Silksong on Linux controller fix

Background

On the native Linux version of Silksong, the game acts very strangely once you get abilities using the right or left triggers. This includes, but is not limited to, the 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wireless controller.

The game is normal on startup before right trigger has ever been pressed. Once it has been pressed, it seems to activate on a soft pull and not deactivate, or briefly deactivate then reactivate unpredictably. When Hornet climbs up a ledge, Swift Steps will be reactivated even if it is off and the button is not pressed in.

The same issue affected Hollow Knight, with the Crystal Dash ability. However, this could be worked around by setting the SDL_DYNAMIC_API environment variable in the launch options in Steam. For example:

SDL_DYNAMIC_API=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libSDL2-2.0.so.0 %command%

The same does not work in Silksong, however. Occurrences of SDL_DYNAMIC_API are present in UnityPlayer.so in Hollow Knight, but not in Silksong. Running Hollow Knight with LD_DEBUG on with no launch options results in no mention of SDL, indicating a statically linked version was used. With the launch option, it shows that the library provided is loaded. For Silksong, no system SDL is loaded, whether or not an SDL_DYNAMIC_API or SDL3_DYNAMIC_API environment variable is set.

Fix

Requirements:

• SDL3
• gcc, or another C compiler

1. Disable NativeInput in Silksong:

In the file ~/.config/unity3d/Team\ Cherry/Hollow\ Knight\ Silksong/AppConfig.ini, change NativeInput=1 to NativeInput=0.

2. Get SDL3 game controller config and modify it to be compatible with Silksong

For controllers with known configs

Check the known configs page to see if a config for your controller has already been recorded. If so and the config works, you can skip the compilation process and proceed to step 3.

For other models

C code is provided that simplifies this as much as possible.

• Acquire the code provided in this repository, either by cloning or by downloading get_controller_config.c directly
• cd into the folder in which you downloaded the C source file.
• Compile the C source:

cc -o get-controller-config get_controller_config.c -lSDL3

• Ensure the controller you want to use with Silksong is connected to you computer and not idle
• Run the program

./get-controller-config

This produces an output like the following:

3. Apply the configuration

If you are using Steam, you can copy the provided launch options string into the Steam launch options. If you are running Silksong directly, you will need to set the environment variable for whatever command you are using to start it.

4. Share your configuration (optional)

If your controller was not already in the known configs list and you got a configuration that worked from running the program provided, feel free to share it and I will add it to the known configs list!

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to kakonema for finding the fix. C code implementing this provided by me.