For those that own console gaming controllers, a free way to get a good controller integrated with your PC is to re-purpose your console controller for your PC gaming. If you own the Sony Play Station 3 or have a Play Station 3 Dual Shock controller lying around, you can follow this guide to set it up with your Windows PC to use as your input for your PC gaming. There are two primary methods to go about the Play Station 3 controller integration on your PC: integration via SCP Driver Package and integration via SCP Toolkit. The former can be used for the wireless connectivity of your controller via Bluetooth as well. To configure your Sony Play Station 3 Dual Shock controller with your Windows PC for gaming, you will need your controller and its USB connectivity and charging cable to process a wired connection or your controller and a Bluetooth dongle that will Bluetooth enable your PC for wireless setup.
Preparing Your System
In the preparatory phase, whether you want to end up using your controller with the wire or wirelessly, you will need a wire to initially install all of the required drivers on your system. Once you have connected your controller to your PC with its wire and switched it on, install the following:
Microsoft .NET FrameworkVisual C++DirectX Web Installer
Your system may already have these installed. Thus, it is advised to first check whether these exist on your system before processing the installation. If your PC is running a version of Windows that is Windows 7 or older, then install the Xbox 360 Controller Driver on your system as well. It can be found at this link. After successfully installing all of the required drivers and softwares, you can move forward with the next sections of the guide to install the SCP Driver Package or SCP Toolkit. Neither will function until you have the aforementioned softwares and drivers installed and functioning.
SCP Driver Package: Wired Configuration
Since your controller was plugged in throughout this procedure, carrying on from the prerequisite setup and installations performed earlier, it should automatically be detected by the system. In case it is not, you can disconnect and reconnect it. If the controller indicated that it is charging then you don’t need to worry about the detection. This means that the controller has been recognized by the system. You can restart your system at this point and plug your controller back in after the restart to use it with your PC games which include Steam as well as individual emulator games.
SCP Driver Package: Wireless Configuration via Bluetooth
After carrying out the installation steps above, you will further need to configure a dongle to use your controller wirelessly through Bluetooth. The need for a dongle arises from the fact that your Play Station 3 controller requires a dedicated Bluetooth connection and the dongle will be configured to lock it just for your controller’s usage. To do this:
SCP Toolkit
To configure your Play Station 3 controller with your PC through the SCP Toolkit, download it from the following link: SCPToolkit. Find the location of your download and run the executable file. An installation window will pop up. Process the installation till the end then carry out the following steps:
Customization, Calibration, And Troubleshooting
To ensure once again that your configuration has been carried out successfully from the steps above, head into your Windows Settings and find your list of Bluetooth devices. You will need to head into “Bluetooth and Other Devices > Devices and Printers > Related Settings.” If you’re running on Windows 7 or earlier, your newly configured Play Station 3 controller will be showing up here as an Xbox 360 Controller due to the driver we used to process the installation. Here, you can right click on the controller and then click on “Game Controller Settings.” Head into the properties and tweak your axes or buttons as needed. You can test all of your controls from here to ensure that your controller is working properly. You can also perform tweaks of your controller configurations and customize them according to your gaming needs.
Final Thoughts
While Windows PCs have an easier setup laid out for their own Microsoft Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers in built, configuring a Play Station 3 controller for your PC gaming is not an impossible task. It does require a lot more steps and some driver installations, but once you follow the guide above, your Play Station 3 controller should be configured concretely as if you configured a native Xbox controller with your Windows PC. You will be able to use this controller for stand-alone PC games as well as the Steam engine. Lastly, if in any case, the PS3 controller doesn’t ring your bells.
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