In order to change the light bar color, you will need to turn on Configuration Support for the controller.

Go to the settings cogwheel in Big Picture Mode, then Controller Settings. Select the checkmark where you see Playstation Configuration Support.




Reconnect your controller and you should see it below, hover over it to see its settings.

By default, the light bar on a connected controller will glow a solid white, whether or not Steam is running.

For each controller you want to change per Steam User, go to your Controller Settings in Big Picture Mode.


In Controller Settings, look for "Preferences".


You can:

• name the controller,
  
• set Rumble Preference,
  
• and change the User's light settings.

Whenever you specify the Light Color on a controller to the User's, it will change to THIS value. This light setting is unique to the Steam user who connected the controller.



There's a rainbow of possibilities for the light bar:

The Brightness value changes how bright the light is. It can be adjusted only in this menu.

The closer to 0, the more it will look like the light bar is turned off.

The Saturation value changes how much color is present in the light.

The closer to 0, the more white the light will look, useful for changing to a lighter color.

To turn off your controller's Light Bar, adjust the Brightness setting all the way to the left.

You can change how the light bar on controllers behave based on:

• if Steam is minimized,
  
• if in Big Picture Mode,
  
• if in a game, or
  
• if using a Steam Chord.

This is an example of the Light Bar changing when using a Steam Chord binding.

The default controller configurations in games do not use the light bar, so you will have to go to the Controller Configuration and apply an appropriate config per game.

Find your game in Big Picture Mode, then after you choose your game, choose Manage Game, then Controller Configuration under Steam Input.


In order to access this option, you MUST enable Playstation Controller Support in the Controller Settings.

This section shows how to adjust the color of the lightbar to one color setting while you play a game.

Let's assume you have a simple Gamepad configuration for your game.

Look for the Always On Activator in the Configuratior.





Follow the arrow.





Then, find the lightbulb icon and click that. This is your Light Options.





Follow the arrow. See the lightbulb?





This pop-up will appear:

See the sun in the top-right? That's a preview of the color that will appear on your controller.

Here, you can choose your Light Setting:

• Default User Setting
  
• Default Xinput Slot Number Setting
  
• Custom Setting

The Default User Setting corresponds to the color set up earlier in this guide, in the Controller Settings. It's unique to the Steam user who connected the controller.

The Default Xinput Setting is a setting to change the light corresponding to which Player Number you are: 1, 2, 3 or 4. This is useful for multiple controllers connected to the same computer. (Maybe more than 4 controllers if Steam updates with more controller support!)

If you choose Custom Setting, you can adjust the color and saturation you want, independent of the other two settings. This is useful when using this option in other Action Sets.

Click OK, then back out to the Controller Configurator. Now that you made a change to your configuration, export it using the Export button at the bottom. Then, go into your game to use this configuration with your Light Options set.

As a helpful tip, create a template. That way, you don't have to go into the menus for every game you want to adjust your Light Settings. Just Import the template, then Apply.

Let's say you have the following configuration: one action set is All-Gamepad bindings, another action set does absolutely nothing; it disables the controller.
Um... how do you know which set you're in?

Press buttons randomly?? See something happen on screen???






Let the Lightbar tell you what action set you're in!

First, we need to connect the Action Sets. Such that, clicking the DS4's trackpad will disable/re-enable the controller.

We want to assign the Trackpad Click to change to the Nothing Action Set.

Now that we made a way to disable the controller, repeat these steps inside the Nothing Action Set, but when you Select Action Set, make sure it's set back to the original Default.

Remember how we used the Always On binding? We're gonna do that for each Action Set.

One way is to have the User's Setting while in the Default Action Set, and we can make an opposite color (or lower the saturation) in the Nothing Action Set. My User is Green, and I set a Custom color Yellow.

Now, when you go into game, here's what will happen:

• The controller will function normally, like an Xbox controller. We know because the light glows the same color is normal.
  
• Click the trackpad, the light will change to our set custom color, and the controller cannot do anything it originally could.
  
• Click it again, the light changes back, and the controls return.

The main idea in this guide is assigning a color to the lightbar while in an Action Set. By switching Action Sets, you can change the color of your lightbar, and those colors can mean something.

It doesn't have to be an empty Action Set; it could be an Action Layer! You could:

• have one action set with gamepad bindings and another with only keyboard bindings, use the light to tell you which controls are working.
  
• have the light tell you if you have a turbo turned on.
  
• have Gyro enabled by default and completely disabled in an Action Layer; the light tells you if Gyro is on.
  
• have an action set for menu navigation apart from the default gameplay bindings; the light tells you which one you're in.
  
• substitute this for the Steam Overlay notification about Action Sets, for those non-Steam games that don't work with the overlay. The light tells you which Action Set you're in!