Did Steam input cause the double input?

cns00 · 2 Weeks Ago

I have a PS4 controller and I connected it to my Alienware laptop by using a USB wire. I started using the PS4 controller on my Alienware laptop on Jan 2024 and before that I was using it on my HP laptop.

I played games that have native PS4 controller support from Jan 2024 to May 2024 on my Alienware laptop. I played those games outside Steam because they recognized the controller. There were no issues. Also there were no issues in the past when I was using the PS4 controller on my HP laptop by using DS4Windows.

DS4Windows is not installed on my Alienware laptop. I recently started playing a game which doesn't have native PS4 controller support on my Alienware laptop so I had to add the game to Steam so it uses Steam input to recognize the controller. I picked the enabled w/o support instead of enabled for PlayStation support in the Steam controller config.

After a few days something weird happened in the game. There are dialogue boxes and text scrolls in the boxes and then an icon shows and I can press X on my controller to go to the next dialogue box. The boxes are aa, bb and cc and the icon was showing for aa and I pressed X once. The game jumped over bb and it showed for like 200 ms and it went to cc. I redid that part and I pressed X on the icon of aa and it went to bb. If I press X while the text is scrolling then it will just make the text scroll faster so it doesn't make sense that the game jumped from aa to cc and I just pressed X once on the icon of aa.

It looks like I got double input when I pressed X once on the icon of aa so it jumped to cc. I know that Steam input can cause double input if you play a game which has native PS4 controller support in Steam with Steam input and the solution is to disable steam input. Also I know that desktop mode of Steam input can misbehave and cause double input.

I want to ask can Steam input misbehave and cause double input if I play a game which doesn't have native PS4 controller support in Steam by using Steam input? Can desktop mode misbehave and cause double input? Desktop mode doesn't work if I selected enabled w/o support for PlayStation support and I need to select enabled.

Catnip · 2 Weeks Ago

Pretty hard to follow that one, but if I am reading it right the best thing to do is not to use the Steam input.

If I am also reading it right, the game does not support the PS4 controller.

My suggestion then is to buy a $30 controller from Logitech or something similar that supports Windows and end the problem. I have one and no double inputs or anything else using Steam.

cns00 · 2 Weeks Ago

Catnip said:

My suggestion then is to buy a $30 controller from Logitech or something similar that supports Windows and end the problem. I have one and no double inputs or anything else using Steam.

I don't want to use xinput controllers and I want to use direct input controllers. I can buy the F710 Logitech controller and set it to direct input and then I install the controller software from Logitech Gaming Software – Logitech Support + Download. I want to ask you what will happen when I play games that don't have native direct input support? Will the controller software emulate the support so the game recognizes the controller?

Catnip · 1 Week Ago

cns00 said:

I don't want to use xinput controllers and I want to use direct input controllers. I can buy the F710 Logitech controller and set it to direct input and then I install the controller software from Logitech Gaming Software – Logitech Support + Download. I want to ask you what will happen when I play games that don't have native direct input support? Will the controller software emulate the support so the game recognizes the controller?

I am not 100% sure on that, but my Logitech controller has no issues with any software I have tried to use it with. That's why I suggested using it. Your mileage may vary however.

Malneb · 1 Week Ago

cns00 said:

I don't want to use xinput controllers and I want to use direct input controllers. I can buy the F710 Logitech controller and set it to direct input and then I install the controller software from Logitech Gaming Software – Logitech Support + Download. I want to ask you what will happen when I play games that don't have native direct input support? Will the controller software emulate the support so the game recognizes the controller?

Direct input is the old school way to detect a controller, it sucks and was a mixed bag for years its the reason why we used to plug controllers in and they would not work or they would have only half the buttons working. Think like madcatz peripherals being poor pnp devices that only worked half the time. like only if the game support it sort of time.

Logitech came and was more better.

Eventually Xinput came to replace Direct Input a standard set by Microsoft and to this is the best option, i would by an Xinput controller over everything else because its the most dominate form and has the best sup[port games actively support it because its a robust standard where d input is hard to code for because of the variation so most of the time games will not tackle d input at all.

Steam input is part of the SDL layer it uses where SDL has spent a considerable time writing a driver that supports d input controllers
He talks about the issue here around the 32:00 minute mark. Long winded but just some info to help you know between the two formats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeMPCSqQ-34

if i had to i would choose a Xbox or a ps3 controller over anything because those two have the most support, Xbox has the best of the two.

Basically it means buy an xinput controller which is most controllers today or if you have a d input based one then you would need to rely more on steam input.

cns00 · 1 Week Ago

Malneb said:

Eventually Xinput came to replace Direct Input a standard set by Microsoft and to this is the best option, i would buy an xinput controller over everything else

Long ago I was using an Xbox one controller in Win 10 2004. All was ok. After that I installed Win 10 21h2. I suddenly started getting double input in games. For example I press A once and the game reads 2 very fast A presses. It happened mostly in games that I played in Steam and I think it happened in games outside Steam.

I endured the issue for 1 year and then I bought an 8bitdo SN30 pro+ controller. Initially I used it in xinput mode. I still got double input. Double input in 2 different controllers means that it's a software issue. In the end I discovered something weird.

When you connect an Xbox controller you will get the Microsoft hid complaint game controller driver under hid devices in the device manager. I discovered that I had an extra Microsoft hid complaint game controller driver which was always hidden and it's never in use and it's always hidden. If I delete the extra driver which is hidden then it came back in a few days. Thus there is a Windows bug and I suspected that the extra hidden driver was causing the double input. I stopped using xinput controllers because of that.

Malneb · 1 Week Ago

I am not sure tbh i know this is an issue you have talked about before, You should not be getting double input from xinput unless you like throw the controller around and it is now broken.

iam still using the very first pc xbox controller that came out from the day and its worn out to shit but still works and i am not having double input or missed input even though its pretty worn out surprisingly and i have thrown that thing around a few times pretty hard. its like since 2006 so like nearly 20 years old now.