Can't Use Ps5 Controller On Pc Warzone

With its comfortable pattern, grippy thumbsticks and satisfying adaptive triggers, Sony'south DualSense controller is ane of the best gamepads effectually. Unfortunately, figuring out how to use the PS5 controller on PC takes a niggling more than effort than just plugging and playing: an upshot of it relying on older, less widely-supported APIs than more naturally Windows-friendly Xbox controller.

With any luck, this could ameliorate now that Sony has launched a firmware updater app for Windows. This is a handy tool merely for keeping the PS5 DualSense controller up to date, but could too be a sign that Sony is getting more serious nigh making it work more smoothly on PC. In the concurrently, check out the guide below – information technology will tell explain, in simple steps, everything you demand to know about using the DualSense controller on PC, including how to work around compatibility issues and which games enable its haptic feedback and adaptive trigger features.

As is so often the case with hardware worries, the underlying reason for the PS5 controller's PC bother is commuter software. Sony hasn't produced official PC drivers themselves, and although the DualSense can interface with Windows' DirectInput commuter, a lot of modernistic games don't recognise this. They may instead use the newer XInput commuter, which was created past Microsoft with Xbox controllers in heed. Unless a game recognises both driver types, your PS5 controller won't work – unless, that is, Steam steps in to bridge the gap.

Every bit difficult as the Steam Controller flopped, information technology has left a legacy of some very extensive controller support beyond Valve's platform. You can even connect a pad with no official Windows drivers – like the PS5 DualSense – and Steam will translate inputs so that games can sympathize them. Information technology'south basically emulating an Xbox controller, which is why some games will continue showing Xbox push button prompts when you accept a PlayStation controller connected.

Speaking of which, you'll first demand to get the PS5 controller hooked upward to your PC. You tin can practise this with a wired connectedness, or over Bluetooth.

How to connect a PS5 controller to a PC (wired)

For this, you'll need a USB-C cable to plug into the controller'southward data/charging port. The other end of the cable tin be full-size USB-A or USB-C; it doesn't matter which, every bit long every bit your desktop or laptop has the appropriate port going spare. If you lot bought an entire PS5, a suitable USB-C to USB-A cablevision will have come in the box, but if you bought the controller by itself, you'll demand to learn a cable separately as well.

A PS5 controller connected to a gaming PC via a USB cable.

To connect, you literally just need to plug in the cablevision at both ends, and that'south the physical side sorted. All that's left is to fix on Steam, and so skip the following section to see how that's done.

How to connect a PS5 controller to a PC (wireless)

The PS5 controller can connect to PCs via Bluetooth, so naturally you lot'll demand some kind of Bluetooth receiver for a wireless connection. All gaming laptops and quite a few motherboards have Bluetooth congenital in, as do some Wi-Fi cards. If your rig lacks Bluetooth capability, yous tin find USB receivers on Amazon from most £7 / $ten. Once you're all set, follow these steps to connect:

A screenshot of the Windows taskbar, showing the start of the process for connecting a new Bluetooth device.

Stride i: See the little up-pointing pointer at near the right border of the Windows taskbar? Click that, right-click on the Bluetooth symbol, and then click "Add together a Bluetooth Device".

A screenshot of Windows 10's Bluetooth settings page.

Footstep 2: Check that Bluetooth is enabled, so click "Add Bluetooth or other device". In the next window, striking "Bluetooth". Your PC will start searching for devices to pair with.

A PS5 controller, with the user's hands holding down the PS and Share buttons to initiate Bluetooth pairing.

Step three: On the PS5 controller, hold down the PS push (the PlayStation logo betwixt the 2 analogue sticks) and the Share button at the same time. After a few seconds, the onboard lights will start flashing. Back on your PC, you should now encounter the controller listed among the nearby devices, so but click it to connect. You can turn off the controller afterwards by belongings down the PS push button.

How to set up a PS5 controller on Steam

You can showtime attempting to play games right away, simply setting upwards the PS5 controller through Steam will ensure at least basic compatibility across Valve'south platform. Kickoff by opening upward Steam, then in elevation-left corner, click "Steam" followed by "Settings".

A screenshot of Steam's general controller settings screen.

Under the Controller tab you'll find the "General Controller Settings" menu, so open this and Steam volition list the PS5 pad among its detected controller. Be sure to bank check "PlayStation Configuration Back up" also; when you return to the Controller tab, this will allow you create custom push layouts, including split layouts for Steam'southward desktop and Big Picture show modes.

1 final affair: One time your controller is continued, double-bank check your Windows sound settings. The PS5 controller has a built-in speaker which Windows can mistakenly select as your principal audio output device. This would sound terrible if the speaker worked on Windows, which it doesn't, but you may need to alter the output device back to your desktop speakers or headset if yous want to hear whatever audio at all.

Which PC games back up the PS5 controller?

Because the PS5 controller tin can effectively piggyback on Steam for controller support, it should work with every game in your Steam library, including the ability to rebind button inputs. Not every game will actually sympathise that it's a PlayStation controller, though. While some games will display the appropriate, Sony-specific push prompts – Square, Triangle, R1 and R2 etc. – others will rely on Steam's emulation, and volition thus believe you're using an Xbox controller. Display prompts and bind settings will therefore announced if they were the buttons on Microsoft'due south controller.

Luckily, Steam handles all this so that a push printing on your PS5 controller is treated as a printing on the corresponding Xbox controller. The PS5'south Circle push button, for instance, will be treated every bit the Xbox controller's B push button, so you lot can notwithstanding play games without any missing inputs. You'll just demand to remember which PS5 push matches which Xbox button, so here's a quick guide:

Cantankerous = A
Foursquare = Ten
Triangle = Y
Circle = B
L1 = LT
L2 = LB
R1= RT
R2 = RB

A close-up of Horizon, an Apex Legends character, using one of her abilities.

Outside of Steam, PS5 controller back up is… inconsistent. Again, it unremarkably comes downwardly to whether a game recognises the DirectInput commuter, or relies on Microsoft's XInput alternative. For example, Noon Legends recognises both, and works great as a result, consummate with all the correct button symbols and standard vibration support. At the opposite terminate of the spectrum is Control, which is only interested in XInput, and equally such won't even recognise that the PS5 controller is connected.

How to apply a PS5 controller on PC with emulation

Now, at that place is a workaround to this that doesn't involve too much technical hoohah. It involves using Ryochan7'southward DS4Windows app, which can emulate the more widely-supported Xbox 360 controller using your PS5 controller's inputs. Here's how to install it:

A screenshot of the DS4Windows downloads page on GitHub.

Step ane: Make sure your PS5 controller is already connected to your PC, so download DS4Windows from GitHub and extract the folder.

Footstep 2: Open up up the extracted folder and run the "DS4Windows" executable and choose whether to install the app'southward files in Plan Folder or Appdata. Picking Appdata volition make things a fiddling easier.

A screenshot of DS4Windows files in Windows Explorer, highlighting the executable file that the user must run.

Pace 3: Click "Pace 1: Install ViGEmBus Driver". Read through and concur to the terms, so wait for the drivers to end installing. If you're on Windows 7 rather than Windows 10, you'll also demand to click "Step 2: If on Windows 7, Install 360 Driver" after ViGEmBus is installed.

A screenshot of DS4Windows with PlayStation controller drivers installed.

Pace 4: Back in DS4Windows, click "Finished" at the lesser.

With DS4Windows up and running, you should take much better luck using your PS5 controller in natively unsupportive games, even if they utilize Xbox 360 controller prompts (again, meet the listing higher up for respective PS5 buttons). I haven't tested this on every PC game in beingness, just the previously uncooperative Control worked well enough with a PS5 controller once DS4Windows was in play.

Which PC games support DualSense features?

2 reasons to put up with the DualSense controller's patchy PC game support are its haptic feedback vibration and adaptive triggers. The latter is a particularly great improvement over Sony'due south old DualShock controllers: their resistance dynamically increases or decreases contextually with in-game deportment. Drawing a bow, for example, might brand the trigger feel heavier, while F1 2021 – which uses the triggers for acceleration and braking - raises and lowers resistance co-ordinate to the weight of your machine and the track surface you're driving on.

For now, DualSense features are only usable when the controller is continued to your PC via a wired connexion; hopefully this volition change now that Sony tin update its firmware directly on Windows. Frankly, the bigger issue is a scarcity of supportive games, the total of which is even so growing but only totals a handful at the time of writing:

Assassinator'south Creed: Valhalla (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Call of Duty: Blackness Ops Common cold State of war (adaptive triggers only)
Call of Duty: Vanguard (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Deathloop (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Death Stranding Director'due south Cut (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Dying Light 2 (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Far Cry 6 (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Final Fantasy 14 (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Ghostwire Tokyo (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Genshin Touch (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
F1 2021 (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (haptic feedback and adaptive triggers)
Rainbow Six Siege (adaptive triggers only)
Rainbow Six Extraction (adaptive triggers only)
The Riftbreaker (adaptive triggers simply)
The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf (adaptive triggers just)

Weirdly, for the games that launch through Steam, you may demand to disable Steam'due south PlayStation controller support (on the "Full general Controller Settings" screen) before you lot tin employ these features – seemingly because the emulation Steam uses to maximise compatibility overrides their native support in these specific games. I tried Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition and all manner of weirdness overtook it: the aiming was controlled by the controller'southward gyroscope, on-screen push prompts flicked between keyboard and Xbox, and neither of the two DualSense features worked even on a wired connection. Unchecking PlayStation controllers back in Steam's controller settings fixed everything, and both haptic feedback and adaptive triggers worked equally expected.

If you'd prefer to wait until more games make full use of the PS5 controller'southward political party tricks, and will be sticking with more conventional PC peripherals, exist sure to check out our picks of the best gaming keyboards and all-time gaming mice. Steam Deck owners can besides consult our guide on how to utilize Steam Remote Play on the Steam Deck to plow it into a controller for your desktop.