Dualshock 4 support in games

[Marioysikax 89]

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Controller:DualShock_4

 

Now that the official wireless PC dongle is available, me getting one in near future, I really think that cleaning up the support in games in that article should be pretty high priority - especially when it still seems like majority are using DS4Windows or similar wrappers even though at that point they do not need anything more than regular bluetooth. 

 

Problem comes down to implementation of support for this controller differs so wildly under windows: 

- Exclusive support with lighbar without DirectInput support.

- Exclusive support without lighbar without DirectInput support.

- Exclusive support via hard mapped DirectInput bindings.

- General DirectInput support with profile for the controller. (Includes some Unity middleware and SDL2)

And all may or may not give prompts. 

 

So I propose following: Let's use lighbar field to make listing these games easier. 

 

Unknown: Not tested at all. 

N/A: Game does not support the controller, so at that point lightbar shouldn't work. This includes generic DirectInput games which require player to remap the buttons to make controller working. 

False: Game does support controller properly with correct bindings, but lightbar stays off with wired connection. 

True: Game does support controller properly with correct bindings and lightbar acts according to game with some manner, even just turning on static color. 

 

With this way it should be easy to get all the games that have either true/false and list them on dualshock 4 article and additionally have prompts and lightbar as their own columns, instead of current approach where there are 3 seperate lists which has dublicates and games which only have mods to install dualshock prompts. 

 

I can manually go trough games which have the lightbar field as anything other than unknown to ensure that list is correct and change stuff to unknown if unsure. I would still need that kind of list to go trough and the controller article would need that table done, last time I copy pasted the snipplet to make the table as I haven't familiarized how the heck SMW works. 

[Marioysikax 89]

This sounds like a good solution, however: there are multiple games that only have DualShock 4 support (and with that lightbar support) only on Linux - see Transistor, Apotheon, Dust, etc.

At least with Transistor and Dust, controller can work natively also under Windows and the lightbar function is noted in games article. So some of those games would be on the list in any case, but it would also be much better list from current one, as the current list on the controller article still just lists all the games and has note to check game article for system specific info. 

 

E: Also wouldn't include all those games which are XInput only and simply Dualshock button mods. 

[Mirh 103]

I'm always skeptical about vendor-specific stuff in tables.

 

Couldn't we have like a "property" with values accepting sub-values or notes as values ?

[Garrett 214]

If you are wanting to use the lightbar row for information that isn't related to actual lightbar use it may be better to reword it in some way. The current implementation only shows this row when it is true or hackable.

 

Either way, the manual "Native support without prompts" list needs to be removed (this information should be covered directly on the game pages or not at all).

[Marioysikax 89]

If you are wanting to use the lightbar row for information that isn't related to actual lightbar use it may be better to reword it in some way. The current implementation only shows this row when it is true or hackable.

I was actually thinking this as kind of way to get list automatically done with SMW, because if the controller doesn't work with game, then lightbar would most definitely be n/a. That way the field still serves it's purpose it was created for, but is simply used to narrow down the supported list. And on paper that should work just fine, because most likely it's left unknown to begin with and if table states XInput controllers only, then it's easy to change n/a. 

 

Maybe we should consider adding support for explicit statements on controller support. A row for Xinput/DirectInput + info on whatever controllers are supported by default. This would be only for the Windows versions of the game. Might need more brainstorming.

I would be OK with this. I have been listing the support in controller note field up to this point. 

 

However there are several games that do support Dualshock 4 controller, but doesn't use DirectInput nor recognize any DirectInput controllers at all. Also games that have Steam Controller specific features, like CS:GO which actually has gun specific haptic feedback but no XInput rumble support - this is also why I have wanted steam controller to prompts field. So that table should then at least have those four options, not just XInput/DirectInput. 

 

Either way, the manual "Native support without prompts" list needs to be removed (this information should be covered directly on the game pages or not at all).

Problem with this list is that there are several games which work with the controller or have specifically being updated to support that controller only, but do not utilize controllers extra features like lightbar and still give xbox buttons. Because of this, there's no way to automatically create list of those games in any way. This includes games I could easily play with Dualshock 4 but which were impossible to play with any other DirectInput controllers unless using XInput wrappers, either button mappings being completely odd places or majority of controllers buttons being unbound. 

 

So like I said, it becomes really problematic to gather games that work with the controller into one definitive list and now that amount of games support is rising and official peripheral for PC specifically has been released, that kind of list is necessary. Even more necessary than list of 30 FPS games in my mind at least. 

[Marioysikax 89]

Actually just realized the problem. If there were field which allowed inputting supported controller types, then games which exclusive support Dualshock 4 but trough hard bound directinput mapping, wouldn't have DS4 support in table but in notes, making automatic list worthless again. 

 

I really do not want to start own manual list on reddit for this :| 

[Garrett 214]

Soeb's suggestion of a supported controllers list would encompass the DualShock 4 etc. regardless of how the developer chose to implement official support for it (also separate from any lightbar support).

[Mirh 103]

Maybe we should consider adding support for explicit statements on controller support. A row for Xinput/DirectInput + info on whatever controllers are supported by default. This would be only for the Windows versions of the game. Might need more brainstorming.

We already have the middleware table (which we also use for some APIs for reasons), and I'm not a fan of duplication.

 

Actually just realized the problem. If there were field which allowed inputting supported controller types, then games which exclusive support Dualshock 4 but trough hard bound directinput mapping, wouldn't have DS4 support in table but in notes, making automatic list worthless again. 

Notes are parsable if logical.

I thought this was the big part of soeb's plan?

 

Anyway..... I feel like perhaps we should treat DS4 API as separate than DirectInput?

If then the controller coincidentally also support DI it's another matter.