Controller Layouts

Preset gamepad layouts that a player picks per profile, with a full controller diagram that shows what every button does. Presets ship first. Per-action remapping comes later, on top of the chosen preset, so the save data and the input split are designed for it now.

Board card: SL-51. Branch: sl51-controller-layouts.

#Why

Playtest feedback (2026-10-23): Clayton wanted Crouch and Dash swapped. The default layout stays as it is, so this becomes a second preset rather than a change to the default.

#Decisions

Question	Decision
Presets or remapping?	Presets now, remapping later. The save data leaves room for per-action overrides.
Which presets?	Default (today's layout) and Clayton (Crouch and Dash swapped). No Southpaw, Bumper Jumper etc. yet.
Saved where?	Per profile, next to sensitivity and invert. Split-screen players can each use a different layout.
UI	A Controller Layout entry in the per-player Settings screen opens its own screen: the controller diagram fills it, with the layout rotator underneath.
Diagram art	XboxController outline, supplied by Beepers: one front view with LT/RT and LB/RB drawn above it, and a callout line per button. Action names sit at the callout ends. (An earlier front-and-back vertical version was dropped because the back view confused things.)
Keyboard and mouse	Unchanged. Layouts are gamepad-only.

#The layouts

Button	Default	Clayton
A	Jump	Jump
B	Dash	Crouch
X	Grenade	Grenade
Y	Tap: Cycle Weapon · Hold: Interact (pick up)	same
LB	Sidearm	Sidearm
RB	— (free since 2026-10-26)	—
LT	ADS	ADS
RT	Fire	Fire
L3	Crouch	Dash
R3	Melee	Melee
D-pad Down	Toggle View	Toggle View
Menu	Pause	Pause
Left / Right stick	Move / Look	Move / Look

Hold Y to pick up (2026-10-26, Halo-style). IA_SL_Interact carries a 0.3 s one-shot Hold trigger on the action itself. Y → IA_SL_CycleWeapon has a Tap trigger with the same 0.3 s cutoff, so a press is either a tap or a hold, never both, and the switch happens on release. Cycle Weapon is bound on Triggered (not Started) for the same reason, so its keyboard mapping (middle mouse) carries a Pressed trigger to fire once per click. The pickup prompt (WBP_SL_PickupPrompt) reads "Hold [glyph] to equip" with a CommonActionWidget on IA_SL_Interact, so its icon follows the device and the layout.

Read from IMC_Default on 2026-10-24. If that file changes before this lands, re-read it rather than trusting this table.

#Plan

1. Split the input. Move the gamepad mappings out of IMC_Default into one Input Mapping Context per layout:

IMC_SL_Pad_Default and IMC_SL_Pad_Clayton. Keyboard and mouse stay in their own context. Switching layout then swaps exactly one context. Layering an override context over the default would leave B bound to both Dash and Crouch.

1. A layout data asset (USLControllerLayout): an ID, a display name, the mapping context, and a short

description. The diagram reads its labels from the mapping context itself, so the picture cannot disagree with what the buttons do.

1. Profile save. Store the layout by ID (USLPlayerProfileSaveGame::ControllerLayout). An unknown or empty ID

falls back to the first layout in ASLPlayerController::ControllerLayouts. Remapping will add a per-action override list next to it, applied on top of the preset. It isn't added until then, so there is no unused field.

1. Apply. The player controller applies the layout when a profile loads and when the setting changes, including

mid-match. Each local player applies their own, through their own Enhanced Input subsystem.

1. Prompts. HUD hints and button glyphs (for example the pickup prompt) must show the active layout's button.

First check how they resolve a button today.

1. Controller Layout screen. The XboxController outline, a text label at each callout end, and the layout

rotator underneath. Changing the rotator updates the labels live, and labels that differ from Default are highlighted. Bumpers and triggers are on the back view, which is mirrored, so the left shoulder is on the right of that view.

#As built

• Input: IMC_Default is keyboard and mouse only. Gamepad bindings live in IMC_SL_Pad_Default and

IMC_SL_Pad_Clayton, referenced by DA_SL_Layout_Default and DA_SL_Layout_Clayton (USLControllerLayout). BP_SL_PlayerController.ControllerLayouts lists them, Default first.

• Labels: each Input Action's Description is its diagram label (Jump, Switch Weapon, Aim…). Empty falls back

to the asset name without IA_SL_.

• Screen: WBP_SL_ControllerLayout (USLControllerLayoutWidget). The XboxController outline (1448×1086,

one front view with the triggers and bumpers drawn above it) sits in a 1399×660 canvas, drawn at 0.6 scale and 265px in from the left so the labels have room on both sides. The Share line has no callout: Unreal has no key for it. Each callout is a WBP_SL_ControllerCallout (USLControllerCallout) placed at its line end, with Keys set to the buttons it describes. The screen fills every callout it finds, so moving or adding one is designer-only.

• Entry, main menu: a Controller Layout button row named ControllerLayoutRow in WBP_Settings_Box, after

Controller Rumble. USLProfileEditWidget finds it in its SettingsBox, pushes ControllerLayoutScreenClass when it is pressed, and shows it in edit mode only: covering create mode would discard the draft profile.

• Entry, in game: the same row at the bottom of WBP_SL_Settings (Pause → Settings), wired in its graph.

• It isn't on Options, which holds machine-wide settings only.

#Verify in PIE

• Pick Clayton: B crouches, L3 dashes, everything else is unchanged.

• The diagram labels change with the rotator, and the changed buttons are highlighted.

• The choice survives a restart (saved in the profile).

• Split-screen: player 1 on Default and player 2 on Clayton, each getting their own buttons.

• Menus are unaffected: B still backs out of a menu on both layouts.

#Assets

• Content/SystemLink/UI/Styles/Textures/XboxController — the diagram outline, 1672×941, UI group, no mips.

• SourceArt/UI/ControllerLayouts/ — the source image and the prompt it was made from.