not have any problems executing similar moves in DS:PtDE with this gamepad, it looks like that DS2 controller handling was hugely tuned/optimized for x360 pad with low tolerance margin for timing differences.

Digging over internet I found out that this problem was well known to affect Logitech pads back in DS2 release days and that people had came to a conclusion that cause for the problem are "differences in deadzones between x360 and Logitech pads". Recommended options to "fix" were to switch into using x360 pad or to patch game with more appropriate deadzone values using Durazno's deadzone fix. Looking for more alternatives brought me to this forum thread and I'm really thankful to OP for posting these method.

Although applying controller settings outlined in the first post makes character movement handling way better they do not "fix" jump attack/guard break unreliability for me. So I tried to play a bit more with controller settings and was able to create a config that brought my success rate to to ~90% in execute problematic moves.

Two settings changed were:

• Set "Outer deadzone" to a value between 0.6 and 0.75. Good idea is to test what is the largest one that still allows you with your personal pad handling style to reliably perform jump attack/guard breaks. For my F710 I use 0.65. This will trim usable analog stick range down a bit to be more in line with the range of x360 pad.
  
• For right trigger disable analog input, set both half-trigger and full-trigger actions to "Right trigger" and set right trigger type to "Restricted double trigger" - it will ensure that steam would report right trigger press to the game as soon as possible.

With these two additional changes in place I'm finally able to play DS2 comfortably. It is a really big deal when you come to DS2 after recently playing DS:PtDE or DS3 - which seem to be way better suited to play with F710 pads.