XBox 360 Controller Driver allows you to use wired XBox 360 Controllers via USB, and wireless XBox 360 Controllers via the Microsoft Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows, on your OS X machine, including support for the Apple Force Feedback library. The driver is licenced under the GPL. Oct 17, 2014 Want to use an Xbox 360 controller to play games on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite? Here are simple instructions to get you started in no time. To get your Xbox 360 pad working you’ll need to install a driver. Drivers for OS X are known as kexts and Apple provide a standard set to support all sorts of third party hardware.
Using a Gaming controller or Gamepad on Mac OS X to play games isn’t easy. Mac OS X doesn’t support Xbox 360 (XInput) Controllers, while it does support Direct Input Gamepad & Joysticks PS4, PS2 , PS3 very few games actually support them. So, here’s an easy tutorial which will let you configure any gamepad or Joystick to play literally any game on your Mac OS X (MacBook Pro / iMac / Mac Mini) by emulating keypress (keyboard) and mouse-movements directly from your game controller.
Tutorial to Configure any Gamepad Joystic on Mac OS X to Play any Game –
Step # 1 – Downloading & Installing Enjoyable Gamepad controller app –
- Inorder to play games which do not support Joystick input we need to emulate & map keyboard key press & mouse movements to our Gamepad / Joystick. The best & free app to map joystick to keyboard on Mac is Enjoyable, which lets you perform every bit of button press / mouse – emulation for your controller on Mac OS X .Since, Enjoyable comes as an external app, you will need to open the .app file by “ctrl+click” on the Enjoyable app file, You can see the following link for more details on How to install external source apps on Mac OS X
- Now, once you have installed the app , launch or open the Enjoyable app.
Step – 2 Connecting & Mapping the Joystick controller buttons & analog
- Now, connect your Joystick or PS2/PS3 gamepad controller once you have launched the Enjoyable app. It will now automatically detect your Joystick or Gamepad controller as shown in the image below –Now, once your gamepad is detected – You will see all the available buttons & analog controls available on your gamepad as shown in the image above. Now we need to map keystrokes & mouse movements to your gamepad.
- To assign Keyboard keys & mouse movements to your controller –
- First press any key or button on your gamepad , The corresponding button pressed will now be reflected inside Enjoyable app as shown in the below image –Button Pressed highlighted in EnjoyableNow, in the corresponding right hand side pane, By default “Do Nothing” option is selected , Change it to “Press a Key” for Keyboard key assignment , or to “Move the Mouse” for mouse movement. We will be using Press a Key option in our example for mapping joystick buttons.
- Now, after changing the option from Do nothing, to Press a key – The box will be highlighted by blue color as shown in the above image. Here, simply press the keyboard key you want to assign to the joystick button on your keyboard. In our example, we assigned the “S” keyboard input from W, A, S , D to our joystick button which looks like below –
- Similarly, press a new different button on your joystick or gamepad controller and assign the corresponding keyboard keys to emulate. Repeat the Steps for all joystick buttons except the analog controller.
- First press any key or button on your gamepad , The corresponding button pressed will now be reflected inside Enjoyable app as shown in the below image –
- To Mouse pointer movements to Controller – Analog
- Now, to assign movements to analog controller, simply start by tilting your analog stick on your gamepad joystick to one side. The corresponding high or low value will now be shown on the Enjoyable app as shown in the below image –Configuring mouse using Analog input Enjoyable on Mac OS XHere again change the value from “Do Nothing” to “Move the mouse” as shown in the above image.
- Now, give the direction you want the mouse pointer to move, when you tilt the corresponding analog stick, (Shown as step 3 in the previous image).
- Adjust the speed with which you want to move pointer.
- Now, repeat the steps 1,2,3 again but remember to tilt the the analog in different direction to map the inputs.
- Now, to assign movements to analog controller, simply start by tilting your analog stick on your gamepad joystick to one side. The corresponding high or low value will now be shown on the Enjoyable app as shown in the below image –
- Once, you have finished assigning all the inputs , Simply press the ” > “ sign as shown in the below image (highlighted by red color) to start the mapping emulation –button” class=”size-medium” /> Start the Joystick mapping by clicking > buttonOnce mapping is started it will show a bold joystick sign on the topbar as highlighted by “blue box” in the above image.
- That’s it! You can now enjoy any game with your gamepad controller or joystick even if the game doesn’t support it . The app and method works for all Mac OS X versions such as Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard , Yosemite , El Capitan as well as Sierra too!
- Feel free to comment if you face any issues or encounter any problems
Related
Gaming on a Mac is not what Apple is historically known for. However, with Apple delving into the fledgling virtual and augmented reality space, some traditional game interfaces and not so traditional interfaces (think HTC wands or Valve's knuckle controllers) now need to be supported on macOS to reap the VR/AR benefits to their fullest.
To ready you for some amazing VR pilot games such as Eve: Valkyrie that utilize a traditional game Xbox game controller, we're here to show you how to connect one to your Mac! In the past this method only applied to the Xbox 360 controller, but the latest version of the software you'll be using also now supports the Xbox One controller.
How to download and install the drivers
We're assuming that you already own a wired Xbox controller, but if you're needing to buy, a standard controller is about $50. You'll need to connect it to your Mac using a microUSB cable which, sadly, isn't included. If you buy a third-party wired controller you won't have to worry about this.
Next, follow these steps.
- Launch Safari.
- Navigate to https://github.com/360/Controller/360Controller/releases.
- Download the latest release of the 360Controller driver. As of this writing, the latest release is 0.16.5.
- Go to your Downloads folder in Finder.
- Double-click the 360Controllerinstall_*.dmg file.
- Double-click the Install360Controller.pkg that pops up in Finder.
- Click Continue.
- Again, click Continue.
- Select to Agree the license agreement.
- Click Install.
- Agree to allow a restart of the computer by clicking Continue Installation.
- Click Restart.
- You can optionally have the downloaded file Moved to Trash.
- Upon restarting the computer start System Preferences from the dock or the  menu.
- Click on Xbox 360 Controllers.
How to connect your Xbox 360 controller
Xbox 360 Controller Driver Windows 10 X64
Once you've installed the drivers, you'll now logically see that there are No devices found, since we have yet to physically connect the game controller to the Mac.
- Plug in your controller to your Mac. If you have a current model MacBook or MacBook Pro, you'll need a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
- Click OK when the System Extension Blocked warning message pops up.
- Go into System Preferences via the dock or  menu.
- Click Security & Privacy.
- Under the General tab click the Lock at the bottom left.
- Enter your password and click Unlock.
- Click Allow.
Your Xbox wired controller should now be connected!
Final thoughts
I am super stoked about developers climbing aboard the VR/AR hype train. As a mere consumer of VR, I can only hope for more and more creative minds to get on board. If you're a VR/AR developer, or even better yet, a macOS VR/AR developer, what other ways can Apple help promote virtual reality on their platform? Let us know in the comments!
Updated April 2018: Updated to reflect that this method also now supports the Xbox One controller.
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