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Valve overhauled Steam Deck 'As Mouse' Gyro option in new Beta

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Even though Valve only just recently put SteamOS 3.5 into preview for Steam Deck, they're not done with improvements elsewhere with a new Beta Client release doing a bit of a Gyro overhaul to the Mouse mode.

Specifically it's a revamp of the Gyro "As Mouse" mode. Here's all the Steam Input changes from the September 18th update:

  • New Gyro Mode: "Gyro To Mouse".
    • This is a renovation of the gyro "As Mouse" mode.
    • Expect frequent changes to UI and behavior while we evaluate this new replacement. ("As Mouse" will remain for now.)
    • Natural Sensitivity Scale: use "Pixels Per 360°" to calibrate both the Flick Stick and Gyro's real world angles into in-game angles. In this way, your Gyro Natural Sensitivity Multiplier can be consistent across games, with "Pixels Per 360°" being the isolated tuning value for each game.
    • 1€ Filter: Smoothed low level gyro noise without adding delay.
    • Speed Deadzones and Precision Zones will allow you to tune preferences for hand shake during fine aim.
    • Yaw vs. Roll Blend: you can now blend between "Yaw" or "Roll" mode.
    • Gyro Momentum Option: releasing your gyro activation button can maintain some rotation from the gyro. Tune the momentum on independent axes to bias toward horizontal movement vs vertical movement.
    • Gyro sensor timestamps are now used resulting in better overall accuracy of the Gyro.
    • Gyro over Bluetooth improvements - gyro motion is extrapolated when Bluetooth packets are delayed, resulting in smoother movement. Any error incurred is corrected gradually over time, during high speed movement to avoid "Ouija effect" during precise aiming.
  • Fixed Roll axis on Steam Deck for legacy "As Mouse".
  • Fix delayed input when opening the standalone On-Screen Keyboard
  • Fix for Razer Wolverine V2 Pro Dualsense gyro.

A quick follow-up release went out after that also had one change noting "Fix default orientation for Steam Deck and Steam Link Mobile App controllers in the new Gyro To Mouse mode".

Have any of you been playing with this newer Gyro mode? Let me know what you think in the comments. Gyro is one thing I just don't do on Steam Deck - as it feels like my brain just gets confused by it.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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24 comments
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Purple Library Guy Sep 22, 2023
Looking at that picture, the roll axis is clear, but which of pitch and yaw are which seems to kind of change depending how I look at it. One moment it looks like the Yaw stick goes down and the Pitch stick goes sideways, next it looks like the Pitch stick goes up and the Yaw stick goes sideways.
CatKiller Sep 22, 2023
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyLooking at that picture, the roll axis is clear, but which of pitch and yaw are which seems to kind of change depending how I look at it. One moment it looks like the Yaw stick goes down and the Pitch stick goes sideways, next it looks like the Pitch stick goes up and the Yaw stick goes sideways.
Pitch up and pitch down are up and down. Yaw is side to side. Nodding and shaking your head, as another way to think of it.
tuubi Sep 22, 2023
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Quoting: CatKillerWhat it should be is that "roll only" means turning it like a steering wheel, and "yaw only" means pointing the Deck around the room to aim.

Their definitions kind of make sense if they consider the base orientation of the deck to be horizontal or flat on its back, whereas you (and I'm inclined to agree) think that it is upright, with the screen facing you. That would swap the axes like you're describing. I guess they forgot that the Deck isn't a gamepad.
AL2009man Sep 22, 2023
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: CatKillerWhat it should be is that "roll only" means turning it like a steering wheel, and "yaw only" means pointing the Deck around the room to aim.

Their definitions kind of make sense if they consider the base orientation of the deck to be horizontal or flat on its back, whereas you (and I'm inclined to agree) think that it is upright, with the screen facing you. That would swap the axes like you're describing. I guess they forgot that the Deck isn't a gamepad.

If you view the tip of the wheel [picture above, I call it "Roll"] as the USB port (or as Media Molecule [developers of Dreams, Tearaway, LittleBigPlanet] calls it: the LED as a Flashlight Beam, note that it's also above the USB Port?) and not from "viewport"'s point of view, it's pretty much correct...

But the way how players are gonna hold their controllers/handheld/mobile devices while using Gyro Aiming is gonna be different, despite the current tooltip (as of this writing) already detailing how it works. I would suggest reading Player Space Gyro article by Jibb Smart, creator of Flick Stick, for more detail regarding the concept of Yaw + Roll merger.

CatKiller's comment might claimed that the Axis is the correct, but another side, who probably more used to Nintendo Switch's way of Gyro Orientation might've said "no, that's inverted". But add the concepts of Sensor Fusion/Gyro Space (which Steam Input currently doesn't support it...............yet) into the mix, and things start to get messing.

I'm not joking when my community circles has been debating about this for an week, even asking some game developers (including Jibb Smart) regarding it...but I think we might've come to the conclusion that players might have a mental models to how they see Orientation.

...but it's a moot point as it's gonna be addressed by John Valve anyway.


Last edited by AL2009man on 23 September 2023 at 12:09 am UTC
Nod Sep 22, 2023
Quoting: CatKillerPitch up and pitch down are up and down. Yaw is side to side. Nodding and shaking your head, as another way to think of it.

To take the analogy further, roll is the South Asian head wobble. Which loosely means I can hear you / meh / maybe.
CatKiller Sep 22, 2023
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Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: CatKillerWhat it should be is that "roll only" means turning it like a steering wheel, and "yaw only" means pointing the Deck around the room to aim.

Their definitions kind of make sense if they consider the base orientation of the deck to be horizontal or flat on its back, whereas you (and I'm inclined to agree) think that it is upright, with the screen facing you. That would swap the axes like you're describing. I guess they forgot that the Deck isn't a gamepad.

While that might be mathematically true, looking into the screen is definitely forwards. Anything else is ridiculous.

And with controllers that don't have a perfectly clear, perfectly well defined, entirely-consistent-with-game-conventions-forever forward direction, it's only really the N64 controller that's commonly likely to be held horizontally; modern controllers are much more upright than flat.
Mennenth Sep 23, 2023
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: AL2009man
Quoting: CatKiller
QuoteYaw vs. Roll Blend: you can now blend between "Yaw" or "Roll" mode.

Hey, maybe they could get round to not labelling them the wrong way round in the settings.

My community circles has been arguing about this for an week now, and we still haven't agree on which label is correct.
link

Valve have it the wrong way round, so setting it to "roll only" takes input from the yaw axis, and vice versa.

What it should be is that "roll only" means turning it like a steering wheel, and "yaw only" means pointing the Deck around the room to aim.

This is being corrected. A Valve dev in one of the communities AL2009man mentioned posted this:

You'll also be able to change that on a whim using the new "Tilt Angle" setting, which virtually offsets the yaw axis to accommodate any handheld or controller and in any (pitch) orientation they are being held.
Snowy Sep 23, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library GuyLooking at that picture, the roll axis is clear, but which of pitch and yaw are which seems to kind of change depending how I look at it. One moment it looks like the Yaw stick goes down and the Pitch stick goes sideways, next it looks like the Pitch stick goes up and the Yaw stick goes sideways.

Some better illustrations of movement terms and equivalent camera movement terms

Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: CatKillerWhat it should be is that "roll only" means turning it like a steering wheel, and "yaw only" means pointing the Deck around the room to aim.

Their definitions kind of make sense if they consider the base orientation of the deck to be horizontal or flat on its back, whereas you (and I'm inclined to agree) think that it is upright, with the screen facing you. That would swap the axes like you're describing. I guess they forgot that the Deck isn't a gamepad.

The current definition also happens to make the most sense if you consider everything from the orientation of the inertial measurement unit microcontroller on each device's board. Which is understandable if you are in part a hardware company. This is a very early rework of the older gyro mouse option that otherwise has mostly the same sub-features so I expect the labels etc. to improve.
CatKiller Sep 23, 2023
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Quoting: MennenthThis is being corrected. A Valve dev in one of the communities AL2009man mentioned posted this:

You'll also be able to change that on a whim using the new "Tilt Angle" setting, which virtually offsets the yaw axis to accommodate any handheld or controller and in any (pitch) orientation they are being held.
Yay!
MonroeWorld Sep 23, 2023
It took me about 2 weeks to be comfortable with right stick plus augmented gyro. Now? I can't live without it. I went so far as to actually ditch my elite 2 controller on my PC and replace it with an Xbox series controller with the armor x pro add-on. Just like it have gyro on my PC.

Is it for everyone? Maybe not. I will say it changed my life completely for playing video games.
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