Too many inputs? No problem! Steam Deck Action Layers Tutorial
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- There are lots of games out there that have too many inputs for a controller. But you can make them work on the Steam Deck.
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#SteamDeck #SteamInput #Valve
The options and customizability Steam input gives the user is insane. Console makers need to take notes.
Yes that was one of the heavily overlooked aspects of the steam controller. The thing was so versatile it literally was crazy. Instead it got hammered for being too complicated and you actually had to learn to use that thing.
Absolutely. Having extra buttons is a good thing and something both Microsoft and Sony are afraid to change about their consoles. Valve and PC games are the only ones willing to take control chances
That's because the majority of console players don't want complexity.
Perhaps if more people requested it, such a feature would be developed.
Just wish they did a better job explaining how to use it.
Valves experience with the Steam controller was really important for this kinda stuff.
Indeed this is basically what the Steam controller provided (and all the testers ignored by criticizing it that it was not an xbox controller). Thats also the reason why after the initial criticism the steam controller now is regarded as one of the best controllers ever done for the pc, it was all the software and innovative approach.
@@werpu12 To be fair to reviewers, this is functionality that was added a good year or so after the SC came out. Reviewers and the public dismissed the SC too quickly, but also it took a long time for even Valve to realise all its potential. They didn't even include gyro aiming as a default option on release, it was added as a default template only after the community made a big thing of it. The handy thing is the deck can take advantage of everything learned over the lifespan of the SC. Just hope the success of the Deck allows for a SC2.
If you ever watched part of the steam input presentation from valve you'd know they thought of something big that only a few implemented. Look at No Man's sky. It has multiple tabs on the default configuration. 2 of them are for on foot and flight. Without those tabs you'd have manual toggles for action sets. With these tabs it switches automatically freeing up space. The presentation presented the idea of thinking in "actions" instead of inputs. Instead of press A to jump, it's press jump to jump. You then let the user assign what input goes to jump.
Keep going man. This Steam Input series is actually amazing and you're the only one with a Deck that's goig hard on it so far.
Agreed. No one else is focusing on Steam Input. He could easily capitalize on this and make it his niche.
Having two trackpads and 4 back buttons really opens up the ability to add sets and layers which most other controllers don't have.
Trackpads also are great for movement and camera control. The right trackpad as trackball allows for insanely fast camera swipes combined with fine movement. Aka... swift swipe the camera literally is flying into the direction in a speed almost not achievable with a mouse. Touch the pad again with your thumb the cam comes to an instant stop and then you can use the thumb for fine granularity. Unfortunately not every game with cam control can work like that, many are too rigid in their thumbstick controls or switch to mouse keyboard entry and adjust their help messages accordingly (witcher 3 being a major offender in this area)
Valve has added some simulated mouse joystick input (aka send joystick signals close to a mouse) but this is not entirely the same as going raw trackball mode.
@@werpu12 very true on all counts. I challenged myself to put movement on right pad on the Steam Controller and now all of my builds start that way. Camera control with pad + gyro is second only to a mouse, as well
@@werpu12 nice, thanks I didn't know that.
Duuuuuuude, your videos are changing the way I play games. No longer getting frustrated with not fully supported games but charging the configuration of the steam deck controls and adding layers makes them so much fun now
Came here looking to learn about action layers and discovered the radial wheel for track pads. Thank you for the info, earned my sub!
How did you use your track pad radial wheel? Looking how to use it for rotating objects held in your hand to build structures.
I have been watching steam deck vids for a week and this is the first time I am hearing about this feature.
that is wild and I am excited to try out options.
Thanks that helped me with how to set up a controller 🎮 scheme for a game that needed a button for each magic spell !!! 👍🏻
I return to this video over and over again. Thanks to your tutorial I'm able to play WH4K Gothic Armada with my steam deck with all the hot keys in my track pads layers.
this helped tremendously in figuring out layers and action sets for me
Pretty awesome! The configurability Never stops surprising me.
I would love to see a few more examples for different games.
And I hope developers take advantage of these features
Even though I'm very familiar with Steam Input features I think it is really cool to see these for the Steam Deck not only because the UI is different from the desktop version but also because Steam Deck has more input methods than the Steam Controller so it's cool to see practical use cases for the extra buttons.
Dude... THANK YOU for finally demystifying the action set layer configuration for me! Your video was super helpful.
My favourite is directional swipe on gyro by pressing L2. In WoW i use it to play my druid to transform to a cat or bear by moving the steam deck up or down. And when i press L2 and L3 together, then moving the controller around does heal abilities.
Can you explain this a bit please? I've never used directional swipe before. Is that a 4 way button pad (up, down, left, right) controlled by swipes of the controller?
Also possible to set the other trackpad menu as a Mode-Shift to L4 so you don't need to set an Action Layer.
You can also assign Quick Save and Quick Load to the same "button" in Menus. Add extra command and set one as regular and another as e.g long press, double press etc.
E.g you can assign regular press for flashlight, long press for Night vision goggles.
Thanks for the quick tutorial! I used this to help me create action layers to navigate the cameras in FNAF 1 with my pro-controller.
The best guide ever for Action Layers, thank you so much :)
I am worried I might spend more time setting up controls for games than actually playing on the steam deck lol
The best thing about it, is there's things like community profiles!
@@Dracossaint Over 10 games and I have yet to find a worthy community profile. Most are 💩.
I spent forever customising my own Watchdogs 2 profile, only for my save to get corrupted and never get to use the profile...
Man, the Steam Deck is so cool. Got a 64gb model month ago in late 2024 and I am still amazed at how feature-complete this hardware is! Bravo! Thank you for the 2y old video 😊
Thank you so much for these helpful guides, I don't think I would even have known about these configurations without them! Keep up the good work!
I've been looking for a tutorial like this. It's so helpful. Thank you!
Fantastic explanation! I was curious what the action sets did and you simplified it so well with a great example. Thanks!
Thanks for showing this. I always wondered how I would implement this when I run out of buttons to program. More Steam Input tutorials would be great!
holy shit this is next level. Trackpads with customizable actions should be a standard
As I played the Worms series quite a bit, in the Steam configuration (and sometimes using ControllerCompanion which is similar and existed before Steam Input) I set up quick select combinations for weapons. So holding select and pressing B brings up the grenade, A the bazooka etc., that sort of stuff
I did some specific things to aid me in specific situations in certain games. For example, in Rocket League, I made it so when I press a shoulder button, the right trackpad will simply do nothing but pull the camera down. This allows me to effectively have two camera settings, one for dribbling where I can see from atop my car, and the regular one for everything else (wish they'd just make the ball transparent so you can dribble properly without shenanigans)
The buttons look easily customizable. That’ll come in major handy. Thank you for the description on the layers your awesome
Action Sets are good for FPS games where you have a driving section so your triggers are accelerator and break
My favorite layer thing to do is have the right trackpad act as a dpad when you click it. That’s 4 buttons (even 5 if you add a center button) nested under the trackpad you’re using all the time for aiming
THanks for the tutorial on how to get them to work, I was close to working it out myself but this got me over the line
Wow that was really helpful, and I’m also impressed that steam implemented these options
Let me go ahead and click that bell. I want all your videos. I have had my Steam deck for about three days now and it is way better than I even imagined. The trackpad and controller support is a game changer.
Thanks to this guide, I was able to play tab targeting rpg games smoothly with a controller.
Legend, huge thanks for the important explanation I was looking for exactly how to do 1 button to have other options on already used controls. Really wanted to nest/chain commands and I think this will be my goto trick!
🤯 amazing !!! Trying to get the controls ready for DCS world. Soooo many buttons, this will help a lot. Thanks
This was super informative and well explained, any videos explaining functionalities of the deck that might not be obvious for the average user are great
This is such a great help now that i have my deck and need better button mapping
Idk if im dumb or not but i just set up my 1st radial (thanks to you again as you helped me set up action sets before)
It seems so convolted. I did it backwards though. I made the radial in the virual menu... uh.. menu and then made the action set. Should be an option to do a quick and dirty version right off the default set. Like in the virtual menu when your creating all the actions, i wish there was a activation dropdown with a settings cog.
But i learned to do it the right way and can see how i can have radial menus linked to every button via an action set layer.
Enough of me complaining. Thank you! Even though this vid is 2 years old it was the most up to date ive found. All the others when looking for steam input is of the old system from a few years ago. That system was even more obtuse than the new one!
Thank you for this video. You helped me get amiibo working on BOTW. I was struggling to figure it out. You earned a subscribe and thumbs up.
Awesome man. Thanks for the demonstration. So glad the Deck has action layers.
I'll be using them for basic umbrella configurations for FFXIV. When I touch the center it will turn the whole TouchPad into an analog stick. When I tap certain zones it'll activate a face button or a directional pad press.
I'm going to save the Joysticks for Radial Menu shortcuts.
Thanks for this! I working on getting Guild Wars 2 set up the way I want. There are some community presets already out there but none of them are quite right, so this will be a big help.
So refreshing to have a channel that shows wgat an SDeck CAN do, Thanks
"I've got Oblivion running one of my all time favorite games"
My man.
Thank you for your help, this days it's difficult to come by people like you, i want you to know that my heart will never stop appreciating your generosity..
Happy more people are going to be learning about how useful steam's input api is. I'm the only one in my group of friends that even touches it.
This is really good content, keep it up please! I'd love to see more examples of this being used. The customization for Steam is truly next level!!
For something as straightforward as "save state/load state," I'd probably just map them to L4 and R4 directly, but it's definitely useful to have tutorials for these input options and neat to think of the crazy amount of possibilities.
It's a valid point, but maybe for someone who presses the back buttons by mistake, it might be better this way.
Controller support for Steam is impressive. Now, Sony and Nintendo should improve pad support. I used layers and sets, my Fighting Stick doesnt have LS and RS. I set up Layers for LS and RS.
Oh man this is amazing, I'm playing old games like Resident Evil 5, I'm using a Dualsense with full Keyboard Binding just be able to aim with Gyro as Mouse. I wanted to create a Layer where I can just hit a button and it will shift to Controller type so I can do the QTE properly. I think this is the key to do it.
Thanks so much!! I needed exactly this for Sims 4 Live/Build Mode ❤
The Steam Deck just continues to impress me. When I think I've discovered everything it offers I find something new.
UA-cam only lets me press once on the Like button. I know this because I tried it 99 times. Had to be an odd number of course. Great short video, thanks! ^^
This might be the best way (and the only way) to play Mario Galaxy 2 without a Wii mote portably. in theory, you could map that star icon to the track pad, have the shoot button mapped to ZR, and you're done.
You could just map the star icon to gyro.
This is really nice to mimick pressing a button, like middle mouse, to change what the mouse movement does. For example, normal mouse movement moves the cursor, and moving it while pressing middle button rotates the camera.
One crazy idea is to use this to type using the buttons, lol. For example, pressing L4 makes the d-pad, ABYX buttons and shoulder buttons type letters A-L, and while pressing R4 they type M-X, etc... Yeah, you'd have to learn a new typing system, there's why it's crazy.
Came back to say that Action Sets will work great with Diablo 4. Specifically for navigating menus, skills, inventory etc. By using Mouse&Keyboard commands.
Having the trackpad enable a layer that gives you a mouse and changes triggers to clicks, back buttons to shift for compare, Space for junk and other necessities. Then when you take your finger off, you're back to the Default controller and ready to fight demons.
However I did find that for trackpad touch there might be a problem if you set it to "Hold Action Layer". It didn't switch properly, but very easy fix: Set trackpad touch to change the action set to M&K (or however you name it) and now it's changed permanently, but you enter M&K's bindings and go to trackpad and tell it to switch to Default on trackpad release.
So both layers will have a command to switch to the other one.
It may very well work with just the hold command (like you showed in your video), but it didn't for me at the time. Maybe because my layer was in parallel (not under) the Default layer so that all my commands were blank and not inherited.
Don't know. Try it if you have Diablo. You'll be much happier with navigating the menus/UI like this 😁
this was great!! I've got to dig in on radial menus
I like it, I'm not big on messing with controller mapping buy I definitely see the value in it. I'm currently playing fallout 4 on pc and SHOULD re map puncing/throwing Alt button to something but keep putting it off
the the configuration settings are awesome. just set up my steam controller for elden ring. Q2 can't come fast enough. I want my steam deck🤪
really good for mmo's like wow and ff14. basically at the cost of the 4 back buttons, you multiply the face buttons and bumpers by 5.
Great tutorial! That is really awesome. My Steam Deck is still listed for Q2. I want it to be here! :)
If I could upvote u 100x, I would… I’m playing guild wars 2 and trying to have my controller set up like ff14. And I couldn’t add an extra left trigger shift mode but thanks to you this works. I ❤ u. I been trying to figure out for 2 days.
Wow this is great! I can map ALL guns in DOOM Eternal to quickswap :)
Thanks for the hidden gem setting here NerdNest!
I thought about that when I learned about the track pads. It should be possible to map all the weapons using both track pads, no?
Been setting up a World of Warcraft Controller Binding for awhile, and thanks to this I went from 8 Action Bar Slots to 16
For those curious cause WoW doesn't natively have Controller Support, and I'm running 3.3.5 WOTLK (NOT CLASSIC I'm on a Private Server, so this is the original WOTLK) which doesn't support Controller Mods period
Instead I use the Bartender 4 mod/addon and set 8 action bars to have 3 slots each, then set 4 to vertical, and 4 to horizontal, and thanks to. BT4's snap mode I can make a cross by snapping a Vertical Action Bar inside a Horizontal one do this 4x, and size them up by 1.5x and BOOM
I just recreated FFXIV's Controller UI which you can look that up for reference, now I just setup the D-Pad, and Face Buttons
I set them all up 1-8, and then used an Action Layer and set them up again, but used Shift then 1-8 for each using the Sub-Command option for multiple buttons, then just changed the keybind with BT4's built in Keybind Setup (which is just click action bar icon, and then click the keybind you want it to be set to, so the D-Pad of choice, or Face Button)
Now I just set the Action Layer activator to Hold and put it on the Left Shoulder Button, and done.
Now that's just the tip of the iceberg, I setup Target Keybinds that target nearby enemies, that you can click to cycle, or hold to loot after your done with it, and I have Auto-Loot enabled, so it just pulls it all into my Bags
That and so much more, tbh this is better then the Controller Mod I remember, and it's all in a Steam Deck, so I'm very happy with it.
I especially like how because everything is layed out like a Controller UI, I don't need to think about what is where, or too many sub-commands I just click the associated button, and if need be use the mode shift to get the Action Layer which ALSO has every button layed out for convenience of sight
Glad I could help.
These video are so helpful omg. Thank you so much!!!
Is there a way to download other people's configurations? I'm imagining different games having their own popular input set ups you can just grab quickly and start playing with
Yes
Yes this has been in there since the Steam controller. Actually Valve is building upon thousands of user configurations already which were done for the SC and now work for the deck... So you already should have a good coverage of customized user inputs for many many games.
so cool! thanks for making these videos, when I get my Steam Deck I will definitely mess around with this kinda stuff :)
A function (Fn) key with multi function sets, brilliant!
Thank you so much! I made an action layer for Monster Hunter Rise where holding LT activates gyro for blademasters, but double clicking right analog switches to Gunner mode where both LT and RT activate gyro (also for Insect Glaive) but couldn't figure out how to do it on Deck
can you use this type set up to run macros multi buttons , and having toggle run on any game will be great
This was nearly perfect for what I needed, but unfortunately, the "hold action set layers" often gets stuck on the wrong layer. Additionally, the "Toggle" button under press settings (eg Regular Press Settings -> Toggle enabled) makes the action layer get stuck guaranteed, and does not revert to the default layer, even after the toggle has been interrupted.
Thanks for the guide. Very well explained!
This is great for setting up save state hot keys in emulators.
Can you add alias to the radial menu? So it says quick save instead of F5.
You could in the old Steam Input UI but not currently in the new one. I imagine they will bring it back soon though.
As I have never been a fan of the dpad there are certain games where I will have an action layer that temporarily converts one of the sticks to a dpad to select stuff (like Elden Ring which has a specific dpad quick-menu).
Might also make one that swaps from gamepad style gameplay to gyro/mouse controls.
This is amazing 🤩 Thankyou so much for your content 🙌🏼
Love it! Keep it up with the steam input gold! Does the deck have the ability to change the icon on the radial/touch menus?
This insane level of controls customization is the main reason why I switched from Switch to Steam Deck
Thank-you Thank-you Thank-you and Thank-you. THIS is the video I needed.
Great content, this gives me hope I can play Civ 6 on the deck!
These videos are so informative!
Is there a way for an action layer to apply in a situation?
I was able to create 2 action layers - "remapped default" and "custom menu" and I can switch between them no problem. What I want is for the custom menu to apply when I access my storage boxes and containers.
Wow! You went from "I just want to play and not have to tinker with menus", to now giving lessons on the subject?
The real lesson is never be afraid to learn PC gaming. 😂
Until the next update comes out and 💩 everything.
Hi. It works. But I don't understand why I can't add a new radial menu on a new layer to one trackpad. If do so I have both radial menus blended in one.
This video is amazing. Q: Say you wanted to use a radial action set to rotate objects in your hand. What PC keyboard commands would emulate do so on the Steam Deck? I.e. Forward, backward, right 90^ or 180^ flip, left 90^ or 180^ flip. Trying to build structures.
Excellent tutorial on action sets. I would like to make a Subsistence action layer for my left track pad to bring up the map AND scan the entire map. Any ideas how? I’ve mapped (M) when clicking the left track pad brings up the map, but I can’t see anything other than my current area. This is an important action to be able to do.
The customization is freakin' awesome!
Another great video on the controls!
Setting up these controls seems like a pain in the butt.
But I feel like these advanced options will pay off, just it isn’t translating well so far.
We need more steam input Tutorials 😅
Fantastic video, this could be really useful on strategy games such as Stellaris and CK3.
Goodness. I forgot how to do this and found this video through a search. See my old comment meaning I already watched months ago lol. I have a short memory
Super helpful! Thanks dude
That is really cool! Thanks for sharing.
this was like having my third eye opened
2024 and still useful
Thanks for this
Are these options available on third-party apps like emulators or only for Steam games?
I know on Windows the Bethesda developed games (Fallouts & Elder Scrolls) do not work with mixed input (Gamepad + Keyboard/Mouse). Some games will at least let you use one at a time, like using keyboard/mouse during play for better aiming, then switching to gamepad for menu navigation. Some games are fine with both simultaneously, which is glorious. But the Bethesda games... they're assholes, and will completely lock out one input (usually keyboard/mouse if any gamepad input is detected.)
Is it any better on SteamOS? I see you're using a full keyboard/mouse layout currently. But I'm wondering if you can, for instance, use analog (gamepad) movement in Skyrim with mouse aiming? Or Fallout 4, etc. Or is it still better to just pick one or the other input for these games in particular? And if so, you might want to mention that so anyone excited to play Skyrim/Fallout on their Steam Deck doesn't try to add the F5/F9 set and wonder why the hell it's not working if they're using a gamepad layout otherwise.
It's not going to be any better on SteamOS. The issue is with the games themselves.
@@Moskeeto I would assume so too, just wondering if there’s any possibility gamescope could work around it. I think I remember hearing about a new-ish mod that does this, so it seems like something that can be fixed externally.
@@8BitCerberus Yeah. I heard there's a mod that enables it as well for Bethesda games.
I like having options. I won't bother chaniging controls for every game, but for Elder scrolls like games, that i intend to play for hundreds of hours, i will do that, and i will also play around with frs and framerates. Is there any way to save a couple of power and control profiles for specific games? When i play skyrim at home on the deck, i don't care about power consumption and might play it with mouse and keyboard, on the road, i'd like different settings, also i need a higher frame rate with a racing sim than with a click and point adventure. It seems easy enough to change all that, but my personal perfect settings for a game, might be terrible for a different game.
How do I make my steamdeck just hold right trigger by itself forever? I have tried adding layer with action sets but I can't figure it out.
All I want is to click one of the back L4/L5/R4/R5 buttons and have it HOLD a button like R2 Right trigger
Can anyone please help me?, I cant seem to prevent double inputs from happening. I'm running windows 10 with steam-deck-tools on the github it says to use the "steam provided empty configuration" under steam controller/ settings/layout/recommended in steam but I see no such layout in there
Hello, your videos are great! I used them to create two virtual menus depending on ActionSets on XCOM. However, I would have preferred to have two action layers inheriting from only one Action Set, and only set the menus depending on the activated layer. I there a way to set an action layer by default on an action set?