Remote Link
Share a controller, wheel, or HOTAS between two PCs on your network. A device plugged into one PC drives a game on the other, and the feedback comes back to the real hardware.
Remote Link connects two PadForge instances over your local network. A device plugged into one PC (the owner) shows up in the other PC's PadForge (the consumer) as an ordinary input device, ready to assign to a slot and map like anything else. The game on the consumer sees a virtual controller and never knows the hardware is in another room.
It works both ways at once. Each PC can share its own devices and use the other's at the same time.
Sharing is not input-only. When the game on the consumer drives the shared device, the feedback returns across the link and plays on the physical hardware where it lives:
- Rumble (both motors)
- Wheel force feedback (native on Logitech, Fanatec, and Thrustmaster, with other wheels falling back to rumble)
- DualSense adaptive triggers
- Lightbar color
- Player-number LEDs
- Controller speaker audio
So a wheel shared from the den shakes in the den while the race runs on the PC in the office, and a DualSense lights its bar and buzzes its triggers on the couch while the game plays upstairs.
On the Dashboard, open the Remote Link section and enable it. Each PC starts listening and begins announcing itself to the local network.
A PC running Remote Link on the same network shows up under Nearby PCs. If it does not appear (some networks block discovery), use Connect by address and type the other PC's address and port.
Start pairing from one side. Both screens show a six-digit code. Check that the two codes match, then confirm on both. The match proves the two PCs reached each other directly with no one in the middle.
Pairing only happens once per pair of PCs.
Once paired, each PC's shareable devices appear in the other's Devices list. Assign a shared device to a slot and map it like any local controller.
Pairing records the other PC as trusted. After that, trusted PCs reconnect on their own the moment they see each other on the network, with no code to re-enter. Auto-reconnect is on by default and can be turned off in the Remote Link settings.
Trust is tied to each PC's cryptographic identity, not its name. Renaming a PC does not break a pairing. The display name is only there so you can tell your paired PCs apart.
A paired PC can drive this one's gamepad output. Whether it can also reach your keyboard, mouse, and macros is your choice, set per paired PC. For a PC you do not fully control, leave the gamepad-only limit on. Unknown peers start limited by default.
With gamepad-only on, a shared device can act as a virtual gamepad and nothing else. Its keyboard and mouse output is suppressed, and it cannot run macros on the owner PC.
Each PadForge install has a Remote Link identity, the key that pairings trust. You choose how it is stored:
| Mode | Stored as | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| Secure | Encrypted to this Windows account and PC | The normal choice. The identity never leaves this machine. |
| Portable, password protected | Encrypted with a password you set | You want to carry one identity across installs. Pair once, then clone. |
| Portable, open | Plain, no password | A throwaway or test identity. |
A portable identity lets a group of PCs that share one install image pair once and then recognize each other everywhere. Most people never need to change this from Secure.
Remote Link runs on your local network. Discovery is a same-subnet broadcast, so both PCs being on the same Wi-Fi or switch is the usual setup.
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Network | Both PCs on the same local network |
| Discovery | UDP broadcast on port 27501 (same subnet) |
| Connection | Direct PC-to-PC, encrypted end to end |
| Firewall | Allow PadForge through the firewall on both PCs |
The Connect by address box accepts a host and port directly, so two PCs joined by a VPN that puts them on one virtual network can connect even when broadcast discovery does not cross it. PadForge does not provide internet matchmaking or hole-punching of its own.
Pairing runs a fresh key exchange (X25519) and signs the whole exchange with each PC's long-term key (Ed25519), so each side proves it is the same PC it paired with before. The six-digit code is derived from the exchange after both sides commit to it, which is why a matching code rules out a machine in the middle. A failed handshake creates no device and shares nothing. Traffic after pairing is encrypted.
- Local network only. No built-in internet play. A VPN that bridges the two networks is the way to play across the internet.
- Gamepad-style devices. Remote Link shares controllers, wheels, and HOTAS hardware, not arbitrary USB devices.
- Both PCs run PadForge. Remote Link is PadForge-to-PadForge.
- Dashboard: turn Remote Link on, pair, and manage paired PCs.
- Devices: see shared devices and assign them to slots.
- Controller Slots: create the virtual controller a shared device feeds.
- Force Feedback: the rumble and force-feedback that returns over the link.
- Wheel: native wheel force feedback, including over Remote Link.
- Controller Audio: the speaker audio that returns over the link.
- Troubleshooting: help when a PC does not appear or pairing fails.