#steam input

[blazehedgehog]

I Love To Shoot At Trouble

During the Steam Christmas Sale I ended up buying Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2012 because it was like $6 or $7 and I'm in the mood for a new racing game to chew up. EA already gave the game away for free in like 2015, but that meant installing "The EA App". I figured having it on Steam would be more convenient.

You'd think so.

It's not! As part of the first time launch, it installs "The EA App" anyway, which also means it found and uninstalled whatever version of Origin I still had (I wasn't aware I'd ever reinstalled Origin since my HDD crash). As part of this process, it also asked me for my EA password, I misread Firefox's stored password incorrectly, and went through the trouble of resetting my EA account with a new password before linking it to Steam. To my surprise, EA's been sitting on my seven year old cloud save from the few minutes I played of this on Origin in 2017, and asks if I want to import it. Sure, I guess.

So that's ten minutes down the drain before I can even boot up the game. Okay, fine, the game finally launches. Gotta wait while it boots up The EA App each time before it boots into the game, gotta wait for the title screen logo animation, gotta wait for a 10-15 second load screen because even though this game came out in 2012 it's gotta ping some always-online "Autolog" leaderboard whatever. Once it connects, it has to do a slow cinematic pan across your car, telling you what your online rivals have done since the last time you connected, and what kind of equipment you have on your car.

All told, every time you boot up Most Wanted 2012, you're looking at a 30-45 second wait before the game actually hands over control and lets you start driving.

Pull the accelerator and instantly Most Wanted SCREAMS at me:

Fair enough. I'm using a Dualshock 4, and the Playstation 4 did not release until over a full year after this game. Click to the menu it's asking of me and see that the control binding menu is awful -- it's one of those super oldschool ones, like binding keys one by one in Doom 2. I have no idea what these buttons are supposed to be in terms of Xbox equivalents, and I realize that Steam has this thing called "Steam Input" that's supposed to be handling all of this anyway. Steam Input generally makes my Dualshock 4 look like an Xbox controller to most games.

I exit out of Most Wanted, force Steam Input to "on" (I was messing with its settings recently, so I thought maybe it was disabled), and relaunch the game again. Wait for the EA App to boot up, gotta wait through the title screen logos, gotta wait 10-15 seconds on a loading screen, gotta wait another 5-10 on the cinematic pan across my car. I have now spent a minute and a half total waiting for this game to boot while I troubleshoot this.

Pull the accelerator. Instead of it complaining about my controller, straight up nothing happens. That's weird. The Start button works, the analog stick seems to work in the pause menu, but the triggers do not. The face buttons also do nothing. Upon checking the settings, that's because Most Wanted has settled on keyboard mode, even though it's clearly accepting some controller input. After poking at it, it does not seem like there's any way to get it to see my controller.

This makes Most Wanted a special game, because a lot of games I play will happily accept that Steam Input is telling it I have an Xbox controller connected even when I absolutely do not. But this is the rare 1% that seems to be incompatible. It's time to bring in the big guns.

Mayflash makes a terrific little passthrough device called the Magic NS, and the general purpose of this device is that it lets you use any controller on any other platform. An Xbox controller on a Playstation? No sweat. A Playstation controller on the Switch? It'll handle it. If you upgrade to the Magic NS2, you even get full gyro support. Every NS device also doubles as a Bluetooth dongle, so you can stay wireless if that's your thing. I love it so much I bought two, because generally they're only about $20.

A Magic NS2 for my Switch... and Magic NS1 for my PC. Strictly for scenarios like this, where a game expects an Xbox controller and Steam Input fails its camouflage.

Plug the NS1 in, connect my Dualshock 4, and once again boot up Most Wanted and wait the 45 seconds to get through the EA app, logos, loading, and the cinematic pan across my car. More than two full minutes now looking at this junk, and that's not counting the time spent outside of the game troubleshooting this in menus or digging out dongles or whatever.

Pull the accelerator... and my car starts to drive! I can steer! It works! Of course it works. The Magic NS never lets me down. I pull up to the first race event...

Press J and K to start the event.

Those are, uh. Those are keyboard keys. I'm using a controller. The controller is fully functional. You don't need to tell me this in keyboard controls. This isn't going to be one of those games, is it? The kind that still tells you everything in the keyboard shortcuts no matter what?

I drop into the menus again and see Most Wanted is still stuck on Keyboard mode and won't let me switch to anything else, even though I'm clearly using a fully functional controller now. This can't be right. But then I remember: Steam Input is still turned on, and when I forced Steam Input to be on, Most Wanted got stuck in this keyboard mode.

Exit out of the game, tell Steam to turn off Steam Input for this specific game only, and relaunch. Wait through all that crap again. We're up to three minutes just waiting for the game to start, and probably closing in on 20 minutes since I first decided I wanted to try Most Wanted.

Pull the accelerator, it works, drive up to the first event, and...

Pull LT and RT to start the event.

FINALLY. HOLY SHIT.

On the plus side: this game controls a lot better than I remember. It's a decent middleground between Criterion's heavier-feeling Hot Pursuit (2011) and the snappier Burnout Paradise. Though I could do with a lot less full screen flashing or the fact that Autolog alerts hide the minimap for some reason.

Not pictured, but the "always online" nature can also be frustrating if you pause, unpause, and find you have to quickly re-pause again a second time. That second pause will actually incur a loading spinner because it hasn't finished syncing with the server from the first pause, apparently. This game is going on 12 years old.

Anyway. This was a nightmare.

HOT BONUS

"The EA App" now starts up with Windows and is nagging me to enter the login credentials I already entered last night. I have to go through extra steps to get it to leave me alone and not do this

THE RIDE NEVER ENDS

#need for speed #most wanted #criterion games #ea #electronic arts #origin #the ea app #steam #valve #xbox #steam input #troubleshooting #mayflash #Youtube

[artificerkatzke]

In the time Ive been gone, Ive started posting cursed gaming stuff over on the bird app and will post more on youtube, so as a result of my return to Tumblr, I present to you...

PAYDAY 2 ON A WII NUNCHUCK

#wii #pc gaming #gaming #cursed controllers #cursed #payday 2 #steam input #steam #games #Youtube

[vivy-nx]

hi!! look at my cool kirby walking simulator fangame i made over the course of last year!! i worked very hard on it!! it's downloadable for windows and linux!

#kirby series #kirby #kirby's adventure #my art #pixel art #it's got a little jank to it but i think it works about as well i could have hoped for. #unfortunately due to “my first time using this game engine proper” brain the two things i'd really like to have added if I could- #those being support for other screen resolutions and input remapping #were kinda. not something I considered at all #and trying to add them in retroactively was a bit of a nightmare #and i kinda lost steam on it and didnt work on the project for a long while #but i figured i'd rather have a release thats rough around the edges than an almost-perfect video game languishing alone on my hard drive #so i'm putting it out as is. #i hope you like it !!! #i learned a lot about godot engine making this thing. hopefully soon i will make even more cool things with godot!! #i can even try godot 4 now!! i've got no idea what that's like because when i tried to port this over to it all the visuals broke somehow #so i just stuck with godot 3.5 #anyway. please enjoy!!! #Youtube

[flowertab]

I asked the puzzle input when NWoS releases. Hopefully this means April fourth and not 2044

#it feels like it could go either way at this point #am I the only one who likes to play with the answer input boxes? XD #professor layton #professor layton and the new world of steam

[strangewiggles]

anyway ive been playing Viewfinder lately, and i remember watching gameplay of it a while ago.. and i remember heavily disliking the ending. but man the gameplays fun to me. im preparing to be disappointed unfortunately

#a lot of the story is pretty good IMO i think the way the characters are set up is really good #especially with cait’s input #only ever seeing them after they were already completely enveloped in this work #i really enjoy the characterization #im ready to write a 50 page essay on steam when im done.. #jesse plays: viewfinder #<- like that tag. do you think its cute

[greentypewriters]

today i spent an absurd amount of time making my wii remote work with windows so i could play fear and hunger with it. and it was worth it

#i'd made wiimotes work with steam before for funnies but it was such a hassle that i swore to never do it again #and then i got fear and hunger. and i was like. it would be SO funny #so i had to #this time getting the wiimote to work with dolphin again afterwards was actually way easier #so i can switch between PC and dolphin now relatively easily :) #i haven't gotten steam to recognize it as a controller yet though i just routed it through joytokey #or at least that's what i did with the other games i tried. but with fear and hunger it just. had controller support? #i tried joytokey and it actually just messed with everything. but i couldn't change the controls ingame #and the default layout was fucked up in the head (in sideways mode 1 was accept and 2 was cancel???) #so i had no choice to connect my nunchuk and use that even though i wanted to use it like the wii does with NES virtual console :( #last time i did this i played hades with wiimote/nunchuk and it actually felt really good #but that was when steam recognized it as a controller and let me remap it like that #when the game is expecting cursor input it's not as smooth #so i really wanna figure out how to get steam to recognize it again #ALTHOUGH that might involve more drivers and make everything a hassle again. so maybe i should just count my blessings #text

[ryjelsum]

i haven't played a game on my steam deck yet. i've just been fiddling with the software. the computer is its own game

#i installed nixos because steamos annoyed me and now i have a cool ultraportable pc #i only had to apply a patch to compensate for valve's bad wayland support for steam input

[theharlotofferelden]

A little surprised I played BG3 more than MTAS considering I was playing MTAS far more frequently than BG3. (Link to the full stats for those who are interested.)

#steam year in review #personal: gaming #I didn’t play that many games this yr #mainly bc I was trying to focus more on my writing #which I >mostly< succeeded at this year #also a lot of these were time intensive games #but this is leaving out my insane playtime for ESO lmao #considering buying it on Steam just so I can stop inputting my login info every time #also fwiw this is about half the number of games I played last year

[smokedanced]

@anderwhohn said: [ wall ] your muse pinning mine against a wall. //for Garrus from Nihlus (your choice of au/verse)

𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒    /    ACCEPTING ↷

Garrus  growls in a warning  as the older turian grabs him, but doesn’t shove him back, not yet  ⸺  he has his piece to say and he’s going to get his message across.    ❝ You can be  mad about it  all you want, but I knew what I was doing. A thank you would be nice. ❞    Oh, he knows he’s not getting a thank you.

❝ You’re not the only Spectre on this mission  ⸺  just because I’m newer  ⸺  I wouldn’t have to go behind your back if you just listened to me! ❞    & he does shove Nihlus now, with enough force to wrangle himself out of his grasp.

They’re never going to catch Saren if they keep jumping at each other’s throats like this, but he’s had it with unquestioningly taking orders. It’s giving him unpleasant memories of how angry he used to grow, working for C-Sec, back before Saren had picked him for a Spectre candidate. Garrus never liked Saren, but at the very least, he learned from him. And Nihlus... Nihlus keeps treating him as if he were his subordinate, not his equal. He understands it, when they’re on board the Alliance vessel; somebody’s got to be in command, that’s fine. But when it comes to the stuff that matters... & hasn’t Garrus proven himself? He’s gone behind Nihlus’s back, yes, but doesn’t the outcome prove him right? He hasn’t messed anything up, he’s made it better. No one got hurt, they got what they went down for. Even if he... had to improvise, a little.

#anderwhohn #well i think you two should bLOW OFF SOME STEAM #test your reach and flexibility... #also: no i got no clue what he did #trying to get a hold of his portrayal if he were trained by saren... #clearly he would've had some effect #kinda feels like a baby-shoes archangel vibe? #it's not like saren can turn him -gestures- mini saren but #-inputs some renegade in there- #; garrus vakarian ❪ muse. ❫ #; garrus vakarian ❪ verse / spectre. ❫ #oh. so i went with the 'saren trained them both' verse as you probably noticed. XD #; anderwhohn / nihlus & garrus / 001 #q.

[hometownrockstar]

we need to talk about the real issues in society. like how theres currently NO modern port for fucking Vib-Ribbon (1999) for the PS1 nor NA releases for the sequels. ...hold on i just googled it, there was actually a 2014 port so i lied. we need to talk about the real issues in society, like how years ago when i tried to emulate vib-ribbon i couldnt find a SINGLE rom anywhere.

#probably wouldnt even play that good tbh. #i tried emulating a rhythm heaven game once and the inputs were so laggy n awful #obviously bad for a precise rhythm game #they should release vib ribbon on steam. i'd buy it

[loveletterworm]

it’s probably pointless to dream of such a thing for something of this genre but i hope frontiers won’t be a complete nightmare to play with a keyboard my only usb controller is like all fucked up for no reason now. like no matter what i do it just registers the incorrect buttons and somehow developed controller drift but ONLY if its plugged into a switch dock (when its plugged into a computer it doesnt do this but it does do the completely incorrect buttons thing)

#like i thought the incorrect inputs was because of steam not knowing what it is #but then it just kept happening regardless of if steam was even open. #so my only other controller is...a gamecube one. which i don't think would have enough buttons. #so i am not inclined to try. that creature is only for dolphin because mapping weird control layouts like the gc one to keyboard sucks #mypost

[themetalvirus]

sometimes my cyclical thoughts can be upsetting. sometimes theyre literally just, no joke, word for word, "haha sonic haha sonic haha sonic haha sonic haha sonic haha sonic" ON LOOP

#exoticbutterstxt #i am. mentally. um. yeah #thats why i make posts abt the same things a lot #btw i literally just got that exact cyclical thought #the exact words 'ha ha sonic' #without my input #because i think my brain could tell i was about to be upset #so it served me a hot steaming plate of haha sonic but didnt know what else to do with the sonic fixation #so it was like. yeah this is fine #this will work #and it worked

[psychosomaticdeicide]

I still need to figure out if my switch controller could be used to play games on itch…

#incoherent screeching into the abyss #I am very very bad at games that need mouse + keyboard input #but some of these games can be played with a controller #at least it works on steam??

[universalcarnival]

Is anyone familiar with TF2/Steam controller settings? For some reason TF2 has completetly just... deleted every single input I have for my controller and now my controller is completely useless in the game when it was working not even a day ago. Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this or?

#yes steam input does work but it wasn't enabled before all this #and it changes my muscle memory for how this controller works #does anyone know how to fix it WITHOUT switching to steam input? #cuz if so you'd be my lifesaver i've been battling this for 8 hours

[cilantro1]

Wrestled for half an hour with the controller settings on steam because the game I'm playing is asking for an analog trigger but I don't have those. Was not successful. This would be a trivial task if the game just let me rebind buttons btw.

#hate hate hate hate #how you can never ever customize controller inputs #and steam is not really helping... #this is such a simple accessibility feature why...............

[barrymccaulkinem]

the pirated version of A Dance of Fire and Ice is better than the steam version bc it works with wireless controllers just fine. playing through steam it not only lags hard but inconsistently so

#which is why i think there must be a way to bypass steam's controller driver and use the native one. #thats whats going on right? it takes my good xbox pc controller input and corrupts it into foul unreliable 'steaminput'?