Dashboard
PadForge's home screen. Engine status, virtual controllers, motion server, web controller, and driver health on one page.
Five sections, stacked top to bottom.
| Section | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Input Engine | Master power switch and live polling readout. |
| Virtual Controllers | One card per slot, plus an Add card. |
| Motion Server | DSU/Cemuhook gyro broadcasting for emulators. |
| Web Controller | Browser-based controller for phones, tablets, and other PCs. |
| Drivers | Install status for HIDMaestro, HidHide, and Windows MIDI Services. |
Missing drivers, disconnected controllers, and a stopped engine all surface here.
The engine card sits at the top with four elements in a row.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Power button | Starts and stops the engine. Color shows state (see below). |
| Status text | "Running", "Stopped", or "Idle". |
| Polling frequency | Live polling rate in Hz, e.g. 987.3 Hz. Dash when stopped. |
| Device count | Online vs. total, e.g. 2 / 3 devices online. Online means plugged in right now. Total includes remembered devices. |
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | Running and processing input. |
| Yellow | Idle. The engine started but no slots exist. |
| Red | Stopped. Virtual controllers inactive. |
Tip: Turn on Auto-start engine on launch in Settings to skip the manual power-button click each time.
Each virtual controller slot gets a card under the engine card.
| Element | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Power icon | Top-left | Slot status color (see below). Click to enable or disable. |
| Gamepad icon + slot number | Next to the power icon | Global controller number (1, 2, 3, ...). |
| Type icons | After the separator bar | Xbox, PlayStation, Extended, Keyboard+Mouse, MIDI. The active type is bright. Others are dimmed. Click a dimmed icon to switch type. Types without their driver installed show a no-entry cursor and a tooltip naming the missing driver. |
| Per-type instance number | After the type icons | Position within the type, e.g. 2 for the second Xbox slot. |
| Device name | Second row | Primary mapped device, or "No device". Long names scroll. |
| Status text | Third row, left | "Active", "Idle", "No mapping", or "Disabled". |
| Mapped / Connected counts | Third row, right | E.g. 2 mapped, 1 connected. |
| Delete button (X) | Upper-right | Removes the slot. |
| Color | Condition | Tooltip |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Enabled with at least one mapped device connected. Stays green during the HIDMaestro inactivity grace period (default 60 s). | "Active" |
| Yellow | Enabled but blocked. No devices, engine stopped, driver missing, or the inactivity timer fired and the virtual controller has been torn down (slot config kept). | Shows the reason |
| Flashing green | Initializing. | "Initializing" |
| Red | Manually disabled. | "Disabled" |
Click anywhere on a card (except the delete or power button) to open the slot's configuration: Button and Axis Mappings, Stick Deadzones, Trigger Deadzones, Force Feedback, Adaptive Triggers, Lighting, and Macros.
Drag a card by its body to reorder slots inside the same type group. Xbox, PlayStation, Extended, Keyboard+Mouse, and MIDI each reorder on their own. Cross-type drops are ignored. The per-type instance number (the 2 on the second Xbox slot) updates as soon as you drop.
Same-profile reorders are a pointer swap. No kernel rebuild, no game disconnection. Different-profile reorders rebuild only the positions whose profile changed. See Controller Slots#what-rebuilds-on-reorder.
An Add Controller card sits at the bottom when at least one type still has room. Click it to pick a type. The card disappears when every type is at capacity. See Controller Slots for limits.
Broadcasts gyroscope and accelerometer data over UDP using the DSU/Cemuhook protocol. Cemu, Dolphin, Yuzu, and Ryujinx read it for motion controls like gyro aiming.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable DSU motion server | Starts and stops the server. |
| Port | UDP port. Default 26760. Change only on conflict. Range 1024-65535. |
| Status indicator | Green dot when running, red dot when stopped. |
The DSU protocol caps at 4 slots, so only the first 4 virtual controllers broadcast motion data.
See DSU Motion Server for full details.
A browser-based controller you can open from any device on the same network.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable web controller | Starts and stops the web server. |
| Port | HTTP/WebSocket port. Default 8080. Range 1024-65535. |
| Status indicator | Green dot when running. The local URL becomes clickable. Red dot when stopped. |
See Web Controller for full details.
An on-screen, transparent touch surface you can pin to any monitor. Drives the touchpad on the assigned DualShock 4 or DualSense slot. Useful when no physical touchpad or phone is handy.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable touchpad overlay | Shows the transparent overlay window. |
| Opacity | Slider plus percentage box, 0-100%. |
| Monitor | Picks which display the overlay snaps to. |
| Reset position | Snaps the overlay back to the default size and position on the current monitor. |
The overlay tracks 1-2 finger contacts and forwards them to whichever PlayStation-output slot has a touchpad bound. Multi-touch is supported when the OS reports touch events. Mouse drag falls back to single-finger.
Install status for each driver. Name on the left, status on the right.
| Driver / Service | Purpose | When to install |
|---|---|---|
| HidHide | Hides physical controllers from games to prevent double input. | Games see both the physical and the virtual controller. |
| HIDMaestro | Creates virtual Xbox, PlayStation, and Extended (DirectInput) controllers from one user-mode driver. 225+ device profiles. | Required for Xbox, PlayStation, or Extended slots. Replaces ViGEmBus and vJoy from PadForge v2. |
| Windows MIDI Services | MIDI virtual controller output. Requires Windows 11 24H2 or later. | You want to send MIDI to DAWs, synths, or VJ tools. |
If a driver is missing, the matching controller-type icons on the slot cards are greyed out. Install or remove drivers from Settings.
- Installation: first-time setup.
- Controller Slots: add and manage virtual controllers.
- Devices: view physical controllers and assign them to slots.
- Settings: engine options, appearance, drivers.
- Profiles: per-app profile switching.
- DSU Motion Server: gyro streaming for emulators.
- Web Controller: browser-based virtual controller.