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An unofficial way to play PC games with an Xbox One controller may appear as soon as tomorrow

Xbox One controller for PC

Despite Xbox 360 controller support being pretty common in PC titles over the last years – to the point where it’s recommended in the requirements list of some games – there’s still no official support for Xbox One controllers. Though such support is planned for this year.

Developer Lucas Assis was hunting for unofficial drivers when he discovered that one already existed, but its creator didn’t release it due to “legal issues”. That’s when he decided to make one himself, after a fashion; one he thinks is safe to release. 

“Can I release it? I’m starting to think that yes, because it really isn’t a custom driver,” Assis said on his site. “I’m actually using WinUSB, Windows default driver for devices without drivers, and a driver filter from LibUSBDotNet. Nothing more. You don’t even have to set your PC to Unsigned Drivers to install this, everything is actually kinda pretty.”

The biggest problem, said Assis, was actually connecting the gamepad. He used LibUSBDotNet to connect the gamepad through the USB, and after sending 2 bytes to the controller, he was able to start receiving data from the gamepad itself.

He used vJoy instead of writing his own driver, which emulates the gamepad. He sent the data through its API, which in turn sends it to Windows with its own signed drivers. Finally, he used xbox360ce for compatibility. So it requires three programs, but Assis admitted that if he was more experienced, “it’d be only 1 with an XInput wrapper made specifically for the XOne gamepad.”

In the video he uploaded, where you can see him testing it with Arkham Asylum and Borderlands 2, the left and right triggers didn’t function, but apparently this is an issue which has since been solved.

On YouTube, Assis said that if nobody contests it, he’ll be launching by tomorrow, despite saying in the legal section of his site: “I don’t know how this could go against any rule from Microsoft, as there ain’t any actual drivers. I’m just using WinUSB (standard, every Windows come with this one), and a Driver Filter (which you can actually do with any device on your PC). Nothing more. But anyway for now, I won’t be launching it, as of pure fear of having problems with a multi-billionaire company.”