I understand that Windows currently recognizes DS4 out of the gate, but are we at the plug-in-and-play level with most games yet? Most guides on the 'net about this refer to drivers that are at this point a couple of months old, so I have no idea what it actually looks like now. Anyone here using the DS4 on the PC? What is it like, and have drivers been updated? I ask this mainly because I really like the feel of the DS4 (I tried it out on public displays at stores), and am looking at maybe replacing my 360 Windows controllers once I finally get around to maybe getting a PS4.

I have never tried to hook up my DS4 to a PC, but I'm of the opinion that it will never function as well as a controller with native support. But if you really do prefer the feel of it, then go for it. From what I know set up is pretty painless and it's current drivers are pretty good, but you never know what can break or what games that wont work well with it because it is community made.

I hope one day sony creates their own drivers for it. It's probably a slight conflict of interest for them, but saying your controller has out of the box PC support will assuredly increase sales of said controller, especially if its a good one (and I think it is).

@rongalaxy:

Not going to lie, I'm mainly asking this because of the MGSV PC reveal. I know that the series is now multi-platform, but playing MGSV with Xbox or PC button prompts would just feel wrong somehow.

Use the DS4 tool, it'll make your PC think your DS4 is an xbox 360 controller and it works fine in every game I've tested so far. You get the 360 button overlay and most games will enable the default 360 controller layout so it's very easy jump in and play games with the DS4 that way.

DS4 tool can be found here

you cant escape xbox button prompts. The DS4 community drivers dont replace those, only the developer of the game can add alternate button prompts and no developer includes playstation button prompts in their games because the controller isn't officially supported.

Well, I guess you or someone could mod it to have ps button prompts...

...But that would be ridiculous

At this point, I'd recommend DS4 Windows since it's frequently updated and has a bunch more features.

I just started using Jays2Kings's DS4Windows fork because he's still publishing the source. I found it simpler to get working than the dsdcs DS4Tool (that Chumley_Marchbanks linked) because it gives you instructions when you first start it up (install driver, push these buttons for bluetooth pairing). One problem I had for getting it to work wirelessly was that the bluetooth code is 0000.

You also have to set the controller to use a profile for it to work (otherwise, I think just the directinput works). In retrospect, this may have been my problem getting DS4Tool to work.

So far I've got the controller working with Mirror's Edge (didn't work at all before) and Trine (couldn't aim to the right before). I haven't had any success with Left 4 Dead 2 (I can navigate the menus, but cannot aim or move in game). It's cool that the trackpad works to control your mouse cursor.

I was going to create a new thread with more or less this title, so I might as well tag onto this. What is the current 2017 status of the DualShock 4 on PC? Does Steam recognize it yet, or do I still need to run a utility?

I've been using an Xbox One controller on PC for a while, but it starting acting up, and I wanted to weigh my options before messing around with getting that controller working again or buying a new PC controller.

I've been getting my Cuphead time with a DS4. It's been plug and play for me.

@clagnaught: steam has native support and can read it like a steam controller allowing you to program it however you want.

Outside of steam its still a crap shoot on who supports it out of box, but since most games are on steam these days its not bad.

It works with Steam, yes, but not all games support it. I still run InputMapper alongside it to emulate xinput.

Windows 10 also recently updated their Bluetooth support and my ancient Bluetooth dongle stopped working with my DS4s. Bought a new one, and it wasn't supported by InputMapper. So I ended up with an official Sony DS4 dongle, and it works great, but only pairs with one controller at a time. Pairing is super fast and easy though, so I can switch out my controllers easily enough.

@oursin_360: Thanks. Steam seems to work great with it now.

I still use input mapper (https://inputmapper.com/) to really get all the functions working like the touchpad as a mouse, turn on/off the led bar, and using it wirelessly with my particular bt dongle just works better with inputmapper. I like setting up different profiles in there for different games. Sometimes a game will work with a 360 pad and not the ds4. "emulate the 360 xinput" works like a charm.

I forget what game it was but I just played something recently that let you switch from Xbox to Playstation buttons in the game UI. I hope offical drivers come out, would be nice for it to just work. I prefer it to Xbox for D-Pad games. (plus the trackpad could be used as a mouse for times games crash to desktop)

I think it was Nuclear Throne but not sure.

I use Steam, and even with games that technically don't support it you just have to select and option that tells Steam to treat it like a 360 pad. Then I add my GOG games to Steam and they work either way.

@rosesaredan: Whoa. Where is that option? I've wanted to get rid of InputMapper for a long time.

When your DS4 is paired and registered with Steam, you'll get the option to configure it just as you can with a Steam Controller, which means community maps as well as Steam's presets, one of which is the standard analogue controller preset for games with built-in controller support. It can behave slightly erratically (but that's when I've been dealing with mods and non-Steam games) but the vast majority of the time it's perfect. I've found that the easiest way to get access to that stuff is through Big Picture mode.

My preferred controller. Works great. Sometimes have to use that one program for it though. I didn't know that steam had some ps4 setting though I will have to try that out.

@sinusoidal: @dave_tacitus: What Dave said, you can completely customize your own inputs very precisely as well. I don't always like it because it means I have to have Steam open, but you can have it on or off on a per game basis for games that support it naively.

@dave_tacitus: Does it automatically emulate xinput if the game doesn't directly support the DS4? I can't find any options that let me turn on xinput emulation a la InputMapper or DS4Windows.

Yep, every X-Input game I've tried has worked. Inputmapper and DS4W should emulate X-Input by default, also, no need to check a settings box.

the ds4 wireless adapter works perfect with any emulator I've used it with, and the handful of steam games i've used. Saints Row 3, Doom, and slime rancher. I love it.