GlosSI

Even before it became a household name among PC video game players, Valve sought to innovate on both software and hardware fronts, from delivering impressive game engines and advanced computer AI throughout their flagship titles, to entering the peripheral and mobile console space with the Steam Controller and Deck, respectively.

Their Steam digital storefront is not only home to a vast array of frequently discounted games, but also equipped with impressive controller customization features that are usually available for titles purchased on its platform, which is where a powerful program known as GlosSI comes into play to extend those functions to non-supported games as well.

While many games ship with controller support by default, a considerable part of them tend to forego the ability to customize the bindings, which is arguably a pivotal part of the gaming experience, since players oftentimes need to make adjustments such as assigning the Up button on the D-pad to the jump ability in fighting games. Game pads that lack X-input drivers are rarely supported, which is why Steam includes a dedicated input library designed to emulate mouse, keyboard and Xbox controller bindings with a wide variety of peripherals.

Moreover, older titles can lack the graphical option known as “Full-screen windowed” designed to let players easily switch between the running game and other opened programs without minimizing it. To avoid this type of interruptions, Steam bundled in support for their in-game overlay that provides access to their browser, Friends list and other quick shortcuts on the fly.

Unfortunately, games that are exclusive to other storefronts may not have the same degree of compatibility when adding them to the Steam client library — an issue that Global System-wide Steam Input (GlosSI) seeks to solve.

With the app installed, users can simply add it to their library and run it to have their currently connected controller detected as a fully customizable Xbox game pad for titles missing support for Sony and Steam controllers, for instance. Those who want to do more fine-tuning can initialize the app’s very own configuration window that automates the process of adding non-Steam games, UWP programs and Epic Games Store titles to their library, ultimately enabling the use of dedicated profiles for each item.

In certain circumstances, a game may have support for a DualShock controller, but no ability to change the default bindings, which may cause the device to be detected natively and as a customized Steam input game pad. This problem can be avoided by toggling on the option to “Hide (Real) Controllers” from within the app. Finally, apart from being able to access the regular Steam overlay in any game or program, the utility also ships equipped with its own version featuring a logging system for troubleshooting any potential issues.

Whether you want to ensure full support of the Steam overlay and input in games downloaded from other platforms, or you have trouble running Windows on the Steam Deck, GlosSI may be the best solution that extends Steam’s compatibility across almost all games and programs manually added to its library.