Emulation
Emulation presents a virtual controller to your game so that a remapped pad, or a keyboard and mouse, shows up as a standard gamepad. This page covers the two outputs, when to pick each, and the extra bridges for motion and emulators.
How emulation works
OmniControl uses the ViGEmBus kernel driver to create a virtual controller. The driver is bundled in the installer and set up for you the first time you run it. The game reads a genuine device from the driver stack, not an injected input stream, so titles that accept a controller accept the virtual one the same way.
Choose an output
You emulate one of two virtual pads. Pick the one your game handles best.
Virtual Xbox 360
The default for most PC games. Xbox input is the widest-supported layout on Windows, so button prompts and mappings tend to line up without extra work. Choose this unless a game specifically prefers PlayStation input.
Virtual DualShock 4
Choose this for games that read PlayStation controllers directly, or when you want native DS4-style button prompts. This output also carries the extras that some games use from a DualShock, such as the touchpad and lightbar.
One output per profile
The emulation output is stored in the active profile, so different games can use different virtual pads. See Profiles & Game Center for how a profile loads and unloads with focus.
Turn on emulation
Connect your controller
Connect a pad over USB or Bluetooth. OmniControl shows it as a live 3D model. See Controller setup for supported devices.
Pick an output
On the Emulation tab, select Virtual Xbox 360 or Virtual DualShock 4.
Enable emulation
Turn emulation on. The virtual pad appears to Windows and to your game.
Set the game's input
If the game lets you choose an input device, point it at the virtual controller rather than your physical pad.
Keyboard and mouse
Emulation is also what drives the virtual pad in Keyboard & mouse mode. Macros that play back controller input auto-enable emulation for you.
Motion and emulator bridges
Two optional bridges extend emulation for specific setups.
- DSU motion server: feeds gyro data to emulators that read the DSU (cemuhook) protocol, so motion aiming works in those cores. Gyro and DualSense extras come over USB.
- Dolphin bridge: maps any connected pad to a Wii Remote or a GameCube controller for Dolphin.
Anti-cheat boundary
Not for defeating anti-cheat
OmniControl is for single-player and controller-friendly games. It is not a tool for defeating anti-cheat. Kernel-anti-cheat competitive shooters are out of scope, and emulation does not hide or bypass those systems.
Emulation is part of the free tier. Related reading: Controller setup and Profiles & Game Center.