I need help on connecting a wireless PS5 Controller to Hollow Knight on my Macbook Air

[kamikaze]

I have already followed many different youtube tutorials and they ended up with the same problem. The controller works in the big picture mode and such but it does not work in the game itself. Is there anything I can do?

[Perseus]

You're probably looking for the "📌 Controller/Gamepad is not properly working or detected" part of this guide :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2609671089

If it doesn't help, what kind of youtube tutorials did you follow? Could you give an example?

[kamikaze]

Yea none of them worked. The videos I used were these two:

https://youtu.be/Zq-Tmfyv-Po

https://youtu.be/ltf0Az_Oz9I

This is also not the only game that the controller does not work in. All games I own that have controller compatibility won't actually work with my controller.

[kamikaze]

oh oh i also used the controller on a game thats outside of steam, so I don't believe it is a macbook problem. It's either a steam problem or the game itself

[Perseus]

Does Steam recognize the controller? When you launch a game, do you get a message saying that the controller configuration is ready or something like that?

Do you have some other controller plugged in? If so, have you tried unplugging it?

have you tried playing Steam games when Steam isn't open? You can try with Hollow Knight by following the "📌 Launch the game without Steam" part of the guide i linked above.

Have you tried disabling Steam Overlay?

[kamikaze]

Yea it recognizes the controller cuz it works in the big picture menu but in the actual game it does not work. This is my only controller I have. I'll try the third and fourth thing you said

[kamikaze]

ok neither of those worked either

[tintingaroo]

An Intel or Apple Silicon Mac? From what I've read in the past, Steam's Xbox controller emulation (i.e. Steam Input/PS Config Support enabled and set to a gamepad) doesn't work on Apple Silicon, so good to aim for the game's native support.

Over Bluetooth I believe this should work:
- Quit Steam
- Connect controller
- Run HK without Steam
- HK main menu > Options > Controller > Native Controller Input: OFF > restart game if you had to change that setting

Wired can work with or without Steam for sure, but BT will depend if it matters to the game which mode the controller is operating in (I know it does on Windows but don't have a Mac to experiment with and can't recall how things went for others). Over BT the DS4/5 can be in one of two modes, a "simple report mode" (on Windows is compatible with Direct Input) and an "enhanced report mode". The game on Windows reads the DualSense with Direct Input so wants the controller in simple mode but problem is Steam, since last November, will always switch the BT DualSense to enhanced report mode even if PS Config Support is not enabled (one clue of enhanced mode is whenever the light bar is any different compared to when first connected)

If the game reads the BT DS5 in enhanced mode then it should be fine to play via Steam. Don't know if you'd need Steam Input disabled but won't hinder anything:
- Right-click HK in Steam Library > Properties > Controller > select Disable Steam Input
- Native Controller Input OFF in HK

Try that stuff out and we'll see how accurate my thinking is.