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I still remember that I connected a PS4 controller a few years ago to test a unity game that I was making. I typed apt search ps4 but could not find something s

I still remember that I connected a PS4 controller a few years ago to test a unity game that I was making. I typed apt search ps4 but could not find something so I pressed some buttons and magicly the UI changed. It all just worked no setup no nothing. I also used the controller on windows 10 but you had to use the xbox driver with special software to map the controls to that driver. The fact that everything just worked on linux amazes me to this day.

augusto-moura 6y ago
Yes! Also the touchpad in the controller also maps to the mouse and if you plug a headset on the controller it is detected by the system as a proper audio driver. For some time my p2 input was messed up on my PC so I used the controller as a improvised USB to Audio input adapter and it worked flawless
ErikBjare 6y ago
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that PlayStation runs FreeBSD. Maybe the source was close enough that porting to Linux wasn't a major effort?
- city41 6y ago
  Xbox One controllers also work flawlessly in Linux. I find it interesting I've not had any luck getting my xb1 controller to work in Windows 8.1 though.
  - alpaca128 6y ago
    > I've not had any luck getting my xb1 controller to work in Windows 8.1 though Could this be another intended incompatibility that Microsoft introduced to push Windows 10? They did it with CPU support limitations and the newest DirectX version if I remember correctly, so maybe they decided to give gamers another "incentive".
    - ianlevesque 6y ago
      8.x was the atrocious tablet UI mashup. They are doing everyone a favor.
      - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
        I do like Windows 8 on tablets and very small laptops. It certainly has issues but I appreciate what Microsoft was going for. (I'm less of a fan of Windows 8.1. They made it more desktop-like but it lost its uniqueness.)
  - w0utert 6y ago
    >> Xbox One controllers also work flawlessly in Linux It doesn’t, actually. It works out of the box if wired through USB, or when using the expensive wireless dongle, but it doesn’t work out of the box over Bluetooth. You have to apply nasty hacks to the BT stack to make it work. PS4 controller is just pair & go.
    - henriquez 6y ago
      The OG Xbox One controllers didn’t support Bluetooth, but the newer ones (Xbox One S and Xbox One X) do. These don’t work natively in Linux?
      - Grazester 6y ago
        The fact that they mentions doing nasty hacks to the BT stack implies that it's BT they are using and hence the S controller because you yourself stated it's the one that supports it.
      - w0utert 6y ago
        Yes I was referring to the updated controller they started shipping when the Xbox One S was released, I'm pretty sure that's the only one they have been making afterwards until the Series X was introduced? These controllers use some kind of DRM that requires disabling a feature of the BT stack (ertm) using a non-persistent kernel parameter that breaks other BT devices. I
    - Sileni 6y ago
      How's the latency on BT? I've always avoided using it because of the horror story from early models, but I might pick up a used PS4 controller for PC gaming if BT works well.
      - w0utert 6y ago
        Latency is fine, I don’t use the Xbox controllers with Linux for the reasons I mentioned but I do use them in BT mode with the Steam Link. Never had any problems with input lag. PS4 controllers are BT only and absolutely no problems with those with either PS4 or Linux. In terms of versatility and support the PS4 controllers are my favorite, but I slightly prefer the ergonomics of the Xbox One S controller.
- pkaye 6y ago
  So is this particular device driver already available for FreeBSD?
- fctorial 6y ago
  I don't think bsd and linux have anything in common other than posix api, which the drivers don't use.
- floatboth 6y ago
  Building a corporate product like PlayStation is nothing like using FreeBSD in a "freedesktop community" way. i.e. Sony has custom everything, including input stack.
Philip-J-Fry 6y ago
The DS4 worked on Windows at launch through DirectInput I believe. You only needed a driver for games which didn't support DirectInput (most games use XInput) so that's where you used something to map to Xbox controls. Steam does this all for you now anyway.
asddubs 6y ago
Semi unrelated, but I recently used a windows 7 computer and was astonished that upon plugging in a usb stick, it popped up a notice telling me it was installing a driver for it, rather than just immediately working. I'm sure this is fixed in the newer versions, but I always assumed this would have been fixed in vista at the latest for standard devices (I jumped ship to linux during the XP era)
- TylerE 6y ago
  There are some issues with vanilla USB around supporting large devices. Unlikely to be an issue with a stick, but very possible with an external drive. So searching for a device specfic driver is a very sane default here.
  - tialaramex 6y ago
    No, it's just bad policy. The correct design on modern "intelligent" buses is very simple. You standardize a class of device, and then you implement that class, OS vendors supply a class driver that works, out of the box, with every device in the class. USB Mass Storage is the worst case of that approach (vendors with different ideas of how to solve it just agreed to differ and the standard offers all combinations of their preferred methods) but it's still better than the alternative. Other approaches are crazy, they produce a worse user experience and usually introduce perverse incentives that make life worse for everybody. If there are in fact "issues" with "vanilla USB" you don't fix those by having every single vendor hand roll their own attempted workaround and ship each of them.
    - TylerE 6y ago
      How is an approach that results in a working device "crazy", where one that will sometimes NOT "not crazy". The user does not give a flying fig about your "moral high ground". They just want their drive to work.
      - tialaramex 6y ago
        Your approach doesn't result in "a working device" for most users, it results in the situation where you need to buy a new device, to get a new driver, to fix a purely software bug that could have been fixed in the class driver covering your old device instead but that was less profitable and priority #1 is always to bow before the almighty dollar. Every time Windows ships a new version, users with hardware that worked fine but alas, wasn't shifting too many new units through retail, find now it doesn't work. "Buy a new one, then you'll get updated drivers" people like you cry. More landfill, for no reason. Real users hate this experience and are relieved when you tell them that some device they're getting doesn't "need drivers". Of course it does actually need drivers, it just uses the OS vendor's class drivers, which work out of the box and are properly maintained, but the user experience is of relief.
rossy 6y ago
Oh yeah, I was floored when I plugged a DS3 into my Linux laptop and the KDE UI came up prompting me to pair the device over Bluetooth. Sure enough, I unplugged it and it seamlessly switched to Bluetooth. That was a level of integration I wasn't expecting, and without ever installing any DualShock-specific package. Unfortunately, one of the reasons I bought the controller was to try out the pressure sensitive face buttons, and PCSX2 on Linux didn't seem to support that? On Windows, PCSX2 can do this with ScpToolkit, but that seems to be abandoned. Still, for the 99% of games that don't need pressure sensitive face buttons, the DS3 integration in Linux was literally perfect.
globular-toast 6y ago
Reminds me of when I set up kodi on a raspberry pi and plugged it into my TV. I was busy setting it up and all of a sudden realised I was controlling it with the TV remote. It took me a few seconds to convince myself this was actually happening before going away and learning that HDMI is two-way and CEC is a thing. Open standards are absolutely awesome and even though I've been hooked and using Linux and other free software exclusively for more than a decade now it continues to make me happy.
INTPenis 6y ago
Yeah about the xbox thing. I recently got into gaming at the tender age of 36 and bought my first joystick for MSFS, Gamepad with two little joysticks for playing platform games and a steering wheel with gear shift for car games. So during this whole process I realized that most gear has two versions, a PC/PS4 version and a PC/Xbox version. The PC/PS4 version doesn't actually work in Windows. I had to get the PC/Xbox version to work in games like Forza Horizon. Even though their website lists the same brand and model, but they don't say which version. I figured that obviously Microsoft will have the best support for the Xbox version of the gear. I also use a cheap Logitech F310 gamepad in Linux for games like Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Streets of Rogue and Unto the end. Worked with no setup, out of box.
- RicardoLuis0 6y ago
  while non-steam games on windows don't quite support ps4 controllers out of the box, for games on steam (except for a few old titles that don't play well with steam input) you can simply enable ps4 controller configuration support on steam input, and they will work seamlessly, no workarounds required, with many newer games even showing proper ps4 button prompts
  - Kaze404 6y ago
    You can add non-Steam games to Steam and get the full benefit of Steam Input as well.
    - INTPenis 6y ago
      Now this surprises me because I bought mine in the MS Store. Thanks, I'll look into that.
      - Kaze404 6y ago
        It even works on non-Steam games running through Wine/Proton on Linux. All other features work as well, like In Home Streaming and Big Picture

augusto-moura 6y ago

Yes! Also the touchpad in the controller also maps to the mouse and if you plug a headset on the controller it is detected by the system as a proper audio driver. For some time my p2 input was messed up on my PC so I used the controller as a improvised USB to Audio input adapter and it worked flawless

ErikBjare 6y ago

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that PlayStation runs FreeBSD. Maybe the source was close enough that porting to Linux wasn't a major effort?

city41 6y ago
Xbox One controllers also work flawlessly in Linux. I find it interesting I've not had any luck getting my xb1 controller to work in Windows 8.1 though.
- alpaca128 6y ago
  > I've not had any luck getting my xb1 controller to work in Windows 8.1 though Could this be another intended incompatibility that Microsoft introduced to push Windows 10? They did it with CPU support limitations and the newest DirectX version if I remember correctly, so maybe they decided to give gamers another "incentive".
  - ianlevesque 6y ago
    8.x was the atrocious tablet UI mashup. They are doing everyone a favor.
    - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
      I do like Windows 8 on tablets and very small laptops. It certainly has issues but I appreciate what Microsoft was going for. (I'm less of a fan of Windows 8.1. They made it more desktop-like but it lost its uniqueness.)
- w0utert 6y ago
  >> Xbox One controllers also work flawlessly in Linux It doesn’t, actually. It works out of the box if wired through USB, or when using the expensive wireless dongle, but it doesn’t work out of the box over Bluetooth. You have to apply nasty hacks to the BT stack to make it work. PS4 controller is just pair & go.
  - henriquez 6y ago
    The OG Xbox One controllers didn’t support Bluetooth, but the newer ones (Xbox One S and Xbox One X) do. These don’t work natively in Linux?
    - Grazester 6y ago
      The fact that they mentions doing nasty hacks to the BT stack implies that it's BT they are using and hence the S controller because you yourself stated it's the one that supports it.
    - w0utert 6y ago
      Yes I was referring to the updated controller they started shipping when the Xbox One S was released, I'm pretty sure that's the only one they have been making afterwards until the Series X was introduced? These controllers use some kind of DRM that requires disabling a feature of the BT stack (ertm) using a non-persistent kernel parameter that breaks other BT devices. I
  - Sileni 6y ago
    How's the latency on BT? I've always avoided using it because of the horror story from early models, but I might pick up a used PS4 controller for PC gaming if BT works well.
    - w0utert 6y ago
      Latency is fine, I don’t use the Xbox controllers with Linux for the reasons I mentioned but I do use them in BT mode with the Steam Link. Never had any problems with input lag. PS4 controllers are BT only and absolutely no problems with those with either PS4 or Linux. In terms of versatility and support the PS4 controllers are my favorite, but I slightly prefer the ergonomics of the Xbox One S controller.
pkaye 6y ago
So is this particular device driver already available for FreeBSD?
fctorial 6y ago
I don't think bsd and linux have anything in common other than posix api, which the drivers don't use.
floatboth 6y ago
Building a corporate product like PlayStation is nothing like using FreeBSD in a "freedesktop community" way. i.e. Sony has custom everything, including input stack.

Philip-J-Fry 6y ago

The DS4 worked on Windows at launch through DirectInput I believe. You only needed a driver for games which didn't support DirectInput (most games use XInput) so that's where you used something to map to Xbox controls. Steam does this all for you now anyway.

asddubs 6y ago

Semi unrelated, but I recently used a windows 7 computer and was astonished that upon plugging in a usb stick, it popped up a notice telling me it was installing a driver for it, rather than just immediately working. I'm sure this is fixed in the newer versions, but I always assumed this would have been fixed in vista at the latest for standard devices (I jumped ship to linux during the XP era)

TylerE 6y ago
There are some issues with vanilla USB around supporting large devices. Unlikely to be an issue with a stick, but very possible with an external drive. So searching for a device specfic driver is a very sane default here.
- tialaramex 6y ago
  No, it's just bad policy. The correct design on modern "intelligent" buses is very simple. You standardize a class of device, and then you implement that class, OS vendors supply a class driver that works, out of the box, with every device in the class. USB Mass Storage is the worst case of that approach (vendors with different ideas of how to solve it just agreed to differ and the standard offers all combinations of their preferred methods) but it's still better than the alternative. Other approaches are crazy, they produce a worse user experience and usually introduce perverse incentives that make life worse for everybody. If there are in fact "issues" with "vanilla USB" you don't fix those by having every single vendor hand roll their own attempted workaround and ship each of them.
  - TylerE 6y ago
    How is an approach that results in a working device "crazy", where one that will sometimes NOT "not crazy". The user does not give a flying fig about your "moral high ground". They just want their drive to work.
    - tialaramex 6y ago
      Your approach doesn't result in "a working device" for most users, it results in the situation where you need to buy a new device, to get a new driver, to fix a purely software bug that could have been fixed in the class driver covering your old device instead but that was less profitable and priority #1 is always to bow before the almighty dollar. Every time Windows ships a new version, users with hardware that worked fine but alas, wasn't shifting too many new units through retail, find now it doesn't work. "Buy a new one, then you'll get updated drivers" people like you cry. More landfill, for no reason. Real users hate this experience and are relieved when you tell them that some device they're getting doesn't "need drivers". Of course it does actually need drivers, it just uses the OS vendor's class drivers, which work out of the box and are properly maintained, but the user experience is of relief.

rossy 6y ago

Oh yeah, I was floored when I plugged a DS3 into my Linux laptop and the KDE UI came up prompting me to pair the device over Bluetooth. Sure enough, I unplugged it and it seamlessly switched to Bluetooth. That was a level of integration I wasn't expecting, and without ever installing any DualShock-specific package. Unfortunately, one of the reasons I bought the controller was to try out the pressure sensitive face buttons, and PCSX2 on Linux didn't seem to support that? On Windows, PCSX2 can do this with ScpToolkit, but that seems to be abandoned. Still, for the 99% of games that don't need pressure sensitive face buttons, the DS3 integration in Linux was literally perfect.

globular-toast 6y ago

Reminds me of when I set up kodi on a raspberry pi and plugged it into my TV. I was busy setting it up and all of a sudden realised I was controlling it with the TV remote. It took me a few seconds to convince myself this was actually happening before going away and learning that HDMI is two-way and CEC is a thing. Open standards are absolutely awesome and even though I've been hooked and using Linux and other free software exclusively for more than a decade now it continues to make me happy.

INTPenis 6y ago

Yeah about the xbox thing. I recently got into gaming at the tender age of 36 and bought my first joystick for MSFS, Gamepad with two little joysticks for playing platform games and a steering wheel with gear shift for car games. So during this whole process I realized that most gear has two versions, a PC/PS4 version and a PC/Xbox version. The PC/PS4 version doesn't actually work in Windows. I had to get the PC/Xbox version to work in games like Forza Horizon. Even though their website lists the same brand and model, but they don't say which version. I figured that obviously Microsoft will have the best support for the Xbox version of the gear. I also use a cheap Logitech F310 gamepad in Linux for games like Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Streets of Rogue and Unto the end. Worked with no setup, out of box.

RicardoLuis0 6y ago
while non-steam games on windows don't quite support ps4 controllers out of the box, for games on steam (except for a few old titles that don't play well with steam input) you can simply enable ps4 controller configuration support on steam input, and they will work seamlessly, no workarounds required, with many newer games even showing proper ps4 button prompts
- Kaze404 6y ago
  You can add non-Steam games to Steam and get the full benefit of Steam Input as well.
  - INTPenis 6y ago
    Now this surprises me because I bought mine in the MS Store. Thanks, I'll look into that.
    - Kaze404 6y ago
      It even works on non-Steam games running through Wine/Proton on Linux. All other features work as well, like In Home Streaming and Big Picture