reWASD is the best controller software you’re not using

The typical PC gamer possible has one controller they use for sure video games. They join that controller to their PC, launch a recreation, after which play. There’s not a lot further thought put into it. Nevertheless, when you’ve ever puzzled what you may be doing along with your controller and the way you might make an expertise particularly tailor-made to the video games you play and the best way you recreation, then let me introduce you to reWASD.

For those who’ve by no means heard of reWASD, I’m not shocked. The corporate is comparatively small within the gaming world — the reWASD subreddit solely has 625 members as of writing. Nevertheless, I’ve completely no clue why that’s the case. I took an opportunity on the app earlier this 12 months, and now I’m wondering how I ever lived with out it.

To totally perceive what this software program can do, let me clarify what it’s, my particular use case, and the way reWASD has made every little thing so significantly better.

At its core, reWASD is a full customization suite for just about each main gaming controller. For those who can join your controller to a PC, the probabilities are excessive that this software program will provide you with the flexibility to customise it to your coronary heart’s content material.

And after I say “customise,” I don’t imply swapping buttons round or writing in some macros. I imply customise, as in making your controller do just about something. Do you need to hit the “B” button and have your laptop launch Microsoft Phrase, kind “Hey, world, I’m typing in Microsoft Phrase,” after which electronic mail the doc to your mother? You are able to do that. I don’t know why you’d do this, however reWASD basically turns your controller into no matter you want, whether or not that’s a keyboard, a mouse, one other controller, a gyro controller, or any enter methodology you possibly can think about.

Past the great customization choices, you may as well set your controller to perform in a different way in numerous situations and auto-switch between them. For instance, let’s say you’ve distinctive customized controller layouts for Sport A and Sport B. If you launch Sport A, you’ll get one format, and whenever you swap to Sport B, you’ll change to its distinctive format mechanically. Have two completely different layouts for Sport B? You possibly can hotswap between them with a button combo. What’s extra, when you change again to your desktop between the 2 video games, you possibly can have a selected config for that as properly.

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These of you with a number of controllers for various conditions will respect the ability of reWASD. The software program enables you to customise particular controllers for particular actions. In different phrases, when you’ve got two Sony DualSense controllers, you possibly can create particular macros for each quite than be restricted to each controllers having the identical customizations.

Granted, a whole lot of these capabilities are doable with different items of software program, together with the Steam controller overlay. Nevertheless, reWASD is platform agnostic, so that you don’t want Steam (or anything) to be open for it to work. It additionally has just about each controller possibility I’ve ever seen in a single suite, so that you don’t must bounce between completely different applications to get what you want. Lastly, I’ve by no means come throughout controller software program that appears nearly as good, capabilities as properly, and is up to date as continuously.

For my common PC gaming, I take advantage of reWASD to remap my Sony DualSense controllers to Xbox One controllers. I do that primarily for on-screen button-matching on older titles. In reality, I even swapped out the buttons on my DualSense to make them match the ABXY face buttons of an Xbox controller. With the customized buttons and reWASD, older video games assume I’m taking part in with an Xbox controller and present me Xbox buttons on the display. These buttons will match what I see on the controller.

Why don’t I simply use an Xbox controller for actual? Xbox controllers don’t have gyro help or a touchpad, making the DualSense far superior for PC gaming, for my part. With the DualSense, I can recreation from the sofa and use the touchpad as a mouse if obligatory. This permits for a full-on sofa expertise, with out me ever needing to the touch a keyboard or mouse. I can even use gyro controls if wanted. For instance, I may make it so my character jumps if I jerk the controller upward or crouch if I thrust it downward.

I additionally do a whole lot of retro console emulation. For that, I primarily use an 8bitdo SN30 Professional Plus controller so I get that Nintendo really feel (and Japanese-style face buttons). For the reason that SN30 Professional Plus has all of the buttons that seem on each Nintendo console, I can customise the controller to perform in a different way in every emulator. For instance, though the Gamecube controller has the standard ABXY buttons, they don’t seem to be within the ordinary format. I can swap these round if wanted for Gamecube video games however then mechanically swap them again when taking part in Tremendous Nintendo video games. Likewise, the gyro controls within the SN30 Professional Plus make emulating a Wiimote doable (though I simply use actual Wiimotes for this, due to Dolphin). reWASD additionally makes it straightforward to carry out touchscreen capabilities on a TV, which is particularly handy for Nintendo DS and 3DS emulation.

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I additionally use a preferred emulation frontend known as LaunchBox (which has an Android model now, when you didn’t know). reWASD makes it straightforward to swap from LaunchBox to an emulator and management every program with separate setups. This, as soon as once more, permits me to completely management my PC from the sofa with out ever touching a keyboard or mouse.

With reWASD, I’m able to sit down in my lounge, activate my PC, and recreation. I can soar from PC video games to emulation with out getting up or utilizing something however the controller. I can swap to my desktop to open new applications, change settings, and even shut down the PC from the controller alone. I can hot-swap controllers in the midst of a recreation if wanted. For each downside I’ve dreamed up to date, reWASD has had an answer.

You will get began with reWASD for seven days without cost. Throughout that trial, you’ve entry to all of the options of a primary license. The essential license lets you do all of the necessary stuff and prices $7.00 — which is a one-time price, not a month-to-month invoice.

After about an hour of taking part in with the completely different settings throughout my trial, I instantly purchased the deluxe lifetime go. The deluxe bundle offers you entry to superior mapping, extra save slots, and some different cool options. It prices a bit over $40, nevertheless it goes on sale continuously (on the time of writing, it’s simply $25.99). Now that I understand how a lot its enhanced my gaming life, I might gladly have paid $100 for this software program, so $40 is a steal, to say nothing concerning the $7 primary license.

There’s additionally a cell app for Android and iOS. For those who use it whereas on the identical community as your PC, you possibly can view and management your mappings from the app with out utilizing the PC software program. This might will let you, for instance, swap a controller macro on-the-fly with out exiting your recreation. The reWASD cell app additionally enables you to flip your telephone right into a controller, which may provide you with each gyro and touchscreen help in video games and emulators. This cell app is free when you’ve got a license for the PC app.

reWASD additionally will get up to date very continuously with new options. Within the ten months I’ve been utilizing it, I’ve seen new controller help added, together with for the Xbox Elite Sequence 2. Buyer help can be off the charts, with reps responding in a short time to Reddit posts and help tickets. I had some bother to start with getting issues going, and a rep helped me each step of the best way within the reWASD subreddit.

That, sadly, brings me to the one massive downside with reWASD: the training curve. With so many choices, studying how every little thing works could be fairly overwhelming. It’s good that reps are round to stroll you thru, however this isn’t a plug-and-play resolution. Anticipate to spend a number of hours studying the way to do every little thing the suite presents. However that can be hours properly spent if you’d like complete management over your gaming expertise.

I actually don’t know why reWASD isn’t extra fashionable. I can solely hope that extra individuals will test it out after studying this, because it’s been a literal game-changer for me.