Non-QWERTY keyboards & related Controller Configuration issues

[Bastoc]

Dear Valve staff, fellow players,

As title suggests, I would like to discuss :
1) Non-QWERTY keyboard support (AZERTY in my case)
2) The Controller Configuration feature of Steam (and Big Picture GUI tool)

Because I think I have figured out some things and would like to share, but I'm still confused about some other things. I've got some knowledge about computer science but I'm not an expert so please correct me if I'm wrong.


1) Non-QWERTY keyboard support

1.1) In most cases, the game has a Controls configuration panel in the Game Settings, so the player can tweak for their keyboard layout. Has to be done for every game, tedious but works. However, sometimes the game does NOT allow controls customization.

1.2) Another solution is change the Locales (language and keyboard layout) in the OS settings.
Once you do that, the OS treats the keyboard as if it was QWERTY. Now, two options.
First, you do this EVERY time you launch Steam (maybe there is a way to automate it ? shortcut is ALT-SHIFT on Windows) and it solves the problem. But you have to know the QWERTY layout to use it blindly, and it's not too convenient to chat in your own language.
Second, you only do this when you don't have a choice, switching depending on the game you're playing. It can be quite confusing, but why not.

1.3) Also I happened to play games where my locales seemed to be overwritten to a static value (e.g. to English:QWERTY). Maybe a game could even switch controls depending on player's Locales but I don't think devs would want to spend time doing that. Do you agree ? I'm not sure about this one.

1.4) What do you guys do ? Do you know of any other way to handle this ?



2)The Controller Configuration feature of Steam

First of, let me say I think it's a great feature. I'm not sure of how it works though.

2.1) As far as I understand, it goes like this :
a) Once you plug the gamepad, the OS need drivers to use it. Some OS (e.g. Win10) usually handle that automatically.
b) Steam allows to download and edit custom Controller Configuration files, and runs a process that remaps your gamepad's keys to the following virtual input devices keys: virtual mouse, virtual QWERTY keyboard and virtual Xbox 360 controller.
c) Then, the game is supposed to use the virtual devices as inputs. Does it always, though ? It's quite a recent feature, does it work with older games ?
d) Normally, the former make it uncessary to tweak Controls in the Game Settings.


2.2) I would say that the intended use of Steam's Controller Configuration feature is :
a) When you start a new game, Steam downloads the recommended profile if there's one.
b) If Steam is in Big Picture mode, it loads a controller_base template that maps gamepad to keyboard and mouse (e.g. "WASD and mouse" model) depending of what kind of game Steam thinks it is (there must be some hidden genre/gameplay parameters).
c) The player can browse profiles exported by the community and download one.
d) The player may customize the profile using Big Picture's Controller Configuration panel.
e) The profile is then attached to this specific game.
f) We're not supposed to mess with controller_base templates.
g) Of couse, those profiles and templates depend on the kind of gamepad we're using.

2.3) Back to the non-QWERTY problem. So theorically, if one was to load a proper WASD mapping from Steam's Controller Configuration and left the Controls in the Game Settings to default, it should work. However, for some games it does NOT. I still have to change the locales. Why ? It's confusing.

2.4) I've seen really cool Controller Configuration profiles made by the community , but I don't get how the Groups and Layers work, or how to change the title profile. I found .vdf files buried in some subdirectory located in Steam/userdata/#userID/config/controller_config/apps/#GameID/. It seemed to be the one and I tried to edit it manually, but it did'nt seem to change anything. Is there any User Manual or tutorials on how to use it ?



Any insights appreciated.