No Vibration with DualSense Controller

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

As the title says, I'm not getting any rumble feedback from anything in this game with my Dualsense controller.

I have it plugged in through USB, I disabled Steam Input in the game's controller settings, the speaker is enabled in Windows sound settings, and the controller's Firmware is up to date. I have also made sure that xInput is the selected controller in-game, rather than "Dualsense Wireless Controller".

Still, it won't show signs of any vibration in this game even though the adaptive triggers and haptics work just fine on other games.


The only way I've got rumble working is by enabling Steam Input and making sure PS5 controller support is enabled in the Steam Settings controller sections. But this has it shown as an Xbox 360 controller with all Xbox button UI elements, rather than PS buttons. Can't confirm or deny if adaptive triggers work, but I'm not holding my breath that they do.


Anyone have any luck getting this working as it should?

[DyruKS]

I was just looking for someone having the same issue, seems like the latest update messed up with the dualsense support, im no longer having that haptic feedback when using materia, no controller vibration of any kind, and no adaptive triggers in the motorcycle section. I thought it was my controller but in any other game with dualsense support it works just fine

[Lys]

How is it possible to destroy the game with a small update ? It's unplayable without vibration, I feel like I'm playing a paper game.

[00]

Using wireless dualsense and I got vibration during the first fight

[Kao]

Originally posted by 00:

Using wireless dualsense and I got vibration during the first fight

With Steam imputs on?

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

Originally posted by DyruKS:

I was just looking for someone having the same issue, seems like the latest update messed up with the dualsense support, im no longer having that haptic feedback when using materia, no controller vibration of any kind, and no adaptive triggers in the motorcycle section. I thought it was my controller but in any other game with dualsense support it works just fine

I just bought this game yesterday, so it's nice to hear that it was at least working before the update. I'm hoping we see a fix, but looking back on the frequency of updates is a little discouraging.

It is a little strange that you mention no adaptive triggers in the motorcycle section, because they work definitely working for me during that scene.

I know there's a way to download an older version of anything on steam using the steam console, so I'm gonna be looking into that to hopefully fix this.

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

Originally posted by Kao:

Originally posted by 00:

Using wireless dualsense and I got vibration during the first fight

With Steam imputs on?

So, with DS5 connected over Bluetooth (I have the PS Accessories app to make sure it's being seen as a DS5), I got vibration, no word on adaptive triggers.

The only thing I changed from my settings listed in the original post is connecting via Bluetooth instead of USB. So Steam Input disabled.

I will say though, the vibration with the controller connected wirelessly here isn't the same as I get in this game on PS5. It should feel more like haptic feedback rather than DS3 rumble motors.
For example, a basic 3 attack combo (with the Buster Sword) should have a single light vibration for each of the first two attacks, and then the third attack is a heavier vibration with feedback happening on both when you connect with the enemy and when the sword hits the ground.

[NYGiantsYankees]

Havent tried a sony one because its always dead but my xbox elite controller works perfect in every single game

[Polok]

Same here. Was making sure I wasn't crazy. Dual Sense wired is working in other games. Enabled in sound on Windows. Disabled Steam Input. No vibration. At least I know it isn't just me.

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

Ok, so I downgraded the game and got haptics working again. It's ridiculous this is the way it has to be done, but here it is.



If you've downgraded games on steam before, just go check the depot manifests for FF7Remake (AppID 1462040) on steamdb.
If what I just said was an alien language to you, don't worry. Just follow the guide below. I'll also answer any questions best I can.



As a precaution, always make a copy of your save files. They're located in Documents\myGames\FF7Remake (or whatever the game folder is called). Your save files should work just fine with the downgrade, mine did. But better safe than sorry.

If you only have one drive, make sure you have ~100GB free. If you have multiple drives, make sure your C drive has ~100GB free.

Hit WindowsKey+R on your keyboard, type or paste steam://open/console
Hit OK, this will open the steam console window in Steam

In the console, you'll want to enter the following download_depot commands one at a time.

This first one will take a while, so just let it sit there. It's downloading ~95GB. You'll see a confirmation like "Depot download complete :...." when it's done. You can open your file browser to "This PC" and refresh it periodically if you want to make sure it's still downloading something.

Main Game:
download_depot 1462040 1462041 8857088838923627526

DLC: (I can't say which is which, but I tried downloading both. One worked, one said I didn't have access to it, no worries.)
download_depot 1462040 1462043 1175626494867215330
download_depot 1462040 1462042 3912830411286112205

Once all of these are downloaded, go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\content. We're going to be grabbing and joining files from here

Inside content, you should see a folder like \app_1462040
In that folder, you'll see folders like \depot_146204X depending on which ones you could download
If you only have one depot folder, go on to the next paragraph.
If you have multiple, take note of which folder has ff7remake.exe, put any contents from the other depot folders into this folder (I could only download depot 1462043, so I just had a file called "depot.txt" to move)

Once you have all your files in one depot folder, I recommend making a backup of these files in case steam forces an update (we'll get to preventing that in a second). As these are the Pre-Dec13th files for the game, before haptics were broken for DS5. If you store your backup on the same drive that your game install is on (assuming it's an ssd), your copies and moves will be much faster than across drives.
Once you've made your backup, open your Steam Library, right click on FF7 Remake and hit Properties, then go to Updates.
Set updates to "Wait until I launch the game", and background downloads to "Never allow background downloads". This should prevent the game from ever updating. I've had steam try and update anyways though which is why I recommend having a backup.

Now, open up the folder where you have the game installed at (right click on the game in your steam library, properties, installed files, browse). I personally made a backup of the current update files just in case things went wrong, but don't feel the need to do that since you can just install it from steam again in case.
Point is, we need to either delete everything or cut it to a backup location so that this folder is empty. Once you've done that, copy over all the files from your combined depot folder (or from the depot backup folder you made) into this folder.
Make sure you're not just putting the depot folder in the game folder. We want the contents of our depot folder (ff7remake.exe and everything else) directly into the game folder, which will be something like:
{YourGameDrive}:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE\

Go ahead and verify that you've set updates to "Wait until I launch the game", and background downloads to "Never allow background downloads" in the game's properties.


Go ahead and launch the game, you should be able to continue from your save and have haptics now on DS5!

[Lys]

Seriously, why do all this ? It's Monday, don't the guys want to release an update to correct the vibration ? Like on gacha games, they correct errors as soon as they're detected. We're not going to wait 10 years. Has anyone contacted them at least about the dualsense ? Maybe they don't know. A little bug like that should be fixed within a day.

[Kaldaien]

Valve broke it with their proprietary input API, everything still works on Epic.

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

Originally posted by Lys:

Seriously, why do all this ? It's Monday, don't the guys want to release an update to correct the vibration ? Like on gacha games, they correct errors as soon as they're detected. We're not going to wait 10 years. Has anyone contacted them at least about the dualsense ? Maybe they don't know. A little bug like that should be fixed within a day.

I've sent a support request out to Square, but I'm not holding my breath on a quick fix. You said it yourself, "like on gacha games". This isn't bringing in the money of a gacha game, or even the money of ff14 online. And not to mention 7 Rebirth coming out on PC next month.

Maybe if this game were getting more frequent updates I'd hold out. But it's had 4 updates since its launch in 2021. Compare that to the 9 that ff14 online has had just this year or the countless updates in other live service games.

Square only has so many resources to work on various projects, so its easy for me to imagine that fixing the vibration for one specific controller for a game that's a port of a 2020 release isn't the highest on their totem pole.

And honestly, "all this" isn't really that much. If you've modded games manually before, it'll be a breeze. The longest part is downloading and moving files around. I'm just extremely verbose, so it looks daunting.

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

Originally posted by Carlos Spicyweiner:

Ok, so I downgraded the game and got haptics working again. It's ridiculous this is the way it has to be done, but here it is.



If you've downgraded games on steam before, just go check the depot manifests for FF7Remake (AppID 1462040) on steamdb.
If what I just said was an alien language to you, don't worry. Just follow the guide below. I'll also answer any questions best I can.



As a precaution, always make a copy of your save files. They're located in Documents\myGames\FF7Remake (or whatever the game folder is called). Your save files should work just fine with the downgrade, mine did. But better safe than sorry.

If you only have one drive, make sure you have ~100GB free. If you have multiple drives, make sure your C drive has ~100GB free.

Hit WindowsKey+R on your keyboard, type or paste steam://open/console
Hit OK, this will open the steam console window in Steam

In the console, you'll want to enter the following download_depot commands one at a time.

This first one will take a while, so just let it sit there. It's downloading ~95GB. You'll see a confirmation like "Depot download complete :...." when it's done. You can open your file browser to "This PC" and refresh it periodically if you want to make sure it's still downloading something.

Main Game:
download_depot 1462040 1462041 8857088838923627526

DLC: (I can't say which is which, but I tried downloading both. One worked, one said I didn't have access to it, no worries.)
download_depot 1462040 1462043 1175626494867215330
download_depot 1462040 1462042 3912830411286112205

Once all of these are downloaded, go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\content. We're going to be grabbing and joining files from here

Inside content, you should see a folder like \app_1462040
In that folder, you'll see folders like \depot_146204X depending on which ones you could download
If you only have one depot folder, go on to the next paragraph.
If you have multiple, take note of which folder has ff7remake.exe, put any contents from the other depot folders into this folder (I could only download depot 1462043, so I just had a file called "depot.txt" to move)

Once you have all your files in one depot folder, I recommend making a backup of these files in case steam forces an update (we'll get to preventing that in a second). As these are the Pre-Dec13th files for the game, before haptics were broken for DS5. If you store your backup on the same drive that your game install is on (assuming it's an ssd), your copies and moves will be much faster than across drives.
Once you've made your backup, open your Steam Library, right click on FF7 Remake and hit Properties, then go to Updates.
Set updates to "Wait until I launch the game", and background downloads to "Never allow background downloads". This should prevent the game from ever updating. I've had steam try and update anyways though which is why I recommend having a backup.

Now, open up the folder where you have the game installed at (right click on the game in your steam library, properties, installed files, browse). I personally made a backup of the current update files just in case things went wrong, but don't feel the need to do that since you can just install it from steam again in case.
Point is, we need to either delete everything or cut it to a backup location so that this folder is empty. Once you've done that, copy over all the files from your combined depot folder (or from the depot backup folder you made) into this folder.
Make sure you're not just putting the depot folder in the game folder. We want the contents of our depot folder (ff7remake.exe and everything else) directly into the game folder, which will be something like:
{YourGameDrive}:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE\

Go ahead and verify that you've set updates to "Wait until I launch the game", and background downloads to "Never allow background downloads" in the game's properties.


Go ahead and launch the game, you should be able to continue from your save and have haptics now on DS5!

Here is a simplified guide. Made w/ chatGPT from my original guide + some tweaks, so if you're ever confused, refer to the quoted guide.

Step 1: Back Up Saves
Before anything, back up your save files:
Documents\myGames\FF7Remake (or equivalent).

Step 2: Free Up Space
Ensure ~100GB of free space on your C drive.

Step 3: Open Steam Console
Press WindowsKey+R, type steam://open/console, and hit OK.
In the Steam Console, run the following commands one by one:
Main Game:
download_depot 1462040 1462041 8857088838923627526

DLC:
download_depot 1462040 1462043 1175626494867215330
download_depot 1462040 1462042 3912830411286112205

(DLC may give an "access denied" error if you don't have it; that's fine.)

Step 4: Locate Downloaded Files
Go to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\content\app_1462040.
Inside, you'll find folders like depot_146204X.
Locate the folder with ff7remake.exe.
Move files from other depot folders into this one if applicable.

Step 5: Backup Files
Backup this depot folder to prevent future updates overwriting it.

Step 6: Prevent Updates
Open Steam Library → Right-click FF7 Remake → Properties → Updates.
Set updates to "Only update when I launch" and disable background downloads.

Step 7: Replace Game Files
Navigate to the game installation folder:
Steam Library → Right-click FF7 Remake → Properties → Installed Files → Browse.
Clear this folder (delete or move its contents).
Copy files from your depot folder (or backup) into this folder.
Ensure the contents (e.g., ff7remake.exe) are directly in:
{YourGameDrive}:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE\

Step 8: Launch the Game
Verify settings to prevent updates (see Step 6). Launch the game, load your save, and enjoy haptics!

[Xilande]

Hey thanks for the tip/reminder that we can 'downgrade' the game to a previous version. Hopefully SE fixes the issue for this game as well as rebirth. Saw that they messed it up on PS5 which doesn't seem good for PC release.

[Palpatine Carney]

Oooh, just bought the game yesterday, i tought this was weird that that game had no vibration or haptic feed.