Steam Controller and Big Picture Mode, tweaks, fixes and workarounds!

[Equim]

So I figured I would update and clean up my old post called "Big Picture Mode Improvement (Kinda)" and make it into more of general thread of fixes and tweaks to these two things.

Note: Some of these things are my personal preferences for how things get better. It's by no means a "This is the best way and you're stupid if you don't do it"

Big Picture Mode

So.. This thing has annoyed quite a few of us I believe, yeah? Well, there are some things you can do to make it a bit more bearable until we get support for the controller outside of BPM.

1. You don't have to run the game in Big Picture Mode for the controller to work.
I'm sure most of you know this by now but I'll put it here anyways.
You only need BPM to configure the controller. So you can start up your game through the normal steam window and the controller will know what to do. You can then switch steam over to BPM while the game is running and change the settings by going to the game in your library > Manage game > Configure controller.

2. Big Picture Mode can be run in Windowed mode.
This is something I found to be very useful when doing tweaking since tabbing in and out of BPM is a bit wonky to say the least. And it's pretty simple to set up. Makes it work a bit more like a normal configuration software.

First, go to your steam directory, find the Steam.exe (If you have a shortcut on your desktop or something you can skip this step).
Create a shortcut to Steam.exe, right-click the shortcut and open up "Properties"
In the "Target" field. Add "-windowed" without the quotation marks.
Restart steam. (Start it with the new shortcut of course).

Now if you press the "Big Picture Mode" button, hit the steam button on the controller or simply hit Alt+Enter while you have the steam window active. BPM will open in a window rather than fullscreen. Which makes it a bit easier to tab in and out of.
You can also scale the window to your liking by dragging it in the corner like you would any other window.

Example of BPM running in window above Wasteland 2.[i.imgur.com]

2.5 Make the windowed mode open in 1280x720 or 853x480.
This means you won't have to drag-scale it when opening BPM.
It's pretty simple, in addition to adding "-windowed" to the target line. Also add either "-720p" or "-480p"

Note: If you are using in-home streaming, it will cause the BPM to look a bit "fuzzy" if you're on a 1080p monitor/tv. Because you're stretching it out. 720p isn't that bad. You can notice it if you really look for it I guess.
Solution to this is to either deal with it or launch steam through another shortcut without thes additions, or just remove them when you want to use the in-home streaming. (Starting straight from the Steam.exe will also work).


Untested fix:
For people who are running into problems starting BPM because their resolution is not supported. I imagine that setting it to windowed mode and maybe even one of size settings might solve this. There's also "-fulldesktopres" that should force it to run in your desktop resolution rather than 1080p. But I haven't been able to test this, nor had confirmation that it worked.


3. Rebinding BPM keybindings
You can rebind the controls for BPM by going to the following folder.
As an example we'll bind the D-pad for menu navigation.

Steam\tenfoot\resource\
Open up default_keybinds.cfg
Scroll down to where you see "steampad_stick1_up MoveUp", etc.
Copy-paste the following lines in above that. (Or add them yourself if you want)

steampad_dpad_up MoveUp
steampad_dpad_down MoveDown
steampad_dpad_left MoveLeft
steampad_dpad_right MoveRight

Save your changes and you should be done.

Steam Controller

So, time for the Steam Controller stuff. Woo! Exciting, right?

Lets start with creating Templates, shall we?
This is pretty well-known by now but I figured I'd add it in here as well just for the sake of it.


There are two methods that I know about when it comes to this.

1. Make an existing config into a Template.
I am going to use Wasteland 2 for this example.
First look up the APPID of the game in question. There are two ways of doing this to my knowledge.

The first method is to go to the game in your library and click the "Community Hub" thing on the side. If you have the address bar activated in your steam window you should have something like "http://steamcommunity.com/app/404730/" the "404730" is the APPID for the game.

The second method is to use this page: https://steamdb.info/ Search for the game there and you should get a list of results. The "APPID" is what you're after. 404730 would be listed for Wasteland 2 Director's Cut.

(There's a third that involves creating a shortcut and checking the properties of the shortcut but I won't list that in detail).

Now that you have your APPID go to this folder:
"Steam\userdata\XXXXXXX\241100\remote\controller_config" (The X's should be replaced with the steam ID for your account).
In this folder, find the folder that has the same numbers as the APPID of the game.
Inside that folder you should have one or more .vdf files. Take the one you plan to use for the template, copy it.
Then simply paste it into "Steam\controller_base\templates"
And you're done.

If you want to use a template made by someone else that you have downloaded for a game. Do the same thing but go to "Steam\userdata\XXXXXXX\config\controller_configs\workshop" instead the one stated above.


The second method of doing this is to go directly to "Steam\controller_base\templates" Open up one of the existing .vdf files with a text editor and edit it yourself if your'e savvy enough for that.


2. Portal 2 Bindings
This is something that came up recently. With Portal 2 being the "Steam Controller Supported" game, it turns out that it is kinda.. one of the worst supported ones, if that makes sense? Yes. It has the fancy button prompts and you don't have to bind things from KB/M over to the controller in the emulated fashion. But some issues came up.

For example, if you want to bind the camera movement to the analogue stick instead of on the right pad, it will flip out completely and there are options lacking that otherwise are there.
Hopefully this is something that will get fixed, but if this is something that bothers you, there's a way to work around it.

Simply, add Portal 2 as a non-steam game and you'll trick Steam into thinking that you're not playing Portal 2. And it will allow you to configure the game as you usually would with any other game.

Comparison screenshots for the sake of it:
Portal 2 analogue stick list of in-game actions[i.imgur.com]
Portal 2 Non-Steam analogue stick style of input list[i.imgur.com]
Portal 2 Camera settings[i.imgur.com]
Portal 2 Non-Steam Style of input settings[i.imgur.com]


3. Force UDK/UE3 games to show Xbox button prompts
So I've seen a lot of posts stating that the button prompts switch back and forth between keyboard and controller if you are using a mouse for the aiming for example and using gamepad for movement, like the joystick.

With most UDK/UE3 games you can force a certain type of button prompts by doing the following. I'll use Borderlands 2 as an example.

1. Go to "\Documents\my games\borderlands 2\willowgame\Config" and open up WillowGame.ini
2. Search (Ctrl+F) for "FakePlatform" which should bring you to "[WillowGame.WillowUIDataStore_StringAliasMap]"
3. Change the value of FakePlatform=-1 to one of the following:
-1 = Disabled/Auto (Default)
0 = PC
1 = Xbox
2 = Playstation

4. Save the file. And start up the game.
This should force the game to use the button prompts of a certain system. Mind you, in the case of Borderlands 2 this also changes everything that has to do with "Steam" to "Xbox live" like "Steam Friends Invite Only" to "Xbox Live Friends Invite only". It still works just fine though. Just a graphical thing in the UI.

It might not work with every game depending on how their config files are set up. Bioshock Infinite seems to not be able to do this.
Also, another note. "Willow" in this case is used by Borderlands. Some games will call it XEngine.ini (Bioshock Infinite) or the more common UDKEngine.ini which is the default.

I also don't know if these prompts follow your keybindings, maybe they do? I haven't tried it. You might have to go with a default xbox layout. Personally, I just go for keyboard ones, that should work the smoothest.

[Equim]

Incredibly shameful bump. Please don't hate me senpai!
..Also updated it with 2.5

[Steef]

-windowed is a lifesaver

I hope they eventually port all of this into the standard overlay so we can move away from BPM on the desktop, but I can see how that would involve maintaining two interfaces and thus not be desired.

[Equim]

Originally posted by Steef:

-windowed is a lifesaver

I hope they eventually port all of this into the standard overlay so we can move away from BPM on the desktop, but I can see how that would involve maintaining two interfaces and thus not be desired.

Yeah, I've found it a lot easier to work with. Especially when running it with the "-480p" line as well. Sure, when I stream to the link the BPM stuff is a bit blurry but I don't intend to spend a whole lot of time in those menus. And I could just restart steam without the line if I wanted to :p 720p is barely noticeable though.

[Equim]

Bumping because I pretty much rewrote the whole post, presenting it a bit better and adding in some tweaks and fixes for the Steam Controller itself.
Got any other stuff you feel should be added? Please, do tell me. I'll try to add whatever else I can come up with as I browse the forums.

[Bossman207]

For the resolution issue, at least with nvidia, though I can't see ATI or any other video driver not having this option, but I create a custom resolution to 1920x1080. Then games are able to pick that resolution. The problem is that the overlay/BPM seems to only run at the current desktop resolution as it's max resolution, which causes some games, even though they say they are set to 1080p, are only at the max resolution of my desktop... which is a different aspect ratio as my tv. So the added step is to set the desktop to the higher, non-native, gpu scaled 1080p, then the steam overlay/BPM will run at 1080p and match the tv and allow games to follow suit.

So... my quest this evening is to figure out if there is a way to force the Steam Overlay / BPM to a static resolution of 1080p regardless of what my desktop resolution is set to.

[Equim]

Originally posted by Deathnutz:

For the resolution issue, at least with nvidia, though I can't see ATI or any other video driver not having this option, but I create a custom resolution to 1920x1080. Then games are able to pick that resolution. The problem is that the overlay/BPM seems to only run at the current desktop resolution as it's max resolution, which causes some games, even though they say they are set to 1080p, are only at the max resolution of my desktop... which is a different aspect ratio as my tv. So the added step is to set the desktop to the higher, non-native, gpu scaled 1080p, then the steam overlay/BPM will run at 1080p and match the tv and allow games to follow suit.

So... my quest this evening is to figure out if there is a way to force the Steam Overlay / BPM to a static resolution of 1080p regardless of what my desktop resolution is set to.

Random thought. What if you added "-1080p" to the target line? I don't think it will work but hey, might be worth a shot :p

[Bossman207]

Originally posted by Equim:

Originally posted by Deathnutz:

For the resolution issue, at least with nvidia, though I can't see ATI or any other video driver not having this option, but I create a custom resolution to 1920x1080. Then games are able to pick that resolution. The problem is that the overlay/BPM seems to only run at the current desktop resolution as it's max resolution, which causes some games, even though they say they are set to 1080p, are only at the max resolution of my desktop... which is a different aspect ratio as my tv. So the added step is to set the desktop to the higher, non-native, gpu scaled 1080p, then the steam overlay/BPM will run at 1080p and match the tv and allow games to follow suit.

So... my quest this evening is to figure out if there is a way to force the Steam Overlay / BPM to a static resolution of 1080p regardless of what my desktop resolution is set to.

Random thought. What if you added "-1080p" to the target line? I don't think it will work but hey, might be worth a shot :p

Target line added to which item? Per-game, steam, bpm? Where and how? :)

[Equim]

Originally posted by Deathnutz:

Originally posted by Equim:

Random thought. What if you added "-1080p" to the target line? I don't think it will work but hey, might be worth a shot :p

Target line added to which item? Per-game, steam, bpm? Where and how? :)

Check the guide above for how to put it into windowed mode and then scale it down to 720p or 480p but instead do it with -1080p

[Bossman207]

Originally posted by Equim:

Originally posted by Deathnutz:

Target line added to which item? Per-game, steam, bpm? Where and how? :)

Check the guide above for how to put it into windowed mode and then scale it down to 720p or 480p but instead do it with -1080p

Cool... Yeah, this makes sense. Should be able to make the window bigger than the monitor resolution (going off screen) and display the entire contents of this window to the link as "all the content to stream". This also explains why and how I was able to sometimes get the correct resolution while streaming when I'd choose "windowed mode" within some games. Guh, duh. Why did I not think of that. :) Thanks!

[Bossman207]

Originally posted by Deathnutz:

Originally posted by Equim:

Check the guide above for how to put it into windowed mode and then scale it down to 720p or 480p but instead do it with -1080p

Cool... Yeah, this makes sense. Should be able to make the window bigger than the monitor resolution (going off screen) and display the entire contents of this window to the link as "all the content to stream". This also explains why and how I was able to sometimes get the correct resolution while streaming when I'd choose "windowed mode" within some games. Guh, duh. Why did I not think of that. :) Thanks!

Does BPM have it's own exe that Link Launches? This is where I'd want to include the launch option. If it's targeting the exe directly, i won't be able to add the launch options without some finagaling. I'll have to try it while looking at your guide. Maybe I'm just missing something you've already stated. Can't wait to try it this evening.

EDIT: Yep, you list it clear as day. Adding it to the steam shortcut affects the BPM.

[Equim]

Updated. Added instructions to how to rebind things within Big Picture Mode.

3. Rebinding BPM keybindings
You can rebind the controls for BPM by going to the following folder.
As an example we'll bind the D-pad for menu navigation.

Steam\tenfoot\resource\
Open up default_keybinds.cfg
Scroll down to where you see "steampad_stick1_up MoveUp", etc.
Copy-paste the following lines in above that. (Or add them yourself if you want)

steampad_dpad_up MoveUp
steampad_dpad_down MoveDown
steampad_dpad_left MoveLeft
steampad_dpad_right MoveRight

Save your changes and you should be done.

[Roadie]

Is there any way to force Big Picture mode to be windowed on a Mac?

Edit: To answer my own question: For the equivalent, this needs to be run in Terminal.

open -a /Applications/Steam.app --args -windowed

[Equim]

Originally posted by Roadie:

Is there any way to force Big Picture mode to be windowed on a Mac?

I wouldn't know actually. Haven't really used Mac's that much so I would need someone else to answer that. Though this post might be of some help, maybe.
http://superuser.com/questions/16750/how-can-i-run-an-application-with-command-line-arguments-in-mac-os

[Equim]

Updated with a way to force UE3/UDK games to follow a certain set of button prompts to hopefully fix the auto switching when using dual input modes.

[ChaosAdvanced]

I never really understood all the fuzz about BPM. Why are people hating it so much?
I've herard that it's kinda unstable on some setups but that seems to be more of an exception than the rule... So what's the big deal about it?