Warframe on the Steam Controller

This is a guide to show how I use the Steam Controller in Warframe and my Config. It is made to help people who are either new to the controller or new to using it with warframe.Even those proficient with it can benefit from knowing how other people configure it for this game.

Intro/ Skip if you want my config

Why You Should Use The Steam Controller With This Game

The Steam Controller is an interesting piece of technology, it fits in the gap between twin stick controllers and a mouse and keyboard. It is polarising to those that do have an opinion on it. Those that like it usually say it is the best thing ever and a gift from god. Those that hate it call it clunky and cumbersome, with too much to configure and riddled with software glitches. In truth I think Both sides have a point. I fall mainly into the camp of the former, and think the controller is something the PC platform needed for a while and didn't realize. This controller fills a niche that hasn't found itself yet. I have played video games all my life and I started on console (N64 was my first, gamecube and Ps2 a year after that), however I also gamed on PC in my childhood as well. I could see that PC had more options with KB and mouse, and I could also see that Consoles had wider apeal due to the low barrier to entry even in regards to the learning curve of the control method. I also believe that even with the limited amount of functions there are some aspects of the average twin stick controller that are more suited for gaming than the keyboard or the mouse. The features that come to mind are the analog sticks and the analog triggers. These are tools that keep Keyboard and mouse users from experiencing entire genres if they lock them selves out of pulling out an X input controller once in a while. I always thought that adding some sort of pressure sensitive buttons on a mouse and having a keyboard with an analog stick like this weird thing




would bridge the gap and make one input method that is the jack of all trades.as it turns out neither of those really worked in a way that combined the best of both methods. Then BOOM Valve announces this stupid looking thing in 2013 to the dismay of Half Life fans everywhere.I was interested in the concept of trackpads instead of thumbsticks but I thought that the original design was the dumbest looking controller I'd ever seen. but as time passed and they showed the updated design I became more and more interested in actually trying the thing. I have tried a lot of different input methods and didn't really think this thing would be used for much other than trying a few valve games or something. AND MAN was I wrong. I fell in love with the design of the hardware and even more with the software. This thing was able to play any game I threw at it with ease. I was honestly shocked by how well it was able to do this.. I've used xpadder with a 360 controller and always felt limited by the amount of buttons and the accuracy of the sticks but with the amount of buttons and the software valve made for the Steam Controller it is astonishingly powerful. I expected the trackpads to be the most revolutionary thing on this bulky new toy but to my suprise I actually found that the gyroscope, dual stage triggers and back grips were the biggest additions to this thing. I always felt like even with the trackpads the Steam Controller would never come close to a mouse but with the gyroscope it kinda does. You can be as precise as you want as well as doing those fast 180 turns only possible with the free input of a mouse or trackpad,and more importantly you can do this if you are more comfortable with a controller than a keyboard and mouse. I know that people will argue that the keyboard and mouse is still better for competitive and honestly they are sorta right. However that goes right into my point and the point of this guide. I think that the Steam Controller is FUN. I think using the steam controller is the funnest way to play A LOT of games and Warframe especially. If you like controllers more than KB + M and want to play as well was the best or you want to have analog input or you are developing carpal tunnel from too much bunny hopping and rocket jumping then I think you should give this controller a shot. But enough of explaining why you should use it, lets go into the how.

My settings

This config is playable even if you changed your controls around since it's a game with native support however I use some settings that affect the controls that you should know about if you try my config out. My config works with any of the settings being changed except toggle sprint being on.

My sensitivity is 4 arrow key presses to the right of the lowest setting on all the bars for mouse. This works the best for my config in my experience. If you want to try my config the way I use it without losing your sensitivity go to your setting and press F6(or hold A on my config) it'll save a screenshot to /Pictures/Warframe on the drive it's installed on.

Gameplay

This is gonna have advice I learned from using the steam controller for a little over a year now. Obviously if you prefer to use it differently then go ahead, but this is in my opinion the most efficient way to use the controller. First of all on the controller you have the two trackpads, the face buttons (A,B,X,Y) one analog stick, two bumpers, two trigger, and finally two buttons on the back that many refer to as the grips. On the average config you would use the right trackpad for aiming and the analog stick for moving and the rest can be whatever you want. However for this guide I will explain my config and why I put the controls where they are.

The Config

You can download my in the community configs, It's "Steam Desktop Mode by Tombwraith" My name changes every other day to some stupid ♥♥♥♥ so I gotta put it in the config name.
Steam DB Link[www.steamcontrollerdb.com]


There are 6 action sets, Launcher, Game, Melee Mode, Menu, Decoration, and Lunaro.
For now we'll just talk about the main two for gameplay; Game and Melee Mode


My config is called "Steam Desktop Mode by Tombwraith". This is because i don't use big picture mode like many do with the steam controller because it has some problems, especially in this game. The problems can include Steam crashing, Big Picture mode freezing, having an objectivley worse interface, not being able to use in game chat without a stupid slow blue keyboard blocking the entire screen, worse performance, and generally being less useful. I have a config that uses radial menus (which are little on screen displays that show what input you are about to use on the screen) in big picture mode and it works just as well in game but I feel that radial menus and touch menus aren't worth all the hassle that comes with big picture mode, especially if you can't use the in game chat without covering your screen in blue and waiting for the slow ui to finish.

Game

Game is the config that is used for Primary and Secondary weapons as well as when you are unarmed (at your ship and relay and such). This config uses a few activators (alternate actions to a button that can be either long pressing it, double pressing it, pressing it down but not letting go, and letting go of the button, those last two are rarely used so don't mind them too much.)


The right pad is predictably used for movement but pressing it down is used for jump instead of any other action so that you never have to let your thumb off the right pad unless it's to readjust after moving your thumb too far in one direction.This is important so that you are always aiming just like how you would use a mouse. You actually rarely have to pick your thumb up to center yourself because whenever the touchpad is in contact with your finger it activates the gyroscopic sensor in the controller. This is by far the hardest thing to get used to but I URGE you to try. if you master the use of the gyro you can become as proficient in aiming as the average mouse user if you try hard enough. Now the other action that this pad does is reloading when you double tap it (not pressing it down, tapping softly). This works for me but it takes some getting used to if you don't want to fling your camera around like you're having a seizure from all the bloom and bad color correction. I also set the haptics of the pad and Gyro to low because after the novelty wears off you can sorta do better without it as well as not waking up the neighbors with the buzzing sound.

The buttons are used for actions that while important aren't used in heavy action as much as most of the other controls. This is because taking your thumb off the right pad means you're not aiming which is fine for the actions on the face buttons. (Y) is switch weapons obviously, makes sense to be there. (X) is context action which means most things that prompt you to press X. (B) is for reversing the camera which is more useful than it sounds sometimes. And finally (A) is showing the level map (making it cover like half your screen) for the normal press and if you hold it down it takes a screenshot so you can share your sick fashionframe skills.

The stick is for movement as you would expect but there's a little twist. There are for the most part three speeds of movement in warframe. Walking, which is done by slightly tilting your stick. Running, which is done by tilting it all the way. and sprinting which is usually done by holding a button down or pressing it if you have toggle on. However in this config it is set so that when the controller reaches a certain level (close to the apex of the stick but not all the way) that you start sprinting. this comes with a few advantages over toggle sprint. First of which is it doesn't get disabled by anything in game unlike the in game toggle, if it ever does get disabled it's super easy to just push the stick back a bit and push it foward to start sprinting again. Second is that the haptic feedback will let you know when you start sprinting. I set pressing the stick down to be push to talk which is 'C' for me.

For the left pad I put powers there but theres a bit of a catch. Powers activate by you touching one of the 4 regions of the controller WITHOUT pressing the pad down. If you hold your finger on the pad without pressing it you will hold the power down, which is used in frames like Ivara and Vauban. When you press the pad down it activates a turbo mode of the ability you press. This is SUPER useful for frames that have some abilities that act only on targets like Trinity, Valkyr, Loki, etc. I also have the middle of the pad set to activate Focus Schools&Operator Mode when you press it down all the way.It's weird to get used to the timing of the holding and pressing of the middle but once you do it works well enough.

Now for the triggers. The Left acts as the standard aim on soft press, which means as soon as you press it even a little. The small amount of force required to activate it allows you to pop in and out of aiming faster than pressing it further. It is mostly the same case for the right trigger except I put a sort of turbo mode on the hard press of the trigger. this only works if you press it fast enough to not activate the soft press, which is actually not that hard once you are used to it. The repeat rate allows you to use semi auto weapons comfortably and without strain.

For the bumpers I made the right bumper secondary fire, which while not used on may weapons is useful enough to warrant a whole button. I also bound placing a marker on the left bumper because it is useful as hell for teamplay. I chose not to bound anything I use as frequently shooting of crouching or melee to the bumpers because personally I don't like the stiffness of them for constant use.

However I do like the feel of the grips for common actions. I bound melee to the right grip and crouching to the left. I put them on the grips because your fingers will always be on them and they are actions that you need to be able to use while aiming, jumping and moving. There's not really a reason for why i chose for them to be right or left other than preference.

The start button does what you expect. Select opens Item popup and emotes for when you need to style on them hoes. If you hold it down you get the results screen which can show you how much resources you have, what mods you picked up and how little damage you are doing compared to the group cause you suck at using this controller.

Melee

Melee is basically the exact same except since you don't have aiming and shooting the left trigger is to block while the right it to attack, using the same mechanism for turbo. The right grip also still does melee so that i don't get confused.

Menus / Other

Menu

This is just for basic navigation mainly with the mouse and clicking around.
It uses soft pulls for the clicks on the triggers

Launcher

This is for when DE messed up and the game was unplayable on the steam controller

Decoration

I don't use this much so I think It's just default with a bit of tweaks

Lunaro

Conclave doesn't work on the SC right now but I think it might be because I don't have a config for Lunaro so I'll test that when i feel like enduring the boredom that is Warframe pvp

Going Foward/ DE support

Your Own Config

If you used my config I encourage you to change it up and build on it to suit you. I made it just for me and made this guide after I explained to friends I know that have seen me using the config how i do it and why it's set up this way. I hope that if you used my config you liked it and had fun with the SC.

Issues

Now as much as I love the Steam Controller there are some serious issues with it and warframe. Some of these stem from steam or big picture mode but most come from Warframe itself. One of the biggest issues is that conclave is unplayable on the Steam Controller. I don't care about conclave but I do think it should be playable on the SC at least. The problem is identified as well. It's because the action set doesn't switch properly and goes to decoration instead of game or melee. This happens a lot in this game with other things as well. When the War Within released you couldn't play the game at all unless you set your launcher to be a gameplay config (which mine still is in case it happens again). There also needs to be another major action set in my opinion. Archwing. Archwing has it's own control tab in the options but not an action set? De even added an action set for lunaro when it released which shows that they can. I know the Steam Controller isn't the most popular input method but I hope enough people get on board to get more support in this game and many others.

Side note

Feel free to add me in game if you need any help with the SC or just farming
IGN: Tombwraith2

[Meowpatine]

Hey I need help. But I can't add you

[Sharp Wit]

Is it still available? I can't see the config in community tab

[snail]

Thanks for sharing this! Getting back into Warframe with the SC this time and looking forward to using this as a starting point. I agree with learning how to use the gyro!

[Non-Employee]

If you don't mind me asking, have you thought about using the new Steam feature to post a link to your config? I remember looking for the config and never finding it, and SteamDB rarely ever works for me -.-

[Silicon Asperge]

thank you, awesome ;)