While it’s not perfect, the Xbox 360 controller and Microsoft’s Xinput API did make using controllers on Windows PCs a lot less painful. By introducing a high quality standard controller, most gamers could simply plug and play, rather than having to go through the bind of re-binding the controls to suit the game and controller they were currently using.
Perhaps one of the biggest criticisms of the 360 pad (other than it’s rather lacklustre d-pad) is it’s legacy DirectInput support. When playing older, DirectInput games, the pads analogue triggers are bound to the same axis. For driving games in particular this is undesirable, as being able to press the throttle and brake at the same time is crucial for performing more advanced driving manoeuvres. Microsoft even attempted a fix for this issue with the Xbox One controller, though rather than make things better it seems to have simply broken compatibility with even more games.
If you have an older driving game you want to play with your Xbox One or Xbox 360 controller, Xinput Plus can come to the rescue. This handy tool can remap and re-bind game controller axis and buttons. It does so by using a hacked Xinput DLL, without the need to install hacked drivers or other kludges. We’ve just posted a new tutorial to get you started with this tool, check it out by clicking here.
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