Controller Configuration - Fundamentals

Start

Back

Shoulder buttons

Trigger Buttons

Digital pad

Button pad

Trackpad (Center/Unified)

Trackpad (Left-Right/Split)

Joysticks

Joysticks button

Macro buttons (M1-M8)

Always on

Gyro

Touchscreen mouse gestures: modifies 1-finger and 2-finger mouse gestures.

Action Sets

Action Layers

Input Sources and their Input Source Modes

Input Sources D-pad Button Pad Mouse Mouse Joystick Joystick Move Joystick Camera Joystick Mouse Scroll Wheel Mouse Region Touch Menu Radial Menu Single Button Digital pad ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Button pad ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Joysticks ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Trackpad ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Gyro ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

The Center and Left/Right Trackpads are available for editing, but only Center or Left/Right can be placed in the app, not both.



Anything assigned to Always On in an action set will stay active until the user changes to another action set.



The shape of controls in-game do not change regardless of which input source modes you choose to assign to them in Controller Configuration. For example, if you set the D-pad to act as a Radial Menu, its shape will remain as a D-pad when playing but it will behave as a Radial Menu.



There are games that do not react well to mixing gamepad input and keyboard input. In particular, the in-game button prompts may remain as either gamepad or keyboard/mouse, or the games may entirely disable one of the inputs. You'll have to test this out if you plan to mix them together.

Activators

Regular Press - This is the default choice whenever you make a binding.



Double Press - Press a button twice within the Double Tap Time to trigger this binding.



Long Press - Hold a button for the duration of Long Press Time to trigger this binding.



Start Press - This binding triggers the moment you press the button.



Release Press - This binding triggers after you release the button.

Action Sets and Action Layers

Switching between Action Sets and Action Layers

All applied action layers from the previous state will be removed.



All buttons that are toggled on will be toggled off.

When you enter Controller Configuration, you'll be presented with the following:1 to 14 are Input Sources.If you feel this layout looks familiar, it's similar to the one for the PlayStation DualShock 4 controller, with the addition of Macro buttons and Touchscreen mouse gestures.Any control that you change in Controller Configuration is reflected in the app, whether that's modifying, adding, or deleting buttons. If you deactivate anything here, the corresponding control will be removed from your layout in-game and become unselectable in Layout Controls.The Input Sources have access to the following Input Source Modes:Switch (Start, Back, Shoulder buttons, Macro buttons, Always On, Touchscreen mouse gestures) are simple digital buttons. While Trigger buttons can have analog values, often it is used as a simple digital button for the Touch Controller.The Input Source Modes are listed under Style of Input within each Input Source in Controller Configuration, and I will refer to Input Source Modes and Style of Input synonymously.Explore and change the various options to see how the controls behave within the game. You can set the Touch Controller to use gamepad input, keyboard input, or a mixture of both. Remember that there's a link above that'll explain what the various options do in case you're unsure.Note:You can access advanced settings for a binding by pressing the Activators button at the bottom.This reveals the different activation types which change how the button behaves:You can have multiple Activators assigned to a button.Fire Start Delay and Fire End Delay affect when a button is triggered and for how long it will be held down. When a button with multiple activators is pressed, the timers for these settings begin simultaneously.An action set is a group of bindings with an associated layout in Controller Configuration. When you begin editing a new config, that is what you're editing. You can add more sets and switch between them while playing. Because each set has its own layout, you'll have to make a different layout for each one in the app.One way action sets become useful is if your game has multiple states and the controls in one state share little in common with the controls in another state. For example, controlling a character on foot and driving a vehicle in an open-world game usually have very different controls. Therefore, you can create one action set for running around and another for driving, and switch between the two as needed. Another example is when the game you're playing has access to special menus such as the developer console, it can be useful to place them into a separate action set.An action layer is similar to an action set, except it exists within an action set and only contains whatever input sources that you have added or changed to its parent action set. Another big difference is that multiple layers can be active at once. Each layer that you add to a set during gameplay is stacked at the top of all layers so that whatever buttons the top layer contains will override the corresponding buttons in the layers below them, similar to layers in a photo/image editing software. A good explanation and example of action layers can be found at Steamworks Documentation - Action Set Layers . Any layer added during gameplay can be also removed.When you add or modify any input source in the action layer, you can also adjust those controls' positions in the layout. However, for the buttons that you do not change, any attempts to move their positions in the layout will not be saved by the app. They'll remain at their original positions associated with the action set.Because action sets and action layers also contain layouts in Steam Link, they are also useful for simply moving controls about your screen. For example, in 2D side scrolling beat 'em ups, enemies usually come from the lower right side of the screen. If your button pad is located there, then the buttons and your fingers pressing them can block your vision from seeing enemies coming. You can create an action set or layer to move the buttons around as needed while playing.To switch between action sets and action layers in the game, you should set an input source to change it and place it on the screen. It is the first button in the Special Inputs row (highlighted in green below).Note:When switching between action sets, the following will happen: