Current Steam compatibility of simple generic gamepads

[ALLGASNOBRAKE]

I have a BUFFALO Super Famicom USB controller and I want to use the 8-axis DPAD in Dragon Quest XI for both movement and menu, and my mouse for camera. By default on Steam Controller, left touchpad controls menu and left thumbstick controls movement.

I'm having trouble getting the simple 8-axis to behave like a PS4/XBone/SteamController left thumbstick however, despite the BPM making it seem like it's very configurable. It looks like I can have my 8-axis do analog emulation which is all I want; but it seems impossible to do.

Is Steam still having trouble with mapping simple 8-axis 8-button gamepads that are not grossly cheap knockoffs?

[figmentPez]

Getting your terminology right would be a good first step. Just call it a Directional Pad, because generally only analog inputs are referred as having axes (plural of axis), and even then it only has two axes (up/down and left/right).

The first step is finding out of Steam Input is correctly identifying your controller at all. I don't have anything analogous to what you have, so I'm not sure what you should expect, but I can set the D-pad on my 8Bitdo NES30 Pro to work as the left analog stick, so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to do the same with your controller. Does the controller work if you set it to work as a D-pad? Can you get it to work in other games using Steam Input? Can you provide some screenshots of your configuration?

[ALLGASNOBRAKE]

I've gone through troubleshooting all that already. La Mulana 2 (released just a few weeks ago) by default uses the left thumbstick for movement and I've been successful in forcing the default left thumbstick to take its input from the DPAD instead under Steam Controller Settings. Screenshot below:

https://imgur.com/3YrZCEs

I can use the DPAD for both character movement and menu navigation fine.

My issues arise when I wanted to use the same gamepad for Dragon Quest XI and Final Fantasy VII. DQXI won't allow me to move with the gamepad, but will allow menu navigation. Final Fantasy VII won't allow either movement or menu navigation, but the action buttons work.

It seems inconsistent and I'm already betting it's Steam's own controller detection software that's buggy and not my gamepad. Windows 10 seems to handle the controller fine and I'm able to use it in all the emulators.

Just wanted to know other peoples' experience with simple gamepads in Steam to decide if it's worth my time to further troubleshoot is all

[figmentPez]

Based on the screenshot you're not using the configuration system correctly, at all. You've got it backwards. That config has it set so that the left analog stick (which you don't have) would be sending D-pad signals to the game, not so that the D-pad is sending joystick signals.

[Boreout [Aut]]

Originally posted by hazric ٩( ᐛ )ง:

I've gone through troubleshooting all that already. La Mulana 2 (released just a few weeks ago) by default uses the left thumbstick for movement and I've been successful in forcing the default left thumbstick to take its input from the DPAD instead under Steam Controller Settings. Screenshot below:

https://imgur.com/3YrZCEs

I can use the DPAD for both character movement and menu navigation fine.

My issues arise when I wanted to use the same gamepad for Dragon Quest XI and Final Fantasy VII. DQXI won't allow me to move with the gamepad, but will allow menu navigation. Final Fantasy VII won't allow either movement or menu navigation, but the action buttons work.

It seems inconsistent and I'm already betting it's Steam's own controller detection software that's buggy and not my gamepad. Windows 10 seems to handle the controller fine and I'm able to use it in all the emulators.

Just wanted to know other peoples' experience with simple gamepads in Steam to decide if it's worth my time to further troubleshoot is all

I have the same ibuffalo SNES usb.

Problem : you lack analogsticks so configuring the left or right analogstick is rather pointless all you have is a DPAD and some buttons to work with.

It seems the games you mentioned require analogsticks and a dpad during gameplay.
you lack the analogsticks so you will need "emulate" those.


Solution:

1.)chose your game or the software/emulator you are using and add it as a nonsteam game.
otherwise the Big picture mode will have a hard time tricking the game into thinking that you have a modern gamepad

Open big pic mode- > go into your library ,-> chose your game/software/emulator/-> manage game -> controller configuration

2)set the Dpad as a DPAD

3.)make an actionset called joystickmove (or whatever you want to call it)
Set the DPAD as a joystick (joystickmove or Joystickcam left joystick )

4.)chose one of the buttons you don't use that often as an Actionsetbutton ( "select" button as example) as you actionset switch.

5.) do this it for both actionsets so you can switch bewteen joystick and dpad control during gameplay.
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Optional but more costly:

Other considerations for the future if you dont want to sacrifice a button for an actionset or dont want to deal with lack of buttons or triggers.

1.) A steam controller
2.) A controller which has at least a homebutton

If you are more conservative and insist on dpads and old school layout:

3.)Hori fighting commander (the white version) lacks dpads but can switch the DPAD to act as Lstick or Rstick with a switch) lacks analog triggers but has all you need and a damn homebutton

4.)28 Bit Do SN30/SF30 might be the retro enough and has some modern things like rumble/gyro (but still lacks analogtriggers for some odd reason)

5.) you could wait for the retrobit sega saturn bluetooth controller.
A competitor for "retromodern" to the SN30

I personally prefer the SC as it has the most versatility (but i am curios how well the Sega ends up)

[Balderick]

For more than two years I have had issues with Thrustmaster wheel and pedals because of the way Steam Input handles "generic controllers"

There are no joysticks but only PS buttons on Thrust master wheel, though understand the wheel and pedals themselves work as axi. Recently dpad has stopped working in Big Picture but works fine in games.

I point the finger at long standing bugs with Steam Input causing what I see and what hazric ٩( ᐛ )ง is describing regarding below par use of dpads in Steam client and anything run through steam runtime.

[ALLGASNOBRAKE]

Originally posted by figmentPez:

Based on the screenshot you're not using the configuration system correctly, at all. You've got it backwards. That config has it set so that the left analog stick (which you don't have) would be sending D-pad signals to the game, not so that the D-pad is sending joystick signals.

Except that's what got it from nonfunctional to functional in La Mulana 2, which is clearly a bug and total fluke that it worked

Originally posted by Boreout Aut:

Solution:

1.)chose your game or the software/emulator you are using and add it as a nonsteam game.
otherwise the Big picture mode will have a hard time tricking the game into thinking that you have a modern gamepad

Open big pic mode- > go into your library ,-> chose your game/software/emulator/-> manage game -> controller configuration

2)set the Dpad as a DPAD

3.)make an actionset called joystickmove (or whatever you want to call it)
Set the DPAD as a joystick (joystickmove or Joystickcam left joystick )

4.)chose one of the buttons you don't use that often as an Actionsetbutton ( "select" button as example) as you actionset switch.

5.) do this it for both actionsets so you can switch bewteen joystick and dpad control during gameplay.

This answered everything Boreout, and taught me so much about their mapping system. I'm now much less frustrated and more impressed at the effort they've put into satisfying gamer needs.

I'm a junky for control interfaces and own a bunch of pads/joysticks (including the very interesting Steam Controller) that I'd like to use on a whim with my games, and you just so to speak, opened up the heavens for me while angels came down to herald your wisdom as the way

[Balderick]

You are working around bugs.

SCAPI has had issue with dpad, generic controllers for a long time.

These bugs are reproducible, but hard too describe. They also become less of a problem at different times.

Sure Steam Input has grown into a monster killer app, I would even go as far too say Steam Input is the biggest reason for me to use Steam at all. There are bugs though. Which can be worked around.



The fact you set joystick as road to get dpad working is a pretty big bug.

The fact I can not have working dpad on Tgrustmaster wheel in Big Picture actually backs you up that you are seeing bugs.




Steam client sees buttons on Thrust master wheel as "generic gamepad". This " generic gamepad" has proprietary drivers to make it work and as steam root is not is root, sometimes steam runtime struggles to do what closer to the metal drivers are telling it what to do.


People see this as bugs with games, so we must not underestimate how much of strain on game devs support channels these steam client bugs are causing.

There are several scenarios where controllers do not work at all in game, if Steam Input is not appropriately configured. This is mostly due too PEBCAK and so makes the underlying bugs with SCAPI even harder to describe and reproduce.

Do we really need drivers for controllers distributed through Steam store so that controllers are better supported in Steam runtime?

This past year or so I have been trying out several new ways of accessing my steam games from virtual machines in the cloud using android streaming client. A lot of cloud gaming services which support android switch off Steam Input for configuring controllers. This is another example of where third parties are ruining the Steam experience and shows how unwilling third parties are to provide proper support for Steam Input.

Steam Link App for android and Nvidias Gamestream shows exactly how third parties can provide support for android streaming clients without breaking Steam Input.

The irony is Valve adding support to SCAPI for android controllers has almost certainly caused these older bugs with Steam Input and dpads too manifest themselves more obviously recently.

Will try setting dpad to joystick move and add mode shift to try and trick Big Picture into allowing me toi using dpad for navigation in Big Picture.

If that works it proves SCAPI has bugs causing dpad to not work as dpad.


Earlier this year Valve removed dpad for Big Picture navigation from global config for Big Picture, this proves Valve are aware of issues with dpads.
iirc Valve were adding better support of Steam Controller too steamvr at the that time and Steam client framework and SCAPI saw some pretty major changes to provide this.

These changes have no doubt made it much easier for Valve to add support of other controllers too Steam Input as first class citizens.

Also, due to Steam Input bugs even today we sometimes still need to edit global desktop config to make Steam Input configure controllers for non steam games.