PadForge
Product information | October 27, 2026

PadForge is a free controller remapper for Windows. It maps gamepads, wheels, flight sticks, keyboards and mice onto as many as 16 virtual controllers, and it knows 1,110 devices by their USB identity. Players can tune stick response and gyro aiming, build macros and save profiles for individual games. PadForge also imports supported Steam community layouts and connects browser-based controllers. Its source code is available under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Website: https://padforge.org/
Press resources: https://padforge.org/press/
Version: 5.2.0
Downloads and release notes: https://github.com/hifihedgehog/PadForge/releases/latest
Platforms: Windows 10 and 11 on x64. Preliminary build for Windows 11 on ARM64.
Price: Free. No subscriptions or paid feature packs.
Languages: 109, 42 of them complete. Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Central Kurdish are laid out right to left.
Source license: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Source and attributions: https://github.com/hifihedgehog/PadForge/blob/main/LICENSE
Recognition: Softpedia Editor's Pick, rated 5 out of 5. https://www.softpedia.com/get/Gaming-Related/PadForge.shtml

New in 5.2.0
Game Telemetry: Driving games send PadForge their speed, RPM, gear, pedals and steering, from Forza, F1, EA SPORTS WRC and the Codemasters rally games to Assetto Corsa, Project CARS 2 and the truck simulators. They appear as a controller row of their own, to map, to start macros with, or to play adaptive trigger effects on a DualSense. Custom Formats reads a game PadForge does not know.
Game mods without DSX: Fan mods that give the Grand Theft Auto games, Red Dead Redemption 2, Skyrim and others adaptive triggers send to a program named DSX. PadForge takes its place: their trigger effects, lightbar, player lights and mute light play on the PlayStation controllers on PadForge's virtual controllers, with no DSX installed.
Novint Falcon: The Falcon's handle becomes a stick and its grip's buttons become buttons, and a game's rumble and force feedback push back on the handle, through Force Dimension's SDK. No Falcon has run against PadForge yet.
Keyboard screens: The screens on Logitech's GamePanel keyboards, the Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 and a phone running Logitech Arx Control show the profile, a clock, play time, a stopwatch, a picture or a PlayStation controller's lightbar color, and the keys beside them map as buttons. None of these screens has run against PadForge yet.
Haptics as rumble: A game that plays a DualSense's haptics as audio now rumbles every rumble pad on that virtual controller, and bass shakers follow it.
HIDMaestro 2.1.0: Virtual Xbox 360 controllers keep working through sleep, and every frame arrives once and in order. In HIDMaestro's own test with every processor busy, a virtual DualShock 4's slowest frame took 1.4 ms instead of 360.
DualShock 4 headset: Over Bluetooth, a DualShock 4 plays through its headphone jack and its headset microphone works. A second-model DualShock 4 on a cable now plays PadForge's sound through its headphone jack too.

Setup
PadForge runs as administrator. Its runtime is included in the executable.
HIDMaestro provides virtual controller output and is installed when needed.
Composite USB profiles install the USB/IP driver on first use.
PadForge 4.5.3 and later update themselves from the Updates card in Settings.
Installation and removal: https://padforge.org/docs/start/installation/

Product references
Specifications: https://padforge.org/specs.html
Supported devices: https://padforge.org/docs/devices/supported/
Languages: https://padforge.org/docs/features/settings/#language
Game telemetry: https://padforge.org/docs/features/game-telemetry/
Game mods: https://padforge.org/docs/features/game-mods/
Novint Falcon: https://padforge.org/docs/features/novint-falcon/
Keyboard screens: https://padforge.org/docs/features/keyboard-screens/
Screen readers and the keyboard: https://padforge.org/docs/guides/accessibility/
Mice, keyboards and vendor rows: https://padforge.org/docs/features/peripherals/
Haptic mice: https://padforge.org/docs/features/force-feedback/#haptic-mice-and-the-razer-sensa-row
Virtual keyboards and mice: https://padforge.org/docs/features/controller-slots/#keyboardmouse
Driver management: https://padforge.org/docs/features/driver-management/
Gyro controls: https://padforge.org/docs/guides/gyro/
Steam community imports: https://padforge.org/docs/guides/steam-workshop-import/
Phone and browser controllers: https://padforge.org/docs/guides/web-controller/
Reviewer brief (4 pages): https://padforge.org/press/PadForge-5.2-reviewer-brief.pdf
Reviewer field guide (29 pages): https://padforge.org/press/PadForge-5.2-reviewer-field-guide.pdf

Notes
The direct lighting and rumble paths for mice and keyboards follow the
public implementations that drive each device, and tests check every frame
against them. They have not run on the devices themselves.
No native speaker has reviewed the translations. A partial translation
shows English wherever it has no string.
No NYXI Hyperion 3 has run against PadForge.
No Novint Falcon and none of the supported keyboard screens has run
against PadForge. No Fanatec base has run the report 0x01 fix.
No wired second-model DualShock 4 or Sony USB wireless adapter has run
the 5.2.0 audio routing.
DualSense audio over Bluetooth uses a virtual USB DualSense for compatible
games. The game supplies its native speaker audio and haptic effects.
Steam imports include a translation report. Some bindings are approximated
or skipped. Game-specific Steam Input API actions do not translate.
The ARM64 build has not run on ARM64 hardware.

Images
dualsense-cobalt.jpg: DualSense controller preview in the Deep Earth Cobalt finish. 2560 x 1528 JPG.
game-telemetry.jpg: The Dashboard's Game Telemetry card, waiting for a game on UDP port 20777. 2560 x 1528 JPG. New in 5.2.0.
telemetry-formats.jpg: The Custom Telemetry Formats window with a rally game's speed, RPM, gear and throttle fields. 2560 x 1528 JPG. New in 5.2.0.
game-mods.jpg: The Dashboard's Game Mods card, listening for DSX game mods on port 6969. 2560 x 1528 JPG. New in 5.2.0.
novint-falcon.jpg: The Novint Falcon settings on an Xbox virtual controller's Force Feedback tab. 2560 x 1528 JPG. New in 5.2.0.
mice-and-keyboards.jpg: The Lighting tab of a Logitech G502 HERO assigned to an Xbox virtual controller. 2560 x 1528 JPG.
languages.jpg: The Language list in Settings, each language under its own name with its English name beside it. 2560 x 1528 JPG.
button-mappings.jpg: The mapping table with combined physical inputs and layer controls. 2560 x 1528 JPG.
macros.jpg: A macro with its trigger conditions and a sequence of actions. 2560 x 1528 JPG.
controller-audio.jpg: Sound output for a DualSense speaker, with crossfeed and a parametric EQ curve. 2560 x 1528 JPG.
steam-community-layouts.jpg: A community configuration and its binding translation report. 2560 x 1528 JPG.
padforge-logo.png: Logo with wordmark. 800 x 800 transparent PNG.
padforge-icon.png: App icon. 571 x 533 transparent PNG.

Film
PadForge 5.2, 140 seconds, with music and on-screen text and no narration. Landscape 1920 x 1080, portrait 1080 x 1920 and square 1080 x 1080 MP4s at 60 fps: https://padforge.org/press/#film. New in 5.2.0.
A narrated version, 1 minute 59 seconds, with a generated voice, English captions, a transcript and a recording of NVDA reading PadForge, is on the same page.

Images are supplied in their original proportions. Product names and artwork
belong to their respective owners. See the source license and attributions.
