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SC Controller is a pretty essential standalone user-mode driver and configuration UI for working with the Steam Controller, and it just got the first stable update in some time. It enables you to use your Steam Controller fully outside of Steam, and it works really damn well.

While the developer has been working on an experimental c port, others have submitted a few essential fixes so a new release went up. One major issue is with most modern Linux distributions moving to a major Python update, which broke SC Controller. Thankfully, as of the v0.4.8 release that's not so much a problem with the AppImage now working on Ubuntu 20.04 and comparable distributions.

Testing on an up to date Arch Linux install (using EndeavourOS), the AppImage worked perfectly!

Additionally, this update all pulls in these changes and fixes:

  • Hip fire style action for trigger
  • Added DualShock 4v2 over Bluetooth udev rule
  • Button labels on Gyro Tilt mixed up
  • Cemu hook not working with Dolphin Emulator
  • Radial menu drawing broken on HDPI displays
  • Gesture recognition not working with DS4
  • "Confirm menu selection by releasing" not working at all
  • Moving STICK and LPAD at once can make buttons stuck
  • Issues with non-ascii (and especially Chinese) characters in profile name

You can find it on GitHub.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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28 comments
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Liam Dawe Dec 13, 2020
Yeah, I get that angle of course, but Snaps and such are supposed to be contained aren't they from the host system to prevent abuse too.
EagleDelta Dec 13, 2020
That makes a lot of assumptions though:

1. That there are no vulnerabilities in the snap package itself.
2. No mistakes were made the open the snap packages to abuse or circumvent the containerized nature.
3. Many desktop apps can't be fully contained since they have to interact with other applications (like sc-controller kind of does).
4. There aren't any issues inherent to Snap itself that could be exploited.

No one developer or team can account for all the potential issues within any software stack, be it in the Distro, snap, flatpak, AppImage, etc. So generally, the developer focuses on what they ARE accountable for. One of those is simply don't use software/libraries/apis that are end of life - which Python 2 has been for almost a year.

My main point being is that even with a Snap and AppImage, I either can't get it to run on Pop!_OS 20.10 or, when it does, it can't detect the controller. And I can't install the package via PPA as it requires Python 2 dependencies that are no longer included since Pop!_OS 20.04


Last edited by EagleDelta on 13 December 2020 at 10:21 pm UTC
NoSt Dec 14, 2020
My main point being is that even with a Snap and AppImage, I either can't get it to run on Pop!_OS 20.10 or, when it does, it can't detect the controller. And I can't install the package via PPA as it requires Python 2 dependencies that are no longer included since Pop!_OS 20.04

Apparently there is a Python 3 fork of this software. They mention it in this thread.
I tried that AppImage on Ubuntu, EndeavourOS and Fedora, and it not only runs, but also detects my Steam Controller.
Keep in mind, though, that I wasn't able to find the source code of the aforementioned Python 3 fork on GitHub, so I don't really know where it comes from.
EagleDelta Dec 14, 2020
My main point being is that even with a Snap and AppImage, I either can't get it to run on Pop!_OS 20.10 or, when it does, it can't detect the controller. And I can't install the package via PPA as it requires Python 2 dependencies that are no longer included since Pop!_OS 20.04

Apparently there is a Python 3 fork of this software. They mention it in this thread.
I tried that AppImage on Ubuntu, EndeavourOS and Fedora, and it not only runs, but also detects my Steam Controller.
Keep in mind, though, that I wasn't able to find the source code of the aforementioned Python 3 fork on GitHub, so I don't really know where it comes from.

I found the source: https://github.com/Ryochan7/sc-controller

Not sure if it's from the same person as the link in the github issue thread, but it has a working AppImage


Last edited by EagleDelta on 14 December 2020 at 4:25 pm UTC
NoSt Dec 16, 2020
I found the source: https://github.com/Ryochan7/sc-controller

Thanks!
I believe it's the same Python 3 fork (not 100% sure, though), but there is a more up-to-date version in the repository you've found.
Spirimint Dec 16, 2020
Oh wow, with the new Version finally its working. But it has way less options as the steamoverlay. Will be hard to setup a game with not all of these options I got so used to use one button for different actions and also using the action layers etc.

tl;dr I'm an SC-Controller fanboy.

SCC may have fewer options than Steam's client, or it may not. I don't honestly know, but I think SCC may have more. A lot of what you see in Steam's UI is available in SCC, but you might have to do it differently. In many ways, Steam's UI is to Kozec's SC-Controller as Windows is to Linux: the first (Steam's) is simpler but is less customizable, fewer granular choices, and the second (Kozec's) is way more choices, but isn't as dumbed-down.

For example, the Activators in Steam's UI (Regular, hold, start press, etc.) are easily done in SCC, but are set-up in either mode-shift or macros. Action sets are done just by making another profile, otherwise it's the same, it's just that SCC doesn't keep track of that in the UI.

But SCC lets me do so many things Steam's client can't. In Steam an input can only have one mode shift. In SCC I can add as many mode-shifts to a button as I want: Press 'A' and pull the trigger, one thing happens; press 'B' and pull the same trigger, something else happens. Mode-shift combinations on the SCC are exponentially greater than Steam's UI. That alone would be enough for me to count SCC the better of the two.

Rings on pads are more configurable, so that more than just buttons can be placed in the rings. I'll give you an example based on my own basic Payday 2 SCC profile. Normally the Rpad is a trackball mouse to control a camera. On top of this I add a mode-shift so that when I click the RPad it becomes a DPad where LEFT is reload, UP is change weapon, DOWN is drop weapon, RIGHT is flashlight, and center is grenade. All that is doable in Steam's client, but with SCC I've added more. To more easily interact with Payday's menus, I added a mode shift so when I press the back button the very edge of the Rpad becomes a circular trackpad mouse-wheel and the center becomes an Arrow Dpad.

Once again, an open source solution outshines a proprietary one.

I just got the steam controller i think one month ago and i totally understand, to be a fanboy. Since day one i play every Game with the controller and because of your post i will give SC Controller a change. Also because if i play games in Origin Steam Pig Picture Mode is lagging and i gut stutters in the game. And when you say i can even more with it as with the Steam Overlay hell yeah!
Spirimint Jan 11, 2021
Oh wow, with the new Version finally its working. But it has way less options as the steamoverlay. Will be hard to setup a game with not all of these options I got so used to use one button for different actions and also using the action layers etc.

tl;dr I'm an SC-Controller fanboy.

SCC may have fewer options than Steam's client, or it may not. I don't honestly know, but I think SCC may have more. A lot of what you see in Steam's UI is available in SCC, but you might have to do it differently. In many ways, Steam's UI is to Kozec's SC-Controller as Windows is to Linux: the first (Steam's) is simpler but is less customizable, fewer granular choices, and the second (Kozec's) is way more choices, but isn't as dumbed-down.

For example, the Activators in Steam's UI (Regular, hold, start press, etc.) are easily done in SCC, but are set-up in either mode-shift or macros. Action sets are done just by making another profile, otherwise it's the same, it's just that SCC doesn't keep track of that in the UI.

But SCC lets me do so many things Steam's client can't. In Steam an input can only have one mode shift. In SCC I can add as many mode-shifts to a button as I want: Press 'A' and pull the trigger, one thing happens; press 'B' and pull the same trigger, something else happens. Mode-shift combinations on the SCC are exponentially greater than Steam's UI. That alone would be enough for me to count SCC the better of the two.

Rings on pads are more configurable, so that more than just buttons can be placed in the rings. I'll give you an example based on my own basic Payday 2 SCC profile. Normally the Rpad is a trackball mouse to control a camera. On top of this I add a mode-shift so that when I click the RPad it becomes a DPad where LEFT is reload, UP is change weapon, DOWN is drop weapon, RIGHT is flashlight, and center is grenade. All that is doable in Steam's client, but with SCC I've added more. To more easily interact with Payday's menus, I added a mode shift so when I press the back button the very edge of the Rpad becomes a circular trackpad mouse-wheel and the center becomes an Arrow Dpad.

Once again, an open source solution outshines a proprietary one.

Hey i start using the Programm and i agree is works really well, but what i don't find is "move cursor" could you tell me how i get this done in the Programm??


Last edited by Spirimint on 11 January 2021 at 12:22 pm UTC
Nanobang Jan 11, 2021
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Oh wow, with the new Version finally its working. But it has way less options as the steamoverlay. Will be hard to setup a game with not all of these options I got so used to use one button for different actions and also using the action layers etc.

tl;dr I'm an SC-Controller fanboy.

SCC may have fewer options than Steam's client, or it may not. I don't honestly know, but I think SCC may have more. A lot of what you see in Steam's UI is available in SCC, but you might have to do it differently. In many ways, Steam's UI is to Kozec's SC-Controller as Windows is to Linux: the first (Steam's) is simpler but is less customizable, fewer granular choices, and the second (Kozec's) is way more choices, but isn't as dumbed-down.

For example, the Activators in Steam's UI (Regular, hold, start press, etc.) are easily done in SCC, but are set-up in either mode-shift or macros. Action sets are done just by making another profile, otherwise it's the same, it's just that SCC doesn't keep track of that in the UI.

But SCC lets me do so many things Steam's client can't. In Steam an input can only have one mode shift. In SCC I can add as many mode-shifts to a button as I want: Press 'A' and pull the trigger, one thing happens; press 'B' and pull the same trigger, something else happens. Mode-shift combinations on the SCC are exponentially greater than Steam's UI. That alone would be enough for me to count SCC the better of the two.

Rings on pads are more configurable, so that more than just buttons can be placed in the rings. I'll give you an example based on my own basic Payday 2 SCC profile. Normally the Rpad is a trackball mouse to control a camera. On top of this I add a mode-shift so that when I click the RPad it becomes a DPad where LEFT is reload, UP is change weapon, DOWN is drop weapon, RIGHT is flashlight, and center is grenade. All that is doable in Steam's client, but with SCC I've added more. To more easily interact with Payday's menus, I added a mode shift so when I press the back button the very edge of the Rpad becomes a circular trackpad mouse-wheel and the center becomes an Arrow Dpad.

Once again, an open source solution outshines a proprietary one.

Hey i start using the Programm and i agree is works really well, but what i don't find is "move cursor" could you tell me how i get this done in the Programm??

If you mean to move the cursor like a mouse does, this is how you set that up:


Hover your cursor over the words "not set" near the RPad symbol. The RPad will turn green on the controller when it's right.


On the next screen, choose "mouse" from the quick settings, as shown above.


Everything's ready, but you'll probably want to customize how the mouse moves. Click "More" to get the options drop down. Here you can adjust sensitivity, what the feedback feels like, etc.


When you're done, click "OK" in the upper-right corner. (Note: You may have to click "OK" in other windows that you opened too, before you get to the original GUI).


SC-Controller will show that the profile has "changed". You can test out your new settings and adjust them again if you like. When you're ready, click the "save" icon in the upper-right corner.

Hope this helps. Kozec has written a good user guide, check it out. Sc-controller can do amazing things! Feel free to PM me here if you have any more questions. :) And remember, if you can, send Kozek a couple bucks. ;)


Last edited by Nanobang on 11 January 2021 at 3:22 pm UTC
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