(DEPRECATED) Playing Rivals of Aether with a Dinput controller

IMPORTANT: This guide is no longer needed to use Dinput controller adapters with Rivals. The game supports it natively now. Go tell Dan thank you. I'll leave the guide up for posterity and in case anyone wants to use it to play an old version of the game.

Alright, here we go. You want to use your gamecube controller with Rivals. Good choice! Right now it's a little difficult, but doable. Here's what you need.

Also posted on the Big Friendly Games blog.[bigfriendlygames.net]

Required Hardware and Software

• A gamecube to USB adapter[www.amazon.com]. The kind doesn't matter that much, but nintendo officials are harder to setup, and the old 2 port mayflash can have intermittent input lag.
  
• X360ce, 32bit[www.x360ce.com]. Make sure you install all the things listed in the system requirements on the x360ce page. If you don't have them installed, it won't run.

Additionally, if your adapter is the Nintendo one (and not the superior Mayflash linked above) you'll need this guide[m4sv.com].

If you have the nintendo adapter, follow the install instructions above before continuing.

Moving x360ce into the Rivals folder

If you just plugged in the mayflash or followed the above, you should have your GCC working with Windows, if not with RoA. You can check in the windows controller view (search game controllers and check that the buttons work under 'properties')





It may be a bit wonky still, but every button should at least register.

• Navigate to your Steam game folder (usually C:/Program Files(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common) and find Rivals.
  
  
• Put x360 in the Rivals folder, so it looks something like this
  
  
  
  with the 3 added files at the bottom.

Setting up x360ce with your controller

• Open up x360ce. You have to set up all of the buttons - here's
  
  
  
  my setup for the recommended adapter, but each is different. You can just use the 'record' feature, or copy ours; this has z bound to back and the triggers bound to analog press.
  
  
• Finally we have to mess with the sensitivity of the analog sticks. This
  
  
  
  
  
  is mine for each, explained below.
  
  
• Play! Hopefully everything feels smooth, if not play around more in x360.
  
  
• Increasing a stick's deadzone will make it not react to smaller inputs; increasing its anti-deadzone will make it think softer presses are 'smash' inputs, for dashing and the like. So if you keep accidentally turning around, up the deadzone, and if you can't dash, up the anti-deadzone, until you feel comfortable with your controller.

Conclusion and Additional Tips

My default controls to start from are the result of testing a few dozen different gamecube controllers. The left stick is set to maximum sensitivity with a fairly small deadzone. This sensitivity is about what is required to make dash dancing feel smooth on most GCC's, in my experience; some can go lower, and some (especially ones with custom paint around the stick) need to have the anti-dead zone set higher (as high as 50%) to register smoothly as a dash. The small deadzone is to make rar/special turnarounds easy, while big enough for accuracy on such things.

The right stick needs a massive anti deadzone to register, but can also have a large deadzone for most players - usually you're only using it for aerials/smashes and will be flicking it all the way every time anyway.

If your controller is modded to not have springs in it, remove the half-axis input on triggers and only use the trigger button binding.

If you want a setup to use both xinput(ps3, x360, xbone) AND dinput(GCC) you MUST have a mayflash adapter, to my knowledge. If you have a mayflash, just set the xinput controller to slot 1 in x360 and the mayflash to the rest.

Have fun with the correct controller for a platform fighter!

[Butterscotch]

For people having issues, most adapters should just work right through Steam Input. Mine has a PC and Wii U mode but it doesn't detect it in Wii U mode. If yours is like that but also doesn't work in PC mode then it might just be a Windows thing. Use Linux coward.

[Duncan M'cokiner ⁧⁧(△)]

this sounds like a whole lot of work. i'm glad steaminput is a thing now

[powerbread]

you said something about native support but i haven't found a way to play without using x360ce. any help?

[Emmathyst]

Ask Dan lol, it did in the past as long as you had an adapter supporting the correct input type. I haven't played this game in years.

[N.]

Danfornace needs to fix this. Why doesnt gamecue controller work?

[MiLESELECTRiC]

i have one and it wouldnt connect. so i just bought an xbox one controller

[Emmathyst]

@Sedici Nota, this isn't applicable anymore. Just make sure you have a supported gamecube adapter and the game supports GC controllers out of the box now.

[MiLESELECTRiC]

it still wont connect idk what im doing wrong

[samtheham]

Mayflash adapters don't work...

[Emmathyst]

STOP USING THIS YOU DON'T NEED IT ANYMORE