Use a DualSense on Windows

At a glance

Connect it

By cable: plug the DualSense into a USB port and wait for Windows to recognise it. Nothing else is needed, and the pad charges while you play.

By Bluetooth: hold Create and the PS button until the light bar flashes, then add it from Windows Settings under Bluetooth and devices. The setup page has the step-by-step version.

When the pad connects but nothing moves

This is the common failure, and it is almost always about which program claimed the controller first.

• Connect the pad before launching Vesper, not after.
• Close Steam, other launchers, and any controller-remapping utility. These grab the pad and can hide it from everything else.
• Unplug other input devices, especially an unassigned second pad or a wheel.
• Try USB even if Bluetooth pairing succeeded; pairing and working are different things.
• Check the launcher status bar to see whether Vesper has found it at all.

Haptics, triggers, and several pads

Haptics and adaptive triggers are supported, though how much a title uses them varies. Returnal maps a real function to a half-pressed trigger, while most games treat the features as texture.

For local co-op such as Sackboy, connect every pad before starting the app. Player order follows the order Windows enumerated the devices, which is rarely the order people sat down in.

If you have no DualSense

Most Xbox and third-party gamepads Windows recognises will work. Keyboard and mouse work throughout the launcher and in games, so you are never locked out for want of a pad.

What you lose without a DualSense is the trigger and haptic behaviour, which is a genuine loss in a handful of titles and irrelevant in most.