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PadForge Documentation

Learn it in minutes. Master it to the wire.

PadForge turns any input device into a virtual controller Windows games can use. These docs serve two readers at once. Guides stay in plain English and get you working fast. The Technical Reference goes as deep as wire protocols, for people who want to know exactly what the software does.

Get started Technical Reference

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Start

Install PadForge, plug in a controller, and remap your first button. No prior knowledge assumed.

 Do a thing

Guides

Task-by-task walkthroughs. Import a Steam config, aim with gyro, build macros, use your phone as a controller.

 Every control

Features

What every page, tab, and card in the app does, one page per feature.

 Your hardware

Devices

Setup walkthroughs for the controller families that need one, like DualShock 3 pairing and Wii extensions.

 Something broke

Troubleshooting

Symptoms, causes, and fixes for drivers, detection, and games that refuse to listen.

 Go deep

Technical Reference

Architecture, the 1000 Hz input pipeline, drivers, and every protocol PadForge speaks.

What PadForge does

  • One device, many outputs. A single physical controller can feed up to 16 virtual controllers: Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo (Switch Pro and Switch 2 Pro), Extended (231 DirectInput profiles), keyboard and mouse, MIDI, or a SteamVR hand pair.
  • Any input, any output. Map a stick to the mouse, a touchpad to a d-pad, gyro to aim, a MIDI key to a button, a Wii Remote to a wheel. A Sony headset's head rotation drives motion like any other gyro.
  • The extras real hardware has. Adaptive triggers, impulse triggers, lighting, controller speakers and microphones, force feedback for wheels, bass-shaker audio output, NFC tag triggers.
  • Steam Workshop import. Bring an existing Steam Input config across and every supported setting lands on a PadForge control you can edit.
  • Thirteen starter profiles. Ready-made layouts for desktop use, WASD shooters, emulation, racing, space sims, and gyro aim. Load one and edit from there.

PadForge is free and open source. The code, issues, and releases live at github.com/hifihedgehog/PadForge.

Last updated for PadForge 4.5.0.