For me, the Steam Deck’s “a-ha” second got here after I discovered easy methods to play the PC model of Stranglehold with out a mouse and keyboard.

The John Woo-produced, considerably underappreciated third-person shooter didn’t embrace controller assist when it launched on Windows in 2007 and neither did the re-release on GOG a number of years in the past. That and another odd show points saved me from ever giving it a strive on my gaming PC.

But after sideloading the sport by Steam Deck’s desktop mode, Valve’s button remapping software saved the day. This Steam Deck function is so in depth which you could get virtually any recreation to work effectively with the transportable console’s thumbsticks, triggers and buttons, and I’ve since used it to breathe new life into different previous PC video games as effectively.

Here’s an in-depth information to all the pieces Steam Deck’s button remapping can do:

How to search out the Steam Deck’s button remapper

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Once you’ve loaded a recreation on the Steam Deck, hit the Steam button, choose “Controller Settings,” then press the A button once more.

Scroll down from right here and also you’ll discover some fast settings similar to Y-Axis inversion and sensitivity ranges for the mouse and trackpad. Keep in thoughts that these are impartial of the in-game management settings, so I might solely make changes right here if the sport itself doesn’t supply them.

Still, these fast settings solely trace at what’s potential. To really make the most of Steam Deck button mapping, you’ll must create your personal format. Pick a PC recreation out of your library with poor or non-existent controller assist, then learn on for particulars.

Creating a Steam Deck controller format: The fundamentals

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Before constructing your personal Steam Deck controller format, you need to go to the sport’s management menu first. Using your cellphone, take footage of the sport’s keyboard and mouse assignments so you possibly can reference them alongside the way in which. Trust me, it will make the remapping course of a lot much less tedious.

For this tutorial, I’m going to make use of F.E.A.R. for instance, because the first-person shooter format does an awesome job demonstrating all the pieces you are able to do with button remapping. (That, and I’ve been eager to get the sport off my backlog anyway.)

Here’s an summary of how remapping works:

• From the Controller Settings menu, choose the present format, then choose the Templates menu.
• Scroll down and choose “Keyboard (WASD) and Mouse.” This maps the left keep on with the WASD keys and emulates mouse motion with the precise stick.
• From the Controller Settings menu, choose Edit Layout.
• Use the left sidebar to decide on between the bodily controls in your Steam Deck.
• Use the right-hand menu to assign instructions to these controls.

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In the picture above, I’ve set the Steam Deck’s face buttons to correspond with keyboard instructions for some widespread actions in F.E.A.R., together with Jump, Use, Flashlight, and Reload. (We’ll get into the long-press conduct later.)

Once you’ve mapped these face buttons, you possibly can transfer on down the left sidebar to map the Steam Deck’s thumbsticks, triggers, D-Pad, trackpads, and rear buttons. You can map these controls to just about something, together with mouse buttons, the scroll wheel, and even system actions just like the screenshot operate.

While most of that is fairly easy, pay particular consideration to the Joysticks tab, and particularly the ⚙ gear icon subsequent to “Right Joystick Behavior.” From right here you possibly can alter the sensitivity, scale, and useless zone for mouse emulation, which is particularly helpful when mapping first- and third-person shooters. You’ll seemingly must fine-tune the delicate as you go, however you are able to do this later by the short settings menu.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Once you’ve configured all the pieces to your liking, return to the Controller Settings menu and the ⚙ gear beneath your format. From right here you possibly can both select “Export” to save lots of the format in your machine or “Share” to add it for folks to make use of as effectively. (More on that shortly.)

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Give your format a reputation and an outline, then reserve it. It’ll seem within the “Your Layouts” tab on the format choice display screen, so you possibly can at all times come again to it even if you happen to fiddle with various management schemes.

Advanced Steam Deck mapping choices

Jared Newman / Foundry

The enjoyable doesn’t cease there. Valve additionally presents a number of superior methods to optimize your PC video games for the Steam Deck controller:

Secondary instructions: For video games the place a easy button press isn’t sufficient, you possibly can map extra key bindings behind a long-press or double-press. You may also map separate bindings for whenever you maintain and launch a button—excellent for shooters that toggle the ironsights with a set off button whenever you’d desire to carry it down as an alternative.

• Hit the ⚙ gear subsequent to any button and choose “Add Extra Command.”
• Choose which button to map it to, then hit the ⚙ gear subsequent to the brand new command and choose “Regular Press.”
• Choose to map the additional command to a long-press, double-press, maintain, or launch.

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Virtual menus: This extraordinarily neat trick helps you to create your personal radial menus for the touchpad, directional pad, or thumbsticks, full with visible overlays that seem within the recreation. It particularly is useful for shooters or MMORPGs the place you’d usually change between weapons by the quantity row.

• From the format display screen, head to Virtual Menus, then choose “Add Virtual Menu.”
• Give it a reputation that’ll show you how to establish it later, similar to “F.E.A.R. Weapon Selector.”
• Choose the kind of menu you need to create. Radial works finest with the touchpad or thumbsticks, Touch Menu is only for the touchpad, and Hotbar is principally for biking by gadgets with the D-Pad.

Jared Newman / Foundry

• Hit the pencil button subsequent to the newly-created menu.
• Hit “Add Command,” and select the important thing you’d prefer to assign.
• Use “Add Virtual Menu Entry” to create extra gadgets within the menu.
• Use the dotted circle subsequent to every button to pick an icon for every merchandise. These icons will seem within the overlay throughout the recreation.

Jared Newman / Foundry

• Optionally use the ⚙ gear subsequent to every button and choose “Rename Command” to provide it a reputation that can seem on display screen as effectively.
• Finally, return to the primary remapping menu and assign a Steam Deck management technique to the Virtual Menu. For occasion, you possibly can head to Trackpads, faucet the drop-down subsequent to “Left Trackpad Behavior,” and select your newly-created menu from the checklist.

Action units: This helps you to change to a unique management scheme in response to a button press. An excellent instance is decreasing the joystick-to-mouse sensitivity when trying down the sights in a first-person shooter. Here’s easy methods to set that up:

• In the remap menu, head to Action Sets.
• Select the ⚙ gear subsequent to “Default” and choose “Add Layer.”
• Give the layer a reputation, similar to “While Aiming.”

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• In the Trigger menu, hit the ⚙ gear subsequent to “Soft Pull” and choose “Add sub command.”
• Hit “Add command” to carry up the management choice display screen.
• Navigate to the “Action Sets” tab and choose “Add Action Set Layer.”

Jared Newman / Foundry

• Select the “While Aiming” Action Set, disable the 2 blue toggles, and hit “Confirm.”
• Return to the remap menu and hit R1 in order that “While Aiming” seems within the top-left of the display screen.
• In the Trigger menu, hit “Add Command” subsequent to “Soft Pull.”

Jared Newman / Foundry

• Navigate to the “Action Sets” tab and choose “Remove Action Set Layer.”
• Select the “While Aiming” Action Set and hit “Confirm.”
• In the Joysticks menu, hit the ⚙ gear subsequent to “Right Joystick Behavior,” then decrease the mouse sensitivity.

If all that simply seems like an excessive amount of work for the sake of play, there’s a shortcut: Just choose one of many Community Layouts that different gamers have created. You’ll discover this by clicking in your format within the Controller Settings web page, then heading to the “Community Layouts” tab.

Jared Newman / Foundry

The downside with group layouts is that you just by no means know what you’re going to get, and I’ve seen some really horrendous layouts even for video games with easy management schemes. Community layouts could be a good place to begin, but it surely’s nonetheless price understanding the button remapper so you may make your personal changes or begin from scratch if want be.

While that is admittedly lots to absorb, just a little experimentation is all it takes to get hooked. When all the pieces clicks, you’ll understand you possibly can create the proper format for just about any recreation on the Steam Deck, regardless of how advanced the management scheme.

Now, excuse me whereas I determine easy methods to arrange X-Wing.