Steam Input Does Not Respect "Disable Steam Input" Setting

[Balderick]

ISSUE: Game is unplayable after disabling Steam Input from game library properties before launching it as game keeps switching from mouse and keyboard to controller input and back again ... .. and back again.. ... and back again.

OS: win 10 pro 22h2

CONTROLLER: gen 2 xbox one controller type (MS Xbox One)
FW Version: 5.15.3168.0

STEAM CLIENT:

• 167418224 with no launch argumentss but start in bigpicture is not set and games are launched from large mode.
  
• xbox extended feature set drivers are disabled in main controller settings
  
  STEPS:
  • Go to game library and click properties for game
    
  • Navigate to controller section and switch off Steam Input
    
  • Start game
  
  RESULTS: Game is unplayable because Steam INput is messing with controller for a few seconds and then dropping connection to controller so game switches to mouse and keyboard input and then Steam Input decides to try and connect controller again. This continues for as long as you let it.
  
  EXPECTED: The whole point of disabling Steam Input is to free myself of Steam Input bugs and it messing with games. Game should just speak to controller directly without Steam Input interfering.
  
  ADDITIONAL INFO: opening Steam Overlay and clicking on "controller layout" should just open a window that tells me that i need to enable Steam Input for a layout rto be applied when Steam Input is disabled for game from game library but get a window flashing error message so poor Steam Input is obviously FUBAR. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2922394536
  
  After restarting pc, steam and game with Steam Input still disabled Steam client and windows task bar are rendered over game and no controller inputs are seen by game. Mouse cursor is invisible unless it hovers over anything but the game and left clicking physical mouse when the invisible cursor is over game the game gets focus with controller input working

[Balderick]

Now have right stick does not work in game as mouse is mapped to right stick. Game is not detecting controller so mouse aiming device can not be disabled but only right stick is not working
Right stick is working in windows's game controller settings test

Steam log controller.txt is telling me how amazingly broken Define Layout ui and saved file functionality are. As well as Steam Inputs xbox extended feature drivers. Saved layouts are not being applied. i really just checked right stick is mapped and renamed msGen2xbox_one

Basicaly my gen2 MS xbox one controller is being detected by Steam Input as TM eSwapX Pro controller. Which is a gen3 xbox one type controller.

am sure there is vdf somewhere i just need to edit but cant find thread naming it or managed to find yet and have other stuff in device manager should check out

for now i just hid device and disabled xbox configs in controller settings so it works in game

[Balderick]

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/5879990700796655042/#c3083256496957450371

is a good workaround for the saved defined layout thing not being applied

[Balderick]

Originally posted by Balderick:

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/5879990700796655042/#c3083256496957450371

is a good workaround for the saved defined layout thing not being applied

strike that. so renaming config.vdf or removing the sdl_gamepadbinding for the controller layout that gets shown in controller settings still gets applied by steam input

sdl_gamepadbinding shows the most recently uploaded controller layout first in list but at bottom of config.vdf says it still pending upload.

Is this a steam server or steam cloud issue? dunno where those files get uploaded too

Interestingly steam log controller.txt says steam input is using yet another defined layout listed in sdl_gamepadbinding section of config.vdf

Can also see in config.vdf ms xboxone gen 2 controller being used has changed guuid by one digit after recent firmware update

[Balderick]

Just disabling steam input not only got controller working but is also now much more responsive in game. Am a below average player so not so sensitive as some to input latency but can feel massive difference.

even in game stats for last ten game show a surprising difference
steam input off
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2922547360s

steam input onand applying xbox config for game (default recommended gamepad)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2922547344

Took screenshot after had a working controller again, knew those scores would be hopefully better but whooeee was not expecting that much

[Balderick]

have managed to configure evrything for todays update to apply default settings for controller and now newbigpicture and steam input seem to be working like Valve intend them to.

todays update triggered newbigpicture tutorial which helped out for seeing the global shortcuts etc

lots of new things in todays update helped make the recent changes much more obvious/intuitive somehow

[Sebastianer]

In my case Steam Input still hijacks the DualSense controller for other apps or games. (Steam Version: 1694466342).

The moment I turn on my DualSense steam "detects" the controller (even if PS configuration is off and the led colour doesn't change) and it starts adding steam custom hotkeys to it.

(Example PS icon + Triangle still turns off the controller that's not part of the native DualSense controller that it's still Steam's stuff).

So basically I learned my lesson. If I can buy a game that natively supports DualSense outside Steam, I'll do that.

I'm really tired of this. There is no way to run a Steam game closing steam. A year or two years ago Steam Input used to stay 100% OFF when it was disabled. Now it is like it is part of Steam app so can't have Steam opened without impacting your controller. At least not in Windows 11. In Linux is different. (They probably test this more in Linux than in Windows now).

In my opinion Steam should only try to detect a controller when pressing "Play" button and only if steam input is enabled.

[lsdninja]

You can disable Steam Input support on a per-game basis, but unfortunately there's no global off switch.

My guess with Linux is that there's no global xinput-like layer that Steam can wedge itself into to prevent other applications from being able to access the controller the way it does on Windows.

[tyl0413]

Originally posted by Sebastianer:

In my case Steam Input still hijacks the DualSense controller for other apps or games. (Steam Version: 1694466342).

The moment I turn on my DualSense steam "detects" the controller (even if PS configuration is off and the led colour doesn't change) and it starts adding steam custom hotkeys to it.

(Example PS icon + Triangle still turns off the controller that's not part of the native DualSense controller that it's still Steam's stuff).

So basically I learned my lesson. If I can buy a game that natively supports DualSense outside Steam, I'll do that.

I'm really tired of this. There is no way to run a Steam game closing steam. A year or two years ago Steam Input used to stay 100% OFF when it was disabled. Now it is like it is part of Steam app so can't have Steam opened without impacting your controller. At least not in Windows 11. In Linux is different. (They probably test this more in Linux than in Windows now).

In my opinion Steam should only try to detect a controller when pressing "Play" button and only if steam input is enabled.

You likely want to turn off desktop bindings for Steam Input.

[Kaldaien]

And it very likely never will. This thing is an absolute plague,

I actively avoid buying any game on Steam that's available for sale on another store because Steam Input's completely broken for my account and Valve's true colors have come to light when they won't refund you for games that their stupid mandatory DRM client has rendered unplayable using gamepads.

---

I have written a DLL to completely disable the evil that is Steam Input.

Highly recommended that you install it, and also boycott Steam in general for their anti-consumer practices.

https://github.com/SpecialKO/ValvePlug

[Arc]

Now I was wondering why my American Truck Sim keybinds not actioning after my DualSense enters and then wakes up from sleep mode, even though i have DSX running.

Thanks mate !

[Stjepa]

@Kaldaien , is Xinput1_4.def what we should drop in Steam installation folder? not Steam/bin folder than drop? since there is some xinput and xpad dlls

[Mexican Invisible Minister]

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

And it very likely never will. This thing is an absolute plague,

I actively avoid buying any game on Steam that's available for sale on another store because Steam Input's completely broken for my account and Valve's true colors have come to light when they won't refund you for games that their stupid mandatory DRM client has rendered unplayable using gamepads.

---

I have written a DLL to completely disable the evil that is Steam Input.

Highly recommended that you install it, and also boycott Steam in general for their anti-consumer practices.

https://github.com/SpecialKO/ValvePlug

Anti-consumer practices?

Did I miss something?

[Kaldaien]

Originally posted by Mexican Pendejo Minister:

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

And it very likely never will. This thing is an absolute plague,

I actively avoid buying any game on Steam that's available for sale on another store because Steam Input's completely broken for my account and Valve's true colors have come to light when they won't refund you for games that their stupid mandatory DRM client has rendered unplayable using gamepads.

---

I have written a DLL to completely disable the evil that is Steam Input.

Highly recommended that you install it, and also boycott Steam in general for their anti-consumer practices.

https://github.com/SpecialKO/ValvePlug

Anti-consumer practices?

Did I miss something?

No. Not being able to disable Steam Input in the Steam client is anti-consumer.

The Steam client is required as DRM to launch games, but the DRM breaks controllers. The Steam client's input manipulation wasn't part of their DRM 20 years ago when we bought our games. That's value they subtracted from our games in the interim. Very much anti-consumer.

[Zwim]

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

And it very likely never will. This thing is an absolute plague,

I actively avoid buying any game on Steam that's available for sale on another store because Steam Input's completely broken for my account and Valve's true colors have come to light when they won't refund you for games that their stupid mandatory DRM client has rendered unplayable using gamepads.

---

I have written a DLL to completely disable the evil that is Steam Input.

Highly recommended that you install it, and also boycott Steam in general for their anti-consumer practices.

https://github.com/SpecialKO/ValvePlug

I am just discovering this rabbit hole after my brand new controller with dongle randomly does double inputs on dpad and face buttons (all buttons really). Was lucky I decided to test with a game outside Steam where this DOES NOT happen.

It's as if debounce on a mouse was missing. Felt like losing my mind trying to disable/enable Steam input, testing different settings and even testing "fire end delay" only to feel the controller sluggish while still experiencing the random double inputs (though less frequent).

I will make sure to test this when I get home and hope it solves my issue. I have previously used SpecialK as well but it was a bit over my head and long ago, so many many thanks for this. Will make sure to donate if it works!

[lsdninja]

Breaking a 5 month hiatus from this hellhole (my last post before this one was literally 10 minutes before Kaldaien made his announcement) to say this, but I’ll definitely be checking this out in the future. I’m currently taking a break from Steam in general that isn’t scheduled to end until at least December 2025/January 2026, but if/when I go back then this will likely be the second thing I set up (the first being the registry edits required to stop Steam from nuking changes to its URI handler so it won’t steal focus when I set it up to be launched and quit by Playnite).

Never forget that GabeN’s employer prior to him and Mike Harrington forming Valve was Microsoft. This is straight out of their playbook. You can take the man out of Microsoft, but you can’t take Microsoft out of the man.