
PC Drivers for the Xbox One Controller - stumpyfr
http://majornelson.com/2014/06/05/pc-drivers-for-the-xbox-one-controller-available-now/?linkId=8424381
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orware
No offense against the Xbox One controller (which I do enjoy using), but I
think for my casual on-the-road or in my room gaming on my laptop I'll just
keep on using my PS4 Controller (I didn't get a PS4, but the $60 on the
controller was well spent :-).

Instructions for PC setup can be found here: [http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-
DS4-To-XInput-Wrapper](http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-DS4-To-XInput-Wrapper)

It's really nice not to have to worry about extra wires :-).

It makes me wonder why there aren't more Bluetooth PC controllers out there (I
really haven't seen too many, maybe like one from Logitech, but none of them
are as good as the console ones anyway so it's a moot point for me).

~~~
LaikaF
Most gaming PCs don't have inbuilt bluetooth.

Everyone has USB.

~~~
Dylan16807
A bluetooth module costs a dollar and is the size of a USB plug. The aversion
to bluetooth is _weird_.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
PC gaming culture is defined by one guy in front of his box/laptop. Wireless
controllers for console make sense because its usually multiple people many
feet away from a TV.

I don't want a wireless controller for my PC. Its just more needless
complexity. I don't want to worry about batteries for something that I use 2
feet from my PC.

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bkurtz13
I've been waiting for this for a long time. The Xbox One controller has many
small improvements that build up to a noticeable difference over the Xbox 360
controller I've been using to play games like Watch Dogs on the PC. It's
vastly more comfortable for extended sessions.

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mistagiggles
I'm more interesting in the fact that he is showing Halo 2 running on (what
I'm guessing) is the microsoft surface. It seems like a strange choice to
choose a game that is almost 10 years old unless he is hinting that Halo 2
Anniversary is also coming to PC?

~~~
gambiting
Halo 2 was also the very first game to officially support the XInput API of
the X360 controller on Windows, so he might be paying homage to it by showing
that the first game running with the Xbox One controller is nothing else but
Halo 2.

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xpose2000
Once the wireless dongle gets released then I will jump in. Not a big fan of
having to plug it in. For now I'll stick with the 360 controller I have.

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raphaelj
What are the new features of the Xbox One controller as compared to those of
the Xbox 360 one ?

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I'm not much of a console gamer but I own both systems and occasionally play
the newest hyped game on them, finish it, and don't touch it for months, but
in imho they new one feels a lot better in my hands. I think it has a lower
profile, is somewhat smaller, and is definitely lighter.

The 360 controller just feels like a brick in my hands now.

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izzydata
What about wireless support?

~~~
lost_name
For the Xbox 360, the wireless controllers communicate wirelessly _even while
plugged in_. There's a dongle you can purchase to make it work, though I
believe it's discontinued. I wouldn't expect one for the Xbox One controller.

~~~
timo614
You can still buy it as part of a controller bundle for now:
[http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Xbox-Wireless-Controller-
Win...](http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Xbox-Wireless-Controller-
Windows/dp/B004QRKWKQ)

Not sure if Amazon is just working through the remainder of their stock though
if it is discontinued (they're listed as a seller on the right since some
third part one is like a dime cheaper). I never was able to find the Microsoft
dongle alone without the controller though so perhaps they did discontinue it.

Not a bad price for both the dongle and a controller though and always nice to
have another one for when friends stop by for some Sonic Racing.

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roryokane
The text

> We're planning to release the drivers as part of a Windows update in the
> near future; however, today, I am happy to offer early access to our
> dedicated PC gamers on MajorNelson.com.

screamed “trojan” to me when I read it. It sounded like a random site was
claiming to be affiliated with Microsoft, and was trying to get me to download
and install a malicious driver. (The comments say the driver has a signature
that Windows does not recognize.)

However, the site does seem legitimate. [http://majornelson.com/general-blog-
faq/](http://majornelson.com/general-blog-faq/) explains who the site owner
is:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Hryb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Hryb),
the Director of Programming for Xbox Live. And the site has many real
commenters who seem to treat the site owner as an authority.

~~~
chc
Yes, MajorNelson is fairly well-known in the Xbox-using community (actually
better known by the pseudonym than as Larry Hryb). He really is Microsoft's
Xbox Live director.

~~~
wtallis
But this is about a software release for the PC gaming community, not the Xbox
community. Handling things this way shows that somebody's got an embarrassing
(though mostly harmless) PR blind spot. It's fine for Microsoft to have it as
a goal that everyone who plays PC games is also part of their Xbox ecosystem,
but pretending in any way that it's already that way is off-putting and not
helping.

~~~
chc
At the moment, this release is targeting the Xbox community, because that's
who owns Xbox One controllers. I'm sure Microsoft will do a proper page on a
more Microsofty domain in due time when they actually release the drivers with
Windows.

~~~
wtallis
> _" I am happy to offer early access to our dedicated PC gamers on
> MajorNelson.com_"

There's a definite conflict between the statement that they're targeting
"dedicated PC gamers" and the action that they're doing it through the Xbox
community. Come to think of it, does Microsoft even _have_ an established
gaming-oriented channel through which to release something like this apart
from their console-oriented Xbox branded stuff?

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PhasmaFelis
Am I missing something, or did they just break backwards compatibility
_again?_ Bad enough the first time around, when they conned a bunch of lazy-
ass devs into only supporting 360 pads and our standard USB gamepads stopped
working.

I try to avoid knee-jerk Microsoft bashing, but they're really making it hard.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
I genuinely have no idea why this is getting downvotes. Was I not clear? I
thought we were all on the same page here re: "standards are good, pointlessly
breaking compatibility is bad."

There's an established standard for USB gamepads, and Microsoft (a) ignored it
in favor of their own proprietary standard Xinput and (b) convinced quite a
lot of devs to only support Xinput. This means that a perfectly functional
Logitech or Saitek gamepad from the late 2000s is useless with modern games,
and a 360 pad is useless with older games, unless you jump through hoops with
drivers. It also means that it's difficult to get a 360 pad working correctly
on non-Windows platforms.

It makes no sense that the Xbone controller, which has the same controls in
the same places as the 360 controller, wasn't backwards-compatible out of the
box; and I'm suspicious that they'll push devs to support the Xbone pad
exclusively to force 360-pad owners to upgrade, because they've already done
that once.

~~~
watty
What were they doing to "convince a lot of devs to only support XInput"?

[http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/desktop/ee41...](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/desktop/ee417014\(v=vs.85\).aspx)

~~~
PhasmaFelis
For starters, as your link says, the analog trigger buttons don't work
properly in DirectInput. Instead of registering as two independent axes, they
show up as Left and Right on the same axis, so pressing both triggers at once
looks the same as no-input. The triggers are generally the preferred control
for primary buttons, so for all practical purposes XInput is required if you
want to support the 360 pad.

(Their explanation is "the Xbox 360 controller was designed to register
minimum value, not center, when the triggers are not being held." Seems like
the obvious solution would be "don't do that.")

