This post had a lot really good suggestions for couch coop games on Linux and I was wondering if there are controllers people recommend or if all the third party ones are the same? I have an Xbox controller with Bluetooth I might be able to find but they are kind of pricey so I don’t want to buy another unless for some reason that’s the best thing. I’m open to wired and wireless I just don’t want to end up with some cheap piece of shit that makes playing not fun.
PlayStation DualShock 4 and DualSense controllers are great on Linux, and often reasonably priced during holiday sales.
Ps3 pads can be bought very cheaply used. I replaced the battery on mine (they are to old in most pads today), but did not bother doing it for the kids pads. They work well enough with a USB cable connection.
One thing that I discovered about charging PS3 pads, which doesn’t seem to be mentioned a lot, is that they appear (my guess, unconfirmed) to require proper USB current negotiation before they will start charging. In fact, I’ve found multiple sources saying that they can be charged from any USB power source, which isn’t true.
The original USB standard states that USB hosts should start a connection with 100mA of current, and the client can request increases in 100mA steps up to 500mA. I assume that the PS3 USB ports support this, as do pretty much all computer USB ports. But the majority of wall plug USB chargers don’t; they just allow a maximum current draw of 500mA (or more) from the start and ignore increase requests.
It seems like the majority of equipment manufacturers ignored this part of the spec, since the host needs circuitry to limit current in any case, so many chargers don’t bother with circuitry to respond, and even when the port does respond to increase requests, the port is actually always allowing the maximum draw and simply approving all requests.
However, I think that the PS3 pads actually wait for an “OK” response before continuing, which the majority of wall chargers (especially the cheap ones) never send. I had to use the PS3 or a PC (direct connection, not through a hub) to charge my pads until I found a cheap PS3 controller charging dock that works with any supply.
I game using DualShock4 controllers connected via cable. The bluetooth connection is complete garbage and starts lagging from 2 meters already. Maybe the cheapest BT dongles aren’t the best for gaming.
I have used a DualShock 4 with a cheap no-name bluetooth dongle, and it worked great. Bad ones surely exist, but I think the difference is more about the chip and antenna than the price. If I were you, I would get a different dongle.