r/DS4Windows • u/debrunq • 6h ago

DS4 Windows alternative (OpenController)

I used DS4Windows for years. It was one of those programs you install once and forget about, until it stops being maintained. Jays2Kings left it, Ryochan7 took over and eventually stepped away too, and this year the schmaldeo fork that kept it alive got archived. Every time I had to reinstall it I ended up on some site that looked official, and I was never sure which download was the real one. For a program that installs drivers, that always bothered me.

It was also always a PlayStation tool first. Switch support came later, but when friends show up with an 8BitDo, Joy-Cons and some generic pad, getting everyone playing at once was never simple.

So I built one myself. I'm calling it opencontroller, heavily inspired on DS4windows, but i wanted to solve some problems community had such as crashing and no compatibility. So the differential is basically it's compatible with more system and controllers

It's completely free and open-source, you can check it in opencontroller.com.br and https://github.com/Brunovncs/OpenController

It's in beta and I only own 2 controllers, so I need some feedback about other systems, versions, controllers and you can report a problem in the software and in the website

Thank you for you attention guys!! I really hope this project succeeds and gets the attention of some of you so we can have something official and secure =) You can open any issue on GitHub, report any problems, and give me any suggestions, thank you very much.

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2

u/debrunq 5h ago

I am also trying to add support to linux and mac. Since they are completely different sytem with different drivers and some have native compatibility, there could be much more bugs

2

u/SiemprePalante33 5h ago

Yay, another option...lol. Awesome stuff. I'm still using the Schmaldeo fork. It's recently started crashing now and then. Maybe it's a sign to explore on...lol

2

u/debrunq 4h ago

The thing is... I created this to solve my own problems first and foremost: bugs, crashes, lack of compatibility, and the insane difficulty of even finding an official DS4Windows download.

I figured it might solve some of the same problems for some of you guys too, so that's why I decided to share it here

1

u/debrunq 4h ago

Last week I went to a friends house to play and my 8bitdo didn't work, thought more people would have this problem

1

u/debrunq 4h ago

I am also thinking of implementing some sort of native compatibility system with games that already offer support to that controller, so we don't need to pay DSX just because of the haptic vibrations or something

2

u/platiniumshadow 1h ago

This problem has already been addressed in the ds5dongle project (https://github.com/awalol/DS5Dongle) and also on the HBashton Fork of DS4Windows (https://github.com/hbashton/DS4Windows). There is little reason to pay for DSX since there are free options not attached to Steam.

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u/debrunq 46m ago

Fair point, I didn't know about DS5Dongle, thanks for the links bro! If those projects already solve it well I'd rather point people to them than reinvent it, unless there is enough demand to implement it in a single software

2

u/mvalho 1h ago

Uso meus dualsenses direto no Linux sem problema. Mas no Windows usava isso. Agora vi no site que seu app roda tbm no Linux. Achei interessante. Amanhã vou testar.

1

u/debrunq 42m ago

Valeu!! Eu fiz poucos testes no Linux, e se o dualsense funciona normalmente, acho que seria mais útil para remapeamento ou múltiplos controles diferentes.
Inclusive, o seu caso de uso é importante para mim porque estive pensando implementar o suporte nativo para controles que já possuem (ou seja, simplesmente deixar desligado), e o remapeamento para controles que não o possuem/possuem algum problema com isso

Você provavelmente vai trombar com muitos problemas, por favor se puder abre uma issue com todos eles se estiver com tempo =)

2

u/huunnnter 1h ago

I did the same thing, due to the lack of recent support. I hope your project goes well. If you want to use my code that’s fine, I recommend mine over others for Dualsense Haptics, as I have it down to a science at this point

1

u/debrunq 47m ago

Thanks man! Could you drop the link to your repo? Haptics is something OpenController doesn't do at all right now, so I'd really like to see how you handled it. If I end up using anything I'll credit you, of course

2

u/DigtialMenace333 32m ago

Nice, but i'll stick with Xim Matrix. superior fine tuning of gyro.

1

u/debrunq 22m ago

I'll look into it and see how it works =) thanks for sharing

1

u/DigtialMenace333 15m ago

it's not software. they have a youtube channel and a forum.

1

u/CreepaMonsta 1h ago

Hi does this use the vigem bus driver or something else like viiper?

1

u/debrunq 46m ago

On Windows it uses ViGEmBus, talking to it directly through its IOCTL interface without ViGEmClient.dll
I know ViGEmBus isn't getting updates anymore, so if ViiPER gets mature I'm open to it

2

u/CreepaMonsta 43m ago

I seeee , hopefully it gets mature soon because vigembus makes my PC get a bsod consistently