RS and LS buttons on my gamepad no longer work as of the latest update

[Midas]

Wondering if anyone else is seeing this behavior. Last night everything worked fine, but today the thumb stick clicks of both my thumb sticks don't respond in steam games specifically. They work fine in non-steam games, but when I press them in a game on steam, nothing happens.

[Balderick]

What type of controller are you using?
What operating system are you using?
Which Steam games have you seen this issue with?

You seem to be describing a Steam Input bug as obviously the operating system you are using is detecting controller layout mapping like expected as controller would not work properly in non Steam games otherwise. Steam Input game configs seems to be switched off for your non Steam games.

Can you confirm controller is mapped like expected when you "define layout" in main controller settings after selecting detected controller?

Can you confirm Steam Input game configs for controller are mapped like expected for both non Steam games and Steam games?

[Midas]

Originally posted by Balderick:

What type of controller are you using?

You seem to be describing a Steam Input bug as obviously the operating system you are using is detecting controller layout mapping like expected as controller would not work properly in non Steam games.

Can you confirm controller is mapped like expected when you "define layout" in main controller settings after selecting detected controller?

Can you confirm game configs are mapped like expected for both non Steam games and Steam games?

It's a third-party Pro Ex ps3 controller, and to be clear I use it for a whole bunch of different steam games. Every soulslike I own, Monster Hunter games, etc, I use this controller for, and it worked fine until today.

After checking the configurations on the windows side, yes, all the buttons work and are condfigured correctly.

After checking on the steam side, the diagrams LOOK like they're all configured correctly, but since steam has no client-side system to let you actually test any of the controls, I can't check if they're working within the client.

However, I've tested 4 different games that I use this gamepad for normally, and in all cases the RS and LS buttons do not function. In all cases, the games all use the same configuration. I have no game-specific gamepad configs.

[Balderick]

Are you using any third party controller mapping software like DS4Windows?

Does Steam Input tell you are using an xbox type controller in main controller settings?

[Midas]

Originally posted by Balderick:

Are you using any third party controller mapping software like DS4Windows?

No.

[Balderick]

Does Steam Input tell you are using an xbox type controller in main controller settings?

[Midas]

Originally posted by Balderick:

Does Steam Input tell you are using an xbox type controller in main controller settings?

No, it recognizes that it's a PS3 controller in the settings and in the pop-ups when I go to play a game.

[Balderick]

Originally posted by Midas:

After checking on the steam side, the diagrams LOOK like they're all configured correctly, but since steam has no client-side system to let you actually test any of the controls, I can't check if they're working within the client.

If you go to settings > controller and select your controller you can "define layout" where when requested you click left and right stick buttons. If the value changes after ciicking Steam Input mapped your controller wrong. Sometimes Steam Input just loads a generic layout where all values in "define layout" are all shown as "..." which can cause issues in games until you define actual layout for your controller. Just follow the instructions on screen when defining layout.

After defining layout you get asked to save (upload) your controller layout and name it PowerA Pro Ex PS3 and save it as a PS3 type controller which will help with other things like games and Big Picture showing correct PS button prompts instead of xbox type button prompts.

[Midas]

Originally posted by Balderick:

Originally posted by Midas:

After checking on the steam side, the diagrams LOOK like they're all configured correctly, but since steam has no client-side system to let you actually test any of the controls, I can't check if they're working within the client.

If you go to settings > controller and select your controller you can "define layout" where when requested you click left and right stick buttons. If the value changes after ciicking Steam Input mapped your controller wrong. Sometimes Steam Input just loads a generic layout where all values in "define layout" are all shown as "..." which can cause issues in games until you define actual layout for your controller. Just follow the instructions on screen when defining layout.

This may be where the problem lies, but I'm not sure if it's a problem on my end, or abysmal coding on Valve's part.

If I go to define the buttons, the correct button is already defined, but pressing in the LS or RS to set it as the button doesn't work. If I clear the binding for either of those button, pressing LS or RS just does nothing. I can assign them to other buttons, but it seems the configuration is also ignoring those thumb stick buttons.

I tested re-defining a few other buttons to make sure nothing else was wrong, and only the RS and LS buttons have this problem.

[Balderick]

Yes these game breaking issues together with getting used to all the never ending changes to Steam Input ui plus all the other non game breaking bugs can be very frustrating. Steam Input worked awesome about a year ago.

If I go to define the buttons, the correct button is already defined, but pressing in the LS or RS to set it as the button doesn't work. If I clear the binding for either of those button, pressing LS or RS just does nothing. I can assign them to other buttons, but it seems the configuration is also ignoring those thumb stick buttons.

Valve recently readded the "define layout" feature. I think Steam Input now relies more on usb hid to auto define layouts for controllers and uses a whitelist/blacklist methodolgy to ignore controllers.

To get your controller working with Steam games you just need to tell Steam Input to "ignore device" in main controller settings which is a way gamers can temporarily blacklist that controller.


Another PS controller user also found enabling xbox controller configs and xbox extended feature driver in main controller settings was enough to get a working PS5 controller after Steam Input did not detect any controller. Which is not expected behaviour at all. Which helps show how bad Steam Input is handling PS type controllers just now.

Something deeper in Steam runtime is messing with controllers and the ui for Steam Input has no way to manage it/them new changes.

[Midas]

Originally posted by Balderick:

Yes these game breaking issues together with getting used to all the never ending changes to Steam Input ui plus all the other non game breaking bugs can be very frustrating. Steam Input worked awesome about a year ago.

If I go to define the buttons, the correct button is already defined, but pressing in the LS or RS to set it as the button doesn't work. If I clear the binding for either of those button, pressing LS or RS just does nothing. I can assign them to other buttons, but it seems the configuration is also ignoring those thumb stick buttons.

Valve recently readded the "define layout" feature. I think Steam Input now relies more on usb hid to auto define layouts for controllers and uses a whitelist/blacklist methodolgy to ignore controllers.

To get your controller working with Steam games you just need to tell Steam Input to "ignore device" in main controller settings which is a way gamers can temporarily blacklist that controller.


Another PS controller user also found enabling xbox controller configs and xbox extended feature driver in main controller settings was enough to get a working PS5 controller after Steam Input did not detect any controller. Which is not expected behaviour at all.

Currently I already have all other gamepads ignored except PS3, and the gamepad does work in the games, just these two buttons specifically don't. I'll play around with the others exclusively and see if it changes anything.

[Balderick]

Simply disconnecting all those other controllers when testing might help you see there are more than one Steam Input related issue going on here.

Something else worth checking out is to see if you can find if there is a firmware update available for your controller.

Hopefully a Valve dev sees your post and can reproduce your issue.

[Midas]

I didn't see any problems with it. Disabling all controllers but one just resulted in my controller not working at all unless it was set to PS3 specifically. I also tried just turning them all on, and it didn't fix the issue. I also tried turning them all on and then using the game's local gamepad settings to only use my PS3 controller, and it still didn't fix it.

[Balderick]

Disabling all controllers but one just resulted in my controller not working at all unless it was set to PS3 specifically.

You confirmed your operating system sees controller correctly. Disabling controller in Steam Input will make it not work with Steam Input but will work in Steam games. Which is likely related to as why it works like expected in non Steam games. Hiding controller from Steam Input lets operating system speak to Steam games directly without Steam Input being involved at all.
Your controller should work in xbox type too. Just like i can set PS type controller for xbox contrroller. i dont have a PS type controller to help test as my THrustmaster T500 RS wheel and pedals (which is a PS licensed device) no longer gets detected by Steam Input as xbox controller like they used to. I used to just set PS3 type controller to map wheel butytons and wheel base buttons in "define layout" and then save as PS3 type to get it working like it was connected to PS i.e. see proper PS prompts in Big Picture but tell game Steam INput config to switch Steam Input off to let it work in games.

[Midas]

Originally posted by Balderick:

Disabling all controllers but one just resulted in my controller not working at all unless it was set to PS3 specifically.

You confirmed your operating system sees controller correctly. Disabling controller in Steam Input will make it not work with Steam Input but will work in Steam games.

It didn't seem to work for me. If I go to Settings>Controller>General Controller Settings and uncheck 'Playstation Configuration Support', the gamepad no longer works at all in the games.

[Balderick]

ahh my bad. I thought you were speaking about my suggestion in post #7 about saving "defined layout" as PS 3 type controller. But you need to do that as well, if you do try saving layout as PS type.

Does Steam Input tell you are using PS type controller in main controller settings? i think controllers need to be set to dinput mode (if it can on windows) for that to happen automatically. Unless you manually defined it like i suggested in post #7 i.e. changed what Steam Input detects automaticalkly (usb hid) as xbox type controller

Some games do detect and use dinput controllers on windows. Which is another related issue being reported by Steam users where controller doesnt work at all in game when using Steam as well.