Xbox One X Controller and Steam Big Picture (Define Layout Issue)

[177489749327956927473]

So I'm trying to get my Xbox One X Controller's Guide Button to stop opening Steam Big Picture. The issue is that "Define Layout" isn't showing up for me when I go to controller settings. How can I fix this?

I've read some similar issues on the forums but none of what they did seems to be working for me. I tried disabling "Guide Button Focuses Steam" but that didn't work. Tried adding the extended Xbox Feature Support and then seeing if "Define Layout" showed then, and it did not. I am using it via Bluetooth but I also tried hardwired to see if it changed anything and it also did not do anything.

Has anyone figured out how to solve this? Any help is appreciated.

[tintingaroo]

One way to do it if on Windows:
Press Windows key > type gamebar (as a single word) > open 'Game bar controller settings' > enable 'Open Xbox Game bar using this button on a controller'
The downside (for those that would want to make use of it) is that Guide is no longer accessible elsewhere by Steam.

Define Layout is no longer offered for first party controllers (or controllers that use their ID).

[177489749327956927473]

Publicado originalmente por tintingaroo:

One way to do it if on Windows:
Press Windows key > type gamebar (as a single word) > open 'Game bar controller settings' > enable 'Open Xbox Game bar using this button on a controller'
The downside (for those that would want to make use of it) is that Guide is no longer accessible elsewhere by Steam.

Define Layout is no longer offered for first party controllers (or controllers that use their ID).

This seems to, at least for now, have done the trick - I will continue to monitor. Very odd they'd remove parameters for you to change specifics on your controller, but oh well. Thank you very much for the response. Cheers.

[Secret Robot]

I'm having the same issue, but the Xbox guide button and the "Open Xbox Game bar using this button on a controller'" is already enabled.

The Guide button just opens game bar AND steam big picture. This is a new issue, the guide button didnt always open big picture for me. Any other suggestions?

Thanks everyone

[tintingaroo]

Do you have Steam's custom driver installed (Xbox Extended Feature Support enabled)? I found the game bar setting didn't prevent Guide from registering with Steam while the driver was installed.

To check and uninstall if you wish: View > Settings > Controller > General Controller Settings. Enable Xbox config support to display the driver option > disable Xbox Extended Feature Support > Restart.

Also, if you don't want the game bar to open on Guide press, you can turn the game bar off but leave the use Guide button setting enabled - that will still prevent it from registering with Steam.

[Secret Robot]

Thank you for the reply

In the steam controller settings:
"Guide button focuses steam" , "Xbox Config Support" and "Xbox extended support" are all UNchecked but Big picture keeps starting up when I press the guide button.

I do want to use the guide button for gamebar because interact with friends who play on Xbox console.

And I don't know if it's related but now gamebar has stopped working with the guide button. In Windows 10 when I go to "Game bar controller settings" and check the box "open xbox gamebar using this button on a controller" it just doesnt save the setting.

[Secret Robot]

Publicado originalmente por tintingaroo:

Define Layout is no longer offered for first party controllers (or controllers that use their ID).

Do you have any idea why they removed that feature?

[tintingaroo]

The other way I've seen to prevent Guide registering with Steam is via a .dll file:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/1/846939071346659003/?tscn=1447541997#c35221031602951514

Was made aware of that method from the OP here:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/1/1738841319803856359/

I found it also required Steam's custom driver be uninstalled, for anyone else trying this.

Publicado originalmente por Secret Robot:

And I don't know if it's related but now gamebar has stopped working with the guide button. In Windows 10 when I go to "Game bar controller settings" and check the box "open xbox gamebar using this button on a controller" it just doesnt save the setting.

I remember I had a similar issue when I first tried to use it. I had tried repairing and also resetting the game bar (Window key > type Xbox Game Bar > App Settings), but if I recall correctly the thing that seemed to help was toggling the game bar on/off multiple times. Perhaps it can be set via the Registry somewhere - not sure if I ended up trying anything like that though.


As for Define Layout, I presume it was removed for official/known controllers since they trust their method of providing the correct layout. I know it was removed for PS controllers (if it had ever been available) loooong before Xinput controllers. I guess it simplifies things for regular users: they can't be confused by the option, mess up the layout then be asking why something odd is going on or struggle to reset/redefine the layout when the layout is already correct.
It used to be possible to define it manually via editing config.vdf but I don't know if there is now another VDF file we can use to do the same thing... I've had the idea that modifying SDL2.dll (or perhaps SDL2_ttf .dll???) could be an answer but I don't know how to mod DLL's to test that thought.

[Secret Robot]

Thanks again tintinagroo, that info has been very helpful!

I got it working in Windows 10 For posterity here's what what I did, and I don't know which step specifically fixed it.

Go to Steam>Settings>Controller>General Controller Settings
Unchecked these boxes...
Guide Button Focuses Steam
Xbox Configureation Support
Xbox Extended Feature Support
Restart computer

Now trick seems to be changing the setting via gamebar, not windows settings.
Open Xbox gamebar with Win+G, click the Gear Icon>Shortcuts, check the box that says "Open Xbox gamebar using this button on a controller" then click the Save button. If the Save button is still greyed out, add a custom keyboard shortcut so the Save button activates.

The guide button now opens gamebar but is NOT opening steam big picture.

I assume the issue for me had to do with the fact that Windows wasn't saving the setting "open gamebar using this button" accessing it through windows settings (there's no save button on that menu. And I guess it's some registry issue as to why it wouldn't save)

Here's a guide for fixing that
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/game-bar-automatically-turns-off/87774ce0-f89f-476e-b349-aa69f3f6e7d4

But accessing the same setting via gamebar itself allowed me to save the setting because there is a save button.

Hopefully this thread helps someone. Valve needs to just let us disable Big picture completely.

[tintingaroo]

Good stuff, Secret Robot - will remember that step to set & save via game bar.

[tintingaroo]

Publicado originalmente por tintingaroo:

It used to be possible to define it manually via editing config.vdf but I don't know if there is now another VDF file we can use to do the same thing... I've had the idea that modifying SDL2.dll (or perhaps SDL2_ttf .dll???) could be an answer but I don't know how to mod DLL's to test that thought.

Found some days ago you can just use a hex editor to modify the source mapping strings in SDL2.dll. The editing required the file length to remain the same and I needed to stop Steam verifying itself with -noverifyfiles argument. Perhaps modifying the source code and compiling the dll will prevent the first issue (or updating the file size the dll holds about itself???)...

[Critical]

I ended-up here looking for a solution and didn't find an easy one, so I have made a Powershell script to remove all references to the Guide button assignment.

It backs-up your current Steam config before opening it and deleting all 'guide:xx' refences, and then saves it (overwrites current config), thus solving the guide button problem once and for all.

Full details on what it is and how it works are on Github, where the code can be see before using - https://github.com/CriticalPoint/Automatically-Disable-Steam-Big-Picture-Mode-Guide-Button

Dropping this here in case it's helpful for someone!

Hope so! 🍻