Field for manual switching of controller button prompts in Input

[LAN021 0]

Hey, has anybody thought about adding a feature/field to the input infobox for manual switching of controller button prompts, under additional? It could be called "Manual Controller Button Prompt Switching" (or "Manual Switching of Controller Button Prompts") and the tooltip could read "The controller button prompts can be changed manually in the game's settings, regardless of the type of controller used."

This feature was included in many 2022 games, like Death Stranding DC, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Ghostwire, Elex 2, Monster Hunter Rise, Stranger of Paradise, Rogue Legacy 2 and probably a few others, too. It's becoming more common and may be deserving of its own field. It could probably be hidden if not set since it has only really been included in 8th/9th gen games and a select few 7th gen games (mostly had to rely on mods for those). I use a third-party PS3 controller myself and always look for this feature in newly released games. It's also great for people who actually use Steam Input's controller configuration with their DS4's and want DS4 icons (if the game doesn't have that Steam auto-assignment function).

A related change that may be needed as well is for the sub-fields of the controller types, such as icons, to be visible even if the main field is set to False. There are a few games that have DualShock 4/Switch icons without actually having native support for those controllers (mostly Switch). So if one or more sub-field is set to true and the main field is set to false, the expandible sub-fields are still visible.

[dinaallred 0]

On 6/15/2022 at 12:48 AM, LAN021 said:

Hey, has anybody thought about adding a feature/field to the input infobox for manual switching of controller button prompts, under additional? It could be called "Manual Controller Button Prompt Switching" (or "Manual Switching of Controller Button Prompts") and the tooltip could read "The controller button prompts can be changed manually in the game's settings, regardless of the type of controller used."

This feature was included in many 2022 games, like Death Stranding DC, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Ghostwire, Elex 2, Monster Hunter Rise, Stranger of Paradise, Rogue Legacy 2 and probably a few others, too. It's becoming more common and may be deserving of its own field. It could probably be hidden if not set since it has only really been included in 8th/9th gen games and a select few 7th gen games (mostly had to rely on mods for those). I use a third-party PS3 controller myself and always look for this feature in newly released games. It's also great for people who actually use Steam Input's controller configuration with their DS4's and want DS4 icons (if the game doesn't have that Steam auto-assignment function). mapquest driving directions

A related change that may be needed as well is for the sub-fields of the controller types, such as icons, to be visible even if the main field is set to False. There are a few games that have DualShock 4/Switch icons without actually having native support for those controllers (mostly Switch). So if one or more sub-field is set to true and the main field is set to false, the expandible sub-fields are still visible.

I second this suggestion.

[LAN021 0]

An updated suggestion half a year later. I don't know if the admins didn't think this was worth having or they simply didn't see it (probably the former).

I think my second suggestion is worth having on the site, as I've noticed that controller support is often set to true, even though the games don't support the controllers (DualShock 4/DualSense/Switch Pro Controller) natively and instead rely on Steam Input or a wrapper. The editing guide even says that it should be limited in that case. I think it should simply be false, but the controller prompts should still be visible if the game has it somehow (Control, for instance). The old button prompt field is deprecated, as far as I know, since it's not even in the guide or the template anymore (but still works and sometimes shows duplicate prompts). Simply allow the prompts fields to be visible if set to true, even if main controller type is set to false, as I wrote here:

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A related change that may be needed as well is for the sub-fields of the controller types, such as icons, to be visible even if the main field is set to False. There are a few games that have DualShock 4/Switch icons without actually having native support for those controllers (mostly Switch). So if one or more sub-field is set to true and the main field is set to false, the expandible sub-fields are still visible.

In that case, the other fields should probably be hidden if they are set to false and the main field is as well. Only the prompts field should be visible. I suppose you could program it so that the prompts fields are moved to their own row instead of being sub-fields to the main field. It could even be a new field altogether.

Another related change that I think should be added is a field in the Steam Input section for controller type detection and button prompt display. This is in practically every Sega-published game with controller support and was recently in Crisis Core and Sackboy, for instance. Some info about this could, of course, also be added to the Steam page on the site. I could try to write it myself if the admins allow it. The field could be called "Button prompts for controller type" and the tooltip could read "The game can detect which controller type is being used in Steam Input and show the corresponding button prompts in-game." I suppose one could also add this information to the Steam Input API field with it set to false and the note that it is only for showing button prompts, but I'd like a separate field myself.

[LAN021 0]

Bumping this again in the hopes that an admin, or at least a senior editor, can show enough interest to comment. I have no interest in getting on Discord to get into a potentially contentious discussion with an admin or senior editor, if they really are unwilling to accept suggestions from outside their inner circle. I'd rather post the suggestions in full here to get comments. These are objective improvements I'm suggesting, not something of debatable or minor use. I have written featured articles on Wikipedia and contributed to some templates there, so I know how the process goes.

There are two new fields I think should be added and one change to the Input box made. I'm posting them in full as they would appear on the site.

1. Manual selection of [break] controller button prompts
Where: Bottom of "Controller types" category under the Input box. Could also be in the "Additional information" category, at the bottom. Should be hidden if not set or set to unknown.
Tooltip Desc: The game has an in-game option for manually selecting the controller button prompts.

2. Button prompts for [break] set controller type
Where: Below "Steam Controller button prompts" field in "Steam Input" category under the Input box. Should be hidden if not set or set to unknown. This is Steam Input's helper function.
Tooltip Desc: Steam Input's helper function can detect the type of controller being used and show the correct prompts in the game (or the closest equivalent). Steam Input still uses XInput. The controller type can be changed in Steam's controller settings for certain XInput and DInput devices.

3. Make it possible to see the expandible fields for "XInput-compatible controllers", "DualShock 4 controllers" and "Generic/other controllers" even if they are set to false, if the prompts below are set to true.
This is needed for games that have options to change prompts without supporting any other controllers than XInput.

These kind of options are common enough now to warrant their own fields. Just have a look at the four popular games under the search field. Three of those have manual selection of button prompts (Resident Evil 4, TLOU and Dead Space) and I think that Hogwarts Legacy uses Steam Input's helper function for correct prompt display (suggestion #2). Two recently released games also have manual selection of button prompts (Front Mission and Ghost Trick). You could add this info manually to the fields' descriptions, but you then have to repeat it in every button prompt field, so simply having a separate field is preferable.

Manual selection of button prompts can be seen in setting images and added in the fields' descriptions, but there is no real way of knowing if a game uses Steam Input's helper function for prompt display. I've only ever seen this in one game, No Man's Sky, which has it under "Steam Controller button prompts":

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Uses Steam Input API's Button prompt detection for both In-Game and Steam's built-in Button prompts, based on Controller Type.

This feature is also in enough games to warrant its own field, it's much more common than Steam Input API, for instance. If added, I know of a few games that have this feature and could add it quickly. It's in most games published by Sega and a few by Sony, also in at least Hades, Ender Lilies and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, from the top of my head. Setting the "Steam Input API" field to true for this feature, which I've seen on numerous articles, is quite misleading as Steam Input API should only be for the actual remapping features, not the prompt display feature, which is a separate feature. Steam Input still uses XInput for that helper function, not Steam Input API. It's also easy to check if a game supports this feature by looking at the Controller tab in the game's properties. Here's a comparison between two games, one that has the Steam Input helper function (Persona 4 Golden, right) and one that doesn't (Bloodstained, left).   Well, I hope I can at least get an admin to comment this time. I spent some time writing this and there is absolutely no reason to not have these fields on the site.

Edited July 7 by LAN021
Correction.