Steam Machines: How to fake a gamepad if you don't have one
This article is about the recent Steam Machines announcement. Part of becoming eligible for beta/hardware participation is playing a Steam game with a gamepad in Big Picture mode, which is a problem if you don’t have a gamepad. But if you have a Windows PC, this will work for you.
Be sure to exit Steam before doing this.
- Download VJoy, a free joystick emulator. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click the top download link (VJoy Virtual Joystick Driver v1.2 (Includes key to joy application)).
- Install VJoy, then configure the VJoy application like this (Make sure you check’Enabled’ at the top left):
- Start Steam, then click the Big Picture button on the top right. Use the WASD keys to navigate and the 2 key on the numberstrip for ‘A’, and then choose a game like TF2 (which is what I went with).
- Launch TF2, and it will ask you if you want to use a gamepad, click ‘Yes’ with your mouse.
- Using your mouse, join a server and play normally.
- Quit TF2 and Big Picture mode and check your Steam Machines quest status. It should look like this now if you’ve completed all the steps beforehand:
Congratulations, you’re now eligible to be a part of the Steam Machines testing group.