Playing on Steam
Let's learn how to configure your PS4 controller with Steam properly.
While Steam Overlay is not guaranteed to work for all Non-Steam Games, most games should work. This should include games such as Minecraft and Overwatch, to throw a few popular names out there.
To use Steam Overlay in a Non-Steam game, you must add that game into your Games Library and launch it there. This method is assuming you're not using the "Big Picture Mode".
- Click the "Games" tab on the top-left side of your Steam Client.
- Then click the last option "Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library"
- Select the games you want to add. If it's not shown on the list, click "browse" and search for it.
- Click "add selected programs" to add them into your Steam Game Library.
If for some reason Steam Overlay does not appear, follow these steps to check if it is enabled.
- Click the "Steam" tab on the top-left side of your Steam Client.
- Click the "Settings" option.
- When the pop-up appears, click the "In-Game" section.
- If the "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game" box is unmarked, check it.
Somehow if your Steam Overlay still isn't usable, restart your Steam Client as administrator and try again.
Before you start using your PS4 controller with Steam, there are some preliminary actions you should take, including making sure you have the latest version of the Steam client. Follow these steps:
- Launch Steam on your PC.
- Select Steam in the top-left corner of the window to open a dropdown menu, then select Check for Steam Client Updates.
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Download and install any available updates. Once finished, Steam will restart.
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In the Steam client window, select View > Settings > Controller > General Controller Settings.
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You should see your controller under Detected Controllers. Select the box beside Playstation Configuration Support. From this screen, you can also give your controller a name and toggle the rumble feature on or off.
If Steam isn't detecting your controller, double-check that Controller Service is properly running. If Steam still display the embedded controller, uncheck the box Xbox Configuration Support or at least uncheck Xbox Extended Feature Support and restart Steam.
You should now be able to play most Steam games with your Virtual DS4 controller, but you can further customize how your controller works for specific games. Indeed, this step may be necessary for games that primarily rely on keyboard and mouse inputs.
To edit in-game controller settings, select View > Big Picture Mode or press the Guide button on your device.
Make sure Guide Button Focuses Steam is checked for the above to work.
From the resulting screen, you can navigate your Library map specific keyboard actions to your controller buttons. Most modern games should display the appropriate PlayStation button configuration, but some older games may display an Xbox controller instead. Nonetheless, you should be able to figure out the button mapping and use your PS4 controller with no issues.
Select Manage Game (Steam native game) or Manage Shortcut (Non Steam game) > Controller Configuration. From the configuration screen, make sure Steam is displaying a DS4 controller.
Adding controller and gyroscope support to gamepad compatible title : Back 4 Blood
From here, you can either start mapping buttons to your needs or use Browse Configs to pull a pre-configured configuration from Steam. We recommend to set your gyroscope to Mouse Joystick, upon leaving this will read Mouse like Joystick.
As stated above, a few games were built with keyboard and mouse inputs in mind. Don't worry too much here, you can also map your Virtual DS4 Controller to send keyboard and mouse inputs.
Adding controller and gyroscope support to keyboard exclusive title : Black Mesa
From here, you can either start mapping buttons to your needs or use Browse Configs to pull a pre-configured configuration from Steam. We recommend to set your gyroscope to Mouse.