17-09-2021

How To Play Xbox On Your Mac

Whether you’re trying to no-scope that enemy on COD or score a last-minute slam-dunk on NBA, the touchpad just doesn’t do it.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is our technology that allows you to play over 100 console games on the devices you already have with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and a compatible controller. As part of your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, you can enjoy the console games you love, the people you want to play together with, on the devices you already have, all. Mar 08, 2018 For Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One controllers, you can connect as you would any other Bluetooth device. Click the Bluetooth icon in the top-right corner of your Mac and choose the controller from the list. For controllers that connect with USB, you must install an Xbox controller driver. Jul 15, 2021 If you want to play Microsoft Xbox games on your Mac there are two easy ways to do so on your desktop. One is by running Windows on your Mac using Parallels and the other is via an app called OneCast. If you just want a cloud solution, you can also use Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service. You May Also Like.

So, we thought we’d share the best tips on how to connect an Xbox 360 controller to your Mac, to make them tense gaming moments a little easier.

Before you do: Clean up your Mac

BUT, before we get into all the juicy techy stuff, let’s remind you of how beneficial cleaning up your Mac can be.

Before installing any new hardware, it’s important to have an un-cluttered file space so the new software can run efficiently, and you can keep an eye on what’s where.

With CleanMyMac X, it’s easy. It’s one-click cleaning approach and powerful scanning means you can swiftly dispose of useless documents and apps which may be slowing your Mac down.

So, to get optimal controller connectivity, you should download CleanMyMac and tidy up your digital space – prior to any installations. Now, onto how to use an Xbox 360 controller on a Mac.

How to use the Xbox 360 controller on Mac

Not many of us know it, but there could be a handy use for all those old Xbox 360 or Xbox One controllers lying around. But, before you get set up, you need to have the correct hardware installed on your Mac to enable connectivity.

Here’s how.

First of all, you will need either a wired or wireless Xbox controller. Both work fine, but for all those passionate gamers with a tendency to erupt, a wireless device would be best to save any damages to wires (or opponents). These wireless receivers can be bought for around $20 on Amazon, and can handle up to 4 Xbox 360 controllers.

Free Drivers

Obviously, Macs don’t have an in-built driver for Xbox controllers as Apple are in no way affiliated with Microsoft. Similarly, Microsoft doesn’t supply drivers for Mac users for their hardware, which leaves us wanting users having to find our own way.

So back in 2006, it was music to gamer’s ears to hear that Tattie Bogle had developed their own driver free of charge to users across the gaming globe. However, this driver hasn’t been updated since 2012, and is therefore sticky when it comes to compatibility with MacOS X.

For a more streamlined approach to this conundrum, download GitHub’s free driver – it’s maintained and updated frequently and is free to all Mac users.

1. Install the driver

After opening the GitHub link, double click on the DMG file visible under ‘Assets’. This will start the installing process, where you will have to follow the appropriate instructions.

Remember though, as with any new program installation, it will reboot your Mac, so don’t panic. After the restart, you should be able to find ‘Xbox 360 Controllers’ in the system preferences.

2. Connect the Xbox 360 Controller to your Mac

Now you’ve installed the driver, the next step is to connect the controller, which is simple and only needs to be done once.

  • Firstly, you need to plug the USB receiver into a free USB port on your Mac. Once plugged in, the USB receiver’s light should start blinking

  • Press the big Xbox logo button on the controller so it lights up green

  • Press the button on the USB receiver

  • Press the connect button on the controller, which can be found at the top - in-between the left and right toggles

  • The top left quarter of the circle around the Xbox button should now light up, indicating you are the first controller connected

Now the controller and Mac are linked - so in the future if you want to connect again, all you need do is press the big Xbox logo button to get going. Told you it was simple!

3. Test the Controller

As with all things techy, there’s always loopholes. So, it’s important to test the connections to ensure the controller works before we embark upon a mobile-gaming-gallivant.

Go to ‘System Preferences’, ‘Xbox 360 Controllers’ and you’ll see a screen like below.

This is a control pad, which indicates whether all the buttons on the controller are working properly. That’s about all you can do on this, as well as shutting the controller down by clicking ‘power off’.

4. Configuring for multiple games on your Mac

We all have different tastes in games - some of us like sports and some of us like military, there’s no right or wrong (asides from Half-Life, that’s just awesome and it’s not up for debate).

With these different games come different control configurations, which can get tedious when you only have one type of controller.

For full flexibility of use, there are many tools and apps available which allow you to play any game with any Mac compatible joystick or controller – even the ones that are not compatible with joysticks.

5. Use Joystick Mapper

Out of the many apps to choose from, Joystick Mapper is our pick. And at only $4.99 from the App Store, it’s real value for money – especially when considering the amount of effort it takes to develop such a complex tool.

Here’s how it works –

Once you download the Joystick Mapper app, you need to create a pre-set for your game preferences. To do this, open the app and click ‘Add new pre-set’.

Enter a name for future reference such as ‘My Game’, and for each joystick, click ‘Add a new joystick’.

Now that you’ve identified the joystick, you need to ‘bind’ joystick inputs to keyboard or mouse movements - which is easier than it sounds.

Click on ‘Add new bind’, and then ‘Scan’, and press the button of your game controller that you’d like to use. Next select a mouse or keyboard action, and that will ‘bind’ the chosen inputs.

Simply repeat this process until you’ve bound all the buttons you’d like to use.

If by chance you’re using a controller other than an Xbox 360 or Xbox One, you can replicate these actions and apply them to different controllers. To do this, simply click the ‘Clone’ icon in the top right corner. To put the pre-set into action, set a checkmark before the preferred pre-set/profile you’ve created for the game you’re about to play. Now, you’re good to go!

BUT – don’t close the Joystick Mapper app before starting the game, it needs to keep running to work. Simply select ‘cmd + H’ to hide the window.

Declutter your Mac to make more room for games

Mac

Remember, all of these processes won’t work as effectively if you have a messy Mac.

On average, there is a whopping 62GB of junk found on Macs, with jam-packed caches and folders full of useless documents cluttering the hard drive.

This considerably slows down the performance of your Mac, preventing quick and easy installations, and can even hinder the controller connectivity.

CleanMyMac X is an app dedicated to cleaning your Mac head-to-toe. It scans everything on the computer - even old folders that have been evading your wrath for years - identifying what needs to be removed.

The Mac is inspected rigorously, and with its smart one-click clean-up, CleanMyMac sweeps away the unwanted rubbish to organize folders and speed up performance.

Furthermore, CleanMyMac X is free to download. So, what are you waiting for? Download it for free here.

PCSX2 is a Playstation 2 'emulator', a free program that tries to replicate the Playstation 2 console to enable you to play PS2 games on your computer.

Xbox 360 Emulator For Xbox One

PCSX2 is a Playstation 2 'emulator', a free program that tries to replicate the Playstation 2 console to enable you to play PS2 games on your computer. Advantages over the Playstation 2 console. Custom resolutions, up to 4096x4096, Anti Aliasing and Texture filtering to make your old PS2 games look better than their HD remakes! F12010 doesn't need a 360 controller emulator. Use the settings of the game to setup any controller you have. The game supports a Wide range of input devices from basic controllers to xinput(360.

Advantages over the Playstation 2 console
  • Custom resolutions, up to 4096x4096, Anti Aliasing and Texture filtering to make your old PS2 games look better than their HD remakes!
  • Unlimited memory cards
  • Save states, enabling you to quick save and load practically anywhere in your game
  • Easy cheating using our pnach patching system
  • Use any controller (PS3,Xbox360 etc) that works on Windows, keyboards and mice
  • Increase or decrease the game speed by using the built-in frame-limiter for fast grinding or passing hard spots by slowing them down
  • Ability to record in full HD with the built-in video recorder (F12 using the GSdx plugin)
I can't make it work!

PCSX2 is not the simplest program out there although we try to do it as user-friendly as possible.

How To Play Xbox On Your Mac Pro

If you have problems running your game, first check our compatibility list. Is your game listed as Playable there? If not, PCSX2 does not support your game yet so you'll have to wait for a fix or try another game. If you can't find it in the list we don't know if it works or not since it has not been tested!

If your game is listed as playable, ask for help in our forum!

It works but its slow!

This is the most common problem users experience. PCSX2 is very hardware intensive program, especially on your processor.

It is highly recommended you read the first post of this thread: Will PCSX2 run fast on my computer? and if you still have questions reply to the thread, there are many helpful members who will answer.

reWASD functionality expands with each release, and since reWASD 4.0 came out it can be rightfully called an Xbox controller emulator. Why is that good, you may ask? We will reveal the answer to this, and many other questions in this blog post. If you already know you need an Xbox 360 controller emulator you can go right to the how-to-use part. Or if you’ve already tried to use the virtual controller, and the game doesn’t recognize the input — go right to the troubleshooting :)

How can Xbox controller emulator be useful?

A bit of theory: reWASD emulates the Xbox 360 controller, and that takes the functionality to the new level. You can assign Toggle, Turbo to controller button actions, and create controller button key combos. As a result, the game will recognize the controller input, except it will be not a physical gamepad, but the one an Xbox controller emulator created.

reWASD hides your physical controller from the system, and there’s only the virtual one recognized by Windows and applications. You can see if it works if you open joy.cpl. Open Windows search (by pressing Win keyboard button, for example), enter joy.cpl and press Enter. The following window opens:

Basically, this is what happens when you press Apply and have Virtual Xbox 360 mappings in your config. The physical controller disappears, and there’s a virtual one instead. When you turn remap OFF the Virtual controller disappears, and the physical one is back on track. You can see it on this gif:

Xbox 360 controller emulator is also irreplaceable for the cases when you have a PlayStation, Switch Pro or Joy-Con controller, and the game doesn’t recognize it, but works well with any Xbox controller. That happens quite often with the games that came out quite a long time ago, or if they simply don’t support any gamepads except Xbox ones (for example such as Dragon Age: Inquisition, Monster Hunter World, Final Fantasy XIV, SOULCALIBUR VI, Volgarr the Viking, Life is Strange, etc.).

How do I use the Xbox 360 controller emulator?

There are a few steps that are common for each of the further cases:

  1. Download reWASD from the official website, install it on your PC and reboot it
  2. Create a new profile, the config is added automatically
  3. Enable Autodetect: assign the *.exe file so the config apply automatically when the application is in focus

Case 1: I just want to enable controller support for any-gamepad-except-Xbox-controller

If you’re dealing with the game that only sees Xbox controllers which you don’t have, it’s just a three-clicks-situation:

  • Press the magic wand below the image of controller
  • Pick Virtual Xbox 360
  • Press Apply
About Joy-Cons: make sure to create a pair of those first, and then you can use the Xbox 360 controller emulator in its full swing. Plug both Joy-Cons to your PC, pick one of them in the lower-left corner, click on the Group icon, and create a group of devices. Now you’re good to go!

Case 2: I want to Toggle/Turbo a controller key, or make a controller buttons combo

  • Pick the controller key, put the mark on Toggle/Turbo or add a keycombo
  • Press apply

Case 3: I want to change the controller layout completely!

This one takes a bit more time to create. Take your time and reassign the keys one by one, to make the perfect layout. To make this process easier, pay attention to the icons near reWASD mapping list: unclick keyboard and mouse to leave controller binds only, this will make the process quicker.

Xbox 360 Emulator Mac Os

Xbox Games On Mac

Why should I hide the physical controller before I use Xbox controller emulator?

Nice question. When you create a virtual controller, there may occur double input both from the physical and virtual gamepads. Or the game will just focus on the physical gamepad and ignore all the mappings you have added in the config, which is also definitely not the thing you are trying to achieve. So basically, what you need to do is to open Preferences — General, and check if Hide physical controller when the virtual one is added.

Xbox 360 Controller Emulator Mac

What to do if the game doesn’t respond to the Xbox controller emulator config?

Seems like some troubleshooting is required, and we’re about to help you out. Some games detect the input device on the launch, so if you don’t apply the new Xbox 360 controller emulator config before you launch the game it may not see the virtual gamepad. The game will recognize the physical controller as the main one, and when you switch to the virtual gamepad — the physical gamepad is hidden from the system, and the game ignores the virtual reWASD controller. Such a thing happened to the virtual gamepad in the games like PUBG, Fortnite, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Warframe — the game ignores it.

Rocket League was also kind of a struggle for our Xbox controller emulatorKingdoms of amalur pc mods. because the game detects a ‘new’ controller each time you replug your gamepad. And eventually, there were several controllers at once, even though there’s only the Virtual one emulated by reWASD.

How To Play Xbox Games On Mac

So! A quick guide for troubleshooting an Xbox One controller emulator & games. Let’s imagine you already have a config, and it’s just a game that doesn’t recognize the input:

How To Play Xbox On Your Macbook With Hdmi

  1. When you add virtual controller mappings, you need to hide the physical gamepad first. The paragraph above explains why that is the best option.
  2. If you found out that the game doesn’t recognize the input from the gamepad created by Xbox controller emulator, try to relaunch the game with applied config.
  3. If the steps above don’t help, we kindly ask you to enable remap on startup. First of all, open reWASD Preferences, choose to Use Tray Agent and Enable autoremap on startup:

    4. Then you need to check your Windows Startup preferences. To do that, open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc shortcut), press More details, open the Startup tab and make sure that our Xbox 360 controller emulator is enabled, otherwise it won’t work.

    Once it’s done, open reWASD, turn remap ON and reboot your PC. After the PC turns on again, wait till reWASD icon appears in Tray and the green circle appears near it (this means that remap is ON). Then try to launch the game, and check if your controller works.

  4. There is Step 4 indeed, that will be contacting our support :) We’ll gladfully help you solving your problem. You can do this via Contact support form on our website, Facebook messages, reWASD Forum, or in our Discord channel.

We truly hope that you will not have any problems using our Xbox controller emulator and that your experience will only be positive. We can do our best to help you, and figure out every tiny detail that could have caused the problem. Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube to keep your hand on the pulse. Also, join our Discord text chat for more fun :)