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PainkilleR Oct 20, 2021 @ 7:35am

Steam controller deadzone and anti-deadzone shape

Hey all!

I am looking for a way to fix the deadzone forced by the game (Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin to be more specific), and I need some help.

Let me explain the problem first.

The game uses a big square deadzone which looks like this:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2632737813
Once you move the stick to the +x and +y position (the stick movement is represented by blue circle), the movement will occur only on x axis:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2632738745
To fix that behaviour you need to have a square shaped anti-deadzone, which will compensate a square deadzone and move the input to the working area (represented by green areas):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2632739241
These are the settings that do that kind of thing:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2632687543
The problem is that now there is no deadzone whatsoever and the movement will occur by slightest fluctuations.

Is there any way to apply some circle deadzone on top of square anti-deadzone?
It seems like anti-deadzone buffer uses the same shape as a deadzone (square in this case), and it simply reintroduces the problem which was fixed in the first step. In other words anti-deadzone buffer acts as a new square deadzone which I tried to fix in first place.

P.S. Found this topic right now: https://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/1/1642039362998971579/

This is exactly the issue.

Last edited by PainkilleR; Oct 20, 2021 @ 7:43am

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Originally posted by some.any.key:

For anyone who gets into this issue I described possible workaround here https://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/1/1642039362998971579/

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Showing 1-14 of 14 comments

Vepar Oct 20, 2021 @ 7:55am

I had no problem beating the game with leaving the controls as they are.
Why is the deadzone bothering you?

Seems to me it's a learn to play issue rather than a technical one. I didn't mean this in a "git gud" way, but rather in a "this is how the game works" way. Anti deadzone - any kind - will make it worse because the game's systems are designed around the baked in controller settings such as this deadzone. If you can't play the game with settings "as is", purpusefully going against how the game was programmed with anti deadzones will make it worse due to how the game movement works. And because of this, because how the character moves, anti deadzone is going to make it impossible to dodge the way you want and move it. That's why you're struggling with no deadzone, that's exactly the problem you'll encounter even if you put another type of deadzone on top of it - especially if you put a different shaped one because then it's anyone's guess what the game will interpret your control as.

That said...

Doesn't Dark Souls series use some kind of weird half native Steam controller implementation? Or is it just the third game?
In any case, if there is some kind of "support" (i haven't played SOTFS in a long time), try disabling it and doing your controls from scratch from an empty template.
Alternatively - use keyboard controls and map them on to your controller. They interpret input differently because WASD doesn't have deadzones - but you'll stil move the way the game wants you to - there is no getting around that.
Third, maybe check your gamepad's analog stick? Maybe it's not the game, maybe it's the stick that's malfunctioning?

Anyway... Good luck, my recommendation would be to map the keyboard controls to the gamepad and trying that out, it might be better.

PainkilleR Oct 20, 2021 @ 8:06am

I had no problem beating the game for years either. The deadzone issue is something I don't like in any game, no matter how good/bad/easy/hard the said game is.

The square shaped deadzone in this particular game is clearly an oversight as all systems in this game work perfectly without it as is the case in all other games in the series.

The movement in the game works perfectly once you eliminate the square shaped deadzone (which by the way is possible to do with external programs, but it would be nice if Steam's anti deadzone buffer was radial, and there was no need to use external programs).

The dodge works correctly once you play without a square shaped deadzone.

I will not encounter the problem you mention when I put a deadzone with another shape. There is a program called Durazno which does exactly that. It only fixes issues and doesn't introduce any movement related problems.

Canadian Gamer Oct 20, 2021 @ 8:10am

Isn't that what the 'anti-deadzone buffer' is used for?

PainkilleR Oct 20, 2021 @ 8:11am

Originally posted by Canadian Gamer:
Isn't that what the 'anti-deadzone buffer' is used for?

Well, it SHOULD be, but it is not the answer at the moment. The problem is this:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/1/1642039362998971579/

Vepar Oct 20, 2021 @ 10:08am

Originally posted by PainkilleR:
Originally posted by Canadian Gamer:
Isn't that what the 'anti-deadzone buffer' is used for?
Well, it SHOULD be, but it is not the answer at the moment. The problem is this:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/1/1642039362998971579/

Well, other than contacting Valve and asking them to add support for whatever deadzone you want, i don't think you can do much other than just play the game as intended...

I doubt it's an oversight, they probably programmed that in for the reason to make the game feel a certain way, and to make your reactions "no par" with how the game's other monsters, animations, movement, and all other systems behave.

If the other program works the way you want to, then use that for the time being, and contact Valve to suggest they should add what you want.

ugafan Oct 20, 2021 @ 1:14pm

In this case I would recommend not using the output anti-deadzone buffer. Increase the output anti-deadzone, but not to the point where it will cause problems with movement.

You could try this..

Dead Zone Inner: 0
Output Anti-Deadzone 0.150

PainkilleR Dec 2, 2022 @ 11:52am

Okay, so I am bumping this thread once again in hopes that someone important will notice it. :D

We have another game with similar issue. This time it's Elden Ring.

So, basically both left and right sticks on controllers have this dreadful + shaped dead zone in that game. To fix this problem, in Steam Input settings you need to set anti-dead zone to some value. I have already found the exact dimensions of the dead zone and the correct value of anti-dead zone that completely nullifies the initial dead zone is 0.200 (Dead Zone shape must be set to Square). Same for both sticks.

Now, in my case the left stick on the controller doesn't have any drifts whatsoever, so simply setting the anti-dead zone to 0.200 fixes the problem completely. But the right stick has some very minor drift so camera turns around on it's own with non-existent dead zone.

Theoretically, the anti-dead zone buffer exists in Steam Input for the sole reason to fix exactly this issue.

The problem is that "DEAD ZONE SHAPE" dictates the shapes of both anti-dead zone and anti-dead zone buffer/dead zone. In other words after fixing the + shaped dead zone by applying the anti-dead zone, the issue is being reintroduced by applying anti-dead zone buffer/dead zone.

The perfect solution would be to add 2 separate settings to Steam Input that would control the shape of anti-dead zone and anti-dead zone buffers/dead zone separately.

Sanglish Feb 10, 2023 @ 3:07am

I'm also curious to know how to fix this in Sonic Adventure 2, this game has this same stupid deadzone that is terrible to do precise turns, but you can't put the buffer to be on another shape other than the one you've selected for the anti-deadzone, so it just goes back to the same previous issue which feels like Valve didn't actually think about that when implementing this.

The author of this thread has indicated that this post answers the original topic.

some.any.key May 3, 2024 @ 11:41pm

For anyone who gets into this issue I described possible workaround here https://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/1/1642039362998971579/

PainkilleR May 4, 2024 @ 12:21am

Originally posted by some.any.key:
For anyone who gets into this issue I described possible workaround here https://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/1/1642039362998971579/

That is a really clever workaround. Thanks for sharing, I'll give it a try right now.

Last edited by PainkilleR; May 8, 2024 @ 4:39pm

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PainkilleR May 4, 2024 @ 5:01am

#11

some.any.key May 5, 2024 @ 11:08pm

Originally posted by PainkilleR:
You can't use first 20% of your joysticks (meaning that you can't walk or move camera at slowest pace) without reintroducing the deadzone AGAIN...

I'm not sure why? The initial intent was to set "outer ring" size to be desired dead zone. So you can set it to 20% or to 10% or 5% if your sticks allow it (I have it around 3000 which is normal dead zone for my sticks).

#12

PainkilleR May 6, 2024 @ 12:17pm

Originally posted by some.any.key:
Originally posted by PainkilleR:
You can't use first 20% of your joysticks (meaning that you can't walk or move camera at slowest pace) without reintroducing the deadzone AGAIN...

I'm not sure why? The initial intent was to set "outer ring" size to be desired dead zone. So you can set it to 20% or to 10% or 5% if your sticks allow it (I have it around 3000 which is normal dead zone for my sticks).

That's right. What I mean here is that when, let's say, your deadzone layer is set to 20% (or 10 or 5, whatever), and you move the stick outside of that zone and activate the anti-deadzone layer, the joystick value sent to the game will start from 20%+ (or 10%+, or 5%+) and not from 0. There is no way to scale inputs according to the actual working zone of the stick.

Last edited by PainkilleR; May 6, 2024 @ 12:36pm

#13

some.any.key May 6, 2024 @ 10:52pm

Originally posted by PainkilleR:
and you move the stick outside of that zone and activate the anti-deadzone layer, the joystick value sent to the game will start from 20%+ (or 10%+, or 5%+) and not from 0. There is no way to scale inputs according to the actual working zone of the stick.

Ah, I missed that point really ... I guess this can be partly compensated by using the stick response curve (non ideal however).

Last edited by some.any.key; May 6, 2024 @ 10:52pm

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Steam Controller > General Discussions > Topic Details

Date Posted: Oct 20, 2021 @ 7:35am

Posts: 14