TestDock

Controller deadzone test

Let go of the sticks and measure their resting position for three seconds. The page suggests the smallest radial deadzone that hides it and shows, live, what a game would receive with the deadzone you choose. Use the value in game or Steam Input settings; the controller itself is not changed.

No controller detected yet. Connect one and press any button.

  1. Connect the controller and press any button so the browser can see it.
  2. Circularity: rotate each stick slowly along its outer edge, several full turns, pressing against the edge.
  3. Deadzone: let go of the sticks and press Measure resting position, or move the slider yourself.
Left stick
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Right stick
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Blue dot: raw stick position. Green ring: what a game would receive with this radial deadzone (0 inside the red area, then rescaled so the edge still reaches 1). Use it to choose a value for game or Steam Input settings; the controller itself is not changed.

How to find your deadzone

  1. Connect the controller and press any button so the browser can see it. If several are connected, choose one under Controller.
  2. Flick both sticks and let them spring back, then put the controller down without touching the sticks.
  3. Press Measure resting position (3 s). The page suggests a value for each stick and sets the Deadzone slider to the larger one.
  4. Repeat a few times, also after rotating the sticks in full circles, and keep the highest suggestion.
  5. Move the slider (0.00 to 0.40) and push a stick gently to feel where movement would start in a game.

Reading the display

  • Blue dot: the raw stick position.
  • Red area: the deadzone. While the stick is inside it, the text shows inside the deadzone (output 0).
  • Green ring: what a game would receive. Outside the deadzone the distance is rescaled as (r − deadzone) / (1 − deadzone), so the edge still reaches 1 and you keep full range.
  • Suggested value: the largest distance from centre seen during the 3 seconds, plus 0.01, rounded up to two decimals. It is the smallest radial deadzone that would have hidden every resting sample in that run.

Using the value in games

  • Settings are written in different ways: if a game uses percent, 0.10 corresponds to 10%. Some games use a square (axial) deadzone or their own curve, so treat the value as a starting point and check in game.
  • Steam Input and many games let you set a deadzone per stick. A larger deadzone hides more drift but makes small, precise movements near the centre harder.
  • If the suggestion keeps rising from one session to the next, the stick may be drifting more over time. Record it with the stick drift test.

Limits

This is a recommendation for software settings. A website cannot write calibration or deadzone values into the controller. Three seconds can miss drift that comes and goes, and some drivers already apply a deadzone that hides small offsets. The page models an inner radial deadzone for the sticks only, not trigger or outer deadzones. It reads the first four axes as the sticks; check non-standard controllers in the gamepad tester first. To see whether each stick reaches the edge in every direction, use the controller circularity test.

Questions

What deadzone should I use?

The smallest value that hides your sticks at rest across several measurements. There is no universal figure: it depends on the controller, its wear and the game.

Does a deadzone fix stick drift?

It hides drift in games by ignoring small movements near the centre. The stick itself is unchanged, and drift that grows will eventually exceed the deadzone again.

How is this different from the stick drift test?

The stick drift test records resting values in detail, including offset and scatter. The deadzone test turns them into a setting and lets you see what a game would receive with it.

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