Overlay has been breaking the Controller for weeks.

[Roland]

ISSUE
For the last couple weeks if I use the Steam overlay in Desktop mode while I am using my Dualsense via Bluetooth, randomly upon closing the overlay controller inputs are no longer sent to the game. A restart of the game does not fix it and only restarting all of Steam seems to fix it; though it's worth noting Chord commands still work, only the in-game commands stop responding.

OS
Windows 11

STEPS
Connect a controller via Bluetooth
Launch any game via Desktop mode
Open the overlay and chat with a friend or something
Close the overlay

RESULTS
Sometimes, but not every time, the controller stops responding to game inputs but I can still use Chorded buttons like using the PS button + Right Stick to move my mouse.

EXPECTED
The Controller should not be affected by the opening and closing of the Steam overlay.

[The One True Hoff]

Same issue with an official ps4 controller using usb and a PowerA Enhanced Wired Nintendo Switch edition controller.

I had to fresh install Steam a few days ago after a hard drive died, and this began immediately after.

[Roland]

Originally posted by The One True Hoff:

Same issue with an official ps4 controller using usb and a PowerA Enhanced Wired Nintendo Switch edition controller.

I had to fresh install Steam a few days ago after a hard drive died, and this began immediately after.

it's been happening to me for like 3 months now. I'm so so so very sick of it.

[Cadhylo]

Yep, can confirm. Driving me nuts...

[Roland]

It now happens to me anytime I alt-tab away from Starship Troopers Extermination.
literally every single time I alt-tab and tab back controller can't find the focus again and I have to restart the entire client.

I used to love this platform, and have even been foolish enough to defend it in the past, but man, wtf... And if you try to contact Steam support they say "we will not help with the beta and go post in the Beta Client Discussions" (I'm paraphrasing very very slightly)

[SMGJohn | Citizen of USSR]

Can confirm DualShock 4 and Xbox Elite controller both teethered via USB.

The only solution to this is disabling steam overlay for games you want to use controllers, this is ridiciules and was a problem in the beta and still persists in the "stable" release.

Other alternatives is to use Big Picture with a controller but this should not be necessary like at all!

[Roland]

Originally posted by SMGJohn (Communism is our God):

Can confirm DualShock 4 and Xbox Elite controller both teethered via USB.

The only solution to this is disabling steam overlay for games you want to use controllers, this is ridiciules and was a problem in the beta and still persists in the "stable" release.

Other alternatives is to use Big Picture with a controller but this should not be necessary like at all!

It happens in Big picture too, so that isn't even a solution

[Chocolate]

Yes this is driving me nuts. This is happening to my wired steam controller and my friend's xbox controller too. Something is up with the overlay, tabbing out, or both. But it is breaking the controller input and requires a full steam restart to work again. This is happening in both the beta and the current live build.

[Roland]

Originally posted by Xenophobe:

may want to reconsider marking the topic as answered, since the issue is unresolved.

Yea thanks for that, I just wanted to highlight that response because it's a nice plain language summary of the issue. I forgot for a sec that that would cause them to ignore it most likely cuz they'll see it answered.

[Drex]

When this gets stuck, one thing you can do, is try alt tabbing out with the guide chord, and after something on the desktop is in focus, alt tab back with the controller again. Emphasis on doing it with the controller, not with the keyboard. It losing functionality is probably because it's losing track of the profile somehow, sometimes that seems to get it to check it properly again.

That being said though there's definitely a bug where it just stops loading profiles right entirely and I usually have to restart Steam to fix it, that's been an on going thing since the new BPM beta though they really need to figure out what's doing that one.

[Roland]

Originally posted by Drex:

When this gets stuck, one thing you can do, is try alt tabbing out with the guide chord, and after something on the desktop is in focus, alt tab back with the controller again. Emphasis on doing it with the controller, not with the keyboard. It losing functionality is probably because it's losing track of the profile somehow, sometimes that seems to get it to check it properly again.

That being said though there's definitely a bug where it just stops loading profiles right entirely and I usually have to restart Steam to fix it, that's been an on going thing since the new BPM beta though they really need to figure out what's doing that one.

That's a negative good buddy, this does not work for me.
I tried both my alt + tab chord combo, and my Win + D chord combo. Neither work.

Also I'm not so sure about your theory; it still shows the proper profile, with the correct mappings, in the BPM overlay. When a profile doesn't load, which I have seen in the past, all mapping are blank/just dashes.

Thanks for tryin though. Now I gotta go restart my client just to play some more We Love Katamari

[Drex]

Originally posted by Roland:

Originally posted by Drex:

When this gets stuck, one thing you can do, is try alt tabbing out with the guide chord, and after something on the desktop is in focus, alt tab back with the controller again. Emphasis on doing it with the controller, not with the keyboard. It losing functionality is probably because it's losing track of the profile somehow, sometimes that seems to get it to check it properly again.

That being said though there's definitely a bug where it just stops loading profiles right entirely and I usually have to restart Steam to fix it, that's been an on going thing since the new BPM beta though they really need to figure out what's doing that one.

That's a negative good buddy, this does not work for me.
I tried both my alt + tab chord combo, and my Win + D chord combo. Neither work.

Also I'm not so sure about your theory; it still shows the proper profile, with the correct mappings, in the BPM overlay. When a profile doesn't load, which I have seen in the past, all mapping are blank/just dashes.

Thanks for tryin though. Now I gotta go restart my client just to play some more We Love Katamari

Oh it's not going to show you the wrong one in there, if something like that happens it'll just get stuck in the wrong one, you'd have to look at the controller UI's log to see what's really happening. What's loaded and where it shows it to you are different things. Though I'm having issues using the overlay at all atm now, something in a recent beta is making the overlay completely unresponsive for me. It visually is there but like, nothing can be interacted with. Restarting is fixing it, but it usually doesn't stick for loooong. But that's another new issue I guess.

[austinp_valve]

If folks can post the output of the controller_ui.txt log from the Steam/logs folder that'd be helpful in tracking down the issue.

[Roland]

Here's my https://pastebin.com/2ytUdqk2 and my https://pastebin.com/z2rAHh3V

[austinp_valve]

Can you post the timestamps that you had the bug roughly occur at?

[Drex]

Oh since this got your attention Austin, I haven't seen this happen to me in a bit, though it's probably more because I'm playing more PC-ish games lately, but I think what's causing some of this is some kind of weird loading issue or something.

I noticed in the past when I lost complete control of things until I restarted Steam, that the "last resort" profile was being loaded and at that point nothing ever quite worked right. I noticed this happening a lot starting months ago, back when new BPM was deploying in beta. It's been a thorn in my foot for a while. It seems to be something related to something that changed with the big new BPM UI.

But that being said I looked through these logs and I see they also both have certain points where this starts to occur, so it might very well related to that somehow. For example the lines like these:

[2023-07-04 16:47:40] Could not load local selection (), local override (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam/controller_config/basicui_gamepad.vdf), or user path (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\25111447\config/controller_configs/basicui_gamepad.vdf), checking last resort path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam/controller_base/basicui_gamepad.vdf

[2023-07-04 16:47:40] Loaded Config for Last Resort Path for App ID 769, Controller 0: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam/controller_base/basicui_gamepad.vdf