How to get normal Hardware Controller behavior back for Steam (Big Picture)

[Skydivin4ng3l]

I got reWASD, the full package. I use a DS4 Bluetooth or cable.

Its great, for emulation as xbox360 or Mouse Keyboard. In non Steam Games.

But I can not make my controller work in its native function anymore. Closing reWASD and disabling Remap does not help, the controller does not show up within steam only in the bluetooth devices but not as working controller. The game controller list is empty in windows.

Restarting the computer and removing reWASD from Startup does not help.

I unchecked the hide option. Also in the tray options unchecked autodetect.

Within Steam and its Bigpicture I do not want to make use of reWASDs features, but it seams i cannot get my native controller back at least not conveniently. Especially since the the emulated DS4 has no touchpad functions which are supported in Steams Big Picture. Also the virtual DS4 does not show up in Steam.

Do i have to deinstall reWASD everytime i want to use my hardware with steam as intended? I hope not!

I hope someone has an idea what to do.

[Star-Lord]

Hello,
Thank you for your report.

1. Remap is OFF completely disable the reWASD mappings and the controller (DS4 in your case) becomes as default one. Moreover, the reWASD doesn't interfere with a gamepad firmware at all.

How the controller is detected in the system? Please, open the joy.cpl (win button - > type joy.cpl). Also, the joy.cpl allows checking the controller actions, so select Properties and check how buttons are triggered as the native controls or remapped ones?


2. What are controller settings, basic configurations in the Steam?

3. Any other mappers or drivers for the DS4?

[Skydivin4ng3l]

Hello,
Thanks for the quick response,

1. Remap is OFF completely disable the reWASD mappings and the controller (DS4 in your case) becomes as default one. Moreover, the reWASD doesn't interfere with a gamepad firmware at all.

When i closed reWASD or turned Remap OFF the controller remained detected or at least A Controller in the Device and Printers screen BUT joy.cpl was empty so no controller properties but when Remap was ON controller buttons reproduce the set Remap.

My suggestion was that the controller remained hidden. Also because cabled or re-paire of the DS4 did not change anything.
Maybe the auto-detect/-apply feature is bugged when explorer.exe is involved?

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2. What are controller settings, basic configurations in the Steam?

DS4 Support is on in Big Picture
Guide Button Focuses on Steam
Turn off on Big Picture Exit

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3. Any other mappers or drivers for the DS4?

I had serval over the years,

1. DS3 Tool
2. Better DS3
3. DS4 Windows, -> no longer -> also Custom version for CEMU Support which is still on the system but not installed (like portable software)
4. Xpadder, -> no longer
5. Inputmapper 1.6 -> no longer
6. Inputmapper 1.7 alpha -> no longer

Lately I used Inputmapper 1.6 which got buggy somehow tried to use the alpha of Inputmapper 1.7 which somehow worked but was unusable for Mouse/KB which in the end lead me to reWASD which was a blasting solution in the area I was looking for, but now having issues with the "Normal" Usage of my controller.

In terms of Driver I had ViGEmBUS installed with Inputmapper 1.7, which are both now no longer on the system

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I managed to get the controller back by removing its Device in the Device Manager (the classic one) and re-paired the controller while all reWASD was closed/disabled and the device was blacklisted.

Steams DS4 detection was back and in joy.cpl the controller was visible. Also tested the use of reWASD without hide feature emulating a mice/KB, which worked.

Since then i did not try to use the hide feature again, but without it i cannot emulate a Xbox360, which was the second reason why i bought reWASD.

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Somekind of REPRO for getting the controller back working as a native DS4 controller, (all the things I tried and current working state)

1. Disable the hide feature
2. Switch off all autodected app settings in all my profiles
3. Disable remap
4. Blacklist the device
5. Close all reWASD
6. Remove reWASD from autostart and opt-out on all tray functions within the app
7. deinstalled Inputmapper 1.7
8. deinstalled ViGEmBUS
9. Restart my computer
10. remove my device from the device manager
11. reconnect and rebind/pair bluetooth my DS4
12. unblack listed for M/KB emulation

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Will try to reproduce the faulty behavior and come back to this post with my findings.

[reWASDer]

Hello!

Thank you for the research. I believe that a few different drivers in the system caused the conflict. Great to know that it is OK now. Please let us know if you still encounter the issue with no controller in the system after turning remap off in reWASD.

[Skydivin4ng3l]

heyho,

During my Investigation, I found another behavior, which mixes up the hide feature.

It has to do with the fact, that Windows detects one Controller first connected via Bluetooth (BT) and then additionally via cable as two controllers in joy.cpl.
The BT one remains there until BT is turned off in windows.

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Behavior Details

1. connect my DS4 via Bluetooth,
2. use reWASD to emulate virtual Xbox360, the hardware DS4 gets hidden.
3. Connect controller via cable, say because the batteries are low, without disabling Bluetooth of windows (just turn off the controller (10sec guide/ps button) does not help, it remains registered in joy.cpl ) a second Controller gets registered which is not hidden.
4. Now starting Steam in Big Picture for example results in double key presses caused by the controller beeing detected as ds4 and xbox360 as different controllers with the same simultaneous input.

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Without reWASD Steam can seemingly detect this windows quirk and just registers the two joy.cpl controllers as one DS4 controller with single inputs.

Also enabling/disabling remap after there are "two" controllers in joy.cpl only the Bluetooth controller gets remapped/unmapped (hidden/revealed).

In this "two" controller situation the corded Controller does not shows up in reWASD, only the BT Controller.
When Windows BT is disabled to kick out the registered wireless controller (it can be re-enabled after this) and the controller is still connected via cable the registered controller in reWASD remains the BT controller (BT symbol in the UI of reWASD). Everything works fine (needs testing if same behavior when remap is ON while BT disablement)

Connect via cable first is the only way to get the controller registered in reWASD as cabled one (UI wise) and then pressing ps/guide button won't provoke a connection via BT although BT is enabled.

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I hope this is kind of comprehensible ^^ and can help to make reWASD better =)

Greetz

[Skydivin4ng3l]

Additionally when remap is manually activated it can only be ended by manually disabling it, closing rewasd app and all tray icons won't quit/revert the remap, not sure if this is intended.

[Star-Lord]

Hello,
Thank you for the detailed report.

I see, the issue that 2 devices are detected in the system despite that this is a single device with the same device ID but a different connection type. We understand why it is happening and have already thoughts about how it could be managed.

[Star-Lord]

Hi there,

We have released the 5.3 version where we fixed the reported above problem. We would appreciate it if you try to reproduce the problem with the latest version.

Looking forward to your feedback.

[Skydivin4ng3l]

Hey there,

I can verify that it is no longer a problem. At least the second non remapped controller is gone in joy.cpl.
Although the second Controller from additional cabled connection to paired bluetooth, pops up a short time but disappears instantly again.

BUT I have to report a related bug: The "Light" of the DS4 switches off as soon as remapped BT Controller gets additionally connected via cable.

1. Connect via BT
2. Additionally connect by cable.
3. Remap to Virtual XBox360.
4. Disconnect Cable.
5. Reconnect Cable.
6. Observe that Light is Off but mapping still works. (Steam gets the light control for the "additional" controller for a second then goes off)
7. Remap On/Off does not bring light back
8. Only Disconnect of Cable OR Disable Systemwide BT brings Lights back on.

Hope this helps.

Greetz

[Skydivin4ng3l]

EDIT: Additionally if BT gets disabled in 8. the disconnection of the cable results into a still detected remapped xbox360 controller in joy.cpl. Which then again result into the situation when reconnected via BT that there are two different controllers registers in joy.cpl one remapped the other not. But the remapped one (virtual xbox360) does not react to inputs although remap in rewasd is displayed as ON.

[Skydivin4ng3l]

Lights Off issue is not related to Steam, just verified the behavior without steam running.

[Skydivin4ng3l]

Also during remapped State with BT connected Controller and shortcut with disable wireless joystick command, the wireless controller in joy.cpl adds itself additional to the remapped virtual xbox360 although the controller is not connected.

This might be no big problem but still a bit messed up.

[Star-Lord]

Hello,
Thank you for the report and the steps to reproduce. Going to try reproducing it and back with updated info.

Thank you in advance.