Dylan DeverillandClaude Fable 5
b80c7b830e
The core fix: the SC2026 firmware silently reverts to lizard mode (including its autonomous click haptics) after a period without host feature reports, which doubled up with software haptics as a crunchy burst. A keepalive now re-asserts the lizard-off state every 2 seconds while game mode is active. Haptics reliability and feel: - Switch trackpad haptics from OUT_HAPTIC_PULSE (grip LRAs) to OUT_HAPTIC_COMMAND (trackpad LRAs) for localized feel - Click haptic latch: press fires off the debounced firmware click bit, release only fires once contact area returns to idle, so force chatter and mid-hold easing cannot re-fire - Movement ticks: distance-based with motion deadzone, post-release and first-touch grace windows, pressing/teleport gates (pause, not reset), idle decay, and a 50ms send rate limit so firmware waveforms never queue into a backlog Handoff and mouse: - EnableLizardMode now also sends LOAD_DEFAULT_SETTINGS so firmware mouse emulation resumes immediately on disable instead of waiting for the firmware revert timeout - Trackpad mouse: carry sub-pixel movement remainders between frames and retune sensitivity (0.015 -> 0.01125) Also: shared/exclusive HID reopen support, local-only HapticTester tool (gitignored, conditional CMake target), installer version bump to 1.7. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
SteamlessController
A lightweight Windows system tray app that lets you use a Steam Controller as a standard gamepad — without Steam running.
When Steamless Mode is active, the app disables the controller's built-in keyboard/mouse emulation (lizard mode) and exposes it as a virtual Xbox 360 controller via ViGEmBus, making it compatible with any game that supports XInput or the Xbox controller.
Features
- NEW - Rumble Support
- NEW - Support for multiple Steam Controllers! Long live split screen!
- NEW - New shiny UI for remapping L4/L5 R4/L5 back buttons!
- System tray icon shows connection and mode status
- Steamless Mode — disables lizard mode and exposes controller as Xbox 360 gamepad
- Trackpad Mouse — use the right (or left) trackpad as a mouse cursor
- Back Buttons for Clicking — map R4/R5 (or L4/L5) to left/right mouse click
- Use Left Trackpad Instead — mirror all trackpad/back-button functionality to the left side for left-handed users
- Start with Windows — launch automatically at login
- Settings persist across restarts
- Single-instance guard — safe to leave running
Requirements
To run
- Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
- ViGEmBus driver installed
- Steam Controller (VID
0x28DE/ PID0x1302) - Steam closed (Steam claims the controller when running)
To build
- Visual Studio 2022 with the Desktop development with C++ workload
- CMake 3.20 or later (included with Visual Studio, or install separately)
- Windows SDK 10.0.22000 or later (installed via Visual Studio Installer)
Building
git clone https://github.com/your-username/SteamlessController.git
cd SteamlessController
cmake -B build
cmake --build build --target SteamlessController
The executable will be at build\Debug\SteamlessController.exe.
For a release build:
cmake -B build/release -G "Visual Studio 18 2025"
cmake --build build/release --config Release --target SteamlessController
If you have Visual Studio 2022, replace
"Visual Studio 18 2025"with"Visual Studio 17 2022".
CMake Targets
| Target | Description |
|---|---|
SteamlessController |
Main system tray application |
SteamProbe |
Console diagnostic tool — dumps raw HID report bytes as you interact with the controller. Useful for protocol research. |
RawControllerProbe |
Checks whether Windows.Gaming.Input.RawGameController can enumerate the Steam Controller (requires WinRT). |
How it works
The Steam Controller exposes a vendor HID collection (usage page 0xFF00) that carries all game input in a 54-byte report (ID 0x42) at ~60 Hz. By default the firmware runs in lizard mode, emulating a keyboard and mouse so the controller works without drivers.
SteamlessController sends HID feature reports to disable lizard mode, then reads the raw input reports and translates them into a virtual Xbox 360 controller via ViGEmBus. A background heartbeat re-sends the disable command every 800 ms to keep lizard mode off.
The full input report layout is documented in src/steam/SteamController.h.
Third-party
- ViGEmClient — MIT License, built from source as a static library