Playstation and other game controllers support in XInput.dll

Question

Playstation and other game controllers support in XInput.dll

p_jaholkowski 41

From years as I remember people tried to use Playstation controllers in games which reads game controller input through XInput.dll module (which does not support Playstation controllers). There is some mind-breaking operation with XInput.dll replacement which is loaded instead of original XInput.dll and has ability to read playstation controllers. As I recently found it would not be necessary if XInput was implemented correclty. At https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/xinput/xinput-versions we have described XInput versions of that library which we can found of in "C:\Windows\System32" and "C:'Windows\SysWOW64". However it does not list all XInput versions. On Windows 10 there is also "XInputUap.dll" which implements reading of playstation controllers and is used by UWP apps. As I found it has disadvantage of not reading Xbox-360 controller when process which loads XInputUap.dll is not running with administrator rights.

So let's summarize:

Implementation of support for Playstation controllers is available inside Windows 10 but ordinary Windows user which does not know about that fact (because how could he) has to install third party software to make it work with XInput game controlling. Whole thing could be fixed if IAT table of loaded XInput.dll of old game builds before XInputUap.dll existence is replaced with jumps to alternative function addresses with the same name from XInputUap.dll.

Rinzs 1 Reputation point

2024-01-11T14:47:18.21+00:00

As usual we get an unhelpful MSFT reply. Thank you topic opener for this interesting fact. As it seems, xinputuap is an api adapter that makes Windows.gaming.input available to xinput compatible applications. And that's why it now also supports ps4/5 controllers (which xinput incompatibility is a giant eyesore... Who exactly didn't want to cooperate and why?). Anyway, sadly it also comes now with its downsides. It will not receive controller input when your app does not have focus. Apparently it is ooo so hard for ms to enforce powerful and consistent and well thought trough api's. We see this even more and more with Windows 10 and 11 features simply not made available through win32 api (virtual desktops, uap windows that have a host and respond wrong, ...). MS uses its own set of private api's while the rest of the word has to do with same old half compatible functions. Sounds familiar?
Xiaopo Yang - MSFT 12,731 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-01-12T01:47:53.76+00:00

This indeed needs an internal professional to explain what's going on about XInput Versions. You can send feedback to Microsoft to draw more attention and request more explanation about Playstation and other game controllers support in XInput.dll.

1 answer

Your answer

Rinzs 1 Reputation point

2024-01-11T14:47:18.21+00:00

As usual we get an unhelpful MSFT reply. Thank you topic opener for this interesting fact. As it seems, xinputuap is an api adapter that makes Windows.gaming.input available to xinput compatible applications. And that's why it now also supports ps4/5 controllers (which xinput incompatibility is a giant eyesore... Who exactly didn't want to cooperate and why?). Anyway, sadly it also comes now with its downsides. It will not receive controller input when your app does not have focus. Apparently it is ooo so hard for ms to enforce powerful and consistent and well thought trough api's. We see this even more and more with Windows 10 and 11 features simply not made available through win32 api (virtual desktops, uap windows that have a host and respond wrong, ...). MS uses its own set of private api's while the rest of the word has to do with same old half compatible functions. Sounds familiar?
Xiaopo Yang - MSFT 12,731 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-01-12T01:47:53.76+00:00

This indeed needs an internal professional to explain what's going on about XInput Versions. You can send feedback to Microsoft to draw more attention and request more explanation about Playstation and other game controllers support in XInput.dll.

Answer 1

Xiaopo Yang - MSFT 12,731 Microsoft External Staff

As XInput Game Controller APIs said, XInput Game Controller API enables applications to receive input from the Xbox Controller for Windows. The document hasn't yet stated XInput Game Controller API supports Playstation formally. It's not recommended to use in product as if it supports.

Share via

Playstation and other game controllers support in XInput.dll

1 answer

Your answer