this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025
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Steam Deck

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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.

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[–] poke@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Months back, I submitted a support ticket asking if they had any plans to support a d-input mode with both analog triggers and gyroscope inputs enabled, like the steam-licensed controller that just came out at the time did. They said they had no plans, but they'd forward the question. I wonder if this is a result of that. Would be cool if they also started reporting the back paddles as separate inputs as well, but I didn't include that in the ticket.

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 4 points 23 hours ago

It sounds like back paddles will be treated as separate inputs, I found where some people got to try out beta firmware for some of the 8bitdo controllers some months back, and that was specifically mentioned as some of the new functionality.

[–] thezeesystem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How do I update my controller on my steam deck when the update software is only on windows?

[–] ewo@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So it's just bullshit marketing. Got it thank you

[–] Based_and_Cool@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can update via Android or iOS I believe

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 2 points 22 hours ago

Unfortunately not the SN30 Pro, only Pro 2 and newer.

[–] Localhorst86@feddit.org 3 points 21 hours ago

I can get this to work on my steam deck. Back buttons and gyro.

But on my PC, it doesn't work. Does anyone know what the requirements for this to work are? Do I need a specific Bluetooth version?

[–] MycarHolmes@quokk.au 10 points 1 day ago (5 children)

So how do you update firmware with just a Steamdeck? 8bitdo does not seem to supply Linux software support anymore, so it feels a bit hilarious that they support SteamOS without any official way of updating controllers there.

I found the fwupd tool on github, but it seems a hacky way that cannot update everything. Can the 8bitdo tool be run via proton/wine?

[–] seralth@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

We call this marketing bullshit.

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

8bitdo controllers now offer Steam compatibility!

Full compatibility details coming soon.

What a non-announcement announcment.

[–] rotopenguin@infosec.pub 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

It sounds like they have to wait for support to move from the Steam Client Beta to mainline. That happens on Valve Time, so they genuinely do not know.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 14 hours ago

Then they shouldn't say anything.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (7 children)

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.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 1 points 23 hours ago

The back paddles being only mappable to other controller buttons honestly drove my nuts

[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How do you make them work?

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 14 hours ago

switch, xbox, playstation, etc.

That's probably what they're talking about. Instead of emulating another controller you have 1st party support.

[–] AncientJames@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

My Ultimate 2 wireless lets me bind the extra buttons to any command as well as detect and configure the gyro controls. This is with Steam Input; so you can bind those buttons to keyboard and mouse inputs.

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[–] rottenmummy@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

I love these controllers. Side note Everyone please don't stop signing EU: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home UK: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074/

[–] CodingCarpenter@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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

[–] forgedchaos@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wish so many games didn't default to the Xbox layout with no option to change it. Having grown up with the SNES layout, the prompts fuck me up every time.

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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.

[–] ISolox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You can! They have replacement buttons for whichever layout you want for fairly cheap. I'm using the original ultimate Bluetooth with an Xbox layout.

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