On the Steam Controller I use the touchpads for

• consistent 180 turns
• quick switching between items/abilities
• movement

With all the swiping and clicking I do in combination with the back button usage the touchpad placement led to putting strain on my hands. I don’t feel that discomfort with the joysticks, which feel comfortable in its placement and reachability of all the inputs around it.

And the 180 consistency I have hard time replicating with my natural swipe pattern despite adjusting the rotation in Steam Input, so I have to do corner to corner swipes due to Valve going with a square over a circle. The layout is one where I’m having to force my hand out of what would naturally feel comfortable.

I would be so happy if that happened, but I think Valve has moved away from touchpad centric layouts. I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t touchpad enthusiasts involved

There’s little signs here and there with the placement and shape, but also signs that people at Valve don’t use stuff like dpad modeshift with an inverted outering bind for 5 click inputs over the default 1 click that long time Steam Controllers love. With the biggest sign coming from not separating soft press and regular click for the touchpads in the new Steam Input.

Leading to having to use stuff like action layers on the Deck because regular click pressure can’t be set without soft press to set up the touchpad for 5 click functions. Not ideal with how action layers can sometimes get stuck between layers. https://imgur.com/a/b1wyHEK

Checking the configs I have uploaded and another game I have is Spin Rhythm XD if you have it. It’s named “Pad and Gyro for Steam Controller” in the community config. The gyro is set to activate on right pad touch, but I recommend switching it to always on.

I might go and upload my left 4 dead 2 config too when I have time since that’s a game lot of people have. You may need to lower the gyro sensitivity if you aren’t used to using it.

The configs people come up with can be really unique from user to user which is why the ones who came to like the Steam Controller have a really hard time finding a controller that matches the functionality they become used to. Since the usual default console controller experience doesn’t do it for them anymore.

Yeah, I find the controller disappointing as a Steam Controller user because I want a new touchpad centric controller for updated gyro with the old one not feeling smooth for high refresh rate displays.

The approach they went with is one that satisfies joystick users who aren’t really lacking for options when it comes to joystick controllers, but disappointing for the few half dozen users who main the touchpads and have only the option of the discontinued Steam Controller. The Deck pads were a let down for me with the ergonomics, placement, size, and shape so they didn’t end up being a good touchpad successor for my use case opting for the joysticks when I use the Deck.

I’m not surprised with the more mainstream direction they went. Just disappointed but I expected to be disappointed.

I use the Steam Controller for games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc.

Using steam input is a requirement to get the most out of it.

This is my basic approach for most games.

• Mapping mouse to touchpad and adjusting sensitivity to 180
• Mapping mouse (beta) to gyro and adjusting sensitivity until 90 degree turn of the controller turns in game camera 675 degrees for first person/450 for third person
• Setting up a dpad modeshift on right touchpad click and inverting outer ring so I can set the touchoutput 5 different actions depending on if I click up, down, left, right, center as opposed to only a solitary single click action. If I need more I set up a chord so holding left grip shifts the same actions into another set of 5 inputs. I got for Dead Zone: 181919 and Outer Ring Binding Radius: 16750 when it comes to values in the new Steam Input.
• Setting movement to left pad and and setting an outer ring sprint bind on it and mapping crouch/slide/dash actions on click

I saved the template for gamepad bindings for games that support mixed input and full mouse and keyboard for ones I don’t. So I don’t have to go through the whole thing all the time. I just apply my template and then just switch the bindings around and adjust the sensitivity.

If you want to try out a config I have one uploaded for the Finals called “dualpad with gyro update…” Some changes you’ll want to make to the settings is Mouse sensitivity to 20, mouse focal length sensitivity 106, swap ping and emote in game, change sprint and crouch to hold, and obviously turn off aim assist. Holding the right start buttons switches into an action set I use when playing light where left grip is crouch as opposed to a chord modifier like in the default and left pad click is for dashing and grappling. Default action set clicking the left pad is crouch/slide and left grip changing the right pad clicks to gadget switching.

I love my Steam Controller. I still use it majority of the time over my playstation, nintendo, and xbox controllers because of the touchpads.

But, I didn’t like using the touchpads on the Deck because of the size, shape, and orientation making it a regression for maining the touchpads for the games I play. So not surprised by the leak, since Valve would obviously be better off focusing on making the ergonomics better for joystick users than touchpad users. Still let down because it’ll mean for touchpad focused users like me Steam Controller is the only touchpad centric controller on the market with great ergonomics, size with 40mm concave pads, and circular shape for more consistent swipes.

But, it is discontinued and the gyro feels aged compared to the options out there. Will still be using it though from the looks of it for years to come hoping for an eventual dual pad centric controller from some niche group.

Yeah, I’ve been playing lot of 2d platformers on my Deck or button mashers like the Yakuza collection where I’m less likely to miss touchpads.

One of the things noticed when trying to set up an edge to edge swipe output a 180 was how inconsistent it turned out to be unless I changed the rotational angle to be corner to corner. Which is even less ergonomic than swiping naturally. Smaller surface area probably made the 180 less consistent too with how much further the camera moves with small movements.

I use dual touchpads for games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc.

I’d be sad to lose the left track pad since I use it for movement in games like Dying Light and Finals.

Touchpad is great for turns. Example here of 180 turn demo with my Steam Controller. And I use that with gyro to play games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc without aim assist.

Some functionality that keeps me using the Steam Controller has been touchpads for movement, quick gadget swapping with touchpads, quick 180s/gyro activation with touchpads.

I use it to play games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc.

Sadly I don’t find myself doing the same on the Steam Deck opting for the joysticks instead, since I don’t find the placement, smaller size, square versus circle, and flat surface versus concave offering the type of consistency that I use the touchpads for on the Steam Controller. It feels more a touchpad appropriate for slow paced games or just desktop navigation than optimal for the way I use the touchpads on the Steam Controller. And I don’t see Valve delivering on the touchpad end that I would like with the next Steam Controller with all the inputs it would be fitting in.

I’m the minority that wishes the controller would have the same layout for the touchpads with it being large, circular, concave, and in the same upper positions.

I use dual touchpads on the Steam Controller to play games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc.

But, on the Deck I did not find the touchpad good for those games due to the shape, size, and placement so it turned out as being as useful as the dualsense with it becoming more a joystick controller than a touchpad controller I wanted to use in the same way I use the Steam Controller. Been hoping for years for a proper Steam Controller with upgraded gyro and 2 additional grips, but looks like it’ll never happen even if Valve came out with a new controller when it comes to a dual touchpad controller I want to use. Would be more a xbox/sony controller alternative.

If strong aim assist is present then that can outperform gyro, but that also can outperform a lot of mouse users to the point that even PC lobbies have mouse users abandoning mouse for aim assist supported inputs. So it depends on the level of aim assist. But, with aim assist removed from the equation gyro is better than joysticks and is surprisingly usable against mouse players despite the absence of auto aiming.

Do you encounter the same issue in desktop mode too?

I tried it on my steam deck and was able to apply my custom template to another game in the normal Steam Deck mode so I wonder if maybe the config is corrupted? Maybe make a simple test config template to check out if it applies to other games is worth trying before making your main config from scratch again.

Simplest way I think is saving the controller layout as a template and then you should be available to see in all games when you go to templates.

I do this for the Steam Controller where I saved a general template to use across games so I don’t need to reconfigure every single part from scratch.

It is stable.

Steam Input for use with my steam controller and playstation controller for gyro controls. Particularly love the dual touchpads for movement and camera controls and extra click inputs over a single joystick click. I can’t deal with default control schemes anymore when it comes to controllers after becoming reliant on the amount of customization Steam Input provides, since it goes beyond a simple remapping with layers, modeshifts, chords, touch menus, action sets, etc.

Linux support that reduces need to fiddle around with settings and mess with lutris type tools and more devs putting in the time to try to be Steam Deck certified. Even when it doesn’t run well on the Deck for more demanding titles there is still benefit for more powerful systems and future Steam Deck follow up.

Existence of Steam forums and guides has come in useful for help and has popped up on search results that I wasn’t able to find on pcgamingwiki, so reddit isn’t the main place I need to rely on. Been a way to also try to reach devs without having to use reddit or twitter.

Steam workshop. I do use nexusmods, moddb, etc. But, sometimes just having it integrated into Steam makes it convenient.

Other launchers are more like comparing a dumbphone versus a smartphone where if all someone wants to do is make calls and text that is fine, but for those that have become accustomed to Steam launcher features beyond launching games there needs to be more done by competitors. Having to use stuff like GLOSSI to try and utilize Steam Input when using third party launchers, or have to fall back to syncthing to try and sync saves from other launchers when using Steam Deck just makes the lack of Linux and custom controller support apparent.

Looks like there isn’t one yet even though there is for Steam Deck and Switch. Gulikit did say they want to make some for the dualsense edge first before the dualsense on twitter.

https://nitter.net/GuliKitDesign/status/1617344363218243585

Did you end up fixing it yourself with hall sensor joysticks?