Controllers

Steam

Keyboard, Controller, Other Inputs Fighting and-or Controller Icons Flickering

• tl;dr Toggle Steam Input for games that exhibit input fighting or flickering controller icons ie. on UI navigation screens
  • I thought this had to do with a game's controller support ie. full or partial = disable or enable but it's difficult to tell just from the game's Steam page and easier to just notice in game if there's input fighting
• Steam has a controller emulation/compatibility/translation intended for games that don't fully support your controller and the option appears enabled by default for all games
• Toggle Steam Input in the game's Steam options if you're experiencing input fighting
• Symptoms:
  • Your controller just doesn't respond in-game
  • In-game the icons that tell you which buttons to press for navigation, confirming, canceling, etc., will flicker between Keyboard keys and Controller buttons (or perhaps other icons for other input devices)
• Examples:
  • Assassin's Creed and Forza Motorsport do not fully support PS5 controllers and so you should enable Steam controller emulation
  • Forza Horizon 5 fully supports PS5 controllers and so you should disable Steam controller emulation
    • Fully supported even though it's not made explicitly clear on the game's page

Bluetooth Controllers

Bluetooth Controller Paired But Not Working (Signal Strength)

• tl;dr Always attach your motherboard's wifi/bluetooth antenna
• In my case, I was trying to pair an XBox Core Controller on a Windows 10 PC and it seemed to be glitchy, showing up briefly when trying to add and then disappearing, and when I finally did pair it and try to use it Windows couldn't see it
• I figured out if I moved the controller near the back of my PC it started to show up
• I figured maybe the Bluetooth signal was going through the same antenna as the wifi and I hadn't added the wifi antenna for the motherboard since I don't use wifi on that machine
• And it worked beautifully. From unusably unresponsive to rock solid reliable.

8Bitdo Ultimate 2C

Gotchas

8Bitdo Ultimate 2C not fully recognized over Bluetooth on Windows 10

• tl;dr Connect via the 2.4Ghz wireless dongle (should have been included in box) and the 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C will show up with a proper name and all the buttons and triggers will act as you expect ie. triggers analog, buttons digital
• I would have preferred to connect the 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C over Bluetooth, like my existing XBox Core Wireless Gaming Controller, but the name it shows up as is some generic "six button controller with xxx" instead of showing up as it's name
• It's triggers were also not acting as analog levers, but as digital buttons
• Games were not recognizing the controller naturally/natively, either, and when I assigned controls there were issues getting some assigned correctly (some could not be)
• It was only when connecting with the 2.4Ghz wireless dongle that the controller started to show up as "8Bitdo Ultimate 2C" and games started to see it naturally/natively.
  • It also seems to be recognized natively as an Xbox Controller which is great