The best ways to customize your steam deck control

The steam deck of the valve has quickly become my Go-Two Gaming Handheld. I have seen – Oh God – 500 hours in bus Heads II On the steam deck. Nevertheless, I spent the whole week of my life without diving in my most powerful feature using this tool: its adaptable control. Here’s why you should use them, even if you think you don’t need it.

First, I avoided customizing my control because I usually like to play with the intention of the developer. This ended when I sprained in the midst of resumption of my left wrist Chrono triggerI wanted to play, but I needed to rest my wrist. What could I do?

This is true: Obviously, I should re-prepare in-game controls so that I can access almost every function in the game with just one hand, can move the steam deck forward, and keep playing. Once I successfully done this, however, I started experimenting with every game what I can do.

Almost every game that is playable on steam deck is ready to go to its own controller layout, but you can always edit it. Just press the steam button while playing the game, then scroll on the controller settings. You will see a layout that shows that each button of the steam deck is mapped to each button, control stick and touchpad. At the bottom, you will see a button label controller settings. Click on it to start editing.

Your first option is to change your full layout. If you click on “Edit Layout”, you will create a copy of the existing layout with your own changes (which you can always reset), but you can also browse the community-made layout to see if someone has created something that is more comfortable for you. If you try a community layout and do not like it, your original layout will always be available to swap back.

Feel more natural the game designed for a mouse

One of the most asleep superpower of steam deck-and what, in my opinion, makes most of the Windows-based handheld-its dual trackpad. These small sections only work similar to the trackpad of your laptop under each joystick. They have a haptic reaction, and you can also click them. The steam deck has a touchscreen to enter the text, but for my money, the trackpad mouse is a better analog for input.

For example, Stardyu valley There is a game that was initially designed for PCs, and while its controller is the support steller, there are some menu where it would be easy to have near the mouse. The default controller input maps the right trackpad seen as a joystick input. However, I swapped myself so that it would read it like a mouse. This allows me to click on the menu quickly, or the controller hovers more easily with the input.

You can change this behavior under the trackpad section when editing your controller layout. You can choose from some types of behavior (“joystick” and “as joystick”, uh, uh, Misleading) So experiment with the best work for you. You can only add custom input to touch the pad, and to click it.

Promote your ergonomics with rear grip button

The four back grip buttons (L4, L5, R4, and R5 labels) are quickly becoming my best friends. Depending on the size of your hand, they can be a bit hard to arrive, but they let me play Chrono trigger With just one hand, the other one was wrapped in a cold compressed. These are very simple to enable, you do not need to customize the controller layout.

Each back grip button can be assigned to any existing input, but you can take it forward by Twenty -up their settings. Click on the gear icon next to each input and you can set each button as a chain of single press, double press, long press, or other options. You can also set a rear button to register to start to press a key, then a separate rear button to register to that key. So, for example, if I want to buy thousands of wooden pieces from Robin shop Stardyu valleyI can start killing the buy button, then walk away to get a snack, while tick the number. (Or I could install Buy a wholesale with gamepads modesbut still.)

There is also a strong turbo mode settings menu, although it is worth noting that you probably be careful to use it in any multiplayer game if you don’t want a ban on your account. You can set a button to repeat an input rapidly when holding it down, adjust the gaps between the input, or even set it as a togle.

So far, one of the best devices on the steam deck is your ability to create your own input menu. My favorite is the radial menu. This makes an overlay on the top of your game that lets you assign a wheel separately for easy access. When editing your layout, go to the trackpad and choose from the behavior dropdown, make a radial menu. This will allow you to produce a radial overlay whenever you touch this touchpad.

It has been a life saving for me in sports for me Stardyu valleyWhere cycling through toolbar is more cumbersome than a desktop. The default configuration has pressed the left and right trigger to move through one step to the toolbar at once. Nah; My custom radial menu lets me jump into the slot I want quickly with a single gesture.

You can make the radial menu layout and apply them to touchpad, joystics, or even gyro control (more on it). This is one of the best ways to increase your game input, especially for games that are not deliberately designed keeping in mind the gamepad controls.

Radial menu construction interface
Credit: Eric Revennecraft

Get an accurate goal with Gyro control

It gets very unseen, but the steam deck has the underlying gyro capabilities, and you can turn them on for any game in your library. Like The steam deck can understand the game, which usually works very well, but will try to map gairo movements based on the game. It is expected to use a little here.

By default, the Gyro control will stop, but you can enable them with a simple tole in controllers settings. After that, you can activate the Gyro movement by placing your thumb on the correct control stick. The top touch of this stick is sensitive, so you do not need to move it, just come in contact with it. It also works by touching the right touchpad, but you can turn this behavior into a controller settings.

When you are activating Gyro control, bending the steam deck will send this mouse input to your game. In my experience, it did a great job in the first person’s sports ApocalypseWhere you use the right control stick to indicate your camera. GYRO movements will get a little additional accurate control when you tilt your deck, while your thumb is where it will normally have a control stick anyway.

The quantity of the effort that is already ensuring that most steam games play well on the steam deck are already very incredible. Before it came out, I suspected it would workAnd I was never more happy to prove wrong. Between the official developer support and community layout, almost every game I played on the steam deck felt as if it was to be there.

But this does not mean that adaptation has to be stopped. Even if you ever have no problem with any control over your steam deck, it is worth diving in adaptation tool to see if you can make your game feel more comfortable for you.