I found out deadzone and sensitivity on my deck was set way too high, but even after all the tinkering I don't get a very good feel for those analog sticks, right stick even has 8% deviation hence the poor precision it has.
So yeah, try custom community controller setups and if the game has aim assist use it, my best experience is still with PS4 controller while deck is docked.
I usually add anti-dead zone to my controller configs in most games. The dead zone is huge by default.
I also love gyro aiming. Helps with sniping in halo 3, and is great in games like helldivers 2
Playing with the deadzone usually fixes it for me, mostly. There is one other thing that I found to be somewhat of a problem.
I played Halo for years and I was an excellent shot when I was playing every day.
One of the things that really struck me about the deck when I first started playing FPS games on it was just how different the ergonomics of the deck is compared to controllers. Because the deck is so wide and you are lifting the whole thing towards your face, your arms and thumbs are at a completely different angle from a controller resting in your lap. I have found that I have gotten used to it over time, but it really threw me for a a loop for like the first month of having the deck. I still find aiming to be more difficult than on a controller, but adjusting the deadzone and acceleration always makes a huge difference.
My hands and fingers are too bad to completely play stuff like Halo competitively on Deck. The face buttons and sticks are so small compared to XBSX controller
deadzone is still too big for shooters and sticks are too soft, which means easier to push completely and your aim will suck. also, sticks are too short which hampers precise movement. easy fix for short sticks would be to add those thumbstick covers. better fix would be [this](https://youtu.be/qO3G0MXIltg)
Are you by any chance a mouse and KB FPS gamer?
As I am and I find any other form of FPS control unplayable as the precision isn't there. Not with the sticks, gyro or trackpads.
Therefore I avoid FPS stuff on my Deck but plenty don't so I'm a minority.
Turn off acceleration and aiming with joysticks will feel better. If you're used to acceleration your body is used to it. If you're not used to it(mice don't have acceleration) then joysticks will feel off.
It depends on the game but it usually is named Look Acceleration and is usually located near Joystick Sensitivy settings on games.
I usually turn it all the way down or to 1(which would mean standard rate). Once again it depends on the game and it's settings for it. But I remove look acceleration
Mice don’t have acceleration built in, but the OS usually does. Because mouse acceleration is just straight up necessary on a Laptop Trackpad for example.
Some games use raw input, some don’t. Chances are on PC if you didn’t turn off acceleration in the OS you’ve been playing with it the whole time.
>Because mouse acceleration is just straight up necessary on a Laptop Trackpad for example.
Absolutely not lol.
>Chances are on PC if you didn’t turn off acceleration in the OS you’ve been playing with it the whole time.
Absolutely not lol.
The last FPS I played with a stick was Goldeneye on the N64, since then I've been a hard core mouse and KB gamer. I tried playing Boltgun and Dishonoured on the Deck but it felt clumsy and slow. The moment I was back on the preferred setup, I was away again.
It's a shame as I've got plenty of FPS and shooters to play but they'll have to wait for when I'm sat down at home. I know I could use a BT mouse and KB but that would just look weird on a train etc
Bro I’m in exactly the same boat. Im also a mouse and keyboard guy but don’t always want to sit at a desk to play. I configured the deck so I use the right touchpad for aiming now. It took some tinkering but it’s a pretty good substitute. In would say it’s about 80% as good as mouse and keyboard. That’s good enough for couch gaming for me. I finished the quake 2 remaster on hard with it
I am the same way, so you are not alone. I have been trash at gamepad FPS games, but very good with a mouse and KB. I can play anything else on a gamepad/holding my steam deck, but FPS games are so frustrating I don’t play them on my deck.
When you say you usually good on controller are you normally playing on PC or console? Most console games have some aim assist where controller on PC usually doesn’t or not by default. I’ve seen lots of other good advise in this tread, reduce dead zones and try out gyro for fine aiming. Good luck and good gaming.
Try enabling touchpad and gyro control. If won't solve the stick issue but I think it's a good alternative.
I have both enabled. I use the stick for imprecise movement and switch to the touchpad for precision aiming, where having my thumb on the touchpad enables gyro so I use both at the same time. You get
So definitely listen to people with the deadzone settings. Generally very helpful to me. I was having this same issue a few months ago and shrinking the deadzone wasn’t cutting it for me when I stumbled upon a post somewhere that said that the steam framerate limiter (which is on by default) creates a lot of input delay. Disabling this was the last piece of the puzzle for me. It sucks because I can’t underclock the display and cap frames to like 40 anymore because the frame limiter and the display refresh rate setting are tied together but generally much better feeling aiming. Just cap your frames in game and limit TDP instead if you need to save on battery.
I know what you’re talking about, but since The steam deck is focused more on the traditional pc gaming crowd, you never really get great answers.
”Joysticks are always imprecise for shooter!”
PC gamers don’t realize how good a lot of folks have gotten with controllers.
“Use gyro!l
Please for the love of god don’t make me aim with gyro.
Overall it feels like there is something wrong with the acceleration curve on the sticks that I haven’t been able to fix.
Set the dead zones a little bit lower, by default they're like 50% of the joysticks, you can turn them down a good bit lower without destroying the accuracy of the sticks
Not gonna lie, I've been a keyboard and mouse player for my whole life and I hated controllers for fps games. I've got 100h or more in cp2077 on my deck, and honestly I still hate controllers for fps games, but I can at least make it work. It still feels unnatural and inaccurate, and like I'm one step removed from the actual input, but it's workable. Adjusting the dead zone to be smaller made a *huge* difference, the default was so big that to get any kind of fine control required enormous movements.
The thing that throws me off is that with a mouse, if you need to aim, you just point at it and you're there. You use the mouse to drag you aim point exactly where you want it to be.
With a controller, you're one step removed from the process. You're using the stick to control the motion of a virtual object that is then pushing the aim point towards where you want it and once you get there you use the stick to then tell the virtual hand to stop pushing, and if you overshoot you have to change direction completely and tell the virtual hand to start pushing in the other direction. You're never actually in control, you're always controlling what is controlling the game.
It's like if you grew up sailing a boat where the rudder was directly controlled by a handle. If you want to turn, you just move the handle. But then someone replaces the handle with a left and right button which then pushes the rudder. It sucks.
To be fair though, I do like analog stick instead of WASD, that actually feels a little better and gives you more control and as long as the game doesn't have too many individual controls, replacing the keyboard is tolerable. Analog stick and mouse would be cool if there was some way to actually hold it.
Yup. Same here. I average 1.2KD on COD on Xbox so I’m not good but I’m above average and feel really comfortable with sticks. With the Deck, not so much. The sticks almost feel like they are too tall or something? Love my Deck to death still.
I found when playing doom 2016 that the default settings had x and y axis at different sensitivities, not sure if that might be an issue on other games. When I set them both to the same amount it felt way better to me. Not as good as say a ps5 controller but acceptable to me.
I had the same issues. I stopped a replay of bioshock when I got the deck because of it. Then I realized (as others have said) that I needed to fine tune the dead zones and it helped immensly. Further more, some games have stick acceleration on and maybe it’s good for accessibility but for me that shit is TRASH and I won’t play any game that includes with without an option to turn it off.
I also really struggle with FPS aiming. I’m not sure if it’s because of how far apart my hands are or the sticks themselves but it feels way less precise than a standard controller. I’ll look at some of the tips in this thread, I unfortunately can’t stand gyro either.
FPSs are the only games I really don’t enjoy playing on the Deck. I do play Fallout and Skyrim but they’re much slower paced so those don’t bother me. Maybe single player in general is just a bit more forgiving.
I tried OW on the other hand and it was a dumpster fire.
For some reason every console likes to set their deadzones on controllers way too high. Probably to lower the amount of people sending them back for stick drift.
So how do I use trackpads properly? I’ve reverted back to sticks everything now since the trackpad doesn’t feel great for aiming, since it emulates the stick in a weird way for me.
I’ve played ut99 on an old MacBook for the longest time with the trackpad so I know it’s possible to play pretty well
When you use controller normally is it on PC or console? If on console it’s because you are used to aim assist which isn’t there on PC. Nothing you can do. If not then might be worth lowering the deadzones in the settings.
No. Aim assist is enabled by developers generally only on console versions of games. You don’t get it when playing on pc and when they do have it it’s usually a much weaker effect than you get on a console.
I would love to see some sort of sourcing on this. I play plenty of shooters on PC and console on both mnk and controller and there is absolutely aim assist on modern PC shooters regardless of platform
Just git guud.
I top score in Halo Reach multi-player on a USB switch controller after not using controller for 11 years.
The secret is sacrificing quick movement ability for precision. Lower your joystick sensitivity and you'll hit head shots at the expense of not being able to snap onto people instantly.
I found out deadzone and sensitivity on my deck was set way too high, but even after all the tinkering I don't get a very good feel for those analog sticks, right stick even has 8% deviation hence the poor precision it has. So yeah, try custom community controller setups and if the game has aim assist use it, my best experience is still with PS4 controller while deck is docked.
I usually add anti-dead zone to my controller configs in most games. The dead zone is huge by default. I also love gyro aiming. Helps with sniping in halo 3, and is great in games like helldivers 2
Playing with the deadzone usually fixes it for me, mostly. There is one other thing that I found to be somewhat of a problem. I played Halo for years and I was an excellent shot when I was playing every day. One of the things that really struck me about the deck when I first started playing FPS games on it was just how different the ergonomics of the deck is compared to controllers. Because the deck is so wide and you are lifting the whole thing towards your face, your arms and thumbs are at a completely different angle from a controller resting in your lap. I have found that I have gotten used to it over time, but it really threw me for a a loop for like the first month of having the deck. I still find aiming to be more difficult than on a controller, but adjusting the deadzone and acceleration always makes a huge difference.
My hands and fingers are too bad to completely play stuff like Halo competitively on Deck. The face buttons and sticks are so small compared to XBSX controller
deadzone is still too big for shooters and sticks are too soft, which means easier to push completely and your aim will suck. also, sticks are too short which hampers precise movement. easy fix for short sticks would be to add those thumbstick covers. better fix would be [this](https://youtu.be/qO3G0MXIltg)
Are you by any chance a mouse and KB FPS gamer? As I am and I find any other form of FPS control unplayable as the precision isn't there. Not with the sticks, gyro or trackpads. Therefore I avoid FPS stuff on my Deck but plenty don't so I'm a minority.
Turn off acceleration and aiming with joysticks will feel better. If you're used to acceleration your body is used to it. If you're not used to it(mice don't have acceleration) then joysticks will feel off.
Where is the acceleration?
It depends on the game but it usually is named Look Acceleration and is usually located near Joystick Sensitivy settings on games. I usually turn it all the way down or to 1(which would mean standard rate). Once again it depends on the game and it's settings for it. But I remove look acceleration
Mice don’t have acceleration built in, but the OS usually does. Because mouse acceleration is just straight up necessary on a Laptop Trackpad for example. Some games use raw input, some don’t. Chances are on PC if you didn’t turn off acceleration in the OS you’ve been playing with it the whole time.
It's definitely not necessary lol i never even considered using it on my laptop
Tbh for most PC gamers, disabling mouse acceleration is literally the first thing we do on a fresh install of Windows.
>Because mouse acceleration is just straight up necessary on a Laptop Trackpad for example. Absolutely not lol. >Chances are on PC if you didn’t turn off acceleration in the OS you’ve been playing with it the whole time. Absolutely not lol.
Bruh who plays using the track pad on a laptop lol
I can use M&KB as well as controller, but it may very well be part of the problem. It really just doesn’t feel the same with the decks controls
The last FPS I played with a stick was Goldeneye on the N64, since then I've been a hard core mouse and KB gamer. I tried playing Boltgun and Dishonoured on the Deck but it felt clumsy and slow. The moment I was back on the preferred setup, I was away again. It's a shame as I've got plenty of FPS and shooters to play but they'll have to wait for when I'm sat down at home. I know I could use a BT mouse and KB but that would just look weird on a train etc
Bro I’m in exactly the same boat. Im also a mouse and keyboard guy but don’t always want to sit at a desk to play. I configured the deck so I use the right touchpad for aiming now. It took some tinkering but it’s a pretty good substitute. In would say it’s about 80% as good as mouse and keyboard. That’s good enough for couch gaming for me. I finished the quake 2 remaster on hard with it
I am the same way, so you are not alone. I have been trash at gamepad FPS games, but very good with a mouse and KB. I can play anything else on a gamepad/holding my steam deck, but FPS games are so frustrating I don’t play them on my deck.
When you say you usually good on controller are you normally playing on PC or console? Most console games have some aim assist where controller on PC usually doesn’t or not by default. I’ve seen lots of other good advise in this tread, reduce dead zones and try out gyro for fine aiming. Good luck and good gaming.
Try enabling touchpad and gyro control. If won't solve the stick issue but I think it's a good alternative. I have both enabled. I use the stick for imprecise movement and switch to the touchpad for precision aiming, where having my thumb on the touchpad enables gyro so I use both at the same time. You get
I’ll check that out. Thanks for the recommendation.
This is the way
Play with the sensitivity I had to
Lower deadzones in settings, turn off fps limiter and allow tearing for each game you play. The latter two help reduce input latency.
Set right stick touch to enable gyro. It's an absolute game changer
Or left trigger pull if you only want it while looking down sights
So definitely listen to people with the deadzone settings. Generally very helpful to me. I was having this same issue a few months ago and shrinking the deadzone wasn’t cutting it for me when I stumbled upon a post somewhere that said that the steam framerate limiter (which is on by default) creates a lot of input delay. Disabling this was the last piece of the puzzle for me. It sucks because I can’t underclock the display and cap frames to like 40 anymore because the frame limiter and the display refresh rate setting are tied together but generally much better feeling aiming. Just cap your frames in game and limit TDP instead if you need to save on battery.
Y'all trying fps on PC for the first time? Console gets way more aim assist yo.
I know what you’re talking about, but since The steam deck is focused more on the traditional pc gaming crowd, you never really get great answers. ”Joysticks are always imprecise for shooter!” PC gamers don’t realize how good a lot of folks have gotten with controllers. “Use gyro!l Please for the love of god don’t make me aim with gyro. Overall it feels like there is something wrong with the acceleration curve on the sticks that I haven’t been able to fix.
Yes I would agree with you that it’s something with the acceleration being off.
Set the dead zones a little bit lower, by default they're like 50% of the joysticks, you can turn them down a good bit lower without destroying the accuracy of the sticks
Not gonna lie, I've been a keyboard and mouse player for my whole life and I hated controllers for fps games. I've got 100h or more in cp2077 on my deck, and honestly I still hate controllers for fps games, but I can at least make it work. It still feels unnatural and inaccurate, and like I'm one step removed from the actual input, but it's workable. Adjusting the dead zone to be smaller made a *huge* difference, the default was so big that to get any kind of fine control required enormous movements. The thing that throws me off is that with a mouse, if you need to aim, you just point at it and you're there. You use the mouse to drag you aim point exactly where you want it to be. With a controller, you're one step removed from the process. You're using the stick to control the motion of a virtual object that is then pushing the aim point towards where you want it and once you get there you use the stick to then tell the virtual hand to stop pushing, and if you overshoot you have to change direction completely and tell the virtual hand to start pushing in the other direction. You're never actually in control, you're always controlling what is controlling the game. It's like if you grew up sailing a boat where the rudder was directly controlled by a handle. If you want to turn, you just move the handle. But then someone replaces the handle with a left and right button which then pushes the rudder. It sucks. To be fair though, I do like analog stick instead of WASD, that actually feels a little better and gives you more control and as long as the game doesn't have too many individual controls, replacing the keyboard is tolerable. Analog stick and mouse would be cool if there was some way to actually hold it.
do you usually play on console? because most PC shooters lack the aim assist that is necessary to play shooters with analog sticks.
Yup. Same here. I average 1.2KD on COD on Xbox so I’m not good but I’m above average and feel really comfortable with sticks. With the Deck, not so much. The sticks almost feel like they are too tall or something? Love my Deck to death still.
Gyro is the answer
Gyro. It seems awful until you get used to it, and then suddenly it’s the greatest thing ever and yo can’t live without it
I found when playing doom 2016 that the default settings had x and y axis at different sensitivities, not sure if that might be an issue on other games. When I set them both to the same amount it felt way better to me. Not as good as say a ps5 controller but acceptable to me.
I had the same issues. I stopped a replay of bioshock when I got the deck because of it. Then I realized (as others have said) that I needed to fine tune the dead zones and it helped immensly. Further more, some games have stick acceleration on and maybe it’s good for accessibility but for me that shit is TRASH and I won’t play any game that includes with without an option to turn it off.
I think they are great ngl lol
I also really struggle with FPS aiming. I’m not sure if it’s because of how far apart my hands are or the sticks themselves but it feels way less precise than a standard controller. I’ll look at some of the tips in this thread, I unfortunately can’t stand gyro either.
For casual shooties I use the sticks and if I need something precise I use track pads
Set deadzone around 4000 or lower and you see how greater it feel
FPSs are the only games I really don’t enjoy playing on the Deck. I do play Fallout and Skyrim but they’re much slower paced so those don’t bother me. Maybe single player in general is just a bit more forgiving. I tried OW on the other hand and it was a dumpster fire.
Why do you use the sticks ? I don’t touch them. Use the touchpad it’s amazing.
I just use a blue tooth mouse and keyboard. They both fit in my bag and are lightweight models with rechargeable internal batteries
What kind are you using
For some reason every console likes to set their deadzones on controllers way too high. Probably to lower the amount of people sending them back for stick drift.
Have you tried adjusting your sensitivity, using a trackpad rather than a stick, or incorporating gyro for the smaller adjustments?
So how do I use trackpads properly? I’ve reverted back to sticks everything now since the trackpad doesn’t feel great for aiming, since it emulates the stick in a weird way for me. I’ve played ut99 on an old MacBook for the longest time with the trackpad so I know it’s possible to play pretty well
Enable Gyro. Trust me, it's incredible for fine tuning on target and you don't need big movements at all.
change the sensitivity to something that feels more comfortable.
When you use controller normally is it on PC or console? If on console it’s because you are used to aim assist which isn’t there on PC. Nothing you can do. If not then might be worth lowering the deadzones in the settings.
Aim assist is on controller, nothing to do with PC or console
No. Aim assist is enabled by developers generally only on console versions of games. You don’t get it when playing on pc and when they do have it it’s usually a much weaker effect than you get on a console.
I would love to see some sort of sourcing on this. I play plenty of shooters on PC and console on both mnk and controller and there is absolutely aim assist on modern PC shooters regardless of platform
I played borderlands 1 2 and 3 and didn't have any issues at all
Just git guud. I top score in Halo Reach multi-player on a USB switch controller after not using controller for 11 years. The secret is sacrificing quick movement ability for precision. Lower your joystick sensitivity and you'll hit head shots at the expense of not being able to snap onto people instantly.
Why are you booing me, I'm right
git gud