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Trigger Deadzones

Set a floor, a ceiling, an anti-deadzone, and a sensitivity curve for every trigger.

Trigger deadzone settings with range slider and sensitivity curve

Triggers go from 0% released to 100% pressed in one direction. The Triggers tab carves out which part of the physical pull counts and reshapes the response on top.

Floor and ceiling

Each trigger has a range slider with two handles. The two handles set the active physical range.

Floor (left handle)

Any physical value below the floor counts as 0% output.

  • Fixes trigger drift. A worn trigger can report a small non-zero value at rest, and a floor of 5–10% ignores that.
  • Example. Floor at 8%, trigger reports 3% at rest. PadForge treats anything below 8% as zero.

Ceiling (right handle)

The trigger only needs to reach the ceiling to register as 100% output.

  • Fixes triggers that cannot reach full travel.
  • Also gives you a hair-trigger effect.
  • Example. Ceiling at 60%. The moment the trigger reaches 60% travel, the game sees 100%. The last 40% is ignored.

Rescaling

Output is linearly rescaled between the floor and ceiling. You always get the full 0–100% virtual range across the physical range you picked.

Example with floor 8% and ceiling 60%:

Physical Virtual
Below 8% 0% (deadzone)
8% 0%
34% 50%
60% 100%
Above 60% 100% (clamped)

Anti-deadzone

The Anti-Deadzone slider (0–100%) cancels out in-game deadzones that stack on top of PadForge's floor.

What it solves

Many games apply their own internal deadzone. PadForge rescales output to start at 0% at the floor edge, but if the game also has a 10% deadzone the trigger has to travel past both before anything happens.

What it does

Anti-deadzone adds an instant jump the moment the trigger crosses the floor. Output starts at the anti-deadzone value instead of 0%, then climbs to 100%.

Example. Anti-deadzone at 15%. The moment the trigger crosses the floor, output jumps to 15% and the game's internal deadzone is already covered.

Picking a value

Value Effect
0% (default) No jump. Output climbs from 0%. Use when the game has no internal deadzone.
5–15% Covers a typical in-game deadzone. Good starting point.
20–30% Stronger compensation for sluggish triggers.
50%+ Near-digital feel (on or off) at light press.

Sensitivity curve

Trigger sensitivity preset dropdown

Each trigger has its own Sensitivity Curve. It runs after the floor and ceiling, before the anti-deadzone. The horizontal axis is the raw physical pull across the full 0–100% range. The floor shows as a flat stretch at zero on the left, and the ceiling shows as the clamp at the top on the right. The vertical axis is the value the curve produces. With Anti-Deadzone at 0 (the default), that is the final value sent to the game. Set Anti-Deadzone above 0 and the jump is added after the curve, so the chart shows the curve shape and not the final output.

Presets

Preset Behavior Best for
Linear 1:1 input to output. Straight diagonal. General use (default).
Smooth Precision at light press, flattened at the bottom. Fine low-end control with full output at full press.
Aggressive Amplifies small inputs. Steep early rise. Quick response to light presses. Faster fire threshold.
Instant Near-digital. Almost a step function. Triggers used as binary buttons.
S-Curve Flat at both ends, steep through the middle. Eases in, ramps fast, then softens near full press. Driving. Fine control at light and hard press, quick ramp in between.
Delay Flat at the bottom, steep later. Larger dead area before the trigger kicks in.
Custom Appears once you edit any control point. When no preset fits.

Interactive editor

The curve chart runs full width below the sensitivity controls.

Action Result
Double-click the chart Add a control point (no limit on how many)
Drag a point Reshape the curve
Right-click a point Remove it. The two endpoints stay put. Only points you add in between can be removed.

A live indicator dot tracks the trigger's current position on the curve.

Editing any point switches the preset to Custom. The reset button restores Linear.

Live instrument

Under each trigger sits a two-stage instrument that shows what the trigger is doing right now.

  • RAW bar and readout. The raw physical pull, before any processing.
  • OUT bar and readout. The final value sent to the game, after floor, ceiling, curve, and anti-deadzone.

Both readouts show the axis unit and percentage, like 32768 (50.0%). Compare them to see how much your settings reshape the pull.

RAW and OUT bars with the travel arc gauge

Beside the bars, a quarter-arc travel gauge draws the same reading as a dial. A thin needle marks the raw pull. A warm sweep fills from rest to the processed output. Small tick stops mark where the floor and ceiling clamp the range.

Press and release the trigger to watch both stages move together.

Setting values

Every slider has 0.1% precision. Each row has two input fields:

Field What it accepts
Percentage Human-friendly value (12.5 for 12.5%).
Digit Raw 16-bit axis unit (0–65535). 0 is 0%, 32768 is 50%, 65535 is 100%.

Sliders apply as you drag. A typed value in either field applies once you leave the field, by tabbing away or clicking elsewhere.

Reset buttons

Every row has a reset button (circular arrow icon) that restores the default. Reset All at the top of each trigger section resets everything for that trigger in one click.

Starting points only. Test in-game and adjust.

Racing. Gradual throttle and brake

Fine analog control across the full range.

Setting Left trigger (brake) Right trigger (throttle)
Floor 0–5% 0–5%
Ceiling 100% 100%
Anti-Deadzone 0–5% 0–5%
Sensitivity Curve S-Curve or Smooth S-Curve or Smooth

Full physical range plus a curve that adds precision at partial press.

Shooters. Hair trigger to fire

The fire trigger must reach full output as fast as possible.

Setting Left trigger (aim) Right trigger (fire)
Floor 0–5% 0%
Ceiling 80–100% 40–60%
Anti-Deadzone 10–15% 15–25%
Sensitivity Curve Linear or Smooth Aggressive or Instant

A low fire ceiling means you only press halfway. Aggressive sensitivity makes light presses send high values. Keep the aim trigger range wider for control.

Platformers and action games

Triggers used as binary buttons (jump, dash, ability). Snappy feel.

Setting Both triggers
Floor 5–10%
Ceiling 70–80%
Anti-Deadzone 10–20%
Sensitivity Curve Aggressive

Flight sims. Smooth analog throttle

Full precision across the full range.

Setting Throttle trigger
Floor 0%
Ceiling 100%
Anti-Deadzone 0%
Sensitivity Curve Linear

Keep defaults. Physical range maps 1:1 to virtual.

Custom DirectInput triggers

When a slot uses Extended output with the Customize toggle on, the Triggers tab follows the Triggers field:

Triggers Display
0 Triggers tab is empty
1 Trigger 1 only
2 Trigger 1 and 2 (same as Xbox or PlayStation)
3–8 Each extra trigger gets its own row. Each uses 1 of the 8 axes shared with sticks.

Every trigger gets its own range slider, anti-deadzone, sensitivity curve, and live instrument.

Stick-assisted analog trigger

Some pads have no analog triggers. This turns a button into a variable trigger you steer with a stick, for feathered throttle and brake. The controls live on the Button and Axis Mappings tab, not this one, but the result is an analog trigger.

Set it up on a trigger output:

  1. Map a digital input (a button) to the trigger.
  2. Add a stick axis to the same row as a second source. Keep it last in the source list. The last source is the trim stick.
  3. Set the row's Combine mode to Stick Trim.

The button holds the trigger. The stick sets how far it goes. The level starts at 100%, so holding the button alone gives a full trigger. Ease the stick down to lower the trigger, push it back up to raise it. Let go of the button and the trigger drops to 0%.

Three settings appear once Stick Trim is picked:

Setting What it does
Trim Deadzone Stick deflection below this percentage leaves the level alone, so steering with the same stick never nudges the trigger. Default 25%.
Trim Speed How fast a fully pushed stick slides the level, in percent of trigger range per second. 100 sweeps empty to full in one second. Default 100.
Reset on Release Checked (default): releasing the button snaps the level back to 100%, so the next press starts full. Unchecked: the level stays where you left it between presses, until you move the stick again.

Stick Trim shows only on trigger outputs.

Last updated for PadForge 4.1.0.