Keyboard shortcut for accessing the Steam menu

Hello everyone!

Today I bought a mouse and keyboard for the couch to play some games which are not made for controllers. Unfortunately I can’t figure out how to access the Steam menu once I am in-game. The desktop overlay combination does not seem to work (shift + tab) and I don’t know what else to try as I don’t have anything resembling the PlayStation or Xbox buttons like on my controllers.

Desktop mode itself is unfortunately unusable as Steam ignores the scaling configuration and text is unreadable small on the TV. I just bring this up, because I suspect the overlay combination would work here.

Does anyone know what keys to press in normal big picture esque mode to open any of the Steam menus while in-game?

Thank you!

morgan_423,
@morgan_423@lemmy.world avatar

In gaming mode, you can use Ctrl-1 and Ctrl-2 to access the menus, but for reasons unknown, these don’t work in-game.

In desktop mode, if you dock the Deck, you can try changing the display settings manually if it doesn’t auto-adjust. This is under the System Settings app.

ShaunaTheDead,
@ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social avatar

You should consider trying setting the control scheme to "trackpad as mouse". Using the trackpad as a mouse feels very natural and similar to using a mouse and is much easier than using external devices imo. Just a thought in case you didn't know about that!

Swiggles,

What are you talking about? This is about using a mouse and keyboard with a docked Steam Deck.

ShaunaTheDead,
@ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social avatar

Oh I didn't see the part about it being docked. I was just trying to help because I think a lot of people are scared to use the new features and the trackpads are actually amazing for games that require the precision of a mouse.

OmegaMouse,
@OmegaMouse@feddit.uk avatar

ctrl+1 and ctrl+2. Buuuut it doesn’t work when a game is running :(

I’ve considered learning python to try and write a plugin that could help with this… but I don’t imagine I’ll be ready with that any time soon as I basically have no programming knowledge.

Fubarberry,
@Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz avatar

This is one of those weird SteamOS issues that I can’t figure out why it hasn’t been addressed yet. It seems like such an obvious issue.

Swiggles,

Weird. I was just expecting some odd key combination not that it isn’t implemented at all.

I guess I have to keep a controller near to access the menu then as a workaround.

averyminya,

Omitted because of possible conflict with common game inputs? If someone uses a m+kb input, sets hold to crouch and then changes weapons it would open the keyboard.

That’s the only “reason” I can think of, other than plain just forgot

CleoTheWizard,

I mean… the default keys work just fine which is why it’s so odd. I know what the issue is, I just don’t know why they can’t fix it. The issue is that currently games have priority over inputs. That’s especially true with keyboard and mouse and I know this because other things also break when loading games.

I had a problem with pillars of eternity for instance. Keyboard and mouse work fine in overlay. Boot up the game and they break. But switch from the dongle mode to Bluetooth mode on the mouse and it works. So something is very wrong with the input for that stuff when inside of games. It’s almost like they’re switching drivers?

HamBrick,

I think I could help you with that, if you don’t mind me taking away the novelty of you coding your own solution, which is where I get my kick

OmegaMouse,
@OmegaMouse@feddit.uk avatar

Sure, if you know a way to do it!

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