Xbox 360 Controller Emulator Mac Os X

NOTE: This is for the wired version of the Xbox 360 controller. It looks like you need to get an adapter since the controller doesn't use a standard wireless protocol like Bluetooth.

The Xbox 360 controller makes for a great controller for all sorts of games on the Mac, but sadly it isn't simply a plug-and-play situation anymore. Nowadays you need a custom driver installed to get it working, but thankfully there are some enthusiasts out there who are keeping this controller alive.

Colin Munro's Xbox 360 USB Controller Driver for Mac OS X works great with Mac OS X 10.6.7 on my MacBook 5,1. If you need a solid controller for your Mac, I can definitely recommend the Xbox 360's wired controller with Colin's driver, which you can find here. Xbox 360 Controller Emulator 3.x (Old Vesion) The x360ce.exe application version 3.x is just a GUI for editing x360ce.ini and testing your controller. The x360ce.exe (3.x) application can be closed before launching the game. The game doesn't need it and it uses your computer's resources. Apparently, OS X Mavericks (which is a free update for anyone running 10.6 Snow Leopard or later) has built-in driver support for the DualShock 3. I realize this controller is not a prevalent with the PC gaming crowd, but I can confirm that by merely plugging in my DS3 to my MBA via USB, it just works. Every game I tested maps it as a 360. As expected it added a preferences pane and it is recognized. BUT the controller name comes up as 'Controller 1 (Wired)'. I was expecting to say 'Xbox 360 Controller' So far I have tried it with the Dolphin Wii Emulator only. In the emulator there is only one option for the controller and it says, 'Input/0/Controller'. Unfortunately, it does.

Simply go to this link to download the updated driver for your Mac. Like I said, this is developed by enthusiasts in their free time, but it works wonderfully for me.

I had this running in a previous version of OS X, but then it stopped working (operating system update made the driver non-functional). I spent some time Google-ing around, but it was hard finding something due to all the information out there being for PC.
This is apparently completely doable on a PC (as described here, for example)
But not as easy on a Mac. Searching Google did little for me… except that I found this cool thing (http://multicursor-wm.sourceforge.net/). I had no idea you could do that.

Xbox Emulator For Mac

Nevertheless, now that I have multiple controllers working on a Mac I feel obligated to throw my solution into the mix.
Perhaps this will help someone looking for answers via Google.

Download and install the 360Controller 0.14 driver first: https://github.com/d235j/360Controller/releases
This is an unofficial release driver, because the last one is no longer compatible with newer Mac OS’s. I found out via this reddit post, and here.
It’s stable for me, and I’m not getting any errors, so it’s recommendable.

Once installed open “System Preferences”, and at the very bottom you’ll see “Xbox 360 Controllers”

You’ll know it works when it detects the controller and displays controller-ish things.

Download Xbox 360 Controller Emulator

Controller

So that’s easy enough, but I need to have multiple controller to develop and test against. So doing some digging I found Vivid Machine’s Controllers app. It’s actually FREE in the App Store.

You can find the download link on the website here (again, in the AppStore it’s free): https://vividmachine.com/controllers/

Open the program (in Applications folder), and you’ll know it works when it shows controller-ish buttony things.

And done!

Xbox 360 Controller Driver Mac Os X

Now that I have it working, I’ll be able to use & fully enjoy the GameInput. This is also included in the Adobe Gaming SDK.
I’ve gotten quite a bit of mileage out of it. I quite like the SDK.
At any rate… I think this setup will get me far enough until I’m ready to have this thing running on an actual console.

I also found this wonderful GameInputTester on github, and it indicates that it does work:
https://github.com/zeh/key-action-binder/tree/master/tests/GameInputTester

Interestingly enough Adobe’s Game Input Control also works in the browser (source)
I quote:

“The GameInput classes absolutely work in the browser. Support has been there since Flash Player 11.8 (in beta), then officially added with 11.9.”

I did not know this. That’s pretty nice.

Xbox Controller Mac Os

If anybody else finds this post, and knows of a better way of doing this, please share! I’d love to know.