Addendum to earlier thread "[Mac] MFI Gamepad (Steelseries Nimbus)"

Hello,

I posted earlier here regarding the issues with MFI gamepads / controllers when playing on a Mac: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...on-not-working

The solution I presented was to use Steam and their "Steam Input" driver / kernel extension in order to simulate an Xinput controller and gain full button support. However, now it's 3 years later and some problems have cropped up with that solution which is why I want to present a new work-around that I have come up with. If possible, I would like to have the link added to this new work-around to the old thread by a mod so that people coming from search engines can more easily find it.

The new problem is that kernel extensions don't always load properly under macOS Big Sur and in case you have a Mac with Apple Silicon, then "Steam Input" does not work at all because it's only compiled for Intel processors and Rosetta cannot be used with kernel extensions. Apparently Valve does not care about this, so using Steam is no longer a good option. We have also seen the release of the SteelSeries Nimbus+ controller with Select and R3/L3 buttons, which makes it even more viable to play games with. However, to make the Nimbus or Nimbus+ work properly with modern macOS, I suggest you using this method.

First we need to do some setup:

1: Get the third-party tool "Enjoyable" (it's written by a dude called Joe Wreschnig and allows you to remap controller inputs -- just search for it on the internet and you will be able to locate it, it's very lightweight). Connect your controller and start it up.

2: For each button that does not work AT ALL inside of FFXIV, set here a new key of your choice that you don't need to use in-game. For example num-pad keys or arrow keys should be a safe choice for most players. You might want to write down your mappings for step 4. However, do NOT set a new key here for the buttons that do work in game but are just wrongly mapped. That is because...

3: ...we map them in-game. Exit out completely out of Enjoyable (make sure you click on menu bar icon on the top and select "Quit Enjoyable") and then start up the game. Go the the controller remap settings in System Settings and map all the buttons correctly that can be recognized by the game. All other buttons just skip. You can also change the display style here to alphabet for the buttons in-game to better fit the Nimbus controller.

4: Then go to Keybinding settings in game and head to the Gamepad tab. For the buttons that you had to skip before, now configure them with the keys that you had set up inside Enjoyable in step 2. Great, initial setup is finished at that point. Close out of the game now.

Now each time you want to play, make sure you do these steps in the right order. Otherwise it won't work correctly.

Step 1: Connect Nimbus / Nimbus+ with macOS.

Step 2: Start up FFXIV, log-in and get into the game. You should be able to use the controller, and the buttons that do work should work correctly, but some buttons will not be functional.

Step 3: After you got into the game, start up Enjoyable. Thanks to the additional key mappings, you should now be able to make full use of the Nimbus / Nimbus+ controller within FFXIV, even if you're on macOS Big Sur and regardless of Intel or M1 chip.

One down-side with this setup is that if the controller goes to sleep because of inactivity (maybe you want to grab a bite or something), then when you power it back on you have to fully quit Enjoyable and FFXIV and start them up in the right order again.

The reason for this is because if Enjoyable can grab the controller before FFXIV does so, then it will block all the unmapped buttons completely. Unfortunately you cannot set up buttons as "transparent" in Enjoyable, so to get fully working analog sticks, there's no other way.

Hope this will help at least a single person out there.