8BitDo announces it's controllers now have Steam/SteamOS compatibility
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I just got their ultimate 2 wireless today. It's really nice and works very well on Linux. I just wish their app worked at least through wine. I couldn't even make it work in a Windows VM. Hope they bring it over.
Having the same issue and I don't know how to update to the latest firmware without the app.
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Ultimate 2. It’s got a gyroscope and back paddles.
Is there a symmetrical version, like a PS controller, or just the Xbox-like layout?
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Nice, thanks. How has your docked experience been? I've only been able to get it working well with low-power games like Monster Train. Any 3d game seems to run horribly, even older titles.
Recent updates have caused some crashes actually when docking to my TV, but I'm on beta OS updates and have a lot of deck plugins, so it might not be affecting other people.
Other than that docked play is pretty good in my experience. There's a major performance hit if you have upscaling set to use fsr though, especially on 4k monitors.
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These controllers were all working on SteamOS before as far as I know, so I'm interested to see what this changes. My understanding is that previously their controllers just show up as generic xbox controllers, and now they will be properly recognized. We'll see if this has any other benefits like custom bindings for back buttons and things like that.
Edit:
According to @[email protected]
got the 8bitdo Ultimate 2 wireless controller with the latest firmware update, and can confirm dinput mode lets me map the back buttons and extra bumpers to different inputs through Steam Input. Analog triggers and gyro work too.
I really wish you could swap the buttons easily to match the system. The 8-bitdo controllers tend to have the Nintendo layout which kind of sucks because most games don't support that they use Xbox. And then of course if you get into emulation nothing will match the PlayStation so I either need several controllers around or to memorize locations
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Recent updates have caused some crashes actually when docking to my TV, but I'm on beta OS updates and have a lot of deck plugins, so it might not be affecting other people.
Other than that docked play is pretty good in my experience. There's a major performance hit if you have upscaling set to use fsr though, especially on 4k monitors.
Interesting, I'll have to play around with it. I've been docking it to my 4k TV so maybe I need to force a lower res.
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Interesting, I'll have to play around with it. I've been docking it to my 4k TV so maybe I need to force a lower res.
That's usually ok if you're not using fsr, but for the deck I personally recommend capping the external display resolution at 1080p.
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That's cool to see but I've gone through about 3 8bitdo controllers (gave the last one to my partner). I like them but I wish there triggers were not the rubber magnetic pads. I'm a bit heavy handed when using the triggers and it eventually crushes the pads to not work. Other than that great controller.
Upside, usually the controllers are extremely easy to fix. I'm not sure if they give free replacement pads still, but they used to if you asked support.
I've had other problems than shoulders on my pros, and never with the ultimate one I got, those seem to have a pretty solid build.
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I really wish you could swap the buttons easily to match the system. The 8-bitdo controllers tend to have the Nintendo layout which kind of sucks because most games don't support that they use Xbox. And then of course if you get into emulation nothing will match the PlayStation so I either need several controllers around or to memorize locations
You can! They have replacement buttons for whichever layout you want for fairly cheap. I'm using the original ultimate Bluetooth with an Xbox layout.
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You can! They have replacement buttons for whichever layout you want for fairly cheap. I'm using the original ultimate Bluetooth with an Xbox layout.
Wait what? Do you have a link for this?
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I really wish you could swap the buttons easily to match the system. The 8-bitdo controllers tend to have the Nintendo layout which kind of sucks because most games don't support that they use Xbox. And then of course if you get into emulation nothing will match the PlayStation so I either need several controllers around or to memorize locations
I wish so many games didn't default to the Xbox layout with no option to change it. Having grown up with the SNES layout, the prompts fuck me up every time.
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Interesting, I'll have to play around with it. I've been docking it to my 4k TV so maybe I need to force a lower res.
No wonder performance has been bad! The Deck is not meant to be a 4k system.
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These controllers were all working on SteamOS before as far as I know, so I'm interested to see what this changes. My understanding is that previously their controllers just show up as generic xbox controllers, and now they will be properly recognized. We'll see if this has any other benefits like custom bindings for back buttons and things like that.
Edit:
According to @[email protected]
got the 8bitdo Ultimate 2 wireless controller with the latest firmware update, and can confirm dinput mode lets me map the back buttons and extra bumpers to different inputs through Steam Input. Analog triggers and gyro work too.
Has anyone gotten this to work? I have both the SN30 Pro and the Pro 2, both display the latest firmware update as 2.06 which just lists Switch 2 compatibility. Steam doesnt seem to recognize the back buttons on the Pro 2 either.
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I wish so many games didn't default to the Xbox layout with no option to change it. Having grown up with the SNES layout, the prompts fuck me up every time.
How can it be so hard for devs to just include some additional sets of glyphs and allow the player to switch manually? Then nobody would have this problem.
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These controllers were all working on SteamOS before as far as I know, so I'm interested to see what this changes. My understanding is that previously their controllers just show up as generic xbox controllers, and now they will be properly recognized. We'll see if this has any other benefits like custom bindings for back buttons and things like that.
Edit:
According to @[email protected]
got the 8bitdo Ultimate 2 wireless controller with the latest firmware update, and can confirm dinput mode lets me map the back buttons and extra bumpers to different inputs through Steam Input. Analog triggers and gyro work too.
So how do you update firmware with just a Steamdeck? 8bitdo does not seem to supply Linux software support anymore, so it feels a bit hilarious that they support SteamOS without any official way of updating controllers there.
I found the fwupd tool on github, but it seems a hacky way that cannot update everything. Can the 8bitdo tool be run via proton/wine?
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Has anyone gotten this to work? I have both the SN30 Pro and the Pro 2, both display the latest firmware update as 2.06 which just lists Switch 2 compatibility. Steam doesnt seem to recognize the back buttons on the Pro 2 either.
Instead of pressing the L+R buttons press the button with the 8bitdo logo while in the change grip/order menu.
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So how do you update firmware with just a Steamdeck? 8bitdo does not seem to supply Linux software support anymore, so it feels a bit hilarious that they support SteamOS without any official way of updating controllers there.
I found the fwupd tool on github, but it seems a hacky way that cannot update everything. Can the 8bitdo tool be run via proton/wine?
Isn't fwupd already included in SteamOS? Or is there a specific 8bitdo fwupd tool?
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So how do you update firmware with just a Steamdeck? 8bitdo does not seem to supply Linux software support anymore, so it feels a bit hilarious that they support SteamOS without any official way of updating controllers there.
I found the fwupd tool on github, but it seems a hacky way that cannot update everything. Can the 8bitdo tool be run via proton/wine?
We call this marketing bullshit.
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Isn't fwupd already included in SteamOS? Or is there a specific 8bitdo fwupd tool?
maybe it is (don't have my deck with me to check) but even so, it is not an officially supported tool and I can see from issues on Github that people cannot find their controllers on there. not sure if that's very old or very new ones.
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So how do you update firmware with just a Steamdeck? 8bitdo does not seem to supply Linux software support anymore, so it feels a bit hilarious that they support SteamOS without any official way of updating controllers there.
I found the fwupd tool on github, but it seems a hacky way that cannot update everything. Can the 8bitdo tool be run via proton/wine?
Tried it, not it cannot
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On the deck I use them all the time. For FPS games I frequently bind them to be ABXY, lets you jump/reload/etc without having to take your thumb off of the joystick. Absolutely mandatory for games like Doom Eternal and Deep Rock in my opinion.
In games with heavy dpad use for cycling abilities/items (like Elden Ring) I usually use them for that. Being able to cycle spells or potions while running is very necessary sometimes. You can also use them in combination with mode shift settings, things like while I hold R4 down it will temporarily turn my ABXY into a second DPAD.
You can use them for steamOS features, stuff like opening keyboard or toggling zoom for games with small text.
A lot of people dislike clicking thumbsticks, so it's common for people to use them for that. L4 to toggle sprint instead of L3 is very popular for example. Also nice for when L3/R3 do something you don't want to trigger accidentally during combat (Ys 8 and 9 toggle a minimap overlay with L3, which is very distracting during combat. So I've disabled L3 on the thumbstick and instead have L4 open the minimap overlay).
In any PC game with more inputs it can be great for common button presses that didn't make the cut onto the standard controller. Things like map/journal shortcuts, quick save, etc. Setting left trackpad to a touch menu is also great for this.
Overall they're pretty great, I don't use them in every game, but there are a lot of games I refuse to play on a standard controller without them.
Maybe I need to limber up mentally, jeez! I'm so set in my ways that when I try to imagine any of this, my eyes start to glaze over. Like I'm scooping what you're pooping but I'm startled at how much my mind is resisting.
