PS4/DS4 Controller - Touchpad Question

[Nate 'Redfox' Roache]

So far my DS4 seems to be working good, seen some posts about it and seen claims that people have the touchpad working in game as mouse pointer control. However despite my best efforts, thus far; getting the pad to work has been less than fruitful.

To put it bluntly I feel that either the pad working is complete b/s and people are boosting a product that wont work as described - or there is something I am doing different (despite my methods being exactly as prescribed by the authors...).

So far I have tried just about every wrapper available, different versions etc. The touchpad works in some games, and even windows itself. However when playing elite dangerous with a working pad won't work for me. Even the launcher being open and in the forefront will disable the pad from working at all.

One person on the forums had mentioned that connecting via blue tooth restored the pads funtionality, however after just getting back from the shop with an ASUS USB-BT400 I have gained nothing but latency issues...

Any input from people who have successfully tackled this issue would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks everyone,

Nate

 

[ElectricZ]

It's not ...

Or at least it didn't used to be. I started playing with a DS4 back in Beta 2 and it worked great including the touchpad but have since moved on to a HOTAS setup. I wonder if something in an update messed it up.

I tell you what, I still have my DS4 handy. I'll plug it in (never got the BT to work worth a darn) tonight and see how it works. If it does, I'll send you my setup. If not, I'd say that confirms that DS4 compatibility went out the window.

Downloading 1.2.0.5 now...

 

[Nate 'Redfox' Roache]

Thanks ElectricZ, I would really appreciate the feedback as I literally got it for this function (also the chatpad but could have done that on a plethora of other pads I own lol). Hopefully I am just doing something wrong, but then again, the posts I was reading were referring to gamma build. Could it be that Elite is using it as a 360 controller and not a standard pc device? I tried dinput only and it didn't seem to matter, except the bindings in elite changed. Very frustrating to say the least.

 

[ElectricZ]

No problem... I hope we can get you squared away. I loved using the DS4 for ED and for my PC in general. The touchpad absolutely MAKES it as my preferred gamepad controller. I used to have it plugged in all the time just so I could use its touchpad. Hmmm, might just go back to doing that anyway.

So the good news: I tried it again and it worked 100%. The gamepad buttons all worked, the sticks worked, and most importantly, the touchpad acted like a mouse input should. I could navigate with the pointer on the game menus and in game on the station services screen and galmap.

Now, just as baseline it does behave like the mouse in-game. Unless you're on a game menu screen or station services, using the touchpad doesn't do anything. You can't click on the navigation panel on the left or the functions panel on the right, for example. But it works great where the mouse traditionally works.

So... that being said, I'm using a standard PS4 controller plugged in via USB. I used to use DS4Windows, but apparently in the last 6 months it has since rebranded itself as "InputMapper" with the current version being 1.5.24.xxxx. It works the same but actually installs a lot cleaner and has a better interface. Yay progress! You can download it here if you've not already got it: http://inputmapper.com/ It sounds like you've already tried a bunch of wrappers and this one is no different. It makes your PC think your DS4 is a 360 controller.

I found it to be pretty much plug and play. So, if you've already tried this one and it still doesn't work let's go back to something you said in your original post: that the touchpad stops working even you launch the ED launcher. I have noticed from time to time that ED has some weird window behavior. Sometimes even if it is the running application, it doesn't think it's in the front window and the mouse stops working. When that happens to me, I end up alt-tabbing several times to bring the window focus on different apps, click in it with the mouse, then alt tab back to ED and click in the mouse until the large ED Arrow is displaying and I can move it around and not the windows pointer. So try launching the game with your regular mouse, then when in the game alt-tabbing on other windows and then trying to come back a few times. It's a shot in the dark, but it might be the problem.

One more thing to try is to go into ED and in the graphics options and choose Windowed Mode instead of fullscreen.

Another is to go through and uninstall every last bit of every controller wrapper you have ever installed, then try a clean install of InputMapper. Could be there's some old junk left that's mucking up the works. I know I tried a lot of different solutions, too, and some of them were very "manual" in their installation as far as leaving bits behind.

Give these a shot and if it doesn't work you may have to start digging into things like display drivers or input controller drivers. Lemme know how it goes. Good luck!

 

[Nate 'Redfox' Roache]

After removing everything, uninstalling the driver too, still the same thing. I really don't understand this, it works in the golf club for me. But for some reason no matter what I do, fullscreen, windowed, borderless... Even the patcher being up will stop it. Something is off here and I really can't understand what it is. What settings are you using for input mapper? Default?

 

[Nate 'Redfox' Roache]

Ok so I am probably the biggest moron pc user in the history of the world lol. Turns out after everything I did here, running input mapper as admin and enable xbox 360 mode brought the pad to life. Thank you ElectricZ for your assistance, I was about to give up before trying what I should have known to do. Funny thing is, when using ds4windows as admin it wouldn't work. So maybe wiping the drivers and software was also part of the issue.

Summarize my experiences here:

Uninstall everything control map and drivers

Unlink blue tooth devices

restart windows

install inputmapper and set to run as admin/access

pair the device once again

select xbox 360 mode from options, make sure the touchpad is enabled

enjoy a working gamepad touch mode

 

[ElectricZ]

Huzzah! Awesome news, Redfox! Glad you figured it out. Not only that but at some point other CMDRs are going to come along with the same problem and you're going to keep them from hurling their controllers into their screen.

And for the record, you're not a moron if you figure it out.

Side bennie for me - I forgot how awesome it was to have a touchpad at my fingertips. I unplugged my DS4 when I got my HOTAS but that touchpad is just too handy. I tell you, Sony should put out drivers or Win specific DS4's... The design of the DS4 itself is way better than the DS3 (especially compared to the reigning champ, the 360 controller) but the touchpad is GENIUS. If anybody out there with a PS4 has not tried the DS4 on their PC, give it a whirl. The touchpad makes all the difference for controller games since you no longer have to let go to use the mouse.

Of course the real irony here is how awesome the DS4 touchpad is for Windows gaming while you can't to jack with it on the PS4.