How to use more than 4 Xbox 360 controllers on Windows (Wireless Adapter + Wired USB)

[monokoma]

Here's a mini-guide + help topic to connect more than 4 xbox 360 controllers to a PC with Windows 8 / 10.

Xbox 360 controllers are probably the best ones to use on Steam, they work with most games and can be found for cheap, or we can borrow them from friends who don't use their Xbox 360 anymore.

The problem is that these controllers and especially the Wireless Adapter use XImput and support a max of 4 Xbox 360 pads.

But don't worry: there are different ways to use more than 4 xbox 360 controllers on windows:

1) Use 4 Wireless Controllers + Microsoft WIreless Adapter + 4 Wired USB controllers: with this metod you first need to connect the 4 Wireless controllers, when all of them are conected then plug the other 4 wired USB controllers. The 4 wireless controllers will be used as Ximput pads, the other 4 wired controllers will be recognized as DirectImput pads (the green light will not turn on, but the pads will still work). You could also use different mix of controllers (PS4?) instead of the wired ones.

2) Use 8 Wireless Controllers + 2 Microsoft Wireless Adapter: you need to connect 4 controllers to one Adapter and 4 controllers to the second Adapter, only the controllers connected to the first adapter will have their lighs on, the ones connected to the second Adapter will have their lighs off. As before, I think that the controllers connected to the second Adapter will be recognized as DIrectImput and not XImput.

Thess solutions don't work with all games, as some games only support xbox 360 controllers as XImput controllers.

There are some others solutions if you have other types of controllers.

3) Use 4 Xbox 360 Wireless Controllers + Microsoft Wireless Adapter / or 4 Xbox 360 Wired USB Controllers + 4 Wireless Xbox One Controllers + Xbox One Wireless PC Adapter: this is similar to the other solutions, but i'm not sure if all controllers are then recognized as XImput ones (does someone know?).

4) Use 8 Xbox One Controllers + Xbox One Wireless Adapter: I think the new Xbox One Adapter recognize 8 controllers with no problems (does someone know for sure?)

If you have other solutions, questions, suggestions, let me know!

[supersmo]

I've been using 8 wired XBox 360 controllers because they're even cheaper. Just plug in to USB ports. You'll most likely need USB hubs to get more USB ports. If you use a lot of controllers I recommend USB hubs with an external power source. :-)

[GYMMER]

For me, the most cost-effective setup has been 2 Microsoft Wireless Adapters with 8 Wireless controllers

[svenevil]

Any current recommendation? We use 5 or more xbox one wireless controllers and have lots of troubles in many games...

[monokoma]

The problem is with Windows not recognizing your 5th controller or with the games not working with it? It may be an issue with the games if they don't support not-x-input controllers :O

[svenevil]

we play a lot of local multiplayer - some games work, some not. sometimes even same game/same config works and later does not work. or one controller controls functions of other players, even with only 4 players.

so i hoped for a recommendation from a professional :-).

[supersmo]

If your question is "which controllers are the best for massive local multiplayer gaming", I don't know yet since I only have experience with XBox 360 and XBox One controllers, but if you're wondering about what you could do to get the games to work these are the most common things I look for when troubleshooting more than 4 XBox controllers with games that claim to support them:

* Steam Input is on:
This can limit the XBox controller count to 4 controllers.
Either change the Steam input per game settings for the game to "Forced Off" (if you do it in big picture mode don't back out of the per game setting screen B buttion cuz then it won't save the setting) or go to the Steam controller settings and untick all of the checkboxes with "xxx configuration support".
(Some games rely entirely on Steam Input and for those you would need to have the Steam Input per game settings on and replace the SDL2.dll in the Steam folder with a specially built one using a special process.)

* XInput is not disabled within the game
Sometimes there is a setting for turning off XInput support. This is required for games to detect more than 4 XBox controllers. Normally it's called something like "XInput off", "DirectInput On" or "support for more than 4 controllers", etc.

* The game supports more than 4 controllers but max 4 XBox controllers.
Sometimes there are ways for getting them to work anyway like setting an environment variable, switching out a dll or even mapping the extra controllers to virtual gamepads.

Hm... Maybe we should create a new forum called something like "Game specific controller troubleshooting" or "Troubleshooting games for more than 5+ controllers" where anyone can post games they're having issues with (1 discussion thread per game) and people can help out with posting solutions for that game. I'm only a moderator so I can't create that forum though. It would probably be good if the solutions made their way to the PCGamingWiki when a solution is documented.
@monokoma what do you think about creating such a forum?

[svenevil]

Ok, so it is still difficult!

Well, the coder of Shipped just added a Xinput off function in the game after I complained it only worked with 4 gamepads.

Today I managed to get Rocketbirds 2 running with 4 players. The game did not recognize more than 1 (!) controller at all, on different PCs and with different controller brands... the solution was to start the game directly with the .exe, then it worked perfectly...

[monokoma]

I did not even know it was possible to create another forum in this group :O Maybe a new topic would be enough? Where people in need can just reply with their issue and ask for general help

[supersmo]

Sure that also works. :-)

[GunstarSilver]

Has anyone tried connecting 12 wireless controllers at once?
4 x Xbox 360 with wireless dongle and 8 x Xbox one controllers with separate dongle?

Could you have 16? 8 x 360 2 dongles and 8 x Xbox one with one dongle?

[monokoma]

i have tried with 11 controllers, but many of them where USB/wired so i'm not sure about having all wireless: theoretically should be possible, but with those dongles / windows bugs something may not work as planned

[svenevil]

Originally posted by GunstarSilver:

Has anyone tried connecting 12 wireless controllers at once?
4 x Xbox 360 with wireless dongle and 8 x Xbox one controllers with separate dongle?

Interesting challenge. I have the hardware, but not so many friends... which game would you suggest?

[Yogui]

Originally posted by svenevil:

Originally posted by GunstarSilver:

Has anyone tried connecting 12 wireless controllers at once?
4 x Xbox 360 with wireless dongle and 8 x Xbox one controllers with separate dongle?

Interesting challenge. I have the hardware, but not so many friends... which game would you suggest?

Gummys Life

[Yogui]

Is it possible to use 2 Xbox 360 wireless controllers (+receiver adapter) + 3 PS3 Dualshock 3 wired (Emulated to xbox 360) ?

[GunstarSilver]

Originally posted by Yogui:

Is it possible to use 2 Xbox 360 wireless controllers (+receiver adapter) + 3 PS3 Dualshock 3 wired (Emulated to xbox 360) ?

To do this I had 360 controllers connected via the 360 dongle and the PS3/4 controllers connected via a separate Bluetooth dongle.