I don’t own any controllers.
I started playing Dark Souls 3 which I now understand has a controller strongly recommended. I may as well just look into getting a controller of some kind as I have a few games that have somewhat janky kbm controls and are better enjoyed with a controller.
I just wanted to ask for general advice about what controller to get in terms of compatibility. Also if someone has made a controller that’s more in the spirit of foss that also works fine with Steam and Proton games that would be nice?
I know Steam is pretty good with Playstation controllers and I used to use a PS controller (don’t remember what generation) with some native Linux Steam games, not sure how the whole PS vs Xbox controller thing is affected by running games through Proton if at all? If it matters let me know, and I’ll see if I can procure a controller for myself.
Dualsense controller support is perfect on my end
Over the years, controllers have gotten more standardized and are generally well supported. I have a few, and have never had issues with them in Steam (both Mint and Manjaro).
I’ve gotten a few from 8bitdo and they’ve all been solid. If you have a favorite console from your childhood (or adulthood), they probably have one that resembles it.
For most of the games I play, I prefer to have the left stick above the d-pad (like the Xbox, as opposed to the PS). I also recommend getting a controller that has trigger throttles (similar to Xbox or GameCube), as those can be nice to have for many games. This one seems pretty good (I have an SN30 Pro, but don’t love the left stick position).
I have the ultimate from 8BitDo (4 of them actually), and I really like it.
I have an Xbox One controller, a Dual Shock 4, and various Bluetooth 8bitdo controllers, and all of them seem to work just fine through Proton, as long as the game has gamepad support built in. I don’t have Dark Souls 3 but I’d bet the story would be the same.
Steam manages their own controller support so a lot of gamepads should be okay. Now I know I didn’t want to fiddle with that Xbox dongle to get the wireless so I bought wired Xbox controllers for my steam deck and they are plug and play. Work perfect. 8BitDo didn’t work at all and needed special packages I didn’t bother with.
Anything connected via USB should work, as long as they don’t require a special driver. I have a Gulikit controller and it seems to work in all configurations - although you might need to remap some stuff depending on what exactly you use.
Nintendo and Xbox layout both work fine for me.
I have an Xbox One controller. It worked well out of the box on my previous machine, but the current one somehow maps the buttons incorrectly when I connect with bluetooth. Installing the
hid-xpadneokernel module (xpadneo-dkmson the AUR), which is a driver specifically for Xbox controllers, fixed it completely.It works flawlessly with everything I’ve tried, including emulators. The hardware is also extremely durable. It’s survived several drops over five years (bought it for Sekiro’s launch) and being mangled by a dog. The only disadvantage is the stupid fucking flimsy micro-USB port, but the newest Series models have USB-C. If you can, get a rechargeable battery pack and a charging dock.
If you care about repairability, it’s not the worst, but not particularly good either. Parts of the shell are held by plastic tabs that are easy to damage, the internals are all located on one PCB, and the wires to the haptic motors are soldered on.
I use a gulikit kk3 without issues and like it way better than the Xbox elite garbage I had before.
One thing to note is it can be a bit tricky to get first party xbox one/series controllers to work wirelessly via bluetooth. Aside from that, xbox controllers work great. I don’t have any PS controllers, so I can’t personally speak to those, but they should work perfectly fine as well.
