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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[–] 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 1 day ago

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

[–] 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 1 day 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.

[–] Localhorst86@feddit.org 3 points 1 day 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 2 days 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 2 days ago

We call this marketing bullshit.

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

8bitdo controllers now offer Steam compatibility!

Full compatibility details coming soon.

What a non-announcement announcment.

[–] rotopenguin@infosec.pub 2 points 1 day 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 2 points 1 day ago

Then they shouldn't say anything.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days 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 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

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 1 day 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 2 days 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 2 days 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/

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I have a Pro 2 and my only complaint with it with "SteamOS" (Bazzite) is that the back paddles don't actually work with Steam Input directly. You can program them with the Ultimate Software, but that means they're stuck only repeating the input of another button on the controller. So if this update brings full Steam Input support that would be awesome, as it would mean you can set all kinds of other functions to them. Plus not having to use a seperate software, and controller-based profiles, would be awesome.

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So if this update brings full Steam Input support that would be awesome

It does!

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[–] shigutso@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I have a Pro 2 too and switched from Xinput to Dinput at the back of the controller and my Steam Deck now identifies the back buttons like L4/R4 (but with the name PL/PR) and I can map it to anything I want

[–] CodingCarpenter@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days 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 2 days 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 2 days 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 2 days 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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[–] DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I just got their ultimate 2 wireless today. It's really nice and works very well on Linux. I just wish their app worked at least through wine. I couldn't even make it work in a Windows VM. Hope they bring it over.

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