The Best Gaming Controller for a Macbook Laptop Are you a gamer who is looking for a way to play your favorite games with ease? Macbooks are laptops that offer a lot of value and options for the user due to their variety of features. They are highly recommended among the gaming community and even offer cutting edge professional graphics card to enhance the gaming experience. You can play games in high resolution to get the best experience possible with a versatile Macbook. You will also benefit from its solid-state drive that makes it a leader among laptops. Not only can you play with enriched graphics but you can get the power you need when you need it most.
You may be surprised to know that there are numerous controllers to choose from. Whether you are more focused on price, compatibility, design or quality, you have options. Here is a review of some of the leading gaming controllers on the market according to gaming gurus. Apple MFi Certified Bluetooth Gamepad If you have expensive taste, you should try out this model that offers antiperspirant and non-slip features so that you can play the most intense games easily with skill and the ultimate control. You will have a consistent grip while playing while it gives you the perfect fit with your finger for an accurate response while in action games. This model comes with joy stick and joy pad and costs around $60, therefore making it an ideal buy for an advanced gamer. Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick There are many user-friendly features that were built in to this gaming controller with avid gamers in mind.
It has a rotating handle, wide hand-rest, and high-precision joystick for your comfort and is highly programmable with 12 buttons and 5 axles. You can get the best of your games with this detachable, realistic sized ergonomically-designed controller with a throttle control for high intensity gaming that will only cost you $50.
Steam Controller This is one of the most advanced, compatible and user-friendly gaming controllers that works on games from all different consoles and games that require just a mouse and keypad. You can get precise controls with its dual-stage triggers and track pads. It comes built with HD haptic feedback, grip buttons and fully-customizable control schemes to meet your needs and preferences for $50. Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller This controller connects to your laptop with ease with its wireless connectivity options using Bluetooth or wired with a Micro-USB cable. It fits in averaged sized hands comfortably and allows you to traverse the controls without thinking about it and comes equipped with haptic feedback so you can really get into the game you are playing. On the flip side, this controller is not very compatible and does not work with most games on OS X or your Mac even though this is an affordable controller that can compliment your setup and allow you to play comfortably for hours for only $45 to $50. Retro – Bit 8Bitdo RB8 – 64 Wireless Bluetooth N64 Styled Controller for iOS, Android, PC, Mac, Linux If you want to game in style with a more retro and traditional controller from the popular N64, consider using this model that is very compatible with different consoles and devices.
It has a 6 foot cable and supports a Bluetooth and USB connection to keep you connected and playing with ease. This model offers dual mode options where you can play with a joystick or touch screen simulator to be more interactive with your games for an affordable price of $40. Microsoft Xbox One Controller This gaming controller is one of the easier ones to set up and gets extra points because of how versatile and compatible it is.
You can customize this controller so that it fits your needs or allows you to switch between controls for different games. It gives you the same controls that you are used to when playing other consoles and is available with an attached USB cable or is made to work wirelessly for a price between from $25 to $40 each. GameSir G3s Bluetooth Wireless Controller for Android Smartphone Tablet VR PC TV BOX – PS3 There is no controller on the market quite like this multi-platform model that is highly compatible with your favorite devices so that you can access your games anywhere. It offers high sensitivity and accuracy so you don’t miss a second of your game and even uses a 32-bit MCU chip with computing power up to 48 million times per second. The Realtek Bluetooth solution allows you to automatically connect and jump right into your game with ease for only a whopping $30. Retro-Link Wired NES Style USB Controller Have fun playing your favorite games while reliving the olden days with the NES experience that you have been longing for. You can connect this gaming controller to any computer, Mac, or USB port and all of the buttons can be configured to your playing preferences.
It has a simple yet comfortable design that lets you access all the buttons at your leisure for only $20. Choosing the Best Gaming Controller When you want the best bang for your buck, you can choose between all of the added features of these game controllers to find exactly what will meet your needs.
Whether it is design, price, or compatibility, you will find that these game controllers give you the flexibility that you demand for a modest price. With this being said, you can compare features, prices and identify what you need to advance your gaming to the next level. If you are willing to spend a bit more money, the Apple MFi Certified Bluetooth Gamepad is ideal for you because it provides the control you dream of to play games smoothly.
However, if you are going for strictly price and design, you will enjoy the simple yet durable NES style USB controller modeled after the classic NES console. The choice of what game controller will best complement your games and gaming style is solely up to you as the power is in your hands.
I honestly had zero use for a XBox 360 Controller on my Mac, since I’m a keyboard/mouse gamer but I was toying with another article and was looking for a Game Controller for the Amazon Fire TV. Looking around I noticed that the should work with the Amazon Fire TV and with MacOS X. Since I do play the occasional game on my Mac (yes: that is possible!) with Steam, I figured why not give it a try. The controller, with receiver, isn’t all that expensive. So in this article: How to connect and use an Xbox 360 Controller on MacOS X.
What Controller Will Work With Steam On Mac : Steam For Mac Mac
About the hardware. The USB receiver can handle up to 4 XBox 360 controllers. Any XBox 360 controller will work. The USB receiver works fine even when connected to a USB hub.
The software used will also work with a wired controller. The USB cable of the Wireless Play and Charge kit is just a charger cable!
A USB receiver is still needed! Note that this is not the only Game Controller option out there for your Mac. Other Joysticks/Game Controllers, even the ones from a PlayStation or Wii will work with your Mac as well. Some wired, some wireless (proprietary or Bluetooth). We’re just focussing on the XBox 360 controller in this article.
XBox One Controller and Alternative Drivers For those who have an XBox One controller: good news. Well, partially anyway. There are good drivers for the XBox One Controller, but not for operating it wireless. The XBox One Controller needs to remain connected with an USB cable. The advantage would be that your rechargeable battery pack remains charged (obviously not you regular AA batteries!). Drivers, which work with the XBox 360 controller as well, can be found for free on Github:.
There is an alternative driver:, little less of a nice GUI and a little less frequent maintained though. Free Driver MacOS X does not natively come with drivers for the XBox 360 controller, which makes sense, it’s not their responsibility to provide hardware drivers for 3rd party hardware manufacturers, especially when they choose to swerve away from standards Unfortunately, Microsoft, doesn’t feel the need to supply drivers for Mac users for their hardware, which is unfortunate and leaves the user with the mess to solve by themselves. So we require a driver created by another party. And there is such a think in this case. Colin Munro, at, released a driver as early as 2006, which appears not to have been since 2012. For this, seemingly abandoned driver, you’d need some tricks to get it to work under Yosemite – which is related to new “rules” concerning the use of Kext’s (Kernel Extensions). Not something I’d like to do UPDATE: There is a 360 Controller driver that is being actively maintained, a fork of the original project, you can get it from GitHub as well:.
Download the latest version from (360 Controller Releases). This is the. DOWNLOAD - XBox360 Controller for Mac Platform: Mac OS X Filename: 360ControllerInstall0.16.5.dmg Version: 0.16.5 Size: 808.8 KiB Date: May 8, 2017 Step 1 – Install the driver After downloading the driver (above), double click the DMG file, so your Mac mounts it.
Double click the “ Install 360 Controller.pkg” file to start installation, and follow the instructions. Keep in mind that your Mac has to reboot after the installation.
After rebooting your Mac, you’ll notice that you can find “Xbox 360 Controllers” in the System Preferences. Mac System Preferences – XBox 360 Controllers settings Step 2 – Connecting the XBox 360 Controller to your Mac The next step is to connect your controller, which is easy First of all, connect the USB receiver to a free USB port, either on you Mac or on a USB hub (if you use one). Once plugged in a USB port, the USB receiver’s green light should go on or start blinking.
Now follow these steps to get connect (one time only) your XBox 360 controller:. Press the big XBox logo button (a.k.a. The “Guide” button) on the game controller for it to switch on. Press the button on the USB receiver.
Press the Connect button on the game controller. The circle around the Xbox button should light up one quarter of the circle indicating the controller number. Once linked, if you want to use the controller in the future, simply just press the big Xbox button on the controller to get going. MacOS X – Xbox 360 Controller Preferences Step 4 – Playing Source (Valve) games on your Mac Well, I’m a Steam user, so the first thing I’d like to test are some of my favorite games like the “Half-Life 2” series – yes, I know it’s OLD, but I just love the Half-Life games and Half-Life 3 is still not available (I honestly doubt it will ever see the day of light, but I’m still hoping) It didn’t take much effort to find, concerning the use of a XBox 360 Controller on Mac with Source games (Half-Life is a so called “Source” game by Valve). First we need to get into the so called “Developer Console”, which is relatively easy for most Valve games. Launch your Valve game. From the main menu select “ Options” “ Keyboard” and click the “ Advanced” button.
Check the option “ Enable developer console ” and click “ Apply“. Once enabled (your game will remember next time you start the game), use the “ ” key (tilde) during game play, or in the main screen, to get to the console. Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead These Valve games come with XBox 360 controller support build in. To enable the controller, type in the developers console : exec 360controller To disable the controller, type: exec undo360controller Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One Tip: First try exec 360controller in the developer console before proceeding with these steps – it might already work! For these two, we will need to define a configuration file (which can also be used with the other games to customize the controls). Creating such a configuration file is easy, simply use a text editor like TextWrangler to create a plain text file with the (example) content below. With the code below we will mimic the behavior seen with “Half-Life 2: Episode 2” so we can use exec 360controller and exec undo360controller.
Save the file as “ 360controller.cfg” in the following location: /Library /Application Support /Steam /steamapps /common ///cfg / For example, for Half-Life 2, this would be: /Library /Application Support /Steam /SteamApps /common /Half-Life 2 /hl2 /cfg /. Crosshair 1 huddrawfixedreticle 0 joystick 0 skautoaimmode 1 hudfastswitch 0 hudquickinfo 1 More details can be found here:. Step 5 – Configuring for ALL Games on your Mac Now, I’m fully aware that there are more games for the Mac than just those awesome Half-Life games.
For those you might want to consider, and even for Half-Life 2, the use of a so called JoyStick Mapper application that map a joystick action to mouse or keyboard inputs. These tools really improve the experience of your XBox 360 Controller on Mac. Some example applications:. (commercial, ). (free demo, commercial $5). (commercial, $7.99 Apple App Store). (open source) Do you have suggestion or alternatives?
Please post them in the comment section! Joystick Mapper Of all the tools that can map joystick actions to key strokes or mouse moves, I’ve picked “Joystick Mapper” as my test candidate – honestly, $5 is a steal considering the amount of work that actually goes into developing a tool like this.
First off all you’ll need to get of course, it’s available for. Keep in mind that you have to connect your joystick before starting Joystick Mapper, or go to “ Quick Options” and click “ Refresh Joysticks” (or press R ), so your connected Joystick will be seen.
We will need to create a preset for our game preferences, which is easy. Just open Joystick Mapper and click “ Add New Preset“, and a new window opens. Joystick Mapper – Create a new Preset Enter a name for future reference, as it’s typically created for a specific game or user (“My Game” in the screenshot) and for each joystick/player, click “ Add a new joystick“. Now that we have identified our joystick, time to “bind” joystick inputs to keyboard or mouse moves, which is a surprisingly easy thing to do. Click on “ Add new bind“, and next click “ scan” and press the button or or control of your Game Controller that you’d want to use, or select on manually.
Next select a keyboard or mouse action – pretty much everything you’ll ever need is in the list. Rinse and repeat for all the buttons you’d like to use. Joystick Mapper – Bind keys or mouse actions to your game controller If needed, you can do this again for other Game Controllers – and to make it easy there is is little “ Clone” icon in the upper right corner so you can replicate for other controllers. You can close this window when you’re done. To use the preset, simply set a checkmark before the preferred preset (profile) you’ve created for the game you’re about to play.
Once checked simply start the game and you’re good to go! Note: Do NOT close Joystick Mapper before starting the game – keep it running! You can use “ H ” to hide the window. That’s some highly subjective speculation as to why Apple don’t have copyright licences for hardware & software they don’t produce or indeed have any involvement with? Tell me, when you buy a new printer do you expect Apple to provide drivers for it? Apple provide drivers for “standard” controllers because they’re generic and loosely standardised, so don’t require any licensed drivers but xbox 360 controllers (for no reason whatsoever) are fudged so they can’t be used with a generic driver.
You’re attacking Apple for 1) not providing something other people don’t expect them to provide and I’m really not sure why you do?: and 2) an issue Microsoft have caused, not Apple. Hi NLIWilson! Maybe I worded it open for interpretation in multiple ways – I did not mean to attack Apple, I’m an Apple fan myself. I was just trying to say that neither Apple nor Microsoft seem to provide the means to use such a controller on a Mac. It’s obviously not Apple’s responsibility to provide drivers for every any 3rd party device on the market. It’s more of a responsibility for the hardware manufacturer to do so.
The more correct statement should probably be more like this: Apple doesn’t provide drivers for 3rd party hardware like this controller, obviously, but the hardware supplier, Microsoft, doesn’t supply drivers for Mac OS X either. The message being: it’s up to the user to figure it out – which is too bad. I’m sorry if this if this was interpreted this way, and possibly offended anyone. I’ll correct the text. Thanks for the good info! Controller hardware was my problem Hope I can save somebody a head-banging session The first controller I tried was a “PowerA” “ProEX” wired Xbox 360 controller from the local MallWart. The GitHub driver got it working, but annoyingly not for the game I wanted to play; Steam could use it, but not Dirt3. It would work the Big Picture menus, but refused to start the game, or work with the game at all.
Tried everything, remapped buttons, no joy. After a day of frustration, I returned it and tried a cheap wired replacement Playstation controller, which didn’t work with Steam or the game, buttons wouldn’t map right, and was fail.
Tried a “PowerA” brand Xbox One wired controller- total fail. Then, I tried the PDP Afterglow Xbox wired controller, in conjunction with the most recent release of the driver from GitHub.
Works perfect, dual rumble and all, works great with DiRT 3 and Portal 2. DiRT looks great on the 27″ iMac screen at full res, runs great, and is super fun, btw. Can’t believe I didn’t set this up before! The PDP Afterglow is a clear controller with LED’s, looks a little cheezy to me, but who cares? You can turn the LED’s off, leave them on, or set them to flash and distract you every time the pad rumbles, if you enjoy that sort of thing. Happy gaming, and note that not all controllers are created equal; beware aftermarket Chinese “Xbox” controllers, not all of which work as original, apparently, because of arcane driver signing, manufacturer codes, or whatever else. Contrary to the slogan, sometimes, it just doesn’t work.
And unfortunately, the left stick on my new controller is slightly misaligned, pulls right constantly. You can see it in the driver test utility; when the stick is neutral position, it is giving some right input.
I’ll return it and if the gods of mass-market consumer crap smile on me, maybe I’ll get a good one Fifth try is the charm? Based on my experience, I’d avoid the local Mal-Wart for your Mac controller needs. YMMV, good luck! Hi Anthony, could it be that you didn’t sync the controller and the USB dongle? See Step 2; Now follow these steps to get connect (one time only) your XBox 360 controller:. Press the big XBox logo button (a.k.a.
The “Guide” button) on the game controller for it to switch on. Press the button on the USB receiver. Press the Connect button on the game controller. The circle around the Xbox button should light up one quarter of the circle indicating the controller number. Other guess would be the batteries of the controller (I’m just guessing here). Hi Kyri, I assume you are referring to figure 3, sync controller with the wireless/USB receiver? This process: Press the big XBox logo button (a.k.a.
The “Guide” button) on the game controller for it to switch on. Press the button on the USB receiver.
Press the Connect button on the game controller. The circle around the Xbox button should light up one quarter of the circle indicating the controller number. From the: If the binding instructions are not working, try the following solutions: Ensure you’re within range (6 meters or less) of the adapter and it’s in line of sight to the controller. If you have an Xbox controller, try rebinding your controller to the console by pressing the bind button on the console, and then the bind button on the controller. The LEDs will flash and become solid when the binding is successful. If your controller does bind, you have isolated the issue to the Wireless Adapter for Windows. If your controller does not bind to your console, see Set up the Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows.
Unplug your adapter, reboot your device, and then plug it back in (to another port if possible), and try again. Maybe might be helpful as well. I think in theory this could work. The same process yet not as detailed can be found on the app store, look for Joystick Doctor.
It too says the 360 controller drivers can be downloaded from GitHub. I downloaded the driver, to complete installation I restarted my mac. Upon logging back in I checked system preferences the 360 controller icon was there. I started to notice my mac was running slow, web pages took mins to load before it was seconds. To be on the safe side I ran BitDefender Virus Scanner, it’s been scanning for 15 mins now and has found 60 different virus’s. I would advise people to look elsewhere for 360 controller drivers, that being said I highly doubt my comments will be posted on this site.
Hi Andy, Of course your comment will be posted! I hate viruses and malware just as much as most, and I’m not the creator of the driver either.
On my Mac it runs just fine thought, no slow downs or anything weird. From what link did you download the driver? Just so we can alert other users. FYI: Based on your comment, just to be sure, I ran the latest (1.2.4) and it found zero nasty stuff with the version found in the greenbox (DOWNLOAD – XBox360 Controller for Mac) in the beginning of the article. Thanks for your guide. I did all the steps! I Bought the microsoft receiver.
I Install the driver Everything works fine, I can control de steam menu (Big Picture mode). Steam recognize my control, however when I launch CSGO it didn’t recognize. I’ve tried every common in the console (exec 360controller; exec controller.360.cfg; exec everythingifoundintheweb) I also have downloaded some cfg from internet that I found in the steam forum, without solution. I just wanna play CSGO with my xbox 360 wireless control.
Please, Help me. Hi Ruhad, I don’t have CSGO, but AFAIK this is based on the Half-Life engine as well. This is however a game specific issue – support by Steam does not mean automatic support in Steam games. I assume you followed these instructions – I’m just posting it here, incase it works for others:. Run Steam in “Big Picture” mode, which is Steam’s attempt at making their interface more console friendly. Start a game of CSGO, choose your team and open up your console.
Type the command: “exec controller.360.cfg”, hit enter. Type the command: “joystick 1”, hit enter. Thanks for The answer! Sorry for my bad English too. I’ll try what you said, reinstall the cs go.
I saw a lot of people saying that can play csgo with a Xbox control however I just saw in windows computer. In the steam forum I saw one guy saying that he could just enabling the controller option in csgo menu. As I said I’ll try to reinstall and will notice you if it works. The only way i found that works is using the Game Companion, but still not so good to play, the jogability is freak. Thanks again for the answer! I used to play CS GO on my macbook pro with a 360 wired controller no problem.
It was wonderful but when I updated to El Capitan it stopped working. Ive tried every configuration in the console and multiple 360 drivers and.cfg files on the web to no avail. I read somewhere that the new operating system may read the controller differently so the game can’t see it.
The controller works in big picture mode so I don’t know if thats necessarily true. I may try to wipe my macbook and start all over again with my original os and see if it’ll work again. I just want to play cs go with my controller again. Keyboard and mouse is just to alien to me. Hi Cheese Nip 2, I’m not sure if these drivers support an Afterglow 360 controller. The developer however offers to help and start supporting your controller (if not already), but you’ll have to submit ProductID and VendorID (from the USB device) so he can add support.
More details. Hope this helps, from what I’ve read so far, he seems very willing to add support. Quote: These can be found by accessing the Apple menu, selecting “About this Mac”, and then selecting “System Report” on the “Overview” tab. On the left hand side of the new window, select the “USB” option under “Hardware”.
If the controller is plugged in, there should be an entry in this window called “Controller”. Nice, yeah I really badly wanted to get one (I have a MBP 15″ 2013) but was sorely disappointed by lacking MagSafe and regular USB, and no touch screen, and I had hoped for a more capable GPU (thinking VR support). Oh well, we will see how things change with the next model – truly love MacOS (yes, I tried switching back to Windows, but I just can’t hahah). As for buying a controller; my advise would be to buy a genuine Microsoft. The 3rd party controllers are known to have issues when it comes to working with the Mac (and sometimes even Windows).
I still have to try my XBox One controller with my Mac, then newer (white) models are said to work with Bluetooth. I have seen reports that all XBox One controllers should work with the driver (use micro USB cable). I have not yet seen anything based on the Bluetooth option.
I finally decided to get the new MacBook Pro (15″ 2016 w/touchbar) but have not been able to test this (recently moved and my controller is somewhere buried in the not yet opened boxes). One thing I did experience though is that some so called USB to USB-c adapters are not all that great and reliable. I did have good experience with (offers 3x USB3, Ethernet, HDMI, USB-c charger input, and SC-card reader) – but have not yet tested the 360 controller. Works great with my “Das Keyboard”, LG curved 34″ monitor, Logitech gaming mouse, Logitech cordless mouse, iPhone 6S Plus, Razer Gamepad, Microsoft Keyboard, a simple USB 2 hub, and some other gadgets I tested. OK, couldn’t resist and started digging and found my corded 360 Controller faster than expected. However, was unable to find my cordless 360 Controller and Dongle (probably still at my mom’s place where I stored some stuff). Anyhoo tested the latest 360 Controller (0.16.5 – updated the download here as well) and it just works.
I tested and this. Both worked right away without any issues. I even switched while the 360 Controle panel was visible and it just picked both of them up within seconds.
The USB to USB-c is actually something I can recommend, not even $6 for 3 of them so I always have one on my desk, in my travel gear, and in my laptop bag. FYI: I tested with a 15″ MacBook Pro 2016 with Touchbar running Sierra 10.12.4. Sorry I can’t test the cordless 360 Controller hans. Bummer sorry the info was not helpful. The controller I use it the one that you actually buy as a bundle (sold as “for Windows”).
I have the wired readily available , just have no clue were I left the wireless one (the picture above is the picture I took of the wireless one I had bought). As you mentioned “original”, my first thought was: does it need a firmware update (not sure if that is even relevant for XBox 360 controllers – I know it might matter with XBox One controllers)? But then again; it worked under Bootcamp. Some silly attempts I would do; – make sure you remove the battery of the controller for a while, to make sure nothing is “stored” in the controller – use a different USB port – sync receiver and controller again I know these are pretty lame suggestions, and you might have already done these. My suggestion is to post your question at but I’m not sure if you will get an answer. And just for reference for others: This is the info displayed at the GitHub page concerning the. (not providing much info in this scenario though since the controller is not even recognized) hans.
Ok let me tell u first off. I used my controller perfectly fine on a game insurgency right after downloading the thing you said to. Steam automatically set up my controller i guess but when i went to look back at your post up here, it said to go into a valve game and type in exec 360controller which i did because unlike insurgency, the controls for gmod (the valve game i used) were not working.so i thought hey maybe this will finalize my controller setup for all m,y games ya know maybe there will be other games that don’t work for gmod. So i typed in exec 360controller and it worked, gmod controls were fine. So i exit and go back to insurgency and now the controls are all sorts of mess up so i thought screw it ya know i don’t HAVE TO have a controller so i tried using my mouse and key board and it is all sorts of messed up.
I walk forward and it wants to make me reload and the looking with the mouse is all choppy and mind you my controller is off and connector unplugged. So i went back to gmod and typed in exec undo360controller and now its saying, ‘undo360controller’ not present; not executing.
And yes my controller is on and connect while it says this. Thats about it as much as i love gmod and being able to play it with a controller i don’t love it to not play any other game. I hope you can figure out why this is happening to me. I’m more then welcome to do things that you can suggest but for right now I’m not gonna be able to play my game because w(walk forward)= shoot weapon for me and the same for my controller. Hi Jaiden, I’m sorry to hear about this mess. As far as I know (and I have not played GMod or Insurgency), the 360controller statement is for games using the Valve (Half Life 2) engine.
I have not seen it interfere with other games though, since I’m calling it from the console in (for example) Half Life 2. The suggests it is using the Valve engine as well – so you might need to configure your controls in Insurgency again (so you won’t shoot when you try to walk backwards In the end it is unfortunate that games do not always use hardware in the same way.
Hi Neil, I’ve never tried Geforce Now – I had to even Google it to find out what it exactly does (how does game play go, latency wise and such?). Haha, I just found on the nVidia website, very cool that they mention my website! But in all fairness; I’m not the developer of the tool I’ve described here. All credit goes to the guys that did the real hard work.
One thing you could look at is a tool like. As far as I recall, they allow you to map actions to keyboard actions. Not sure if that helps hans. Alright, so I installed Geforce Now and did buy Destiny 2 (standard version) from Battle.net.
First I tested it with regular mouse and keyboard and that worked surprisingly well – impressive. After closing Geforce Now, I connected my XBox One controller with a USB cable to my 2016 MacBook (w/Touchbar) through a USB to USB-c adapter. Next I installed while having my XBox One controller connected. Rebooted my Mac, and the XBox One controller did get detected correctly (I did press the XBox button).
After that I started Geforce Now and started Destiny 2 and the controller worked exactly as I’m used to when playing Destiny 2 on my Xbox One. Same controls, etc. Everything worked fine.
I did not have to do ANY settings in Destine 2 or Geforce Now. Did have to press the “A” button a few times before my Guardian started to jump (no specific reason why I choose to press “A”) but after that it work as I had hoped for. Now the next step will be testing Steam, I’ll leave that one for tomorrow. I’ll try to find my old XBox 360 controller to see if I get that one to work as well – but I haven’t used that one in a while so it might be a little search adventure to find that one again haha.
I’m also having a problem getting mine to pair. I have the genuine MS Xbox 360 Controller and Receiver (bought as a pair). I’m running macOS High Sierra (10.13.1) on my mid-2012 15″ MBP. I’m using the latest 0.16.5 driver from GitHub. When I pair the controller, all 4 lights on the controller flash slowly.
If I take the same controller and plug it into a PC, the controller lights in Controller 1 position (Top Left) like it should. If I then immediately unplug it and plug it into my MBP it goes back to flashing all 4 lights again. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Paul, sorry to hear you’re running into an issue as well. It’s quite a challenge to troubleshoot, since I can no longer find mine.
Hi Paul, Apologies if I listed some of the obvious things – just figured it would be good for other users if they try to resolve issues, I agree that there are a lot of bug reports in GitHub. I wouldn’t assume that the developer is ignoring them though – I did see quite a few duplicates as well. I’m currently running High Sierra 10.13.1 as well, but unfortunately cannot find my XBox 360 wireless controller (I’m afraid it’s in my pile of stuff that I left at family when I moved last year).
I can say that it works with a wired XBox 360 and a wired (USB cable) XBox One controller. Silly idea; did you try another USB port, and did you check if the controller dongle is listed in the USB device list?
Hi Max, Honestly not a clue. I never had 2 controllers so I have not been able to test it. If I recall the screenshot correctly; on top there is a dropdown that allows you to select a controller to configure – so I’d hope this means it would support multiple controllers. But from your question I gather it doesn’t. My suggestion: post a bug report on the github page of the developer. Sorry Just a thought: Do both controllers share the same connection/dongle? If so; consider connecting the 2nd controller to another USB port?
Might be worth a try. Since multiple folks run into the same issue with the wireless 360 controller (assuming you all use the original Microsoft controller); consider opening a support ticket on the GitHub page. I know the developer doesn’t always respond right away, but that’s beyond my control (and developing some applications myself, I know that life has a tendency to gobble up a lot of time for the usual stiff before we developers get to our projects).
Also note (from the GitHub page): Wireless Xbox 360 Controllers Always check your controller with the preference pane found at: Apple Menu - System Preferences - Xbox 360 Controllers before creating an issue. If the controller works in this menu, then the driver is operating as intended. If your controller works with this menu, but not with a specific game, then read the section.
Remember that wireless controllers must be connected using a wireless adapter. Plugging a “Play and Charge” kit into a wireless controller does not make it a wired controller. I have bought both items for this to work. I am running on a MacBook Pro with MacOS High Sierra 10.13.2. I have downloaded the most recent driver, restarted my computer, opened preferences, opened the xbox 360 controllers panel, plugged in the receiver, turned it on, pressed the “xbox button” on controller, and hit the connect button on my wireless controller. My controller lights start to spin around in a circle like its trying to connect. Then the spinning circle goes back to a blinking circle and the receiver light goes off.
What do I do? Brendan Inkster. Hi Brendan, Unfortunately, I’m not the developer of the drivers, and I did notice (here and at the Github page) that some users seem to experience this issue (see also ). A few things you can try; 1) Link controller and receiver under Windows, just to make sure it works (which it probably will), 2) Try using different USB ports (no matter how lame that sounds), 3) Turn on the controller before plugging in the receiver (even though it’s not linked yet), 4) Replace batteries (although I doubt that will be an issue), 5) Try one of the newer versions (see where some did a build a few days ago – it’s a private build so use at your own risk, but it seems to include some improvements: ). Please let us know if any of this helps – it’s just my checklist in case I’d run into this issue. Folks reading this article should be aware that Wireless Controllers (and specifically, the Wireless Xbox 360 controllers using the Receiver, official or otherwise) are explicitly NOT supported with the referenced open source driver.
I guess I’m going to be using this device exclusively with my Windows box. Details here: “As of macOS 10.11, Wireless Xbox 360 controller support causes kernel panics. This issue cannot be resolved with minor changes to the driver, and requires that the driver be re-written from scratch to resolve the issue. Due to an excess of caution, we have disabled Wireless Xbox 360 controller support as of 0.16.6. If you want to use a wireless controller, download 0.16.5 or earlier and disable the driver before the computer enters a “sleep” state in order to prevent kernel panics. Alternatively, you can revert to a macOS version before 10.11 to avoid this issue.” Thomas Leavitt. Link QR Code.
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