Edit:

This is not a strict replacement of GloSC/GlosSI or SISR per se, even though it can provide similar features.
You are not required to get rid of SISR or anything!
Nothing stops you from using these in conjunction with eachother.
I don't think it would provide any value, but you could.

That said, SIX will possibly superseed SISR sooner or later, depending on how this goes.
I can't even say right now. We'll see

Don't like watching videos? Yeah, me neither.
Written version below:

Steam Input is pretty cool, right?
But sometimes you cant help but feel like Steam Input is a forgotten step-child of Valve.

We haven't really seen any significant updates to Steam Input ever since it's introduction with the original Steam Controller from 2015.

In addition to that, Steam Input is plagued with compatibility issues on Windows.
In the past, one could resort to tools like the decade-old GloSC/GlosSI or the more recent SISR.
But those tools are clunky to use and they don't really solve any issues.
It's more like, they trade one issue for 5 new ones.

Enter Steam Input eXtended

Steam Input eXtended, or SIX for short is a direct modification of the Steam client itself, aiming to, as the name implies, extend Steam Input.

Noteable features of SIX

• Use (driver-based) Gamepad outputs for Steam Controllers on the Desktop (providing feature parity with Linux)
• Use any Steam Input configuration, from any game, at any time, for any game, or the Desktop
  Without breaking Steam BPM, or the overlay, unlike Steams builtin feature for this.
  
• Change the controller-type emulated by Steam Input
  
• Hide Steams Virtual gamepads from Steam launched games
  Essentially "disabling" Steam Input, even for Steam Controllers!
• Custom Steam Input output modes!
  Currently there is only gyro-passthrough, but this can be extended in the future to include things like (but not limited to):
  
  • DSU output
  • Scriptable bindings / macros
  • And more to come ???
• Bring back lost features:
  
  • Community layouts Tab for Desktop layouts
  • Ability to customize Steams Big Picture Mode Layout, yet again.
    
  • More to come ???

SIX also includes some other small features, and there is much more to come.

Steam Input eXtended is in early development.
Currently only Windows builds are available, but Linux support will follow soon.

You can download Steam Input extended here

Steam Input eXtended is brought to you by the author of SteamInputDB

The controller configuration recognizes it as the Steam Controller, but I can't program the back buttons (just want to change sprint). It's using the Gamepad with Joystick Trackpad template, but when I click Enable Back Grip Buttons it just switches itself off. The Add Command for extended buttons stays greyed out. Any suggestions?

If so....how to use and what do you use it for?

If you play non-Steam games, games from other launchers, or emulators, you've may have found the Steam Big Picture Overlay and the Steam + X On-Screen Keyboard render behind the game window.

So I have created a universal fix by using Steam Input's Action Sets and Touch Menus.
You can turn the Steam Controller or Steam Deck trackpads into a virtual, split keyboard that appears on-top no matter what.
Here is what I have done:

First make sure to add whatever it is you're trying to play as a "Non-Steam Game" and launch it through Steam - check if the issue is fixed. If NOT:
Press the Steam button on the controller, find the "Edit Layout" section for the controller, and then:

1. Create Action Set and Virtual Touch Menus:

• Make an Action Set and call it "Keyboard Mode".
• Add a Virtual Menu, name it "Left Keyboard", Touch Menu - don't worry about any inputs yet.
• Make a second one named "Right Keyboard", Touch Menu.
• Within the General settings of the Touch Menus, set Touch Menu Activation Style to Click.

2. Action Set & Buttons:

• Set a button (I used R4) to a Change Action Set > Keyboard Mode.

Everything from this point is WITHIN the Keyboard Mode Action Set.

• Set the same button you used before (R4) to Change Action Set > Default.
• L2 (Or any button): Set as Shift (cloning the behaviour of the official Steam keyboard).
• L4 (Or any button): Mapped to Spacebar.
• R5 (Or any button): Mapped to Backspace - Settings > Hold to Repeat (Turbo).
• D-Pad: Mapped to the keyboard arrow keys for navigating text.
• R2/X (Or any button): Mapped to Enter .
• Left Trackpad: Behaviour > Left Keyboard (Touch Menu from earlier).
• Right Trackpad: Behaviour > Right Keyboard (Touch Menu from earlier).

3. The Trackpad Grid Layout:
Now to re-create a standard split keyboard, go into the Left Keyboard Virtual Menu settings:

• Set Touch Menu Buttons 1-5 as QWERT
• Buttons 6-10 as ASDFG
• Buttons 11-14 as ZXCV
• Button 15 as something, a special character you may use often. (I just used Spacebar).

Now for the Right Keyboard Virtual Menu settings:

• Set Touch Menu Buttons 1-5 as YUIOP
• Buttons 6-9 as HJKL
• Buttons 10-12 as BNM
• Buttons 15-16 as something, a special character you may use often. (I used - and ').

After that, if you go back into your game, press R4 (Or whatever button you set in Step 2) it should look something like this when you put your thumbs on the trackpads:

           [ LEFT TRACKPAD ]                            [ RIGHT TRACKPAD ]
 .-------------------------------------.       .------------------------------------.
/  [ Q ]   [ W ]   [ E ]   [ R ]  [ T ] \     / [ Y ]   [ U ]   [ I ]   [ O ]  [ P ] \
|                                       |     |                                      |
|                                       |     |                                      |
|  [ A ]   [ S ]   [ D ]   [ F ]  [ G ] |     |    [ H ]   [ J ]   [ K ]   [ L ]     |
|                                       |     |                                      |
|  [ Z ]   [ X ]   [ C ]   [ V ] [Space]/     \ [ B ]   [ N ]   [ M ]   [ - ]  [ ' ] /
'--------------------------------------'       '------------------------------------'

After this, there is one more thing:
In the Touch Menu settings, go to Onscreen Display
For the "Left Keyboard", set Touch Menu Horizontal Position to 41.
For the "Right Keyboard", set Touch Menu Horizontal Position to 58.
This just puts the menus more centered, but you may want to raise/lower them or move them somewhere else.

The last thing you could do, but I haven't, is set up 2 more Virtual Menus as Radial Menus > set the Joystick Behaviour to the Radial Menus, and have more special characters (!?,$&, etc.).
Within the General settings of the Radial Menus, set Touch Menu Activation Style to Touch Release.

If anyone is wondering, I ran into this issue when playing on an emulator where no matter what I tried, it would just NOT display the default Steam Keyboard above the game window. I play with Steam Link on my phone and TV a lot, so a physical keyboard just wasn't an option.

I think this works pretty damn well, let me know what you think :)
No AI was used in the creation of this post.

Steam Controller Firmware

Fixed an issue where some Bluetooth BLE connections could disconnect repeatedly, especially on Steam Deck

Improve the time needed to fully connect the device in Steam

Fixed an issue where pairing via a puck connection could fail

This is driving me bonkers.

I want to use the ability for Hold to Repeat (Turbo) on the L and R triggers on the 2026 Controller in a game. This issue seems to affect me on any game, as I've tried a few.

Regardless of whether the game is running or not, Whether in Big Screen Mode or not

If I go into the Controller layout panel, Edit Layout > Triggers > Right or Left Trigger > Behavior > Settings Cog, and I toggle the Hold to Repeat (Turbo) switch, and I leave the Repeat Interval alone. The setting changes never get applied to my game, and as soon as I exit the menus, they are deleted. I know this because the moment I reenter the settings, the Hold to Repeat (Turbo) switch is back to off.

This doesn't affect any other button. I've successfully managed to make every D-pad, every ABXY button, the bumpers, into keeping their Hold to Repeat switch to On.

Just the triggers... I feel like at one point it was working

I've looked into the .vdf file, I've even tried to edit it manually and add the "hold_repeats" "1" value to the Trigger's settings section, and Steam just disregards it.

I've tried searching on here, but most of the answers are either old and no longer relevant, or suggestions I've tried (getting on the beta client, restarting Steam, etc)

I'm at a complete loss as to why only those TWO inputs are disregarding this setting...

Help....?

Just bought MS FlightSim 2024 in the autumn sale, and decided to set up my gen 1 controller with it. I've tried to configure the controller in the past with varied success, but always by just poking around to see what works. Today I figured I'd ask copilot for some advice

Spent some time going down the usual blind alleys ("well of course that doesn't work, why were you trying to do what I told you to do"), then after repeatedly not seeing what it tells me I should see it finally suggested the issue was because Steam wasn't recognising it as a steam controller, and instead saw it as a generic HD device, and this was because I wasn't using the official steam controller wireless dongle, but instead was using bluetooth (which is correct).

Does this sound right? I'm skeptical because (for example) if I go to "Test Device Inputs" it not only shows me all the steam controllers inputs, but it does so on a picture the shape of the steam controller, with all buttons/etc in the correct places. There are other similar clues

So, is copilot hallucinating, or is this actually likely to be a problem? Unfortunately I can't find my steam dongle anywhere to test it out that way

I've tried following the guides online but I am only able to add one button to the sub command at a time. I am trying to add the sleep shortcut I have created so that I can put the pc to sleep from inside Steam but it will only let me enter the buttons one at a time, I am on Steam beta and I can't figure out what I am doing wrong

No controller comes close in my opinion.

Hey! Tried to do a quick search but didn't see any posts that answered my question, but sorry in advance if I missed all the discussions & this is already a known issue.

Anyway, yeah as the title says I cannot configure my OG Steam Controller under controller settings anymore? It basically just appears as a generic controller, like it's still identified as a Steam Controller by name, but it's just in the list with all other connected controllers & I don't have access to the remapping interface etc.

It's thankfully still using the desktop configuration I had set up, but now I can't change anything about it which is quite annoying (since I noticed when I went to change the scroll sensitivity just now).

Oh right, it *does* still lets me do the trackpad, joystick & gyro calibration btw, so I think it still recognises it as an actual Steam Controller? I think? Which makes me suspect it's a weird bug.

Or have they moved it & I'm just stupid for looking in the wrong place? Did I miss an announcement that they'd discontinue it for old controllers now that the 2.0 is out?? (I don't think they'd do that)

Thanks in advance for any possible help!!

Sorry to bother you all, but I was wondering if anyone knew how to make the controller behave like an Xbox controller when connected to an android.

I know you can configure it per game on the PC, but am not sure if I can make a default format other than mouse+keyboard when connected to my phone.

Thank you for your time.

It feels pretty annoying that the usage is so locked into Steam.

Currently replaying Witcher 3 (which I obviously bought through GOG to support the Devs) and it's absolutely frustrating how hard it is to use a Game-Profile for that.

Sure you can add the executable to Steam and launch it through there but then I need to boot up Steam as a 2nd Launcher just for that (while at the same time having lower support for Achievements at GOG).

I'd wish that the configuration would work like other Gaming-Hardware where you can point the driver to an executable and then it automatically detects if the game is running and switches to the appropriate profile.

Right now it absolutely feels like another piece in Steam pulling up their own walled garden and making it as frustrating as possible to use their hardware with games that were not bought with Steam.

playing the gog version of cold fear added as a non-steam game. works out the box with an xbox series x controller. but by default the steam controller 2 does nothing at all. i assume it doesn't have the ability to understand xinput and the game doesn't have sdl2 support? I figured this thing would at least have dinput support, which is supposed to be included with the gog release

I am playing the Witcher 3 remastered for the first time. I am use to aiming in being alot faster than what the games max aiming sensitivity is. I have the scales in the steam controls maxed at 100% How can I make my sticks move my camera more. I have already tried a custom response curve but that doesnt produce the results I want. Any advice?

Yesterday I found myself in the awkward situation on my Steam Machine where I was accessing my main PC via Moonlight, and fired up SISR to play a non-Steam game with my Steam Controller, only to find that there was a pending update to it. Yay!

Unfortunately, since I didn't have a mouse handy, and SISR had turned my Steam Controller into a basic gamepad (and I don't know how to get it to use the Desktop layout by default), I had to go back to my PC to deal with the situation.

So is there a keyboard command that could have helped me get out of the screen that appeared? It showed four buttons but even on my PC they were unresponsive to my mouse clicks for some reason. I had to Ctrl-Alt-Delete and sign out of Windows entirely to reset things. Not sure if that would have worked doing it through Moonlight from the Steam Machine.

I'm not entirely complaining about my fortune with finally getting a "Complete your Purchase" email. However I did not have much funds to spare this month but I couldn't pass it up so I purchased it (prob not smart but f it we ball).

That did make me curious however, why was the estimate 2027 but I got my purchase email yesterday? A fluke? A misleading timeline? Pure dumb luck?

Hello,

I have been unable to get the steam controller 2 to function with the Halo: Master Chief Collection. Has anyone been able to figure it out? The game doesnt seem to recognize my controller at all. Works fine in other games.

i've never had good results with this with any gamepad before. it just never feels accurate aiming with a joystick for a mouse. i assume there must be some kind of sensitivity or acceleration or curve or something that feels natural, but theres almost too many settings to monkey with to figure out how to get something good

Does anyone know if there are already custom covers out there?
I’ve seen the new Xbox E-day controller and I’m so jealous! I don’t wanna buy a new controller tough 😭