Dolphin is an open-source Nintendo GameCube and Wii Emulator for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X (Intel-based). It is the first emulator to successfully run commercial GameCube and Wii games, and is still the only emulator capable of running commercial Wii games.

I got my steam controller on October 16th and I love it. It is a fantastic piece of kit with some amazing features that work surprisingly well for Dolphin.

Too many times have I had conversations on the steam forums about dolphin and even chatted to walk some people through the whole process of setup. It isn't hard but there are many who would find it cumbersome or unintuitive at the least so here I will try my best to make a mostly comprehensive guide to working with this controller. This will also be focused on windows as that is what I use and much will still apply for Linux and Mac but I have no way of testing that out so there you may be on your own. So, what is this thing anyways? Let's begin with a primer of what we are looking at. The steam controller is Valves attempt at creating an all-encompassing controller for use in mostly PC games as these are the only apps officially supported. The first glaring thing about this controller is the lack of a traditional dual stick design and instead opts for these two large track pads.

There is still one analog stick typically used for movement but there is a complete lack of a traditional D-Pad input. What makes this controller so intriguing for use on Dolphin is the fact that the two analog triggers both have the same dual stage click at the end of travel exactly like the GameCube. Also, the addition of modern Gyro/Accelerometer control makes the prospect of using this for Wii remote emulation quite compelling. Firstly we are going to need the steam client installed. This is because the Steam Controller uses the Steam client to do all the input device emulation and is fully required to use this controller in anything but a basic mouse style mode. Additionally, we will need to use Steam Big Picture Mode (Henceforth referred to as BPM) for any and all configuration as the interface for normal desktop steam is not available.

If you like you can run BPM in a window by going to the setings in BPM and checking the 'start BPM windowed' checkbox under the interface section. Alternatively, you can also access the steam controller configuration menus right from desktop mode without having to actually open BPM fully. If you have a multi-monitor setup or need to have access to other apps while playing, this can be a more convenient way for some people. I won't be going into detail here about how to install the controller as the process is mostly automated. If you encounter issues the steam controller forums are a good place to start. Adding Dolphin As A Non-Steam Shortcut Next we need to set Dolphin the emulator to run from within BPM.

This is so we can configure and reconfigure at will. This is done from withing the normal steam desktop mode as shown here. Click on ADD A GAME. Click on Add a Non-Steam Game.

Once here you simply browse for your Dolphin executable ad Steam will add this as a shortcut so we can use the overlay from BPM on top of Dolphin. This is also required for any of your custom controller configs to work at all so you have to do it! Mac os x mountain lion theme for windows 7 free download.

Once here we can switch to BPM by clicking on the controller icon in the top right of the steam window or by pressing the steam button on the controller. STEAM CONTROLLER AS GAMECUBE CONTROLLER Now it's time to start Dolphin! One thing to do before we actually start, though. Let's select our Dolphin shortcut and select manage shortcut and then configure the controller.

I highly recommend using the default gamepad binding's as a starting point, this guide will assume you have done this so if you haven't just hit X on the controller and select this from the list of pre-installed templates. Once you have done this go on ahead and launch dolphin. Our beloved Dolphin has loaded up! Wait for just a second, there are a few things you need to know before we proceed. The controller will not activate any configuration other than desktop defaults if it does not detect that a game is running with the overlay enabled.

Steam hooks into the render pipeline of your game to do this and as such if nothing is being rendered (3D) then steam will see nothing and nothing will work. This means if you opened up the controls dialog right now the controller would either not respond, or would only use the desktop bindings. We are going to have to start a game first.