It’s a common practice now that PC gamers use console controllers for certain PC titles, especially ones that work better with a controller. No doubt those PC gamers may have liked to use the Xbox One’s controller for their gaming, but could not; there are currently no official drivers to support the Xbox One’s controller’s compatibility with the PC.
One person, however, by the name of Chris Gallizzi, decided to take it upon himself to develop a driver for the Xbox One controller earlier on this year. Unfortunately, even though development for the driver was going smoothly, Gallizzi could not release it, as he was stymied by “some legal issues” behind the driver’s development, as he explained via Twitter.
@ORIGINPCCEO it's fine, i would release it but there are some legal issues behind it
— Chris Gallizzi (@cgallizzi) January 28, 2014
Even though Gallizzi’s controller driver may not see the light of day, there may be some hope for a driver yet, as another developer, named Lucas Assis, is developing his own Xbox One controller driver. The difference with Assis’ driver is that he takes advantage of utilizing official Microsoft programs to get the driver to work.
On his own website, Assis discusses how he managed to get the Xbox One controller to communicate with a PC. According to him, the biggest problem was this communication, but he managed to get around it by using a driver filter from LibUSBdotNet, .NET C# USB development tool for USB peripheral developers, and WinUSB, Windows’ “default driver for devices without drivers,” as Assis puts it, which allowed information to be sent to and from the Xbox One controller via USB.
The next step was figuring out how to get the PC to analyse and interpret the information coming from the controller. Assis used VJoy, a controller emulator, instead of creating his own driver to make the Xbox One controller communicate with the PC more cohesively. Information from the Xbox One controller was sent through the VJoy software, where it was then sent to the PC with its own drivers – thus allowing for a near-clean line of communication. Lastly, he used x360ce driver for compatibility; a two of three different software programs. Assis admits that, if he was more experienced, the process would need only one program: “At the end it was 3 programs, but if I was more experienced it’d be only [one] with an XInput wrapper made specifically for the XOne gamepad.”
“So for now I decided to make my own driver. Sorta,” Assis explained on his website. “Can I release it? I’m starting to think that yes, because it really isn’t a custom driver. I’m actually using WinUSB, Windows default driver for devices without drivers, and a driver filter from LibUSBDotNet. Nothing more. You don’t even have to set your PC to Unsigned Drivers to install this, everything is actually kinda pretty.”
Assis demonstrated the fruits of his efforts by using his Xbox One controller on both Batman: Arkham Asylum and Borderlands 2 in a YouTube video. In the video’s description, Assis explains that the controller’s Left Trigger and Right Trigger were not working during the demonstration, but were fixed by the time the video went live. According to him, the controller now works perfectly, with the exception of rumble support for the time being.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrZ3zNG9dho
Assis also announced in the video’s comment section that, “if no-one contests to it“, he will be launching the driver tomorrow, March 12, despite what he said about legal issues on his website: “I don’t know how this could go against any rule from Microsoft, as there ain’t any actual drivers. I’m just using WinUSB (standard, every Windows come with this one), and a Driver Filter (which you can actually do with any device on your PC). Nothing more. But anyway for now, I won’t be launching it, as of pure fear of having problems with a multi-billionaire company.”
As this announcement was made 14 hours ago relative to Greenwich Mean Time, it’s a possibility that the driver may be launching later on today. Assis is also working on rumble support for the Xbox One controller.
Source: Lucasassis.com.