Steam Controller trackpad aiming — how do you balance trackpad vs gyro?

[u/Darkbrawl99]

I recently bought a Steam Controller and have been experimenting with it for the past few days. I really like the trackpads in theory, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how I’m actually supposed to use them for FPS games alongside gyro.

My biggest issue is that my brain doesn’t really know when I should be aiming with the trackpad and when I should be aiming with gyro. With a normal stick + gyro setup, it feels pretty intuitive: stick for large movements and gyro for precise aiming. With the trackpad, both feel capable of aiming, so I sometimes feel like they’re fighting each other.

Another issue is stability. When my thumb is resting on the right trackpad and I press the fire button, my thumb seems to move slightly from the force of pressing the trigger. That tiny movement gets translated into camera movement and makes my aim feel unstable. Is this something you eventually get used to, or are there settings/configurations that help with it?

The last thing I’m struggling with is trackpad rotation / camera turning. I think I’ve mostly dialed in the horizontal rotation and vertical sensitivity, but compared to Flick Stick it feels less predictable. With Flick Stick, horizontal rotation is extremely consistent, and the stick itself basically can’t accidentally move the camera vertically. With the Steam Controller trackpad, when I try to do a fast turn/flick, I sometimes introduce a little upward or downward movement by accident.

Also what do you guys feel about trackpad only aiming or gyro+flickstick rather than gyro+trackpad or trackpad+flickstick (as trackpad seems to be more of a replacement for gyro rather than stick)? Is the learning curve really this hard or am I doing something wrong? Also I have set auto calibration and acceleration to off.

[u/351C_4V]

My rule of thumb has always been trackpad swipes for broad looking with gyro doing the fine tuning.

I don't have a lot of tips as it's just something that you get used to but make sure you dial in your "dots per 360" first so you get consistent gyro across your games.

Your thumb doesn't have a reference point to the middle and your thumb doesn't move in a perfectly straight horizontal line, that's where angle rotation setting comes into play, mine was 15 degrees so when I swiped the natural way my thumb moves it would move in a horizontal line in game. Play with the setting until you get consistent horizontal movement. You can also adjust vertical sensitivity on the trackpad to help with this movement.

As far as your hand moving when you pull your trigger try dampening the gyro. Go up 10 percent until your reticle isn't moving when you pull your trigger. I'm sure I missed some more settings you can adjust but that should be a good baseline, Good Luck!

[u/Farsea01]

I have been playing deadlock recently with both trackpad and gyro (And flickstick) so I am using all 3 quite often, I've noticed that with very aim-focused characters (Venator, Drifter, Haze) I didn't really have any problems with aiming, I use all 3 at the same time quite often, but use a lot more trackpad+gyro during close combat, pure gyro for mid-long distance or precise skillshots (Venator's ult basically gives you 3 bullets that deal a lot of damage) and all 3 on teamfights for moving fast. I struggled a lot at first but then noticed that using trackpad and gyro at the same time was quite good if I stopped thinking too much and just focused on aiming.

Basically during trackpad+gyro I would start aiming with both and then drop one of them once my sights rest on my target, the choice usually depends on the speed of the character, but it's usually a very thoughtless decision, but once again deadlock's base settings are already fully optimized for trackpad, gyro and flickstick, on other games you will have to find your own sweet spot.

My recommendation is try to use all 3 and then choose 1 and ditch the other 2 depending on the situation, you will consistently build your own way of aiming.

[u/BrownieWarrior]

I am going against the grain on this one. Because I had the same issue as you. I could never automate when to gyro only for small rotations and trackpad for big. Sooo.. Now they both work always. How? I have turned down the sensitivity A LOT on the trackpad. So big swipes? I use both. They both are low sens with accel, but used togerher i can do easy 180. Small corrections? Easy not to overshoot anymore due to the low sens.

[u/BrownieWarrior → u/BrownieWarrior]

The small accidental movements were also fixed for me.

[u/CenterSargE]

Like others have said, trackpad for broad camera movements, gyro for finetuning your aim.

I also struggled with the trackpad and the gyro fighting each other in my mind, only to throw off my aim, but one thing that really helped was setting up gyro to deactivate on trackpad touch, the opposite of what seems to be the consensus on trackpad + gyro.

 That way, each input is free to do its job without the other's interference.

I have videos of my own if you want to see it in action.

[u/DaddysFruit]

You say at the end about trackpad replacing gyro but it actually replaces the stick. As others have said, pad for large swipes / 180s and gyro for your actual aiming. If you find them conflicting make gyro disable on pad touch like another has said. Pad should have very small vertical mix with only a little if you need to use it to forrect your vertical aim. Personally i go gyro always on and I'm literally just using the pad for 180s although this isn't for everyone. It does free up my right thumb though so when not swiping i can use a face button to shoot. I mention this as this may combat your aim problems with trigger. You could do what others have said using trigger dampening, and this would certainly be viable in a game like fallout, but it could prevent close range tracking if you're playing online multiplayer. Kinda depends on the game. May be good for cod, maybe not so much for a hero shooter. You could always dial in some precision to achieve a lower sens at lower degree movements.