DualShock 4 in Big Picture Mode (Mac)

[L.O.Brow]

I've paired my DS4 wirelessly with Mac (Mavericks) and it shows up in Bluetooth control panel as a Wireless Controller. It works fine with OpenEmu, for instance.

When I try to use it wirelessly in Steam's BPM, though, it's correctly detected (Settings -> Controller shows DS4) but the menus do not react to any button presses. As soon as I plug it in via USB, it navigates the menus fine and plays controller-enabled games like Rogue Legacy wonderfully.

I'm wondering how other people have gotten the DS4 to work wirelessly in Steam, as mentioned at MacTrast:

"Overall, current compatibility is far better over USB at the moment. Steam’s Big Picture mode support both USB and Bluetooth modes flawlessly."

http://www.mactrast.com/2013/10/use-playstation-4-dualshock-4-controller-play-games-mac/

[Fresch]

I've had the same problem and haven't been able to find any solutions.

[Joe Kerr(Disturbed)]

Wait, you can get the DS4 to work with games? What games does it work with? I have to use joystick mapper to make any game playable.
As for your question, I talked to a sony representative a few weeks ago about this and she told me that there is no way to connect to a laptop and game via bluetooth. You need to use the cord.

[L.O.Brow]

I’ve successfully used the DS4 with FEZ and Rogue Legacy in wired mode (on Steam for Mac).

Other Steam games I’ve tried it with either act wonky with the pad (Left 4 Dead 2, Mark of the Ninja, Portal 2, The Stanley Parable, Hotline Miami - all unplayable) or they don’t have any support for it because it wouldn’t make sense (FTL) or they don’t detect the DS4 despite having controller support (XCOM: Enemy Unknown). Bastion seemed promising at first, but in the end it, too, didn’t quite work.

What I've learned is that Steam's "Partial Controller Support" or "Full Controller Support" labels don't (yet?) have any bearing on wether the game supports the DS4 or not - those labels basically talk about support for Xinput game pads (XBOX 360 -style) while the DS4 is a Direct Input controller. My understanding is that Xinput is an older, simpler way to support pads (with a very specific button / stick configuration), originally developed by Microsoft, while Direct Input is newer but more complicated (and more open to different configurations). I'm guessing Sony chose Direct Input for DS4 because of the trackpad.

I'm hoping as PS4 and DS4 become more prevalent there'll be better support for Sony's new game pad in Steam, too. Fez and Rogue Legacy are already great examples of how well it works.

As for that comment you got from a Sony rep, I'm not sure what the exact situation she spoke of was (perhaps Windows?) but the DS4 works perfectly fine as a wireless Bluetooth controller in OpenEMU for Mac. Once again, the devs have simply taken the time to write in support for the pad in wireless mode. It's certainly doable.

[Joe Kerr(Disturbed)]

Oh, well I guess I learned something today. If you have any updates let me know. I love the DS4, but ♥♥♥♥ the support level on steam bro

[nik0la]

I think you need to download a driver of some sort to run the DS controller

[L.O.Brow]

As far as I can tell there are no DS4 drivers or Direct Input to Xinput mappers for Mac.

There's ControllerMate which in theory should work for wired mode, but when I tried the demo version I couldn't get the sticks working through it in Steam. The application itself registered the sticks correctly, but for whatever reason didn't pass that information on to Steam.

[Joe Kerr(Disturbed)]

Can you go through how you got it to work with openemu? I'm having trouble doing that.

[Legitti]

PC & X360 controller is way to go.

[Joe Kerr(Disturbed)]

Thank you legitti for your entirely useless comment. I actually need to use a Mac for work, and not 100% of the time as a console, but I appreciate your idiocy. Makes me feel better.

[L.O.Brow]

Setting up the DS4 for OpenEMU (in wireless mode) was remarkably simple on a 2010 iMac with Mavericks:

1) Verify you have Bluetooth ON on your Mac
2) Detach the USB cable from the DS4 and turn it on by pressing the Playstation button - the light bar turns white to indicate wireless connectivity
3) You should see a Pairing Request dialog on your Mac shortly; click Pair
4) Verify that you can see "Wireless Controller" in System Preferences / Bluetooth

If all went well, your DS4 is now connected. Run OpenEMU and go to Preferences - you should find "Sony PS4 Dualshock 4 Wireless" in the "Input" dropdown menu.

[Andrius]

I'm using OSX 10.9.1 and have a Dualshock 4 too, I've found that it is not responsive when using bluetooth in Steam's BPM (it appears, but buttons don't work), When I connect it by USB it does indeed works with some games, of the ones that I have and could test, FEZ and Super Meat Boy do work flawlessly (USB, not bluetooth).

[flame.shards.goo]

Hey Andrius, I don't have FEZ or Rogue Legacy, but I do have Super Meat Boy and am having some trouble getting any response from the DS4 (USB or bluetooth). I have a 2010 Mac running OSX 10.9.1 and I don't have any external drivers installed for mapping etc...do you? Or did you literally just plug the controller in right out of the box and play SMB with it without changing settings (within OSX or the game)? Thanks!

[Andrius]

Nope, no extra drivers in here. All I did was a simple USB conection and maping using the Steam Big Picture. Works nicely, if you still have problems could msg me or stuff.

[Шамиль Гонза]

PC & X360 controller is way to go

[Andrius]

So, as of today it seems that the Dualshock 4 works via bluetooth with Big Picture Mode in Mac OS 10.9.1 (just the BPM interface, not any actual games, at least the ones I have in my library).