Big thread of gamepad testing

dapetcu21 · April 7, 2023, 6:35am

Now that 1.2.157 is out, having a bunch of different gamepads, I decided to test them all on as many platforms and as many connection modes as I can, looking for issues. I’ll keep updating this post as I go through them all.

Feel free to post your own findings for your own controllers in this structured format.

I used Controllers Lite (abrev. CL from now on) on macOS to cross-check that the gamepads actually work. All the Linux tests were made on Ubuntu 18.04.2.

Gamepad Tester project: publicexamples/examples/gamepad_tester at master · britzl/publicexamples · GitHub

gdc tool
There are versions of the GDC tool for Windows, Linux and macOS. Download from the latest GitHub Release of Defold: Releases · defold/defold · GitHub

TLDR:

Just download this and most things will work:
all_gamepads.gamepads.txt (450.7 KB)

Big table of gamepads

Gamepad	OS	Issues	Gamepad mapping
Xbox One (Bluetooth)	macOS	`gdc` doesn’t see triggers (Button 18/19, analog, in CL) and the share and guide buttons (Button 17/1 in CL). Everything else works.	xboxone_bt_mac.gamepads.txt (2.7 KB)
Xbox One (Bluetooth)	Windows	Same issue as Xbox 360 Wireless	See xbox360_win.gamepads.txt
Xbox One (Bluetooth, default Ubuntu driver)	Linux	Driver doesn’t report share and guide buttons. Everything else works.	xboxone_bt_linux.gamepads.txt (3.3 KB)
Xbox One (Bluetooth, xpadneo driver)	Linux	All ok, but has the same name as the default driver, so cannot use both maps at the same time.	xboxone_xpadneo_linux.gamepads.txt (2.6 KB)
Xbox One (USB) (driver)	macOS	All ok	default.gamepads
Xbox One (USB)	Windows	Same issue as Xbox 360 Wireless	See xbox360_win.gamepads.txt
Xbox One (USB)	Linux	All ok	xboxone_usb_linux.gamepads.txt (2.6 KB)
Xbox 360 Wireless (with dongle) (driver)	macOS	All ok	default.gamepads
Xbox 360 Wireless (with dongle)	Windows	Using `default.gamepads` the triggers are stuck in the 0.5-1.0 range. Creating a new mapping with gdc works ok. Forum post	xbox360_win.gamepads.txt (2.3 KB)
Xbox 360 Wireless (with dongle)	Linux	All ok	xbox360_linux.gamepads.txt (2.6 KB)
DualShock 4 (Bluetooth)	macOS	Defold sees it as “Wireless Controller” and uses the same mapping as USB DS4. `gdc` sees it, but pressing anything does nothing. Forum post
DualShock 4 (Bluetooth) (driver)	Windows	Same issue as Xbox 360 Wireless; gdc freezes with this connected, but works in-engine	See xbox360_win.gamepads.txt
DualShock 4 (Bluetooth)	Linux	All ok	ds4_bt_linux.gamepads.txt (3.5 KB)
DualShock 4 (USB)	macOS	All ok	default.gamepads
DualShock 4 (USB) (driver)	Windows	Same issue as Xbox 360 Wireless; gdc freezes with this connected, but works in-engine	See xbox360_win.gamepads.txt
DualShock 4 (USB)	Linux	All ok	ds4_usb_linux.gamepads.txt (3.6 KB)
JoyCon L (Bluetooth)	macOS	All ok. Stick is not analog due to OS driver limitations	joycon_l_mac.gamepads.txt (1.0 KB)
JoyCon R (Bluetooth)	macOS	All ok. Stick is not analog due to OS driver limitations	joycon_r_mac.gamepads.txt (1.0 KB)
JoyCon L (Bluetooth) (driver)	Windows	Couldn’t get it to recognize as an XInput device (probably driver issue)
JoyCon R (Bluetooth) (driver)	Windows	Couldn’t get it to recognize as an XInput device (probably driver issue)
JoyCon L (Bluetooth)	Linux	All ok. Stick is not analog due to OS driver limitations	joycon_l_linux.gamepads.txt (1.6 KB)
JoyCon R (Bluetooth)	Linux	All ok. Stick is not analog due to OS driver limitations	joycon_r_linux.gamepads.txt (1.6 KB)
Logitech Chillstream (old aftermarket Wired 360 clone, XInput) (USB) (driver)	macOS	All ok	default.gamepads
Logitech Chillstream (USB)	Windows	Same issue as Xbox 360 Wireless	See xbox360_win.gamepads.txt
Logitech Chillstream (USB)	Linux	All ok	chillstream_linux.gamepads.txt (2.6 KB)
Genius Maxfire Blaze 3 (ancient DualShock 1 clone, DirectInput) (USB)	macOS	All ok	maxfireblaze3_mac.gamepads.txt (2.2 KB)
Genius Maxfire Blaze 3 (USB)	Windows	Doesn’t work due to it not being XInput
Genius Maxfire Blaze 3 (USB)	Linux	All ok	maxfireblaze3_linux.gamepads.txt (3.3 KB)

britzl · June 26, 2019, 8:37pm

Wow, impressive work! We should be able to add the mappings you’ve shared to builtins. @AGulev can you please create a ticket for this?

Mathias_Westerdahl · June 26, 2019, 9:08pm

Wow, thanks a lot @dapetcu21! Really helpful!

dapetcu21 · June 26, 2019, 9:16pm

Thanks! I’ll concatenate all the mappings tomorrow, together with what’s already in builtins, but I wouldn’t add the Maxfire Blaze and Logitech Chillstream to builtins. They’re ancient, out of production controllers me and a colleague had since childhood .

dapetcu21 · June 27, 2019, 9:13am

I found this in the xpad driver source code, and I was wondering if we should add all those controller names (at least the ones with XTYPE_XBOX360 and XTYPE_XBOXONE) to the default .gamepads file. They probably have the same button maps (They were consistent between Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Chillstream from what I noticed).

For example, there are at least 3 versions of the Xbox One controller, with different names.

github.com

torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/input/joystick/xpad.c

// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
/*
 * X-Box gamepad driver
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2002 Marko Friedemann <mfr@bmx-chemnitz.de>
 *               2004 Oliver Schwartz <Oliver.Schwartz@gmx.de>,
 *                    Steven Toth <steve@toth.demon.co.uk>,
 *                    Franz Lehner <franz@caos.at>,
 *                    Ivan Hawkes <blackhawk@ivanhawkes.com>
 *               2005 Dominic Cerquetti <binary1230@yahoo.com>
 *               2006 Adam Buchbinder <adam.buchbinder@gmail.com>
 *               2007 Jan Kratochvil <honza@jikos.cz>
 *               2010 Christoph Fritz <chf.fritz@googlemail.com>
 *
 * This driver is based on:
 *  - information from     http://euc.jp/periphs/xbox-controller.ja.html
 *  - the iForce driver    drivers/char/joystick/iforce.c
 *  - the skeleton-driver  drivers/usb/usb-skeleton.c
 *  - Xbox 360 information http://www.free60.org/wiki/Gamepad
 *  - Xbox One information https://github.com/quantus/xbox-one-controller-protocol

This file has been truncated. show original

dapetcu21 · June 27, 2019, 9:57am

Here’s the .gamepads file with all the gamepads (what was already there in default.gamepads, Xbox 360, Xbox One, DS4, Joycons, plus all the xpad gamepads on Linux).

all_gamepads.gamepads.txt (450.7 KB)

To sum up:

On macOS, the DS4 controller doesn’t work at all via Bluetooth
On macOS, the Xbox One controller via Bluetooth is missing triggers and the share and guide buttons
On Windows, the Xbox 360 binding in default.gamepads had wrong trigger ranges. I replaced it with a working one
On Linux, it would be cool to be able to differentiate between Xbox One Bluetooth via xpadneo vs default HID driver.
On Linux, gdc crashes on startup for me (and it crashes for @Klear on Windows)
On Windows, gdc freezes, then exits silently when a DS4 is connected

AGulev · June 27, 2019, 10:00am

I added new task for that: Issue-4217 ( #4217)

AGulev · August 8, 2019, 4:19pm

Hi, I found duplicates in you list for linux:
device: “Mad Catz Xbox 360 Controller”
device: “Afterglow AX.1 Gamepad for Xbox 360”
device: “PDP Xbox One Controller”
device: “Rock Candy Gamepad for Xbox 360”
device: “Logic3 Controller”
device: “PDP Afterglow AX.1”
device: “SteelSeries Stratus Duo”
device: “PDP AFTERGLOW AX.1”
device: “Razer Sabertooth”
device: “Razer Atrox Arcade Stick”
device: “Xbox Airflo wired controller”
device: “ThrustMaster Ferrari 458 Racing Wheel”

I think I can remove it? (or maybe duplicates should have another platform?)

dapetcu21 · August 8, 2019, 4:59pm

Sure, if you found duplicates, you can remove them

AGulev · August 19, 2019, 12:50pm

Solved in Defold 1.2.160 has been released

dapetcu21 · October 22, 2019, 1:35pm

Update for Catalina:

DS4 through Bluetooth shows up as “DUALSHOCK 4 Wireless Controller” instead of just “Wireless Controller”, but gdc crashes with a segfault immediately after that.

dapetcu21 · October 22, 2019, 1:51pm

Yeah. gdc crashes on Catalina no matter the controller

Pkeod · May 27, 2022, 11:21pm

gdc tool does not detect joycons on Windows 11, seems to crash / close on its own.

britzl · May 28, 2022, 5:42am

Thanks, we’ll look into it!

britzl · May 31, 2022, 7:47am

Created GitHub issue: https://github.com/defold/defold/issues/6658

Alex_8BitSkull · July 6, 2022, 8:12am

I’m getting reports that DualShock 5 isn’t working. I checked the list in the original post and indeed it only goes as far as 4. I tried to download the utility but I get a 404.

Mathias_Westerdahl · July 6, 2022, 8:16am

Each of the gdc links worked for me here (version 1.3.4):
http://d.defold.com/stable/

Alex_8BitSkull · July 6, 2022, 8:32am

Thanks! Managed to get the utility from there.

I don’t own a DualShock 5 but my friend does. He reports that the utility is not detecting any controllers. He is confident that the controller works (i.e. it is currently being detected by other games). As expected, Fates of Ort is not detecting the gamepad. I imagine this is the case for all Defold games.

What might we do next?

britzl · July 6, 2022, 8:34am

Do you get any raw input from the DualShock 5?

Alex_8BitSkull · July 6, 2022, 8:36am

No. Well, I haven’t previously checked for “raw” specifically but when I print the action_id nothing is returned at all, and we’d expect “raw” there.