Dualshock 4 Controller only works in Steam games

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Hi all,

I recently got myself a PS4 controller and used steam to configure it, which works fine. However, once I enable the "PS4 Configuration Support" - checkbox, Steam and Steam games are the only applications to recognize the controller's inputs, non - Steam games (even when manually added to the Steam library) or even the windows control panel don't even detect that it is connected.
Changing the Desktop configuration doesn't seem to change anything as well. I also tried using several versions of DS4Windows and InputMapper, all of which either conflicted with Steam's DS4 support in some way or did not work at all.
I found a temporary solution by disabling PS4 Configuration Support in general and manually enabling it in each game's individual controller options, but that way I cannot configure the controller's light, which causes the battery to drain a lot faster when using it wirelessly.
So I'm wondering, is there any way I can use Steam's configuration features without being unable to use the controller anywhere else?

[Hatman]

I use DS4Windows and (when properly configured) it works like a charm for any game.
Anytime i wanna use the Pad i click the DS4Windows shortcut, press the PS Button to connect and it just works, with custom profiles per game, etc. When done playing i quit DS4Windows from the tray, wich also turns off the controller. Couldn't be better.
Steams inbuilt support is unreliable at best.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Hi, thanks for replying!
Are you using exclusive mode then?
When I tried DS4Windows it worked fine with exclusive mode activated, but activating it failed whenever Steam was running or even the NVIDIA Geforce Experience - "share" feature was turned on (both of which is pretty much always the case on my pc), while without exclusive mode no inputs were detected by any other program at all

correction: "exclusive mode" is how it was called by InputMapper (I think), in DS4Windows the option I am referring to is named "Hide DS4 Controller".

[Hatman]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Fish:

Hi, thanks for replying!
Are you using exclusive mode then?
When I tried DS4Windows it worked fine with exclusive mode activated, but activating it failed whenever Steam was running or even the NVIDIA Geforce Experience - "share" feature was turned on (both of which is pretty much always the case on my pc), while without exclusive mode no inputs were detected by any other program at all

correction: "exclusive mode" is how it was called by InputMapper (I think), in DS4Windows the option I am referring to is named "Hide DS4 Controller".

Yes thats pretty much what i meant. Hide DS4 helps a lot for those iffy games that freak out when theres more than one Controller/joystick connected.

Also i use a standard ASUS BT400 Bluetooth dongle if that helps.
Also the PS4 integration in steam should be disabled.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

I gave DS4Windows another shot yesterday and realized that the reason why no inputs were detected was an apparently corrupted custom profile file that I had imported from another DS4Windows branch.
Once I had reconfigured it, I got everything to work just the way I wanted, even without the "Hide DS4 Controller" option. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction!

[FireRat]

I know this is an old thread so I am sorry to bump it but it is in the Top Results on google when searching this issue and I have found that despite what is stated here

Adding GTAV To your Steam Library Does work to get the Dual Shock 4 working with it.
Before I added GTAV to the steam library it did not recognize the controller but afterwards I was able to use it with no problems and it is working better then DS4WIndows

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Good to know, it definitely didn't work for me back when I was dealing with this problem. It might also have been the games I was trying to get it to work with, who knows.
I've been using DS4Windows pretty much exclusively ever since I've gotten it to work though, and I'm really happy with it. You can even configure the controller LED to indicate the remaining battery charge, whereas steam didn't even have the possibility to find out the battery level at all when I last checked.

[FireRat]

DS4Windows is no longer being developed right?
It has become InputMapper as far as I could see and I didn't get Input Mapper to work nicely with also using the controller without it but I do like the features they offer of being able to use the touchpad on the PS4 and see battery percentage which I believe steam does not do but it works perfectly emulating the 360 gamepad to support additional games which is all I really need

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

Początkowo opublikowane przez FireRat:

DS4Windows is no longer being developed right?
It has become InputMapper as far as I could see and I didn't get Input Mapper to work nicely with also using the controller without it but I do like the features they offer of being able to use the touchpad on the PS4 and see battery percentage which I believe steam does not do but it works perfectly emulating the 360 gamepad to support additional games which is all I really need

It's been forked and is now being maintained by another developer.

[Fred]

Old topic but i don't care. Thanks explaining that steam's DS4 support blocks windows from finding the controller! Disabled it and restarted the controller, it's now usable in non-steam games.

[HylianWalrus]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Fred:

Old topic but i don't care. Thanks explaining that steam's DS4 support blocks windows from finding the controller! Disabled it and restarted the controller, it's now usable in non-steam games.

How did you disable it? I turn off "Playstation Configuration Support" but still have no luck.

[Zefar]

Początkowo opublikowane przez HylianWalrus:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Fred:

Old topic but i don't care. Thanks explaining that steam's DS4 support blocks windows from finding the controller! Disabled it and restarted the controller, it's now usable in non-steam games.

How did you disable it? I turn off "Playstation Configuration Support" but still have no luck.

All you need to do is quit Steam. If Steam is running it'll take control of the PS4 gamepad..