Gamepad Controllers not working? Or no more than 4? Solutions in here!

[Roman]

12 orbits should work with all common controllers, and with most uncommon ones as well. It also works with more than 4 of them at once.

However, each system is different. I will list some common problems and solutions below that I know can cause issues with Steam and Controller support in general.

If you know of any others, please write them here in the forum as well. And also, please do the same if a specific controller does not work. Both so that I can try to find a fix, and so that others will know about it in advance.

Disabling / Enabling "Steam Input"

Steam has a built-in way of dealing with less common controllers. This allows it to work with controllers that a game itself might not be able to recognize. Steam will simply make them pretend they are something else.

Sometimes, "Steam Input" might be able to recognize a controller that 12 orbits does not, and sometimes 12 orbits might be able to recognize a controller that "Steam Input" does not.

Therefore, if your controller currently does not work, turning "Steam Input" on, or off, is both worth a try. Here is how to do that:

• Right click on 12 orbits in your list of Steam Games
  
• Properties...
  
• Controller
  
• Switch the general Override Setting to "Disable Steam Input", or "Enable Steam Input", depending on what was set before

Configuring "Steam Input" for 5+ controller support

If you are not using "Steam Input", 12 orbits should work with more than 4 controllers by default.

If you are using "Steam Input", there are more settings you can make than just selecting the controller layout. One setting is especially important to get support for more than 4 controllers in many games.

Upcoming restart:
When you activate this setting, Steam installs a new driver for you controllers, and afterwards restarts your whole system. So before you start, make sure to save your work, and to close all other programs.

Then, go to:

• Steam (top left menu)
  
• Settings
  
• Controller

There are multiple options here, including the ability to enable / disable "Steam Input" for some standard controllers by default.

However, what we mostly care about is the entry "Xbox Extended Feature Support Driver". This allows you to install an additional driver for your controllers, which helps with getting "Steam Input" to work with 4 controllers at once.

Note on the "Xbox" part:
Even if your controller is not an Xbox controller, it is often recognized as one by your operating system, by Steam, or by some other software in between. Therefore, this driver is worth trying for any type of gamepad, if the 5+ controller support does not work for you with "Steam Input" enabled, and if disabling it did not help either.

Try out controllers in the player select screen

Even if a controller is unable to navigate in the menus, it might still be usable as player input while actually playing the game. Simply try it out in the player select screen, if you want to make sure.

Making sure "Steam Input" uses the correct Controller Layout

12 orbits should work with most controllers out of the box. However, in order to keep up with new kinds of inputs, the way it handles controllers in Steam has changed over time.

If you have played 12 orbits with controllers a while ago, and find them no longer working today, there might be some incompatible settings left over within your Steam configuration. I cannot change these settings myself, because they are intended to override the settings I make as the developer. But you can change them quite easily:

(Alternatively, you may also just disable "Steam Input" entirely, as mentioned above)

For Windows or Linux (i.e. for everything but the Steam Deck):

• Right click on 12 orbits in your list of Steam Games
  
• Properties...
  
• Controller
  
• select "Controller Configuration"
  
• make sure that the default "Gamepad" Button Layout is selected
  
• (If you have made any changes to this layout previously, you may also have to re-select and apply the standard gamepad layout, even if a layout with the same name is already selected for you)

For the Steam Deck:

• Press the “Steam” button on your Steam Deck while 12 orbits is running
  
• Select “12 orbits” in the leftmost menu, then go right with the joystick
  
• Select “Controller settings”, then go right with the joystick
  
• Press “A” to select “Controller Settings” again
  
• Select the name of your current layout at the top, then press “A”
  
• Select the default "Gamepad" Layout
  
• Press “X” to apply the layout
  
• (If you have made any changes to this layout previously, you may also have to re-select and apply the standard gamepad layout, even if a layout with the same name is already selected for you)

Some controllers have a slight delay when adding players, and fail to do so entirely when another controller is adding a player at the same time?

Short answer:
No need to worry. Some uncommon controllers are only allowed to add players when no other (more common) controller is adding one at the same time, and only after a tiny delay. These controllers also get a letter behind their number, e.g. "Pad 3c" instead of "Pad 3". None of these limitations will apply during gameplay though. "Pad 3c" will react just as quickly during gameplay as "Pad 3".

Longer answer:
In order to support as many types of controllers as possible, 12 orbits uses multiple methods at once to detect them. However, this means that some controllers may be "seen" by 12 orbits through more than one of these methods.

To make this possible, the less common methods are only allowed to add players when no more common method detects a controller at (roughly) the same time. And that means there needs to be a slight delay when adding new players, and that it cannot happen at the same time that a more common controller also presses a button. They may or may not be different controllers, but there simply is no way to tell for the game.

Note that this behavior will only occur when 12 orbits does not recognize your specific controller model yet. If you want to get rid of it, some software that pretends your controller is something else, like "Steam Input" (mentioned above) can help.

Rollback to an older version with different Controller handling

The game engine used for 12 orbits once had a different way of dealing with controllers than it does in newer versions of the game. If all else fails, you can try reverting to such an older version.

In order to use the older method of dealing with controller inputs, you will have to revert to version 1.456b (or older).

This post will show you how to switch to an older version of the game:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/529950/discussions/0/3950280854051821123/

Controller remap software other than "Steam Input"

If neither "Steam Input", nor 12 orbits, can recognize your controller, and if rolling back to an older version of 12 orbits did not help either, you likely have a very uncommon controller.

In that case, the only advice I have left is that "Steam Input" is not the only software which can map uncommon controllers to more common ones. And some other software like that might still be compatible with your specific controller. However, since this will by definition be about a controller I have not had a chance to test myself (because those have all worked), unfortunately I cannot give you any advice on what specific software might work for you.

In any case, as written above:
Please do let me know if none of this works for you. Both so that I can try to find a fix, and so that others will know about it in advance. Especially if other games work for you, with or without Steam Input, but not 12 orbits.