How To Use An Xbox 360 Controller On Steam

When you hook a game controller up to your PC—whether it's an Xbox controller, PlayStation controller, Steam controller, or something else—y'all can remap the buttons for individual Steam games however you lot desire. Here'south how.

This feature began with the Steam controller and the PlayStation four controller, merely a recent update allows you to remap buttons on whatsoever controller you desire—including Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers. This support was added in the January 18, 2017 build of Steam. Click Steam > Check for Steam Customer Updates in Steam to become the latest version if yous don't already have it.

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The Steam controller as well offers a bunch of actress button configuration features that other controllers don't accept—we'll go through the basics here, only exist certain to cheque out our full guide to setting up the Steam controller to meet everything that it tin do.

The Limitations of Xbox and Generic Controllers

This characteristic works similarly for all supported controller types. However, Steam Controllers and DualShock 4 controllers accept one distinct reward: if you use multiple Steam controllers or DualShock 4 controllers on the same PC, you can requite them different button mappings. This isn't true for Xbox 360, Xbox One controllers and other generic controllers—you accept to give all those controllers the same mapping on any given PC.

This won't thing near of the time. Just, if you're playing a multiplayer game with multiple people on the same PC, every role player tin can't accept their own button settings unless yous're using Steam or PlayStation iv controllers.

All Xinput controllers—including Xbox controllers—will share the same button mapping settings considering they don't provide a way to uniquely identify different controllers to Steam. So, when yous adapt the button remapping settings for i Xinput controller, you're adjusting them for all Xinput controllers on the system. You can still apply different mappings for each game, you lot but can't use different mappings for different controllers.

With that in listen, here's how to remap the buttons on your gamepad through Steam.

Stride One: Launch Big Picture Mode

Controller configuration settings are simply available in Big Picture Mode. Valve assumes that, if you want to use a controller, you'll use the Idiot box-style full-screen interface. To access it, just click the controller-shaped "Big Picture Way" icon at the top right corner of the Steam window.

Footstep Two: Enable Back up for Other Gamepads

Steam simply allows you to configure Steam Controllers by default. Yous'll have to enable configuration support for other types of controllers if you want to tweak them.

Select the gear-shaped "Settings" icon at the acme right corner of the screen using your mouse or controller.

And so, select "Controller Configuration" on the Settings screen.

RELATED: How to Use the PlayStation four's DualShock iv Controller for PC Gaming

Enable the "PS4 Configuration Support", "Xbox Configuration Support", and "Generic Gamepad Configuration Support" to enable support for other types of controllers.

If these options aren't enabled, you'll still be able to use the controller in the interface and games. You just won't be able to configure the controller and remap its buttons.

Steam too displays a list of your connected controllers hither. If you don't meet a controller here, it isn't connected properly. If information technology's a wireless controller, it may non exist powered on.

You'll be prompted to disconnect and reconnect any continued controllers afterward enabling this option. Y'all'll need to reconnect the controller earlier the configuration options appear.

When yous reconnect the controller, you'll exist prompted to name information technology. This proper name will appear in Steam's interface to uniquely identify the controller.

Pace Three: Remap Your Controller's Buttons

At present, head to the "Library" department in Big Picture Mode and select a game you desire to remap the controller'due south buttons for.

Select "Manage Game" and then select "Controller Configuration".

Yous'll see Steam's complex button-remapping screen. Whatever type of controller you lot have, you tin can apply this interface to link the controller'south buttons to different mouse and keyboard events. For example, you could configure the Steam Controller's touchpad or the joystick on another type of gamepad to function as a mouse, allowing y'all to employ your controller in a game that was never designed to support controllers.

Other people take already done the piece of work of creating controller profiles that permit you lot to utilize a Steam Controller or other types of controllers in different games. To download a pre-made profile, select "Browse Configs" at the bottom of the window.

You'll run across dissimilar available layouts depending on which types of controller y'all're using. For example, different configurations are available for the Steam Controller than the Xbox 360 controller. These types of controllers take dissimilar buttons and features, so configurations can't be transferred between them.

To manually remap a grouping of buttons or unmarried buttons, select it on the configuration screen. For example, if you wanted to remap the Y push on an Xbox controller, you lot'd select the pane with the Y push at the bottom right corner of the screen.

Steam offers many dissimilar options for configuring groups of buttons, joysticks, touchpads, or directional pads. For example, you could make the four buttons on the Xbox 360 controller function every bit a joystick, curlicue bike, or mouse. But, if you just wanted to change what the Y push button does, you'd simply select the "Y" push button here.

Steam allows you to select whatever keyboard or mouse button the controller push y'all selected should function as. You can even apply multi-button keyboard shortcuts.

The button remapping you lot choose will appear on the configuration screen. In the screenshot below, we've set the Y button to part as the "E" fundamental in this game.

Steam will recollect the button-remapping settings you provide and employ them when you play that specific game. You can set up different button-remapping settings for different games.

When doing something more than avant-garde than remapping a unmarried push, you'll see quite a few options. For example, when remapping one of the Steam controller's touchpads to function as a mouse, you'll be able to adjust the sensitivity of the mouse and even the intensity of the haptic feedback the touchpad provides.

You tin besides tweak your controller configuration settings while playing a game. Open the Steam overlay—for case, by pressing Shift+Tab or pressing the Steam, Xbox, or PlayStation button on the eye of your controller—and select the "Controller Configuration" option. This pick will only be available if you launched the game from inside Large Picture Mode.

The sheer amount of options available for configuring your Steam controller tin be daunting. Many games should play okay with i of the default templates, however. And, as more people apply these configuration options for new games, yous should see more configs for whatsoever given game. Merely those tweaks will ever be there for you to use if you want them.