vDS (virtual DualSense)

Virtual USB-to-Bluetooth bridge for DualSense and DualSense Edge Wireless Controllers. vDS currently supports all USB-based DualSense features over Bluetooth (except firmware update), including quadraphonic haptic feedback (vibration and speaker output), adaptive triggers, microphone input, and headphone output; microphone and headphone support was added thanks to @TechAntohere.

Through Linux vds_hcd.ko and Windows vds_usb.sys kernel drivers, vDS exposes a Bluetooth-connected controller as a virtual USB DualSense-class device so games and applications can use features normally available only over USB. The common userspace daemon vdsd translates the virtual USB traffic to and from the physical controller's Bluetooth protocol.

Detailed DualSense output and haptics packet handling is based on DS5Dongle and protocol capture research. In theory, other physical gamepad controllers could be implemented as vDS backends and attached to vDS, as long as they can provide the DualSense-specific features required by games. The vDS infrastructure could also be extended to support physical transports other than Bluetooth.

Manual Build Guides

• Linux
• Windows

Common Controller Configuration

vdsctl attach registers paired physical Bluetooth controllers in vdsd.db. The same command format and JSONL database format are used on Linux and Windows. Use vdsctl list-targets to list paired attachable Bluetooth controllers and their addresses.

vdsctl list-targets
vdsctl attach aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:01 --profile ds5 --ports 0 # Connect as DualSense
vdsctl attach aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:02 --profile dse --ports 1 # Connect as DualSense Edge
vdsctl detach aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:02 # Detach aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:02
vdsctl list # Show registered controllers

Omit --ports or pass --ports "" to allow all configured ports. Omit --profile or pass --profile "" to use the physical controller profile.

Tip

--profile can expose a controller as a different controller type than the physical device. This can be useful when an application supports DualSense but not DualSense Edge, or the other way around.

{"address":"aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:01","profile":"","ports":[]}
{"address":"aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:02","profile":"dse","ports":[1]}

--ports 0,2 maps to /dev/vds0,/dev/vds2 on Linux and \\.\vds0,\\.\vds2 on Windows.

Reporting Issues

When reporting an issue, include the platform, vDS version, controller model, connection type (e.g. your bluetooth adapter's model name), affected application or game, and reproduction steps.

For runtime problems, enable tracing before reproducing the issue, then turn it off afterwards:

vdsctl trace on --scope all
vdsctl trace off --scope all

You can check or attach the vdsd log from:

Linux:   /var/log/vdsd.log
Windows: C:\ProgramData\vDS\vdsd.log