2y ago

Playing Baldur's Gate 3 With A Controller On The PC - A BG3 Guide

In today's Baldur's Gate 3 guide we take a look at how the controller works on the PC. The good news is that it's freakin' amazing. Here's my guide on how to...

22 comments

Step 1: plug in controller
Step 2: launch game
Step 3: change game input setting to “controller”
Did we need a fucking video for this? Honestly?
- No need for step 3. Just press a button on your controller and the game detects it. I'm playing with a controller and it's amazing so far.
  
  Any way to change layout to PS4 controller? Cause I use one..
- I'm pretty sure I skipped step 3.
Controller support is great. This guy shows us how well it works.
I've got about ten hours in on a controller (DualSense) on Steam. One thing: you'll always get Xbox controller icons if Steam Input is enabled. If you disable that in game properties, you'll get PlayStation icons for PlayStation controllers.
But there are a few things that really don't work well for controllers atm:
Please, please can we not have radial menus? If we must have them, don't require the stick to be held in the direction -- let the last position of the stick dictate the selection without the need to hold. As it stands, it'll start moving the cursor in the next menu because you have to keep the stick held while making the selection. It's annoying constantly seeing my map blip a little in the direction that the radial selection was made. Much better would be to just have some kind of square menus usable with the d-pad (like literally every other game menu).
"Examine" for items is straight up broken in the controller interface. If the item is small, it shows up behind its descriptive text and everything is not centered with a ton of wasted space. The item can be rotated but not zoomed, because right stick vertical is for scrolling the descriptive text.
There is no adjustment of analog sensitivity at all. Like, really? Yes, you can do it with Steam Input, but a) my controller kept disconnecting with it enabled, and b) then can't have PS icons per first bullet point.
I had hoped that the Steam Controller might come to the rescue by allowing mouse on right pad with the controller interface. But, as far as I can tell, this is impossible because the game does not support split input. Steam Controller can be KBM with mouse on right pad, but the game will not show the controller interface (and text is smaller without it).
Overall just wish it was a bit more customizable. I hope a couple of these things improve at least after the PS5 release (e.g. the bugged examine screen).
- I’ve got about ten hours in on a controller (DualSense) on Steam. One thing: you’ll always get Xbox controller icons if Steam Input is enabled. If you disable that in game properties, you’ll get PlayStation icons for PlayStation controllers.
  I had to do this too for the correct icons to show up for the PS in the game.
  I have an Xbox controller and I own a PS5 with a few controllers. I've tried both and like both. I do like the touch pad curser to help click and start the game from the lauch pad. (I hate lauch pads. They don't work well with Big Picture Mode and 4K TVs.)
- This probably isn’t what you want to hear but you can make a really really great split setup using SteamInput. The only reason I haven’t used it for the final game is because I play a lot on desktop, not just Deck and I don’t have a steam controller. But on Deck with its trackpads I can access most of the UI and still have the trackpads for selecting items and combat. I guess the only big thing you can’t do is move the party with the left stick, but they didn’t bother me too much. I think I might prefer it to either purely kb/m or controller setups.
I'll save you 20 minutes. Launch it from Steam's Big Picture mode.
I love playing from my couch with a controller! I work in front of my computer all day and afterwards I really don't want to spend more time there.
The only problem I've found (besides minor bugs) is that after you go up a few levels the action wheels are a complete unorganized mess. I hope Larian adds some way of auto-arranging them into actions, bonus actions, spells, etc. like the hotbar does.
- There is a way to customize each wheel. Look to the right when the wheels are up and there is a button that lets you do that.
  
  Yes, you can manually assign each wheel slot, but when you have a few dozen spells and actions it's really long and boring. I'd like it more if it behaved like the hotbar, with things sorted automatically and space for personal favorites.
I need to test it out on my steamdeck. just been playing on desktop so far. DOS2 had lovely controller support
- It doesn't look great, but it runs super well and it plays really well. I recommend it
Has anyone tried the steam controller, steam link to tv combo?
It has been a while that I used this at all but this could be a good game for it.
Even if it's a bit slower here and there due to steam link this could be a game where it does not hurt.
- I tried only the Steam Controller, and... it's a damn shame BG3 does not support split input. I'd like to have the controller interface (which also has larger text for couch playing) but a mouse cursor on right pad. This is currently impossible, so you can either have
  Controller interface but right pad emulates right stick, or
  Keyboard interface and right pad is mouse
  
  I did a quick test with joystick on the right track pad. Reduced friction and trackball mode so you can push and let it turn until you stop it again. It's playable but it's full controller mode.
  Action and reaction is not so crucial here which is why it's okay for me.
  Can you maybe fully disable controller mode and put only mouse and keyboard shortcuts onto the steam controller?

22 comments