While building the Switch Pro controller for PC, Nintendo didn’t put much thought into the PC gamers, but that’s fine we won’t let that come in your way. We have a very good idea about how good this controller is with the great analog sticks, long battery life, and face buttons which are much larger than those on other controllers. If you have any other controller lying around and are ready to upgrade from the old Xbox 360 pad, this controller might just top the contender's list.
Steam officially supports the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, so using it on Steam is pretty easy. You just have to connect and play. But if the games that you want to play aren’t on Steam then you have to take some measures.
Here we will walk you through these steps.
But first, let’s see how you can connect this Controller to your PC.
The Switch Pro controller connects to the PC in both, wired and wireless ways. Connecting it to the PC with a wire is very easy but wireless tastes like freedom, although it requires a little work.
Connecting the Switch Pro Controller to PC With a Wired Connection
First, plug the cable of your Pro Controller into the controller. ( you could use any USB-A-to-USB-C data cable, or USB-C-to-USB-C data cable if your PC has a USB-C port )
Then, plug the other end of the cable into your PC.
And that’s it, Windows 10 will detect the controller as “Pro Controller”. Then you can move onto setting up Steam.
Connecting the Switch Pro Controller to PC With a Wireless Connection
For this process, you will need a Bluetooth adapter or an onboard Bluetooth.
1. When the Pro Controller is fully charged ( you won’t be able to charge it in between so make sure it is charged ), press and hold the Sync button on the top of the gamepad for some seconds til the indicator lights start lighting up.
2. After opening the system tray right-click on the Bluetooth icon.
3. Select the "Add Bluetooth Device."
4. Now click "Add Bluetooth or another device."
5. Click on "Bluetooth" (Windows 10 needs confirmation that you want to use Bluetooth).
6. On the list of the available devices the Pro Controller must be showing up (make sure that the lights of the indicator are flashing on and off if it doesn’t). Click on it, and pair the controller.
7. Now you are ready to move to the Steam setup.
Setting Up Steam
You can use Steam’s Big Picture mode to make sure that everything works well between the PC and your Controller. It is the laid-back, couch-friendly menu system that goes well with a gamepad.
1. Sometimes Steam might not open automatically into Big Picture when you connect the Pro Controller. If this happens, open Steam and enter the Settings menu.
2. Select the General Controller Settings, which opens into a full-screen, Big Picture window.
3. Select the "Switch Pro Configuration Support."
After the Pro Controller is connected the mouse pointer will be removed from the screen and you will be able to control Big Picture with the gamepad. The "Use Nintendo Button Layout" can be customized depending on how you prefer the A/B/X/Y buttons to be mapped. You could customize them to be as they are on the Pro Controller ( going clockwise X, A, B, Y from the top), or as they're mapped on the Xbox controller (going clockwise Y, B, A, X from the top).
After you’re done setting up through Steam, the Pro Controller will start working just like an Xbox gamepad with any Steam game. You can configure vibration on and off by clicking on the controller under "Detected Controllers" from the previous setup screen. If the analog sticks seem off, you can calibrate them manually by clicking on Calibrate. You can also set the time for the controller to go to sleep after it has been inactive for some time.
If you open a game from the desktop, Steam's controller support, remapping over the game, and configuration options would not appear as they should. So Big Picture helps make sure that these appear just as they should.
When running on the Big Picture mode, the Pro Controller's controller options have to be entered to bring up Steam's Switch Pro Controller overlay. Now you can check the controller mappings and fix them to how you want them to be. On the Pro Controller, every input can be manually mapped to any gamepad input, but the default configuration might just work for most games. If any controls seem slightly off with the default settings then this comes in handy.
Using the 8BitDo Wireless USB Adapter
Steams Pro Controller setup will aid you to play the games on Steam but what about the ones which are not on Steam. Because of how Windows detects it, your controller might actually not work with windows. You can fix this issue in a couple of ways.
You might use a Bluetooth adapter that is specifically designed for multiple gamepad types.
Or you could also go for a software-based, XInput wrapper.
The 8BitDo Wireless USB Adapter is a Bluetooth-supported adapter that lets you very smoothly connect the Switch Pro Controller to your PC. It manages all the XInput details, and when you connect the Switch Pro Controller to it with the physical sync button instead of your computer's Bluetooth menu, it works like a PC-friendly Xbox gamepad.
Alternative Method : DirectInput-to-XInput Wrapper
Yes, this is the most powerful option and also the most complicated. Here you no longer rely on Steam or a USB adapter, instead, you use a software wrapper to translate the Pro Controller's inputs into a format that works better with Windows 10.
X360ce is one such open-source program that allows you to control how Windows sees your non-XInput controller.
Software wrappers will get your work done if you're willing to install and tinker with them a bit till the Switch Pro Controller starts working the way you want it to. It might take a little more than just a bit of work; third-party driver wrappers are very finicky.
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