8BitDo announces it's controllers now have Steam/SteamOS compatibility
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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.
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Back buttons are essential in any competitive action game.
I don't do competitive stuff other than couch multi, but it sounds intense.
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good to know it can work!
That's wild, I was just talking about using it with my actual old switch. I've got the Pro 2 (the one on the left) and it pairs between the switch and my computer pretty seamlessly. I'm so much more basic than I thought, reading these replies!
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The issue is that the back paddles weren’t unique buttons. You could configure them to press existing buttons, (like telling it to press A when you hit the right paddle,) but they weren’t listed as individual inputs. Now they are, so you can actually map unique actions to L4, R4, etc… This is particularly important for games that have a lot of unique inputs. Plenty of games are optimized for controller, but lots still rely on having more buttons (on a keyboard) than what a traditional controller has.
Honestly I’d love to see more of this. Wheels and panels as well, not just gamepads. I’ve always wished for fully assignable controller support where the icon and HUDs etc change, ETS2 is looks so much better now that the icons don’t flicker twice per second because of my hodgepodge DS4Windows control scheme anymore. And with multi-button combinations and stuff making more things doable from the controller.
I do kind of wish Steam Input was a separate piece of software though, sort of like Xpadder back in the day. Some kind of open button-mapping standard with an API and everything.
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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
At least in Steam, there is a "use Nintendo layout" or something setting to swap X and A
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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.
I took apart the first one and had to order the pads. They were cheap and available. I sent the second one back to be replaced because disconnecting the board from the controls stripped the connection. It was easy and had it back fast.
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Wait what? Do you have a link for this?
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Anybody else find a use for the back buttons? I like the idea of them but I haven't really found a great use yet.
For the Souls games, binding sprint and use item to them is a game changer (though I haven't played them with my 8bitdo, but I did with my Steam Controller). Normally you have to claw grip to run, move, and look, but with back buttons you can avoid that.
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Back buttons are essential in any competitive action game.
I don't know of any that controller would be better than keyboard and mouse though, so if you're that engaged with comp, shouldn't you just sit at your computer?
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Having the same issue and I don't know how to update to the latest firmware without the app.
Someone mentioned fwupd in another comment. I haven't tried it, but hopefully it works.
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For the Souls games, binding sprint and use item to them is a game changer (though I haven't played them with my 8bitdo, but I did with my Steam Controller). Normally you have to claw grip to run, move, and look, but with back buttons you can avoid that.
That may the problem, I don't happen to have any of my FromSoft titles on PC, and the PS4 won't talk to my 8BitDo.
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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.
wrote last edited by [email protected]https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/
In the devices list of lvfs/fwupd there's a bunch of controllers supported. But it seems like it's mostly their retro controllers. XBox-style controllers like their Ultimate C etc. are not supported.
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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.
wrote last edited by [email protected]It isn't, and many now do.
Autosetting the glyphs correctly is actually one of the requirements for a Steam Deck Verified badge and Steam supplies a library that has them all, so modern games are pretty good at it. And if you implement that, you might as well add a menu option to change "Auto" to "Switch" or "Playstation".There just was a quite long period where majority of games used Xinput thanks to Microsoft, basically only working with Xbox controllers, and as a response a whole bunch of controllers identify as Xbox controllers when plugged in. Therefore, xbox icons were the only thing they were "designed" to ever work with.
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I've been using these for years, including with my docked steam deck, and they already work great.
I also wonder what they could've changed.
How do you make them work?
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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
If you don't care about what the physical button shows, steam has an option the swap the layout of the face buttons from Nintendo to xbox in the input settings.
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No wonder performance has been bad! The Deck is not meant to be a 4k system.
1080p looks abysmal on my 65" though. Is there any solution?
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Someone mentioned fwupd in another comment. I haven't tried it, but hopefully it works.
Limited hardware support for fwupd. Mostly older models, ones mentioned don't appear to be compatible.
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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.
How do I update my controller on my steam deck when the update software is only on windows?
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How do I update my controller on my steam deck when the update software is only on windows?
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How do you make them work?
I just connect with Bluetooth like normal, and then in steam you can tell it to treat it like whatever type of controller layout you want: switch, xbox, playstation, etc.
