One Steam Controller can now hold two Bluetooth pairings, and a chord switches between them
Valve's Steam client update of October 13 adds a second Bluetooth LE pairing slot to the Steam Controller's firmware, so one pad can keep a pairing for two machines rather than one. Valve's changelog gives the chords: to pair into the new slot you "hold L1 + B + Steam when powering on the controller", and to move between slots you "hold either L1 + B + Steam at start up or R1 + B + Steam at start up".
The new Steam Controller, from Valve's own store page for it on Steam. Image: Valve
Both chords are held at start-up, so moving a pad from one machine to the other means powering it off and on rather than tapping something mid-session. L1 + B + Steam also does double duty in Valve's wording, listed for pairing into the new slot and for switching between slots.
Valve does not say what the second slot is for, though the case it fits is a pad shared between a desktop PC and a Steam Deck, Steam Machine or Steam Frame in the same room.
Rumble emulation gains configurable intensity
Valve lists seven firmware changes in all, and six of them are new. Rumble emulation gains "configurable intensity levels", and the controller takes less time to "fully connect" in Steam.
Three more are fixes: Bluetooth LE connections that "could disconnect repeatedly, especially on Steam Deck", pairing "via a puck connection" that could fail, and thumbsticks that "could lose the ability to reach full range".
The seventh is a repeat. A switch into BLE mode that "would stick, even if the host device could not be found" reached the beta client Valve dated October 7, and it graduates to the stable channel here.
Lizard mode now covers Windows UAC prompts
Steam Input gets a change for the same hardware. Valve adds "support for switching into Lizard mode on the new Steam Controller when interacting with UAC windows or other places where Windows blocks Steam Input", so the pad now switches into that mode by itself on a UAC prompt, the Windows dialog that asks permission before a program changes the system.
Two smaller Steam Input changes touch the same pad. Valve says trackpad sensitivity is now more consistent "between Steam Deck and Steam Controller", and it has fixed doubled Steam Controllers showing up on macOS.
Valve put this straight into the stable client
None of it is a beta build. Valve says "A new Steam Client update has been released and will be automatically downloaded", and the post went up at 23:38 UTC on October 13.
The same notes put the Steam Frame controller default into the stable client. Steam Frame controllers now "use gamepad input in VR games that don't support VR inputs" by default, a change that first arrived needing three separate beta channels. Valve says the preferred mode can be changed for any VR game in its Steam Input settings or in VR Controller settings on the Now Playing page.
Valve gives the firmware no version number and does not say when a controller picks it up. The client update, Valve says, "will be automatically downloaded", which is the one part of this that happens without anyone holding three buttons.
