Steam Deck automatically hides mouse cursor - how to 100% disable this?

Hey there.

I’m developing a game for PC/Steam Deck - and I’m having an issue with the auto-hide cursor functionality.

The problem is that, when the mouse cursor is hidden, there’s a significant and obvious performance stutter - for whatever reason.

Now, I don’t mind the cursor hiding - but since I can easily control that using Unity - I really don’t need anything on the Deck doing this.

Also, I find the performance impact completely unacceptable.

So, is there a solution for this?

Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

It seems unlikely that the stutter is actually from the cursor being hidden.

Maybe, but go prove it by attaching the profiler.

Is the steamdeck OS keeping the cursor hidden even when you re-show it??

Otherwise, it is more likely just some initial thing loading, or else you’re throwing a ton of exceptions and the logs being printed out are slowing things down. Did you check the logs?

Again, start with the profiler to figure out what’s going on.

Thank you for taking the time :slight_smile:

There’s no actual question that this is happening in relation to the auto-hide functionality. It’s most likely a Valve-specific feature intended to provide a less intrusive console-like experience.

It doesn’t happen in “Gamepad” control mode - only in Mouse/KB mode.

It’s very obviously caused by the Deck and whatever is happening behind-the-scenes when it’s auto-hiding the cursor when using touchpad for mouse input.

There’s no degradation of any kind elsewhere, either on PC or on the Deck when the cursor is on the screen. Beyond that, it’s an issue several people have asked about around the net - but there seems to be no real answer that I can find.

Some suggest it has to do with Gamescope - which is apparently a Valve thing.

The only alternative is to run it on Steam Deck in full gamepad mode, but I think that’s unfortunate because the touchpad input is much better for the user experience.

Anyway, this question is probably mostly suited for answering by people who own a Steam Deck and have experience developing for it.

UPDATE

I don’t know if it was the latest Steam Deck or Unity Update - but it seems that auto-hiding is now disabled when using touchpad input.

It’s been a few weeks since I last built a Linux version of the game, so I guess something has changed :slight_smile:

Sorry for the bother - and please disregard this question.