Everything you need to know about ps2/3 controllers on PC

[zaphod]

If you want to use your ps1/ps2 controller (pad or stick) on a PC native shmup/MAME, simply get the inpin ps2 to ps3 converter. it's lag free, as verified by fighting games fans worldwide. You can try your luck with other converters, and some of them are more convenient because you can switch between digital and analog mode with them to deal with the POV hat issue, but you may be unhappy with lag.

Inpin converter mapping is.
square=button 1
cross=2
Circle=3
triangle=4
l1=5
r1=6
L2=7
R2=8
select=9
start=10
analog/digital button=button 13
LClick=button 11
RClick=button 12
Dpad=POV hat.
right stick x+-=X+-
right stick Y+-=ZRot x-

NO tilt, no analog buttons. (the tilt being unmapped is a good thing, for the most part, as it being enabled would interfere with remapping a LOT.) All modern MAME versions support POV hat properly, so this converter will do the job for mame.

most ps2 to pc converters will reverse the four face buttons so that triangle is button 1 and box is 4. all ps2 to ps3 converters map the same.

Any shmup that supports POV hat will work this way. otherwise xpadder/joytoKey or something like that will be needed.

Some sticks will let you remap the stick by flipping a switch to make it work as left ro righ tanalog instead of a pov hat.

For PS3 controllers, the situation is different.

Any 3rd party ps3 controller that cannot turn the ps3 on will show up as a directinput device and work, with the arcade stick or dpad mapped as a pov hat, the left analog as the main stick (if it exists), and right analog as z axis and z rotation. They will not have analog buttons, and the mapping will be same as the inpin converter, because that's what the PS3 expects. SOME fightsticks will refuse to cooperate though. The first edition of the TE fightstick, for example is known to not work on many PCs. You need intel or VIA usb chipset for it to work. Most more expensive sticks will let you chose what to map the stick to by flipping a 3 position switch. Some will lag if it's mapped to axes though.

If the game you are trying to play only supports XInput (is any shmup this way at all?), then you can most likely use x360ce to make it work, if your pad/stick is working, and leave the switch on dpad. If that fails, you will just have to get an xbox360 controller or an official sony one.\, or use xpadder or the like.

Sony Ps3 controllers are a whole different beast. They do NOT work out of the box. You can hook it up by usb, but it will not wake up. But there ARE ways to use it on a PC

You have many options under windows. There are three party drivers you can use. One is MotionInJoy, one is an earlier unsigned and nearly impossible to configure driver which is insanely difficult to get working on anything never than xp, and one is SCP DS3/4 driver package.

The early driver is not very configurable, and i'm not sure where to still get it. And newer versions of windows will block it.

MotionInJoy driver has the most options, as you can choose different controller profiles, like xinput, directinput, or pcsx2 pressure sensitive, or even keyboard/mouse emulation. ALso the driver is signed. You can remap the controller pretty much at will. but it has two problems. one is that it's unstable on some PCs. the other one is the configurator requires internet access, and is considered suspect software. the second problem is solved by installing Better DS3 after using motioninjoy's driver manager to install the filter properly, which is an alternate configurator. If the driver doesn't crash on you, use it. For games that require Xinput, use the xbox360 emulator profile. If xinput is not supported, use a directinput or keyboard profile. FOr TOuhou games, use a keyboard profile, or use a profile with d-pad mapped to axes. Some touhou games ignore the POV hat, so you need to do this.

SCP driver always emulates an x360 controller, and is a great choice for any PC game that only takes XInput. it just works and tends not to crash the PC if MotionInJoy was. HOWEVER, games that don't support xinput will not let you press R2 and L2 at the same time. Using an xbox360 controller native will have the exact same issue. To be fair, most shmups don't use that many buttons, so this probably won't be much of a showstopper. but saturn mode of say radiant silvergun might be an issue. You MAY be able to work around a game ignoring the POV hat by doing some reconfiguring of the driver to remap the dpad to left analog, i haven't tested it.

[blizzz]

SOME fightsticks will refuse to cooperate though. The first edition of the TE fightstick, for example is known to not work on many PCs. You need intel or VIA usb chipset for it to work.

This is no longer true. I've tried it with my first edition PS3 TE stick and it does not work on any half-modern Intel USB chipset. It also doesn't work on modern USB3 VIA chips. It does however work on Renesas/NEC USB3 chips which are very common and easy to install as an expansion card.

Works on:

• ASUS P8P67-M Pro
• ASUS U3S6 (SATA 6Gb/s / USB3.0 PCIe expansion card, highly recommended)
• ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe (only on the 2 ASMedia ports, doesn't work anymore with Win8.1 and newest drivers on my PC, but I remember that it worked when I had just installed the board)
• Exsys EX-48010 (PCIe Mini card, the fightstick would stop working after a random amount of time, usually in the 5-15 minute mark. might have been a conflict with the PC though, the PC also had faulty RAM installed when I tried the card)
• AKE USB3.0 express card slot card

Does not work on:

• Any USB2 port on any of my machines
• Zotac H67-ITX (VIA)
• ASRock Z87M Extreme4 (Intel)

I can highly recommend the ASUS U3S6 card. Not only does it work with the TE fightstick, but it also has higher compatibility and driver support (in Linux) than the Intel chipset.

Most more expensive sticks will let you chose what to map the stick to by flipping a 3 position switch. Some will lag if it's mapped to axes though.

Any more information on what "some" is?

Sony Ps3 controllers are a whole different beast. They do NOT work out of the box. You can hook it up by usb, but it will not wake up. But there ARE ways to use it on a PC

The SCP driver works very well for me, both with a cable and an old tiny bluetooth dongle (Hama Nano-Bluetooth USB adapter). Just plug the dongle in and it works. Here's the download link: PCSX2 Forums

MotionInJoy is a bit shady, but it does its job with Better DS3 tool. One problem with MotionInJoy is that it will interfere with standard 360 controllers and you have to uninstall the driver to get them working again. Somehow you can get both PS3 pads and 360 pads working with MotionInJoy at the same time, but I don't like it very much. It does make it very easy to remap buttons though.

Nice post

[zaphod]

SOME fightsticks will refuse to cooperate though. The first edition of the TE fightstick, for example is known to not work on many PCs. You need intel or VIA usb chipset for it to work.

This is no longer true. I've tried it with my first edition PS3 TE stick and it does not work on any half-modern Intel USB chipset. It also doesn't work on modern USB3 VIA chips. It does however work on Renesas/NEC USB3 chips which are very common and easy to install as an expansion card.

Works on:

• ASUS P8P67-M Pro
• ASUS U3S6 (SATA 6Gb/s / USB3.0 PCIe expansion card, highly recommended)
• ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe (only on the 2 ASMedia ports, doesn't work anymore with Win8.1 and newest drivers on my PC, but I remember that it worked when I had just installed the board)
• Exsys EX-48010 (PCIe Mini card, the fightstick would stop working after a random amount of time, usually in the 5-15 minute mark. might have been a conflict with the PC though, the PC also had faulty RAM installed when I tried the card)
• AKE USB3.0 express card slot card

Does not work on:

• Any USB2 port on any of my machines
• Zotac H67-ITX (VIA)
• ASRock Z87M Extreme4 (Intel)

I can highly recommend the ASUS U3S6 card. Not only does it work with the TE fightstick, but it also has higher compatibility and driver support (in Linux) than the Intel chipset.

Well changing usb cards is not always an option for laptop users. The difference is OHCI vs UHCI with usb 2 chipsets. UHCI worked, OHCI didn't. Some USB sticks were the other way around. If the chipset is usb 3, the rules may be different.

Most more expensive sticks will let you chose what to map the stick to by flipping a 3 position switch. Some will lag if it's mapped to axes though.

Any more information on what "some" is?

I don't remember which is which, but some of them will, instead of instantly jump the analog pointer, moves t in a more gradual fashion. this gives you more compatability with games that expect analog controls, but is the wrong thing for us shmup players. You want one that makes the analog pointer jump instantly.

Sony Ps3 controllers are a whole different beast. They do NOT work out of the box. You can hook it up by usb, but it will not wake up. But there ARE ways to use it on a PC

The SCP driver works very well for me, both with a cable and an old tiny bluetooth dongle (Hama Nano-Bluetooth USB adapter). Just plug the dongle in and it works. Here's the download link: PCSX2 Forums

MotionInJoy is a bit shady, but it does its job with Better DS3 tool. One problem with MotionInJoy is that it will interfere with standard 360 controllers and you have to uninstall the driver to get them working again. Somehow you can get both PS3 pads and 360 pads working with MotionInJoy at the same time, but I don't like it very much. It does make it very easy to remap buttons though.

Nice post

The issue with SCP driver is that you cannot register both triggers at once in directinput. This totally breaks games that do expect you to be able to press both at once. native xinput games can read both properly.