I have had my Steam Deck for a bit of time. While most games I am able to control fine I find myself slightly struggle with FPS games on it. With a regular controller I do fine but the spacing of the joystick on the SD tend to tire my hands out fairly quickly.
I recently tried Gyro aiming on some games and it does feel better, but I can’t quite get used to aiming that way through an entire run of the game. I’ve heard of things like FlickStick aiming to help.
Does this feel like a niche? Wouldn’t it be better to just bring a controller or M&K with your SD if you want to play a FPS?
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I’m a tedious Steam Controller user, and I just wanted to stop by and evangelise about gyro aiming. It’s the only way. Ask me about trackpads. I dare you.
I don’t own a steam deck and I’m not playing in competitive FPSes, but I’ve been using PS4 pad with gyro to play Elite Dangerous and Cyberpunk. Maybe these 2¢ will be helpful in some way.
What I’ve found out to work for me was:
- Set up gyro to get enabled with “shoulder/scope aiming”
- Use one stick for looking around, another for movement
- Keep gyro range small and sensitivity low
That way the big movements I do with sticks, when I need precision I switch to aiming and can aim with gyro, and gyro input is less twitchy because of low output range and low sensitivity
How long did it take you to get used to controller Gyro? I do play competitive games but not really serious about them either but anything to be more comfortable over using M&K at a desk sounds nice.
I’m not sure. I feel the answer is “none”, it’s very organic and immersive.
But I did spend some time fiddling with settings. You probably don’t want the same sensitivity in both axes (you need more left-right than up-down); having a little bit of deadzone/minimal movement can be a good idea; I also think there was an option to have some curves defined (so movement scales with speed of movement).
And I wasn’t completely new to gamepad, I’ve played many hours in Dark Souls on xbox pad before.
Switching from mkb to gamepad did take some time. Something like 2-3 months of playing 2-3h, 2-3 times a week
Gyro on steam deck isn’t really something you want to rely upon as much as gyro on a controller. Since you are physically moving the device it will move the screen which can mess you up. Have some kind of toggle for the gyro if you want, but you kind of just have to get used to the trackpad for aiming.
It has been good for me for aiming in tears of the kingdom but unlike and FPS it basically only activates when you actually need it, when you pull out your bow. In FPS games you are constantly moving your camera around so gyro gets annoying.
Basically for third person action games gyro = good but FPS games it is not as good.
I’ve been using it for Tears of the Kingdom but only because I got used to it in BOTW Otherwise though, no.
I don’t play as many first person games on the deck anyway. Top downs, sidescrollers, and driving games are a way better fit for controller gameplay and the deck imo
It’s really the best application of gyro. It should be a complementary feature.
Doing minor adjustments with gyro is super rewarding and feels great
It’s very cool in concept but very difficult for me to use in practice - the control is almost too fine which makes me less accurate. But maybe I should put some real time behind trying it out.
I think I’m mostly with you. I was almost entirely a k+m player before getting my Steam Deck, and only now am I reasonably competent with the Steam Deck controls. Gyro seems like a lot of effort to master.
It doens’t help that I keep trying different games and enjoy weird indie games. As such I’m rarely tweaking either the performance or the controls for any specific game.
