For those with controller problems

[Kaldaien]

I have done a bit of debugging and this game's problem is that it uses SteamAPI's native Steam controller interface. Many of you are unknowingly enabling your DualShock 4 and Xbox 360/One controllers to behave as Steam controllers (this was default behavior for new installs for a while).

You have two options to address this issue:

1. Disable Generic Controller support by opening Big Picture Mode and going to Controller Settings
   
2. Embrace Steam's new controller mapping system and kiss certain third-party software's ability to function goodbye

Both are actually pretty crappy options.

The first option is somewhat unreliable in this game, since it only supports XInput as a fallback.

• That means if you've been relying on the Steam overlay to add DualShock 4 support to games, you probably don't have software installed to do the same and you will need to grab DS4Windows or X360Ce.

The second option will cause your controller to stop working in any add-on software that has gamepad accessible input in-game (i.e. my Special K framework).

• The Steam overlay and game itself will be the only two pieces of software receiving input from your gamepad.

steam://controllerconfig/584400/1124891569

(Steam controller profile that preserves XInput and DirectInput)

There's blame to be placed on all sides for lousy controller support in this game. Most of all it shows that native Steam Controller support really isn't ready for prime time. Valve should not be disabling DirectInput and XInput if a game uses native interfaces. This breaks third-party software (my own included).

[CheeseBoar]

It sucks that controller support is so broken, but thanks for looking into it; you've done some pretty awesome stuff like this with games in the past, I've noticed. I can't imagine playing this one with a keyboard (although I'm sure it's fully doable).

[Kaldaien]

Yeah, I was rather alarmed to see what was going on under the hood. I'm in a position to reverse engineer, debug and patch my own software to workaround weird problems like this. Nobody else has time for that :P Luckily there's not a whole lot of overlays that support gamepad input aside from Steam.


I wanted to write a translation layer to bridge the APIs but after looking at the documentation for Steam controllers, any button not in the controller profile is completely invisible. There's no way to transparently fix this, that's why I have a link to a profile with all the buttons mapped to something. I really want to bring this to Valve or SEGA's attention but have had zero luck ever getting even the time of day from Valve, I think they only listen to you if you publish something on their store and are making them money :)


Keyboard input should be fine, maybe a bit cramped, but the game's completely digital and doesn't need analog sticks or anything fancy like a mouse.

[Super BananaMan®🍌]

I just use " XOutput ". It's a program that makes any control "act" like a x360 controler and works on any game. Just need to install the drivers and config once. The config it's kinda boring because you need to now the axis names and botons.
Now I can play Sonic Mania with my cheap "NPlay MB-8183 USB"

[Garuu the ToonCat]

Wow, havent heard of DS4 in a while, i feel the pain xD

[SenMithrarin85]

I had to enable, xbox controller support in big picture, then untick the option that says "use steam configuration for non-steam controllers" under the "manage" tab for the game. Then I disabled xbox support again. My pad works fine now. The same thing had to be done with prey apparently. Trust valve to add a feature that causes more problems than it solves.

[Xander]

Thanks for the headsup, just makes me happier I refunded this. I've afew controllers and never had a single game reject them that had gamepad support.. much less every one of them!

[Caly]

Bump, because it affect me. Also, thanks for the input.