How do I manually set what kind of controller I'm using in Steam (as opposed to letting it auto-detect)?

[Payload9]

I have a third-party Switch Pro Controller and in some games it's detected as such while others detect it as everything under the sun BUT a Pro Controller. I've tolerated it for a while, but now I'm really tired of playing controller config roulette. Is there a way to manually tell Steam that my controller is a Pro Controller so that all games will globally reflect that? Because obviously letting it auto-detect what controller it is leads to inconsistent results.

[ReBoot]

Youre mixing stuff up here. You're talking about how Steam detects it and how games detect it, those are two different topics you're throwing into one hat.

That, and PC games tend to have literally 0 ideas about any Switch input methods so I very much doubt any game of yours is recognizing a Switch Pro controller.

So let's start form the beginning. What do you observe that makes you think things were not in order?

[Payload9]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Youre mixing stuff up here. You're talking about how Steam detects it and how games detect it, those are two different topics you're throwing into one hat.

That, and PC games tend to have literally 0 ideas about any Switch input methods so I very much doubt any game of yours is recognizing a Switch Pro controller.

So let's start form the beginning. What do you observe that makes you think things were not in order?

Oh! I thought it was the Steam client that tells games what controller I'm using. Excuse my misunderstanding.

Steam itself (I checked in Big Picture) always detects the controller as an Xbox controller. Even with the Switch Pro Controller support option checked, it still picks up as an Xbox controller and the A/B and X/Y buttons are swapped to the Xbox layout. Enabling the option to swap them back to the Pro Controller layout doesn't seem to do anything, at least in Big Picture.

Some games use the Pro controller layout. A, B, X, and Y aren't in the Xbox layout, so I don't have to configure a thing. However, other games force me to use the Xbox layout. Some games even load a configuration for a controller not even remotely related to what I'm using.

I only assumed that some games picked it up as a Pro Controller because they didn't automatically reverse the button inputs to Xbox. Which is really where the problem lies - I don't care what controller it picks up as, I just want each and every game to stop reassigning the buttons to a different layout.

[ReBoot]

Steam generally "detects" whatever the system's telling it. Remember: Steam is not the operating system, it's a program running atop of the operating system. While Valve can employ some trickery (and they do employ trickery for some gamepads), the OS is still got the last word in hardware detection. That's in stark contrast to consoles where the gaming UI and the operating system are pretty much the same (because the gaming UI is an integral part of the OS). Looks like your third-party device doesn't bother identifying as a Switch Pro gamepad.

Remap this thing in Steam once and for all. There's a page letting you remap all the buttons & axes of any given gamepad. Do that ONCE for this gamepad and go worry-free from there on. I've seen that option to exchange A & B myself but I really found it easier to remap non-conformant gamepads. Did that with 2 different ones, one was similar to what you observe (a couple buttons swapped), the other exposes the right trigger as a button. Needless to say, it was literally impossible to play racing games with it until I've remapped it properly.