Dashboard
The Dashboard is the first thing you see when PadForge launches. It gives you an at-a-glance overview of everything that matters: is the engine running, which virtual controllers are active, what devices are connected, and whether your drivers are installed.
The Input Engine card at the top of the Dashboard shows:
- Power button — Click to start or stop the engine. The icon turns green when the engine is running and red when it is stopped.
- Status text — Displays "Running" or "Stopped".
- Polling frequency — Shows the current polling rate in Hz (e.g., "987.3 Hz"). This tells you how many times per second PadForge reads your controllers and updates virtual output.
- Device count — Shows how many of your physical devices are currently online out of the total detected (e.g., "2 / 3 devices online").
Tip: The engine must be running for your virtual controllers to work in games. You can set it to auto-start in Settings.
Below the engine card, you will see a card for each virtual controller slot you have created. Each card shows:
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Power icon | Green = active and connected, yellow = idle (engine is running but no virtual controller slots are created) or enabled but awaiting a device or missing a driver, red = disabled |
| Slot number | The global controller number (e.g., 1, 2, 3) |
| Type icons | Xbox, PlayStation, DirectInput, MIDI, and Keyboard+Mouse icons — the currently selected type is fully opaque, the others are dimmed. Click an icon to change the controller type. |
| Per-type instance | Shows which instance of that type this is (e.g., "1" for the first Xbox 360 controller) |
| Device name | The name of the primary physical device mapped to this slot, or "No device" if none is assigned |
| Status | "Active", "Idle", "No mapping", or "Disabled" |
| Mapped / Connected | How many devices are mapped and how many of those are currently connected |
| Delete button | The X in the upper-right corner removes this virtual controller slot |
Click anywhere on a controller card to navigate to that controller's configuration page, where you can set up Button and Axis Mappings, Stick Dead Zones, Trigger Dead Zones, Force Feedback, and Macros.
If you have room for more controllers, an Add Controller card appears at the bottom. Click it to create a new virtual controller slot. See Controller Slots for details on type limits and slot management.
The Motion Server section lets you enable the DSU/cemuhook server, which broadcasts gyroscope and accelerometer data from your physical controllers over UDP. This is used by emulators like Cemu, Dolphin, Yuzu, and Ryujinx for motion controls.
- Enable DSU motion server (cemuhook) — Check this box to start the server.
- Port — The UDP port the server listens on. The default is 26760, which matches most emulator configurations.
- Status indicator — A green or red dot with status text shows whether the server is currently running.
For full details, see DSU Motion Server.
The Web Controller section lets you enable a browser-based controller interface accessible from any device on your network.
- Enable web controller — Check this box to start the web server.
- Port — The HTTP/WebSocket port the server listens on (default: 8080).
- Link — When the server is running, a clickable URL is shown for connecting from other devices on your network.
For full details, see Web Controller.
The Drivers section shows the installation status of the optional drivers and services PadForge can use:
| Driver / Service | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|
| HidHide | Hides physical controllers from games to prevent double input | Installed / Not Installed |
| ViGEmBus | Required for Xbox 360 and DualShock 4 virtual controller output | Installed / Not Installed |
| vJoy | Required for custom DirectInput joystick/gamepad output with configurable axes, buttons, and POVs | Installed / Not Installed |
| Windows MIDI Services | Required for MIDI virtual controller output | Installed / Not Installed |
If a driver or service is not installed, the corresponding controller types on the slot cards will be dimmed and unavailable. You can install drivers from the Settings page or the Driver Management section.
- Controller Slots — Learn how to add and manage virtual controllers
- Devices — See your physical controllers and assign them to slots
- Settings — Configure the engine, appearance, and drivers