How To Use Steam Controller With Dolphin

Steam Controller

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Dolphin Emulator with Steam controller!

In this guide I will comprehend the basics of using the steam controller with the Dolphin GameCube and Wii Emulator. At that place is a lot to take into consideration when using an SC with Dolphin, trade offs and caveats.

Introduction.

I got my steam controller on October 16th and I honey it. It is a fantastic slice of kit with some amazing features that work surprisingly well for Dolphin. Too many times have I had conversations on the steam forums about dolphin and fifty-fifty chatted to walk some people through the whole procedure of setup. It isn't hard simply there are many who would observe information technology cumbersome or unintuitive at the to the lowest degree and so hither I volition try my best to make a mostly comprehensive guide to working with this controller. This will also exist focused on windows equally that is what I use and much volition still apply for Linux and Mac merely I take no style of testing that out so there you may be on your own.

So, what is this thing anyways?

Let'due south begin with a primer of what we are looking at. The steam controller is Valves endeavour at creating an all-encompassing controller for utilise in mostly PC games as these are the only apps officially supported. The first glaring thing nearly this controller is the lack of a traditional dual stick blueprint and instead opts for these two large rail pads. There is even so i analog stick typically used for movement but there is a consummate lack of a traditional D-Pad input. What makes this controller then intriguing for utilize on Dolphin is the fact that the ii analog triggers both have the same dual stage click at the end of travel exactly similar the GameCube. Also, the addition of modern Gyro/Accelerometer control makes the prospect of using this for Wii remote emulation quite compelling.

Running Dolphin from within steam BPM

Firstly nosotros are going to need the steam client installed. This is because the Steam Controller uses the Steam client to practice all the input device emulation and is fully required to apply this controller in anything just a basic mouse style mode. Additionally, nosotros will need to employ Steam Big Picture Mode (Henceforth referred to as BPM) for any and all configuration as the interface for normal desktop steam is non available. If you like you can run BPM in a window by going to the setings in BPM and checking the "start BPM windowed" checkbox nether the interface department. Alternatively, you lot can also access the steam controller configuration menus right from desktop way without having to really open up BPM fully. If you take a multi-monitor setup or need to have access to other apps while playing, this tin can exist a more convenient manner for some people.

I won't exist going into detail here about how to install the controller as the process is generally automated. If yous encounter problems the steam controller forums are a good place to start.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/0/

Adding Dolphin As A Non-Steam Shortcut

Next we need to set Dolphin the emulator to run from within BPM. This is and so nosotros can configure and reconfigure at will. This is done from withing the normal steam desktop manner every bit shown here.

Click on Add together A GAME...
Click on Add together a Non-Steam Game...
One time here you only browse for your Dolphin executable advertizement Steam volition add together this as a shortcut then we tin use the overlay from BPM on peak of Dolphin. This is also required for whatever of your custom controller configs to piece of work at all then you have to practice it!
One time here nosotros can switch to BPM by clicking on the controller icon in the meridian right of the steam window or by pressing the steam button on the controller.
https://youtu.be/FpYfq0Soh0A

Dual phase triggers with Dolphin

STEAM CONTROLLER AS GAMECUBE CONTROLLER

Now it'south fourth dimension to start Dolphin! One thing to practice before we actually start, though. Let's select our Dolphin shortcut and select manage shortcut and so configure the controller. I highly recommend using the default gamepad bounden'south as a starting bespeak, this guide volition presume you have done this and so if you haven't just hit X on the controller and select this from the list of pre-installed templates. Once you take done this go on ahead and launch dolphin.

YAY! Our honey Dolphin has loaded up! Let'due south become! Wait for just a second, there are a few things you need to know before we proceed. The controller will not activate any configuration other than desktop defaults if it does not detect that a game is running with the overlay enabled. Steam hooks into the render pipeline of your game to do this and as such if aught is existence rendered (3D) then steam volition meet nothing and nothing will piece of work. This ways if y'all opened upward the controls dialog right at present the controller would either not reply, or would only utilise the desktop bindings. We are going to have to first a game starting time. Alt-Enter if yous take full screen enabled so our game becomes gets out of the way for us to configure Dolphin. I would recommend testing at present to make certain the overlay is working properly by hitting the steam button to verify before we open up Dolphins command dialog. It may also exist a good idea to close the game at present and configure Dolphin with the game not running. One time a game is run and the overlay activates the SC equally a gamepad will keep to function even afterwards closing the game, NOT Dolphin itself.

Another way y'all tin do this is useful when you practise take access to your KB/Thousand when you are doing the configuration. In BPM manage the shortcut and select controller options. Here yous will discover a checkbox to allow desktop config in a launcher. This pick is ON exist default merely if you uncheck information technology, yous volition no longer accept to open up and so close a game for the SC config to exist loaded. This is very useful if you lot are setting it upwards initially or are calculation another actor and know you lot are going to need to open Dolphins controller dialog immediately. The only downside here is you cannot select your games to play with your SC. You are going to be required to use at least a mouse to perform that activeness. Y'all can as well plough the option back on after the configuration is done for easy of apply without a KB/M later.
From hither nosotros have a few things to consider. When the controller config dialog is open the overlay for BPM cannot be altered. You lot volition have to shut this dialog before you tin can make changes to the controller from within BPM.

Rather than memorizing the keystrokes used past Dolphin by default I would set up this controller exactly equally you would an XBOX 360 controller for now. When it comes to the C-Stick you lot can swipe your finger on the right trackpad to ready information technology. The dead zones should exist set to ZERO considering the steam controller has amazing dead zone and anti-dead zone controls only defaults should exist acceptable for this. As far as a radius, I set up my left stick to 70 and the correct "Stick" to fourscore and that gave me something VERY close to the GameCube controller'south range. At to the lowest degree, it is much better than the XBOX 360 controller!

The fun part! The triggers... The event here is the fact that we are set to use Xinput mode only and equally we all know the XBOX controllers have no dual stage triggers and so we will have to bind these to something else if we desire to have this function as expected. I recommend setting the digital click of the GameCube triggers to any 2 random keyboard keys. I will use O and P here as a demonstration just these can be annihilation y'all want. Here you lot will have to right click and gear up these manually or employ the notice option because Dolphin wants to continue all the bindings on one device for the almost part and then whatever central set to another device has to exist done this manner. Select the drop down box and select keyboard and mouse, find either O or P and hit the select button. Once these are set, Close the controller config windows and return to your game. Here nosotros can press the steam button, select configure controller and select our first trigger.(Left trigger in this case) This is where y'all need to select the Full PULL Activeness and then select our O primal on the keyboard. Repeat these steps for the right trigger and bind it to P. Leaving the overlay is equally easy as pressing the steam primal again.
That'south it! We now take full Gamecube controller back up WITH our lovely dual stage triggers for natural feeling trigger work for games like Mario Sunshine!

Here is a short video of me playing around with the trigger functions, information technology is hard to describe but it is smoothen and very natural to what you would want from Dolphin when playing this game. Run across, even spam spraying is easy. Works like a charm!

https://youtu.be/TVXSpp6_Zu4

I have added My profile to Steams new not-steam game controller config sections for the SMS and full general GameCube mappings. And then y'all no longer have to manually go through and add the VDF file equally a template. It is labeled as SMS and general GameCube and so I hope y'all all become some use out of it. :)

Playing with more than ane Steam Controller!

Past at present you take learned the raw basics of setting up and using the steam controller with the Dolphin emulator. At present that you are jumping around and spraying your h2o like a champ, you want to play a multiplayer game with a friend.

Dual Stage triggers, if you followed my guide more than or less precisely, will merely work on player ane. If y'all were to prepare the exact aforementioned settings for player 2 and then every time either histrion clicks their triggers that input would exist sent to both players.

By now I am sure yous tin can guess what you will take to practise to fix this. At that place are actually two means you lot can tackle this trouble.

Yous tin can, instead of binding O and P on the keyboard to the full pull actions you can bind them each to a normally unused button on your SC. The benefit of doing this is that when you go to add a third or quaternary controller to the mix you lot will non have to practice whatever kind of editing to the SC config itself for any role player.
The just reason I don't do this is because it feels more natural to me and it is just how I decided to practise information technology. You lot can easily just unbind those keys you lot used for the full pull and use then for other shortcuts. For example, I tend to apply the left bumper for switching activity sets since it is unused with Dolphin every bit the GameCube doesn't fifty-fifty have a left bumper or stick clicks for that matter.

(More on using activeness sets afterward!)
You tin can likewise but use U and I instead of O and P for the second player. The downside here is y'all not just have to set this for the controllers you use in Dolphins controller dialog only you also accept to set this in the SC config for thespian two. The procedure is literally identical to that of actor one but instead, you now take to do it for player two with the different KB commands. This also scales well since there are many more keys on A KB over that of a gamepad based config.

Generally, I prefer method TWO since it leaves more options open to the user. In reality, yet, the method you lot cull is entirely up to you and your ain personal preference.

Using mouse input for C-Stick with the right pad

Since this guide was initially penned quite some time ago I have discovered a few more special things y'all can do to pace up your game with regards to the correct pad. I game I was excited to endeavor out with the steam controller is Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. I played this game all the fashion through on my GameCube when it was current, over again on Dolphin for kicks some few years ago and yet over again at present with my steam controller. I was quite excited by the fact that I could use JMouse to play this game in a like manner I tin can with a PC FPS game. Unfortunately I ran into some problems.

What kind of issues did you have?

The biggest consequence I had was the fact that JMouse and the default settings it used were only insufficient to get anything resembling accuracy with the SC. I have fabricated a rather all-encompassing write up on trackpad accuracy (linked below) but this kept falling short for me whenever I tried to use my normal tricks with Dolphin and more specifically, this game.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=595597298

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

Steam Controller equally Wii remote with Nunchuck

OK, And so now it is fourth dimension to movement on to using the Gyros for Wii remote emulation. This is much more complicated and there are many trade-offs and caveats that demand to be understood here so I will do my best.

Introduction To Wii Remote Emulation

Then equally a offset we are going to have to realize something. The steam controller as of my writing this has no "milk shake" inputs and so you volition have to just use Dolphins built in shake binding in games where it is needed. You as well can but set two axes of the gyros to any axis at a time. For case, if you wanted to have a arrow with the gyros AND use the roll axis to steer you can't do that. You can ready a push button to trigger upon rolling but not an axis. So you will take to requite up an centrality to brand steering with the roll axis possible. In NSMBW you don't actually need the arrow nor do you need it in Mario Kart equally y'all can navigate the menu system completely through the utilize of the Wii remote D-Pad. In these cases, it is OK to give up your pointer for roll considering the whorl is required as in NSMBW with the tilting platforms.

Under CONSTRUCTION!

Sidways Wii remote for platformers

NSMBW and Kirby Controls guide here

Under CONSTRUCTION

Sideways Wii remote for racing games with gyros!

Mario Kart Wii and other racers control guide here

Nether CONSTRUCTION

Special considerations for certain games

Guide on JMouse for photographic camera movements in WW. JMouse for FPS games similar Goldeneye GC and WII with GameCube Controller. SMG2 Mini-game specifics.

Excite Truck is Hard every bit hell to make piece of work so I should consider making a section defended to that game alone equally a demonstration of how ANY game can exist Fabricated to work.

DO I care enough to do a department for the Metroid prime games?

Under Structure

Files used in this guide.

I have decided for those interested to postal service the actual steam controller VDF configuration files and so if y'all like you can copy them directly into your steam directory (C:\Plan Files (x86)\Steam\controller_base\templates) and use them as a template to set. This is Not a shortcut to these guidelines. These profiles are just going to be fully useful in the games that I have made them for. But similar when using the steam controller on PC games, some profiles work well with many games merely there are some games where you just have to make a custom contour to get that 'merely right' command you desire. Either mode, here they are!

Link to the VDF files used in this guide![www.dropbox.com]

Simply remember that your steam directory may differ from mine and if it does or you used a non-default location to install steam you will have to adjust appropriately.

Special Cheers and Credits

First off I would similar to give a HUGE shout out to the entire Dolphin team. The time and dedication required to help us with our hobby here are just amazing! I take used Dolphin since i.0 when information technology was a soundless slideshow all the way to current. My 3-year-old son has go a Mario Sunshine fan thanks entirely to Dolphin.

Shout out to 8BitCerberus who has had some discussions with me regarding sure setups and has been helpful in many other means to the whole steam controller community.

Dolphin With The Steam Controller Showcase

I hope I am non the only one who thinks this is rather impressive. I have been petty effectually with some of the new features of the SC. Specifically the Action Sets. I have besides upgraded my main PC so now I take more enough horsepower to be able to apply Touch carte du jour without having any major slowdowns.

What I did is I have been taking all of my Games and combining the configs for the controller, each into their own action set up. Then using the touch on carte du jour I had the realization I could also have save states saving and loading, exit dorsum to Dolphin and activity prepare switching all in the menu! Plus the cycling of the sets is pretty nice. You lot can't hear it in the menu but each action gear up has its ain beep that comes from the SCs haptics also! This setup has changed the way I use Dolphin with the steam controller and I dearest it!

https://world wide web.youtube.com/watch?v=tUH7zWho0Yo

This was fifty-fifty recorded WHILE playing using my IGPU and intel quick sync, pretty absurd if y'all enquire me.

In instance anyone was curious, here are my specs.
CPU: Intel Cadre i5 6600K @~iv.5Ghz GPU: Sapphire Radeon R9 380 @~1010Mhz Bone: Windows10 Pro x64 Dolphin: 4.0-9177