Steam Haptics Player

This project allows stereo audio to be streamed from a file to the haptics of a Steam controller (2026), practically allowing anything to be played on it's haptic motors.

How To

Supported device: Steam Controller (2026). Other controllers are unsupported.

Requirements: FFmpeg on PATH

Note For puck audio:

• When streaming audio via the Puck, you may encounter popping noises or other audio quality issues due to packet loss. Wired should normally be much cleaner.

On Windows

1. Open Powershell in the file directory where you have extracted the executable
2. (skip if already installed) Install FFmpeg with winget install ffmpeg
3. Run the program with .\steam-haptics-player [AUDIO_FILE]
4. Profit!

OR

1. (skip if already installed) Install FFmpeg with winget install ffmpeg in powershell
2. Drag an audio file onto the executable.
   • This will not let you skip the setup portion of the program if it has already been run once, however it is the easier option

On Linux

1. Right click inside the folder
2. Click "Open in Terminal"
3. (skip if already installed) Install FFmpeg with a package manager of your choice
4. Install libusb (with i believe either, sudo apt install libhidapi-dev or sudo pacman -S hidapi)
5. Type chmod +x steam-haptics-singer to make the program executable
6. Run the program with .\steam-haptics-player [AUDIO_FILE]
7. Profit!

Usage from command prompt:

Usage: play-pcm.exe [-s] <file path>
      -s  Skip running the setup phase (if you have already run it once and havent restarted your controller)

Tips

• Try pressing the controller down into a solid object (although not too hard), it will make the sound much louder

Troubleshooting

• No audio:
  • Ensure you ran the setup phase (do not use -s) at least once since the controller was last started.
• Garbled audio:
  • Re-run without -s. If issues persist, restart the controller and run setup again.
• Loud static immediately on launch:
  • Restart the controller and try again.
• ffmpeg not found
  • Install ffmpeg and ensure it is on your PATH (winget install ffmpeg on Windows).
• if all else fails:
  • Try connect the steam controller directly via USB and then try again.

Compiling

Build (Linux / WSL)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libhidapi-dev ffmpeg
make

Build (Windows, MSYS2 UCRT64)

pacman -Syu

pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc \
          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-hidapi \
          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-ffmpeg \
          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-make \
          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-pkgconf

make

Changelog

[v1.3.0] Added progress bar, reworked how files are loaded

[v1.2.0] Fixed controller detection with puck (Thanks @CrazyCritic89)

[v1.1.0] Linux support Checks for ffmpeg

[v1.0.0] Initial release!

I spent alot of time and effort reverse engineering the Steam controller's firmware to find the HID commands needed to do this so i would appreciate the stars very much!

I was also heavily inspired to do this by CrazyCritic89's SteamHapticsSinger. I suggest checking it out if you wish to play MIDI files on the steam controller! (they honestly can sound better than this at times)

If you do happen to make a video with this, please do link back to this github repo so others can try too :steamhappy: