Universal controller fix for any game

This is a short guide to help you make virtually any controller work in any game, as long as your computer detects your device ; so if your controller isn't supported by a game, or if it won't let you bind your keys the way you want, then read on.

Step 1 - The controller emulation software

First you'll need a controller emulation sofware. Among the most popular ones are xpadder, Joy2key, Motioninjoy, Pinnacle Game Profiler and Controller Companion. Be aware that not all of them are free though.

As I've been personally using xpadder for years and I think it's the best in the business, I'll just briefly show you some examples of how to use it to map your keys.
Here's the link to the official website: xpadder[www.xpadder.com]
Do note that the lastest version (currenly 5.7) of the software needs to be activated and is not free. However, any version prior to this one is, so feel free to google xpadder 5.6 and find a link.
Since I'm a rather nice guy, I've made one for you myself :
xpadder 5.6[www.dropbox.com]

For other softwares, you can find plenty of tutorials easily on the internet.

For more information, here are some more links to their official websites:

• Joytokey[joytokey.net]
  
• Motioninjoy[motioninjoy.com]
  
• Pinnacle[www.pinnaclegameprofiler.com]

Step 2 - Disabling the automatic controller support

If the game you want to play already has full or partial support for controllers, you might want to completely disable it to prevent your keys from overlapping with each other.

If the game doesn't even recognize your controller at all, you can skip this step.

In order to do that, you'll need a little file, kindly provided by JottiLF on the steam forums : nox360[jotti.org]
Download the file, extract it and put its content in the root folder of your game, where your .exe is.
This is initially a fix for 360 controllers, but it should work for any controller supported by most games.

Step 3 - Mapping the keyboard keys to your pad

Assuming you've picked xpadder, after downloading it, extract its content and run the .exe
Plug in your controller, and if your windows is able to detect it, so will xpadder, in most cases.
You'll have to create 2 profiles, one for your pad (a standard layout for the controller), and another one for the game specifically.

Once again, there are plenty of tutorials that will explain how to use xpadder in-depth better than I can, but I'll still briefly show you around the program, feel free to fiddle with it yourself as well, it's not exactly rocket-science and it's really easy to use.

• First create a new layout for your pad (the pad icon on the left), you'll get several options (sticks, d-pads, triggers, etc) to configure. It's really straightforward, just press the buttons on your pad and they'll appear on the purple screen, then arrange them the way you want (conveniently the same way as they are on your controller) so you can easily know what each key is by just pressing it.
  
  
• Purely for aesthetics, you can also add an image of your pad (that you can either find in the image database included with the program, or one that you can make from scratch yourself).
  
• Here are 2 of my profiles for a 360 controller and a Madcatz TE arcade stick for those who might be interested:

My Xbox 360 pad profile[www.dropbox.com]


My TE stick profile[www.dropbox.com]

• Now you'll have to check every keyboard keys used by the game. So start your game, hit the option menu and take note of the keys you're interested in. Then just click on one of your pad's blank boxes in xpadder, and choose the respective key from the virtual keyboard that just popped up. Repeat the process for all of your buttons, save your second profile, and voilà !
  Remember to let xpadder run in the background while playing.

You can also change the sensitivity and deadzone of your sticks to your liking, switch the in-game directions from joystick to pad, or even right stick, map the mouse to a stick (so you can browse the internet or casually use your computer with your pad if you want to), set a command to several buttons, or map 2 commands on a single button, which can be quite useful in some games.

Credits

Props to Jonathan Firth for having created such a great software, GALAXY for helping me with the page layout, pictures and proofreading, me for writing this guide, JottiLF for sharing his fix, and you for taking the time to read this. Hope this helped.

[Princess Luna]

@majik,
Seems that it is the game`s issue.
Tried Dualshock 3 + Xpadder but I still get jump and toggle after pressing one key.
If you want to try yourself, I can temporary add you as a friend and send game as a gift.

Maybe nox360.zip does not work with F310/Dualshock, but I have installed Xbox 360 Accessories for F310 to work.
Also, Xpadder worked on free https://store.steampowered.com/app/962810/Dark_Roll/ - managed to map D-pad backwards (up for down).

[majik]

@Princess Luna
Do you have any other controller you could try the game with? You'd need to find if the issue comes from the F310 or the game itself. Also, does the game, by any chance, create different folders (typically in your steam folder, but also in your My documents files or Appdata file), it could be that the folder which assigns your buttons is in another folder.
If not, can you remap your controller keys? If so, you could set the jump button to a button you don't use (a trigger, X or B for example), and let Xpadder use the default jump key.
Let me know if any of those work for you. Sadly I don't own the game, so I can't try it myself.

[Princess Luna]

Playing https://store.steampowered.com/app/1541750/Toggle/

Game uses Y for jump and A to toggle.
I want to map A for jump (=space).
Using Logitech F310 and Xpadder 5.7
Extracted dll into folder with exe

But when I press A button game still toggles (as coded) and jump (Xpadder).

[EVII]

Ok. thank you. Guess i had to find out how to get a standard preset. from the x360ce tool. When i tried to save anything with that tool it didn't create anything.

[majik]

Probably yes, but I don't have the knowledge to do it, and I doubt the person who made it is still around on the forums to modify it now.

[EVII]

I think the engine is just not made for it. I wish the mouse input would work as well as in doom ports.

Btw, do you think its possible to edit the nox360 profile, so it only ignores right thumb stick? That way i could use full force feedback and still use xpadder for aiming.

[majik]

Yes and no, I remember having the same issue on some other game, where the camera movement was on mouse, but setting mouse movement on xpadder for the right stick only moved the "windows" cursor over the game, and not move the camera.
Not sure how it works in Duke Nukem, but if you can rebind the camera to just keys instead of mouselook, like to arrows for example, and then bind those keys to the right stick in xpadder, it should work. You might have to fiddle with the diagonals though.
Other than that, I don't know, I would need to have the game to see the problem.

[EVII]

That's something at least. Thank you.

There's some other game which just refuse to work with xpadder, but its not available on the store anymore:

Duke Nukem: Megaton edition

I know this game was never made for mouse controll, but mouselook works with mouse or trackball etc., but doesn't move 1 single pixel with xpadder mouse controll. No matter if cursor or view option. Any ideas?

[majik]

I just tried Shadow Warrior, and nox360 seems to do the trick with the dx9 launcher. For the dx11 version, I had to launch it from the win32 executable and put the nox360 files a second time in the dx11 folder, but for some reason the 64 .exe keeps the pad support no matter what. Both dx9 and win32 work fine even on Win 64 though. Hope that helped.

[EVII]

Ok, disabling this "XINPUT compatible HID device" thing doesn't do the trick. That also disables the gamepad in xpadder. Instead you go into properties and deinstall the driver. That makes it disappear from device manager, but still lets you use xpadder as usual.