A community sourced database of game controller mappings to be used with SDL2 Game Controller functionality.
Download gamecontrollerdb.txt, place it in your app's directory and load it.
For example :
SDL_GameControllerAddMappingsFromFile("gamecontrollerdb.txt");
The database is compatible with SDL v2.0.10 and newer. Older SDL versions are no longer supported.
A mapping looks like this :
030000004c050000c405000000010000,PS4 Controller,a:b1,b:b2,back:b8,dpdown:h0.4,dpleft:h0.8,dpright:h0.2,dpup:h0.1,guide:b12,leftshoulder:b4,leftstick:b10,lefttrigger:a3,leftx:a0,lefty:a1,rightshoulder:b5,rightstick:b11,righttrigger:a4,rightx:a2,righty:a5,start:b9,x:b0,y:b3,platform:Mac OS X,
It includes controller GUID (030000004c050000c405000000010000
), a name (PS4 Controller
), button / axis mappings (leftshoulder:b4
) and a platform (platform:Mac OS X
).
Please make sure to check that the name is a good description of the controller. If relevant, include the controller's name and model number.
There are a few different tools that let you create mappings.
Third party cross-platform tool with GUI (Windows, macOS and Linux). Likely the easiest tool to use.
Open source replacement for older SDL2 Gamepad Tool.
The controllermap utility provided with SDL2 is the official tool to create these mappings, it runs on all the platforms SDL runs (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, etc).
In Steam's Big Picture mode, configure your joystick. Then look in [steam_installation_directory]/config/config.vdf
in your Steam installation directory for the SDL_GamepadBind
entry. It is one of the last entries, it will look something like this:
"SDL_GamepadBind" "030000004c050000c405000000010000,PS4 Controller,platform:Windows,a:b1,b:b2,back:b8,dpdown:h0.4,dpleft:h0.8,dpright:h0.2,dpup:h0.1,guide:b12,leftshoulder:b4,leftstick:b10,lefttrigger:a3,leftx:a0,lefty:a1,rightshoulder:b5,rightstick:b11,righttrigger:a4,rightx:a2,righty:a5,start:b9,x:b0,y:b3,"
GNOME Games allows users to configure their own gamepads in GNU/Linux. The gamepad file the user generates is located at ~/.var/app/org.gnome.Games/config/libmanette/gamecontrollerdb
when installed from the flatpak. AntiMicroX offers a GUI tool for configuring controller profiles in GNU/Linux and generating SDL2 controller profiles.