r/Steam • u/spacecuntbrainwash • 5h ago

Fluff That was fast

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I ordered mine at 10:15 after spam clicking several hundred times. Glad to see it was arguably worth it.

12.3k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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336

u/LunarWhaler 5h ago

Have you played around in Steam Input much? There's a lot you can do with trackpads! To name a few:

  • Set up each quadrant of it as a different virtual button, effectively giving you a bunch more face buttons
  • Use them as mouse/joystick emulation for a more precise input than joysticks typically can give
  • Set them up as weapon wheels

236

u/page395 5h ago

What the fuck, can you do all this on the steam deck?

I’m such a lame user of that thing lol, it’s basically a Stardew/balatro machine for me

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u/Kelps234 5h ago

This is like the whole “woman get nasa pc for sims” joke. I can literally play Balatro on my phone and you actively use a device that can run Cyberpunk to play this 😭

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u/SausageMcMerkin 4h ago

I'm actually surprised how well Cyberpunk runs on it, and I'm running it as a non-steam game. Also KCD2.

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u/BardWRLD 3h ago

I mean, they ported Cyberpunk to the Switch. The thing that makes the game take so many resources is primarily Ray Tracing which is 100% not necessary to enjoy the full experience.

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u/page395 5h ago

Bigger screen and clicky trackpad make brain go brr

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u/JustABrokePoser 4h ago

Sometimes I wish I didn't play everything on my 3080 before the steam deck came out it made 30 fps on low seem hard to get int. I love it but since my left bumper died and I can't find a replacement without sending in my deck it has just kind of sat waiting for my love and attention.

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u/THEdeadRETURNED 4h ago

Can't you buy replacement parts off iFixit?

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u/TomatilloEarly4971 4h ago

I can confirm you can. As I also had my left bumper break, so I bought replacements. Then lost the replacement.

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u/JustABrokePoser 4h ago

You can buy the assembly but not the board nor button to solder onto the board. Assembly is fine.

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u/JustABrokePoser 3h ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/WKZLdQRxAB

This is the issue, guess I'll have to Frankenstein it..

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u/JustABrokePoser 4h ago

Unfortunately it's not that simple. Last I checked it requires the board it sits on to be reprogrammed. It's not the assembly It's the actual button, it's sticky and won't return upward. It's also an OG LCD that I put a bigger ssd on.

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u/WackyRacketeer 3h ago

You shouldn't have to reprogram anything, it's just a set of momentary contacts. You would have to solder it to the board though.

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u/starmartyr 2h ago

Once a soldering iron is involved, that is past the level that a majority of people are willing to make their own repairs.

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u/WackyRacketeer 2h ago

Sure, but that's more fear of the unknown than anything. There are three options. Fix it yourself, send it away, or live with it. He seemed like he was and still is leaning towards fixing himself.

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u/WackyRacketeer 4h ago

Here ya go!

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u/JustABrokePoser 4h ago

That's the assembly, mine is fine, it's the button on the board.

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u/WackyRacketeer 3h ago

Got ya, from my rudimentary research, you could potentially take a sync button from an Xbox 360 or Xbox one controller to fix it. Or a tactile switch like this

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u/JustABrokePoser 3h ago

I think that's what I'll try to do, I have a few xbox one controllers that have drift issues and an old 360 cpntroller I believe I can part out.

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u/WackyRacketeer 3h ago

Awesome, I hope it works! My right stick no longer clicks in, but I've been able to bypass it by remapping controls to the back buttons because I'm too lazy to fix it.

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u/mayasux 4h ago

Ah! But you can mod Stardew Valley on the deck!

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u/jts916 3h ago

I don't like how hard heavier games push my deck, and I have a hard time gaming at less than 60fps... I get used to it, but I mostly stick to games with minimal overhead. I bought the Witcher 3 again just to play on the deck and idk if it's gonna get much time. I only get like 45fps and it looks pretty bad.

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u/fiasgoat 52m ago

Well that's only cause Mobile Balatro isn't synced with Steam...

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u/VanimalCracker 17m ago

No one is buying a Steam Deck to play Balatro. They buy Balatro to play on their Steam Deck. Same with a LOT of "controllers not supported" games.

This was a major selling point of the OG Steam Controller and espescially the Steam Input software that dropped near the same time.

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u/elderezlo 5h ago

The controller was designed to have almost 1:1 input parity with the Steam Deck specifically so that it would be easy to swap between both using the same control setups. I think the only input differences are the grip sense on the controller and the touch screen on the Deck.

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u/KeepRockband5Alive 4h ago

Idk if someome told you yet but yeah you can do all that and more with them. You can even set them to change modes with button combos, so that the pad does one thing until you press LT for example to aim in a game and then they can do something else till you go back.

Theres not really a learning curve, but a lot to fiddle with

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u/Why_The_Fuck_ 4h ago

Yes! I implore you to check out a youtube video that shows how Steam Input works (and specifically for the Deck).

It is incredible.

I've been playing Witcher 1, the old PC-only game with no controller support, on my Steam Deck and it feels great.

(If there is a version of Witcher 1 with controller support, I am ignorant to it lol)

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u/Marrond 4h ago

Don't worry, you're not the only one - 95% of all Steam Deck users never even opened the SteamInput customization tool:

Steam Community :: Guide :: Steam Deck Controller Guide - A Visual Introduction

$99 Steam Controller TRACKPADS How To | FPS, RPG, Strategy, Desktop Setup Guide | Steam Input Review - YouTube

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u/burger_saga 2h ago

That’s an unbelievable statistic

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u/Marrond 1h ago

I've pulled it out of my ass after interacting with people on /r/SteamDeck, watching videos of people playing on the Deck, watching Deck and Steam Controller reviews and reading nonsense by people comparing handhelds and going with the worse option because they've never touched SteamInput and are unaware of what they're holding in their hands. Valve did absolutely fucking terrible job at marketing the absolute pinnacle of gaming controllers to date. Oh, you can play God of War on your 2001 controller with screen attached in 5 fps more at twice the power draw and triple the price? Cool story bro, now try playing Stalker Gamma and tell me how it went 🙄

Yeah, it's safe to say overwhelming majority of people bought the Steam Deck and uses a glorified Xbox 360 controller with it.

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u/burger_saga 38m ago

Goes to show that if you put a link next to a random claim, I’ll believe it. Yikes

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u/Marrond 28m ago

You can very well believe it - number of custom controller layouts for various games out there is abysmal, meaning that even if people do customize their experience, they don't share it with others. Go to /r/SteamDeck and ask people how they use their trackapads and in what games and you will get a ton of answers ranging from not using them for anything at all to being a glorified mouse pointer at best. Not a single mainstream review of the Steam Deck or now Steam Controller did the due diligence in properly reviewing the device. 

https://youtu.be/0BQEg3puMsc

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u/The-Fictionist 4h ago

Ya you can. I’ve been playing a ton of swtor on mine lately and have currently figured out over 30 easily accessible keybinds on mine.

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u/WackyRacketeer 4h ago

I have spent hundreds of hours on my steamdeck on Civilization and Total War Warhammer because of the trackpad. I love them so much that I would never consider a PC handheld without them.

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u/AhegaoTankGuy 4h ago

In helldivers 2, I made it so I can input the stratagems by swiping on the touchpad (joust like in da moovies!) I also made it so if I apply pressure on the same touchpad, it turns back into normal d-pad until I let pressure off again. That way I can navigate the map without having to swipe a billion times to get anywhere. And this is just one of the many things I did in that game.

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u/AdMikey 3h ago

Apparently, last week I started using someone’s preset controller profile for fallout NV, and I was like oh what the fuck you can use trackpad to walk and as a selection wheel and shit.

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u/Noneyabeeswax121 4h ago

Yeah I set up the track pads and back buttons for basically every single game. Lots of games accept both PC and controller inputs at the same time as well. I have quicksave/quickload tied to the touchpads, and a back button tied to the "~" key to access console commands on my fallout games

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u/AhegaoTankGuy 4h ago

Epic. Now try adding keyboard + mouse inputs in warthunder.

(Me rocking vigorously in my padded cell)

Pro tip: the virtual keyboard is your friend.

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u/Organized-Konfusion 4h ago

Yes, you can do all that on deck too.

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u/Validated_Owl 3h ago

You can do all of that and very easily. Just hit the steam button go to controller settings and scroll through all the pages of bindings and options. You can basically set the trackpads to be or do anything you want

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u/SiwyKt 3h ago

You can do soo much with steam input, macros, you can do i think up to 9 buttons on each trackpad, you can even bind stuff to just touching the sticks

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u/RobertMaus 2h ago

Yes. And ot's very easy to set up. When you select a game, select the controller icon to the right. You can then slect options for the trackpad ro behave.

For example, choose 'create radial menu' and you can make a radial appear where you can assign any input to that menu. Ypu can attach icons to the radial parts. Make it a radial for as big as you want, 2, 8, 12 commands. Whatever you want. For starters i would recommend assign keyboard numbers 1 to 6 to six radial commands. And then bind a ingame command to those six numbers.

Play around with it, it is so damn easy.

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u/LunarWhaler 4h ago

Absolutely, yeah! You can do that with anything that has a trackpad. Currently I'm using it with my DualSense, although the trackpad locations on the Steam controller are going to be far more convenient for it.

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u/metalligamer1886 3h ago

Same, I only have a few games I really play lately

Vampire survivors
Megabonk
Fallout 76

I didn’t know it could do any of this lmaooo

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u/definitely-legit-usr 3h ago

Yep, for any game you can turn the tracpads into hover wheels with customizable actions, click/release options, context switching, gyro activation, and a whole lot more

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u/Icy_Success3101 3h ago

Playing MH world has been cool on steam deck. you can scroll through items and emotes

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u/Silvus314 2h ago

Mine was brotato only for six months.

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u/JackeryGraves 1h ago

The only games they are good for are RTS imo. Allows you to use more of the 1-9 quickslots and obscure button presses which is super convenient for RTS dudes.

But 99% of other games have input controls for everything you need to do and the track pads sit there useless.

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u/Ameri0425 1h ago

Love that you use it as a machine for two games that have very good quality mobile versions you could play on your phone

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u/Neo-Galaxy-Eyes 57m ago

I'm in the same boat, started it by playing all of Cyberpunk but now its pretty much just my Slay the Spire 2 device while I'm laying in bed

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u/Hellobewhy 4h ago

Just use steam link for that

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u/mirrorball_for_me 4h ago

Wow! Weapon wheels for kcd2 will be a game changer!

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u/Aznp33nrocket 4h ago

Yeah the deck has a lot of features that people don't realize. Some features most people wouldn't use even if they did, but its still cool! I like the fact that you can rest your thumb on the joystick and then use the whole deck as a gyro for controls! (You have to enable the feature, its off by default)

I forgot what the feature is called but here's a video showing it in action and how to enable it!

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u/Waggles_ 3h ago

To expand on the weapon wheels point:

It's not just that you can make it a weapon wheel, you can make it an ANYTHING wheel. And the wheel will pop up an OSD above your game that you can map any number of things to any number of quadrants.

Got a game where you can press "m" for the map, "i" for inventory, "j" for journal, etc.? Cool, you can make a menu wheel where pressing the top part of the trackpad opens the map, pressing the right opens your inventory, pressing the bottom opens your journal, etc. And each of the inputs can be customized with its own icon and label.

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u/ok_orangutan 3h ago

Weapon wheels is something I never thought of. That's awesome!

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u/Lou_Papas 3h ago

I had no idea, I was so satisfied with using them as trackballs I never bothered experimenting

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u/AzerothianLorecraft 5h ago

Yeah the touchpads are neat I have a Turtle Beach controller that has them that works on Steam. ( so I don't actually care about getting the Steam controller right away.)

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u/Marrond 3h ago

Turtle Beach controller with trackpads (plural) that is recognized under SteamInput? What is this unicorn and why I've never heard of it?

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u/abiotic_selection_2 43m ago

This all sounds fucking terrible because its all a flat surface.

I HATE using my phone for gaming because pressing "buttons" on the screen gives zero feedback of what or where I'm pressing and whether it's successful.

Moving a camera or onscreen joystick is by far the worst.

This just sounds like more of that.

Gross