Thanks to Steam’s newest replace, you need to use Xbox 360/One controllers with PC video games that don’t natively help them

06.01.2017

The newest Steam consumer replace added native controller help for a lot of of immediately’s most used controllers, making the duty of enjoying non-controller video games a lot easier.

Valve is continuous its push to supply extra choices for these enjoying PC video games with issues aside from mouse and keyboard. The newest Steam consumer replace, at the moment obtainable in beta, is one other step in direction of that purpose.

The greatest new characteristic permits Steam to natively learn and recognise Xbox 360, Xbox One, and generic X-Input controllers. This means any of those controllers can use the identical mapping options obtainable to Valve’s personal Steam Controller, and as of November final 12 months, the DualShock 4 controller.

In easier phrases, this basically lets Steam to emulate keyboard and mouse enter on a gamepad, enabling video games that by no means formally had controller help, or ones with outdated libraries, to work on a gamepad. Though not each sport will play good, the overwhelming majority ought to – in concept – work with out the necessity of third-party apps.

The implications for this are large, resembling what developer @larsiusprime managed to do with a Wiimote utilizing a customized driver. The developer is now in a position to make use of the controller, albeit in restricted vogue, with PC titles.

The replace additionally added help for third-party PS4 controllers, resembling these from HORI, MadCatz, and different standard combat sticks. All this solely not too long ago rolled out in beta, so it ought to go dwell for everybody some weeks from now. You can, nonetheless, opt-into the beta out of your Steam consumer.

For the total record of modifications, see under:

General

Made the error clearer if you fail to put in a sport and don’t have sufficient disk house resulting from person quotas

Big Picture

Added help for utilizing the overlay keyboard for video games which have launchers
Improved show when operating on retina enabled units underneath macOS

Linux

Improved interactions between the Steam runtime and host distribution libraries, which ought to let Steam work out of the field with open-source graphics drivers on fashionable distributions. If utilizing an older distribution or operating into issues, use STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=zero to revert to earlier habits.
Unify close-to-tray habits with different platforms. If utilizing a distribution that doesn’t have correct suitable tray help, use STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE=zero
Added idle detection, pal standing will now mechanically swap to Away/Snooze
Fixed Steam not obeying SIGTERM, Steam will now gracefully exit when logging out of a session
Fixed keyboard enter and cursor switching in overlay for Vulkan functions
Update Vulkan loader within the Steam runtime to allow Xlib help
Updated libxcb within the runtime with a repair for DRI3-related crashes on open-source graphics drivers

Steam Controller

Added XBox 360, Xbox One, and Generic X-Input controller configurator help. This permits all acknowledged controller sorts to make use of the superior mapping options of the Steam Controller Configurator. Note that as a result of X-Input at the moment lacks per-controller technique of distinctive identification, all controllers of that sort will share personalization and configuration settings. As they share the identical inputs, Xbox 360/One/Generic controllers will all see each-others configurations when shopping. Automatic conversion shall be tried when loading configurations from different controller sorts.
Unrecognized Generic X-Input gamepad type controllers shall be acknowledged by the Steam Controller Configurator as soon as their buttons have been assigned to match a generic gamepad format.
Recommended configurations specified for a sport by the developer will now try to assign primarily based on Controller Type.
Added choice to disable Guide Button issuing a Steam focus change. This is on the market by way of the Big Picture controller choices menu. This permits higher interoperability with different functions which use the Guide Button, resembling PSNow.
Added Single Button easy button mode for trackpads. This permits a trackpad to be handled as a single large button.
Fix for free-floating On Screen Keyboard operating very slowly if a sport was open however didn’t have focus or was operating windowed.
Added impartial horizontal/vertical scaling to joystick transfer and joystick mouse.
Joystick Move mode not exhibits mouse sensitivity choice until mouse output is chosen.
Added further help for third get together PS4 controllers, together with some HORI, MadCatz, and Armor pads and combat sticks.
Fixed a bug with PS4 triggers the place they have been being scaled incorrectly, resulting in maxing out of the worth too quickly.
Added skill to vary x-input controller order from the Controller Options menu – so in multi-controller setups of x-input video games, the mapping of phyiscal controller to x-input index will be swapped round. Note that this at the moment solely applies to controllers which have opted into Steam Controller Configurator help.
Fixed Configurator Switch Controller interface not exhibiting controller icons.
Re-enabled Gamepad outputs for desktop configurations for customers of third get together applications which hook into functions through the desktop configuration.