The issue comes down to how the device interacts with your computer. Just like the original version, the new Steam Controller has no native Windows drivers. This means the hardware relies entirely on the Steam app to function properly. If you do not have the game running via Valve’s storefront app, your shiny new gamepad turns into a useless piece of plastic.
Gamers Nexus also reported this and there are a lot of other news outlets also covering this. It is kinda the same as with the steam deck where I noticed that the inputs just don’t work until steam is launched. I really don’t like that I have to have Steam running for this controller to work. I don’t know if it is a dealbreaker for me, yet, but it really put a damper on my enthusiasm about it
For me, the fact that your thumbs can touch when pressing the sticks to the middle is unfortunately enough for me to pass on this. Plus I hear the ergonomics of it doesn’t feel nice, pulling your elbows in to your body so you can hold it properly.
The controller requires some sort of drivers to get out of lizard mode and work as a general controller (with remapping and everything). This has been known as it acts identically to Steam Deck and the OG Steam Controller.
If you want to use the controller without Steam being used (which, it’s worth noting, you can add non-steam games to Steam to use the controller, or adjust the default desktop profile to be a normal controller), then you should be able to use SISR (formerly GloSC and GloSI): https://github.com/Alia5/SISR
Or, on Linux, use sc-controller: https://github.com/C0rn3j/sc-controller
Lizard mode?
The default mouse+keyboard layout the controller starts in before Steam takes over. I think they call it that as a play on the phrase “lizard brain”
Wait, this is a ‘problem’?
People didn’t know this?
… can people not read?
Its… stated repeatedly, pretty plainly, that it works … with Steam.
???
Its a problem that it works that way not that it wasent advertised. Sure it works with steam but im betting people expected it to work like a basic controller outside of steam as well like xinput. Even the Xbox controller does this. Yes theres an app you can get to use the extra functions but my elite controller works like a normal controller without that app especially because I mainly use linux now.
There are a lot of people who link controllers to their phone either to game on their phone or stream games to their phone and I do not think the controller would work in that case.
Edit for some clarification: Steam is required for the controller to work and it only works for games added to Steam according to the article this means that:
- You cant run games and use the controller outside of Steam
- You cant stream games from your own PC outside of SteamLink or use the controller as a controller for a phone or even any projects you might have.
This only accounts for a small amount of users sure but why should they be getting shafted when they dont have to be?
Where is really bad though is unless the driver is initialized on the log in screen what happens to your controller when you dont have internet? What happens when servers go offline or Valve decides to block your VPN or whatnot? Itll be a brick. I do not want to give any more credit to them I promise you but my Xbox and DualShock controllers work just fine in this situation. (I still do want a Steam controller but I do not want to reward this sort of behavior)
I would absolutely not want it to work as a controller outside Steam. In initial mode, aka lizard mode, it works as a keyboard and mouse because they want it to be able to boot your OS. That way you can even use it to manage your UEFI settings. Even in bluetooth mode, the og. SC works initially as a mouse. It’s designed for HTPCs after all.
If it works as a mouse and keyboard without Steam open then that would be fine but from what im reading so far it doesn’t do anything until steam is launched
You don’t want a controller to work as a controller?
Why? It’s what it’s for.
Ok, I didn’t downvote you, but…
Its a Steam Controller.
For Steam.
… If you just made up some expectation, contrary to everything that Valve has said about this thing, and marketed it as…
To a certain extent, that is magical thinking, that is abandoning any concept of checking your hopes or expectations against… reality.
If you… want to run… a game… with this controller…
You install Steam, and the game.
Steam is the drivers, for the controller.
If you own the game in a way that you can’t add it to Steam… sorry about your DRM, I guess?
The Steam Controller has always been described by Valve as an evolution of the Steam Deck tech, both hardwsre and software… it pretty much literally is a Steam Deck, without the screen and PC, in a different shape.
EDIT:
IRT to your edit:
Point 1: Correct. The Steam Controller… works through Steam.
Point 2: … I don’t think the first half of this is correct. I’m not 100% sure, but I think you can do this via Moonlight/Sunshine. I mean… I know you can in general stream Steam games from a PC using Moonlight/Sunshine, I’m not 100% sure this will work with a Steam Controller… but it works on a Steam Deck, so… probably will work.
As to the second half of this… yeah, the Steam Controller probably won’t generally work as a controller for a game on a phone. Though FeX may actually somewhat/eventually aid with getting that to being possible.
Any projects? Make your project support Steam Input. I can’t speak for other engines too well, but Godot has GodotSteam, supports Steam Controllers, the SteamInput system.
As to your internet related concerns: Steam has an offline mode. Unless you are running a game via Steam that has its own/extra DRM that requires a constant internet connection, you’ll be fine.
SteamInput works without internet. If it didnt’t, a SteamDeck’s controls would not work at all without internet access. … It does.
EDIT 2:
Just for super duper clarity here:
Making a Steam account costs nothing.
Maintaining a Steam account costs nothing.
Any … .exe or .sh or whatever… can be added to Steam, to be launched and played via Steam.
The… only kind of situation where this wouldn’t work is essentially via a game that is installed/managed by some other platform that basically encrypts the exe in a way that only that platform can decrypt.
A GOG game, or something from Itch.io, with no DRM?
Plop it in Steam, it’ll work.
Really well written out response, thank you! I havent streamed games from my PC in awhile but IIRC you connect the controller to your phone and it passes the inputs through to your PC as if the phone in the controller. I could be completely wrong on that but if true then Id think it would be quite problematic to get it to work if it required something proprietary, no?
Also for the project thing I was meaning less software and more electronics/robotics. Vavle didnt intend for the steamdeck to be used as a robotics controller but because of the nature/spirit of the Steamdeck people often use them as controllers. I think even Disney uses them to control some of the robots that move around their parks.
The full point is a peripheral you own shouldnt be tied to an account to work and a peripheral that does not provide the same functionality as other peripherals at or below its level should be criticized. Theres no reason for the drivers to not be a standalone download or at least for the basic functionality to work like any other xinput controller. I really like Valve but I think this move is still pretty stupid and ultimately harmful to the consumer. It steps away from the sorta open, not-supported-but-will-not-hinder-creativity theme theyve been doing with their recent hardware.
Remember the Spotify car thing?
You bring up a lot of good points, but something I would to add is that there is a reason why you wouldn’t want it to act like a standard xinput device without steam.
One big usecase for the steam controller is as the primary (and possibly only) input for a HTPC (such as the steam machine). So having the controller act as a basic keyboard and mouse without steam (ie: lizard mode) allows you to navigate menus that a standard controller can’t such as pre-boot Operating System menus or BIOS menus without having to breakout a keyboard and mouse.
As I am understanding it right now it doesn’t work that way though. Its just a plastic brick until Steam is launched. If it DID work that way that would be sick and I really hope I am wrong.
I think you are describing just one category of a way to stream, when you talk about connecting your controller to your phone, and then the phone acts as a wireless middleman to your PC.
You… can just directly, wirelessly, connect a controller to a PC via a 2.4ghz dongles, usb dongles, bluetooth connections… many ways to do this exist. The Steam Controller uses a usb dongle (which also doubles as a wireless charger for the controller when physically connected), and it also works via bluetooth (iirc).
Streaming is not the same thing as connecting a controller, not necessarily. You can stream the game rendering output from your PC to a TV, or to a phone, or to another PC… and you could do that over a local network, or you could do that from like a server farm across the internet, to a local device that doesn’t have to involve the controller, at all.
Like when you are watching a livestream … thats likely a phone camera or usb camera, streaming, live, to your device.
There are many different protocols and standards for streaming different kinds of content, to and from different kinds of hardware, via differing physical transmission methods, which may or may not support various kinds of input/output as well. Some of these are proprietary, some are open source, some work on some operating systems, specific hardware architecture (x86 vs ARM)… etc.
I do hear what you are saying when a proprietary tech is involved anywhere in the loop. Yes, it is always possible that one day, that could blow up in your face.
However, as best I am aware, SteamInput is a totally open standard… its sort of like a game engine where the source code is ‘available’, but it isn’t fully open to be freely modifiable.
You bring up robotics. You can make a robotics controller program in Godot, I’ve seen people do it. Godot also has an opensource plugin that supports SteamInput. So you could make a robotics project that works with a Steam Controller in that way. I’d say its pretty likely there are other game engines that support Steam Input as well, or other projects that do this in their own way.
But yes, it is always possible that Steam could become evil when Gabe retires/dies.
However, just as others have noted that proprietary designed Nintendo controllers have had people develop software for them that enables them to work on non Nintendo products… I would be amazed if that is not basically the case for the Steam Controller within a year or two, if it isn’t functionally already the case via stuff that’s been developed for the Steam Deck, that would only need updates.
Why does Valve not use a totally open universal standard?
Because no existing totally open universal standards supports all of the input and control functionality that the SteamInput system does.
Steam has a whole system of controller configs, hosted on Steam: A game publisher can issue an ‘official controller template’ for their games on Steam. Through Steam, users can tweak and customize and rebind keys and buttons and commands, and create their own controller templates for games… you can save these locally, tie them to your Steam account so they’ll work across devices, sort of like cloud saves, or, you can even publically upload these controller templates so that other users can use them, and then they can modify them, make their own version, etc.
Would all of this ideally be totally open source?
Yes.
But… Valve had to invent all of this, so they based it off of what they already had, that encourages people to use it with their platform, which is at least currently, a very open and featureful platform, at least as far as platforms go.
They are, after all, in a platform/console war, with other corpos, where said other corpos all have publically traded stocks and thus more money snd also investors they must please, whereas Valve does not.
Valve is not a third party, universal peripheral manufacturer.
They are a first party peripheral manufacturer.
Hopefully this reads less as an ‘I think this is totslly morally correct’ defense, than it does as an explanation.
Every comment thread longer than ten replies will include a variation of, “This isn’t new.”
Why would it support xinput? If it did then touchpads wouldnt work in that mode, gyro, gripsense, macros, and the back buttons. Also not a single valve product has ever supported xinput not the original steam controller or the steam deck, why would this suddenly be a massive departure?
It’s a problem when people don’t understand what they’re spending their money on. Steam can make their device do whatever the fuck they want, and “consumers” are fully within their rights to not buy it…
And we are able to freely criticize them about it. If any other company did the same people would be irate.
But these lemmings on the internet don’t like it if you criticise Lord Gaben.
I definitely believe theres some bias and rose tinted glasses going on here. I love Valve currently but people shouldn’t reward bad/sketchy behavior regardless of who it is.
I would really like to see Valve release some basic open standalone drivers to keep in the spirit of their other recent hardware.
Other companies do the exact same though, Nintendo controllers don’t support non-Nintendo devices (although they’ve been reverse-engineered for Steam and Linux).
… but the Steam Controller works with any hardware that can run Steam.
… which is… any PC, thats less than roughly 15-20 years old.
So this is absolutely not the exact same thing as what Nintendo does.
Steam is hardware agnostic. Nintendo is not.
You could run a Steam Controller on a Nintendo Switch, provided you got rid of Nintendo’s operating system, like so:
I did forget about Nintendo but to be fair, people hate the shit out of Nintendo. Microsoft and Sony controllers have been pretty plug and play for me though.
Other companies do do this… and people are fine with it,. Get a grip.
Sony and Xbox controllers are plug and play on almost any computer I’ve used and even some phones. What do you mean?
Nintendo, and it’s new to recent console generations that those controllers have crossplay because they found it more profitable to let PC players buy them.
You know this though…
And people rightfully criticize Nintendo. They criticize Nintendo for their other wrongdoings more because the controller thing is really just a drop in the hat.
Are you good? I dont think im being aggressive here but you’re coming off as really toxic.
Just pretend that that installing Steam is installing the driver software and you’re fine.
What’s that? Hmm? Oh, you say you don’t need an 3rd party account to install driver software?
Have you touched a windows PC in the last 5 years?
This should not be a problem on linux. The old controller has a basic linux driver included in the upstream kernel, and there is a userspace driver too called sc-controller which I have used.
It’s supposed to have Linux drivers. Fuck windows. No problem here.
Uh interesting 🤔 I will probably just wait and see if that is actually the case and working. Right now I have an xbox one controller with the wireless dongle for which I need to compile a kernel module to work and I’d like to get rid of that 😅
You should generally always wait and see with basically all tech products. There is never really a reason to buy freshly released products except for FOMO stupidity. Same applies to games.
Valve could easily release normal Windows drivers to fix this for everyone. There are doubts that they would do so, wanting to keep users firmly planted in their ecosystem.
Raise your hand if “your ecosystem” is built on free and open source software. Yeah. Literally no one else. STFU.
Steam isn’t FOSS…
based on
whoosh
Linux, my guy…
The steam app is not foss.
Is there an echo in here?
Just inside your skull.
Steam is Free and is Software; but it is not Free Open Source Software.
FOR FUCKS SAKE, I ALREADY SAID I WASNT TALKING ABOUT THE STEAM APP
I thought you had in mind SteamOS.
Me running Linux does not make me feel better when I have to run a pre-compiled binary from some (currently liked) company, valve could do better on this particular instance. How many people will actually run using the fully open source drivers? I’m guessing not most since it’s not the one valve provides (unless I read that wrong).
The man point is that it’s not a hardware lockout. The open-source userspace driver is a working proof of concept that the hardware will still work if you ditch steam.
Would I prefer it if they severed steam-input from the steam client and made it open source? Sure! But the community is not completely dependent on Valve.
What are you trying to say? Valve gets a free pass because SteamOS is based on Linux? How d’ya figure that one out?
Since the Linux drivers are open source wouldn’t it be possible for anyone to write a driver for another OS based on those?
As far as I understand, the original Steam Controller presented as an un-useful pair of HID devices by default, and someone wrote a 3rd-party open source driver for it. So, a similar poorly-supported situation to other hardware that the F/OSS community consistently and rightfully criticises.
Yeah, that’s true.
They got better with the Steam Deck. Without Steam running its controller acts like the desktop profile. By default you get keyboard and mouse controls and can switch to a generic gamepad mode by holding down the start button.
I expect/hope that it will be the same with the new controller. Maybe it’ll just use the Steam Deck’s driver. It has been upstreamed for quite a while now.
I’m saying there’s no “free pass” required because they’ll work on Linux.
Will they work properly on Linux? Will they work on a GOG game without installing Steam? Will they work on an alternative console or handheld?
If not then that sucks, and that is what they’re being criticised for. Why should anyone STFU about that? It seems like a serious flaw.
Yes.
How d’ya figure that one out?
It is kinda the same as with the steam deck where I noticed that the inputs just don’t work until steam is launched.
That’s just the moment when Steam is launching and in the process of taking over the controls. You can try it by shutting down Steam. The controller will continue working like the default desktop profile.
By default it presents mouse and keyboard functionality. And when you hold down the start button it switches to the pure gamepad mode. I play plenty of none-Steam-games that way. All with the native Linux FOSS driver. Without Steam or any other additional userspace software.
Oh interesting 🤔 So yeah maybe this isn’t actually a problem for me (using Fedora and the deck)
A long time ago I thought I had boot issues or a corrupted bios. Nope, the controller was plugged in and the system ignkred the actual keyboard until the steam controller got disconnected.
KEYBOARD ERROR - PRESS F1 TO PROCEED
I was hoping I could also use this thing with my Switch 2 and PS3 (with some input dongles if needed), but I assume that’s out of question now.
I’m still gonna get it, but only once I get a Steam Machine or another gaming PC. By then, this might go on discount too.
Why would you buy a steam controller and not use it with steam?
For the same reason I use PS3 and PS4 controllers to play PC games. I don’t even own a PS4. A controller should preferably be usable as a generic gamepad. Not that the PlayStation controllers necessarily are, on windows I always needed shady programs for that, but I’d expect better from Steam
Why would you drink rum out of a whiskey glass?
The whisky glass brings out more notes in the nose of the rum.
Maybe you received it as a gift or found it for cheap secondhand?
So gifts and second hand items should magically work in a way they weren’t intended to?
I plan on using this specifically with my docked Steam Deck, so I don’t mind. However, it’s a good point to make.
I don’t think it’s a big deal, though. The entire reason to buy this thing is for the integration with Steam Input and all the cool things you can do with the track pads, Grip Sense and everything else. Steam Input absolutely blows away any third-party input app I’ve ever used in the past from Logitech, Corsair, or whoever. I suppose to be fair, they should release a stand-alone Steam Input program.
If Apple did this, and required… I dunno… fuckin’ iTunes to run their Apple controller, I’d mock them and anyone who buys it, but I guess Valve gets a pass because I’m a fanboy.
I own one Epic game (Fenix Rising), and a few Humble games, and maybe a couple GoG, but 99.9% of the time I’m playing a Steam game anyway. I imagine the controller works fine for running a non-steam game that you’ve registered in your Steam Library.
It should really come with an XInput mode. That’s pretty much a basic feature for any PC controller.
I’m surprised people think this is odd since the original Steam Controller was the same - it’s a Steam Input device, not XInput.
If you consider what it was designed for, it makes sense. This isn’t another generic controller but a controller designed for a Linux/PC-based video games console (Steam Machine).
If you boot into a desktop UI without Steam running, desktop UIs don’t support xinput devices to navigate around them.
The Steam Controller thus defaults to presenting itself as a keyboard and mouse so that the UI can be navigated without Steam running.
If it was xinput, you’d be reaching for a keyboard and mouse to plug in just to click Steam and then immediately no longer need them.
That’s why it’s not an xinput device.
It makes sense for Valve trying to create a walled-garden ecosystem of the kind we all rightfully shit on Nintendo for creating. It does not make sense for the consumer.
If it needs to present a KB+M device for OS navigation, it can fucking well do so at the same time as presenting a game controller device and having a way, using its many inputs, to switch between the two. Then it would work on everything that works on Windows and Proton. Then it would work on XBox, and any console that works with standard USB HID devices.
It’ll have that on Linux like last time. You just need to set the uinput driver for the device. They had a generic gamepad one in the kernel for the OG. But not loaded by default as it’ll look like a kb&m out of the box unless you set a user-level driver config for the HIDs.
Valve were very supportive of Linux if people didn’t want to use Steam/Steam Input but other OS didn’t get their efforts beyond the Steam client.
The fact that this isn’t a new thing doesn’t mean that it’s a good thing. Especially since nowadays there are good third-party controllers with remappable buttons that can also switch to a KB/M functionality at the push of a button. Also, I paid 5,50€ for my brand new original Steam Controller, so Valve kinda has to convince me to spend about 18 times that. I don’t know if this is a dealbreaker for me, but I’d definitely consider it “not great”.
You should definitely use those alternatives and they sound superior.
At the end of the day, this is the Steam Machine’s controller and it’s designed for use in the Steam and Linux ecosystem. Its behaviour and lack of generic xinput is intentional.
Well, at the end of the day it still has a bit of a killer feature that other controllers don’t: the touchpads. If I buy it, it’ll be my secondary controller for playing FPS, CRPGs etc on my projector.
And yet DS4 and DS5 work, so that’s not even a good excuse.
All of the Steam Controller’s actually distinguishing features wouldn’t work with XInput though. If you’re not interested in that stuff you’d save money going for a basic Xbox controller or third party one.
I imagine it’s like the Deck where desktop mode has 2 modes so you can switch to use it for non-Steam games.
It’s at least available with the generic Linux driver. When Steam isn’t running you can switch between mouse/keyboard and gamepad mode by holding down the start button.
Ah, is it? I know that’s the case on Steam Deck, but it doesn’t seem to work on the old Steam Controller (just tried it) and I haven’t seen any confirmation by reviewers that the new controller has this function.
Have there been any linux specific reviews yet? I only saw the one from GN and they are new to linux and are focussing on windows still (main audience, so its understandable)
The ones I’ve read so far have been quite unspecific in regards to the OS they used. So statistically, they probably used Windows.
Of course I don’t know definitely if the new controller will work the same. But if I were Valve I would try to make it compatible with the existing Steam Deck controller driver since they are so similar.
Someone with energy could take a look at Valve’s kernel sources and look for changes in the controller area.
This is only off putting if there weren’t 3rd party apps and drivers, which there probably will be. Librepods made airpod premium features work on Android, no reason why it can’t be done here.
there were community build userland drivers for the original steam controller i hope for something similar for the new one.
but valve support for such things would be great.
This is a dealbreaker for me. I was tempted by it despite the price, but fuck this. I refuse to run everything through steam
I wonder what’s stopping them from releasing dedicated win drivers if the native ones are inadequate.
You can add non steam games to steam, not sure if this works with the controller or not but possibly something to look into. No idea how that kind of thing works on windows though as I haven’t used steam on windows
Yeah you can work around it, but it is still intentionally restricting you from just using it with non-steam games. I don’t want to have to play every game through steam, even though I intentionally bought it from GOG for example
You don’t have to play every game through Steam, switch to the controller action set in desktop mode and and it’ll work as a basic controller for any game.
It’s not a “work around” though, it’s how it’s supposed to be used
I guess it boils down to two options:
- Use the Steam controller and utilise workarounds to play games from other platforms. Is the controller that much nicer to justify the workarounds and the cost?
- Use a different controller that is compatible with everything. No janky solutions required, which is nice, but is the controller so much worse than the Steam controller that you feel like you’re missing out?
I wouldn’t call it an intentional restriction. Not trying to be a Steam apologist, but it would require extra work to make the controller use something other than Steam Input. Or to make a stand-alone Steam Input app. Not doing extra work is not what I would call a restriction. That’s like an Xbox controller not working on PlayStation because Microsoft didn’t put the extra work in to make it compatible. It’s not an intentional restriction. It’s just… extra work.
Ironically, both a PlayStation controller and Xbox controller work in Windows natively. But they don’t have all the fanciness of Steam Input. Steam Input is genuinely insane! I have a Steam Deck and the ways you can customize input are so finely detailed and powerful. They would have to make a standalone app to support all these features, or just give up and make a generic Xinput mode, which I don’t see the point of doing for such a powerful controller. It would be a waste. Just buy an Xbox controller.
I also don’t see it as a big deal to have to install Steam and register non-steam games in order to use the fancy Steam Controller. It’s free software, and you can configure it to start in your Library so you never even see any ads for games on sale. You just start your game, set up your controls perfectly, and you’re good to go. As a company having a near monopoly on PC gaming, Steam is pretty benevolent.
not sure if this works with the controller or not
It will, because of SteamInput
Thought it would, its been a while since I have done it but I think I do remember seeing options to configure the controller.
SteamInput basically allows you to map anythning to anything. You can also create all sorts of custom shit like radial menus, button toggles, macros, etc.
It’s really impressive actually.
I’m sure either the workarounds will get to be trivial, or Valve will make it work sans Steam. It just needs time to cook
Yep, same. I had money saved up since the announcement to buy the controller when it launches, but this is seriously making me consider just buying and Xbox controller instead
I’m still buying it, because this will fix the biggest hurdle for PC couch gaming for me.
I’m hoping the reviews are just poor and fail to test things properly or if a software update can provide basic functionality if this is all true.
Majority of my games are on Steam anyway, but for the occasional emulator that I don’t want to run through Steam…I’m hoping there’ll be some input to be recognized and I can map inputs manually.
Definitely a sucky situation for all of the GOG/third party launcher games people don’t have on Steam.
I don’t have the impression that supporting xinput/directinput is a time consuming effort. Yeah extra buttons and trackpad wouldn’t work, so what? The community will make something long term for Linux/Windows I have no doubt, but this was an easily avoided L on good will PR.
Personally doesn’t matter much to me, I have 8bitdo controllers already. After owning Steam Deck for years now I really want the trackpads and gyro wherever possible.
