Controller Issues? READ THIS

[No More Robots]

Hey all! We've had a small number of people saying that they've been having issues playing the game with a controller. It's a tricky issue to fix on our side, because it's only a very small number of people actually having this issue -- the vast majority of players are using a controller, and are seeing no issues. Indeed, on our side we've tried playing the game with a variety of controllers, including Xbox and PlayStation controllers, and have been unable to replicate the issues.

With this in mind, it's most likely that if you're having issues, something is happening between Descenders and certain plugins installed on your PC, having a little fight over who gets to do what. To try to fix this, we'd suggest trying the following:

1. Run the game in Big Picture Mode. In the options for Big Picture Mode, you can select Controller Settings, and can specifically tell Steam what sort of controller you have, and even manually tell it what you want your controller to do. We believe doing this will sort out the vast majority of issues people are having.

2. If this doesn't work, we'd suggest finding out which weird plugins are running on your PC, and especially think about anything weird you have physically attached to your PC, as these can also cause conflicts between your controller and the game

3. If it's still not working, we'd suggest grabbing a different controller and seeing if that works -- it may well be that it's just that specific controller that is being funky with the game.

If none of the above works, we're happy to hear about your issue below -- please just make sure you tell us the following:

a. Send us your output log -- you can find it in C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\LocalLow\RageSquid\Descenders\output_log.txt -- send it to [e-mail]
b. What kind of controller you have
c. Whether it's an official or unofficial controller
d. What happens when you fiddle with Big Picture settings -- does it do nothing at all?

Thanks all!

[DaNiZzA]

gamepad speedlink RAIT wireless not working

[Δ 900 Mag]

disabling steam overlay for the game seemed to work on my end. needs more testing from more people though

[vĒry sørry]

Have a racing wheel hooked up and so like others my controller doesn't work. Really annoying to have to unplug.

[Zastian]

Using an 8bitdo Pro 2. I'm having a strange issue where the controller works for a while and then just stops working intermittently for a few seconds. As you can imagine, it renders the game unplayable.

I've tried restarting my PC, unplugging the controller and using a different USB slot, updating the drivers...but nothing has worked. I haven't had any other issues with this controller playing other games.

It's unfortunate as this seems like a really fun game!

[NEYMAR JR]

stop

[Jㅇㅌ]

this worked for me:
in steam controller settings my controller was being picked up as a nintendo controller.

Changed it to an xbox one and had no issues since

[Byo]

Found a fix after countless attempts to fix that my controller (Nacon GC-100) only worked intermittently. Trying BigPicture, different controller settings in steam, uninstalling vJoy, focusing on another window, runing in Fullscreen (not windowed fullscreen), disabling steam overlay, unplugging any other device that may interfere ... nothing worked ...

except, leaving only Guide Button Focuses Steam in the controller settings (disabling any other option) and forcing the game to steam input enabled (right click in steam / properties / controller / enable steam input).

Also a couple of weeks back I succeeded to play with a T.Flight Hotas X set up in XBox 360 Controller Emulator 4.x, I had some problems with the same "sometimes works sometimes not" in game, I had to enable some xInput driver versions (9.1, 1.3, 1.4) in X360CE 4.x, hide the original physical controller with HID Guardian (inside X360CE / devices tab [needs installing]) and finally had to disable steam input for this game, didn't need to uninstall the vJoy driver though, it was working fine with it.

If you still have problems, I hope some of this helps.

[Darknut]

Bought this game at the start. been using the same Logitech controller from the beginning.
A few updates ago my controller no longer works. Controller works fine for MXGP, GTA, MX vs ATV, etc, etc ... only screwed in this game. Bad programming!

[PKallday]

Xbox Elite Series 2 controller here. I also have a Logitech G920 wheel and the GHUB software that controls the wheel sometimes interferes with controller input in other games too. In those cases closing GHUB is all it takes to fix the issues.

Closing GHUB did nothing to solve controller issues for Descenders when using the Elite Series 2 wirelessly. But the moment I connected the Elite Series 2 via USB cable, the game worked perfectly fine without changing any other settings at all.

Somewhat annoying to have to switch over to using a cable for just this one game but it's an easy fix.

[NerZhul]

Okay, so for me the solution was very easy. I'm using an old Logitech Chillstream Controller (it's a Xbinput certified controller which in 2008 worked perfectly with Games for Windows titles and looks like an Xbox controller) and since 2008 hadn't any detecting issues with it untill Descenders.
So what have I done: I've opened game's properties, clicked on Controllers on the left tab of opened window and saw empty field near mine choosed by the system (with blue dot) "Xbox controller". Then I've chose "Turn on Steam input" and near mine controller field was filled with "Turned on". And that's it.

[YourMama.java]

I have the issue that my PS3 controller connected via "ASUS BT-500" USB 2.0 Bluetooth adapter does not work reliably. It lags as hell and most times I have to press a button between 5 to 10 times to even get a reaction. Needless to say that this way this game is unplayable.
I physically disconnected all other controllers, even the mouse and the keyboard, just to be sure. Nothing helped. I don't have any fancy 3rd party applications installed.
All my other games (and I do have a lot of games!) work without any issues with exactly the same hardware setup, so it's obviously a problem of the game.
Please game developers, fix those issues!

EDIT: I found out the issue. The computer I'm playing with is my HTPC connected to the TV. To control the whole system with a single remote control I am using a Logitech Harmony remote which emulates a "Windows Media Center" which I found out interferes somehow with the PS3 gamepad via Bluetooth. So the solution in my case was to remove the "Windows Media Player" device completely from the according Harmony activity and use a "Flirc Media Player" device instead for the Harmony activity, which does not interfere anymore with the gamepad.

[Mike Hunt]

Does anyone know a fix for Xbox One Controller conflicting with Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick? I don't want to have to unplug my joystick every time I want to play this game because re calibrating it is a nightmare.

[🤡XxUnd0cument3dG4m3r😈]

November 2022 and I'm having this issue. Official xbox controller. Was working fine then suddenly isn't, no idea what changed. Recurring issue but seemingly at random, makes the game unplayable

[Tomkatt]

Was having this issue after I switched from a Series X controller to a new 8BitDo Ultimate.

Opening the game in big picture, editing controller options, and setting to "force on" fixed it for me.

[Retro-Slayer '89]

Another person added to the 'small number of users experiencing the issue'. Devs.... I have a PS5 controller, an Xbox controller and a Logitech X52 HOTAS - none of them respond at all, whether I Enable Steam Input or leave it on Default in the Steam controller options outside of Big Screen Mode (Switching between these 2 will almost always make generic controllers work).

This used to work. No controller plugins or 3rd party software. Just much easier to play Rider's Republic these days.

I bought your game on Android and it's even worse there! What happened guys?