Controller Mapping

PowerAim’s controller-mapping engine lets you remap keyboard/mouse → virtual Xbox controller, gamepad → keyboard+mouse, or both at once. It’s a reWASD-style engine: profiles, per-mapping activators (press / long-press / double-tap / toggle / pulse), stick deadzone + anti-deadzone + response curve, modifier (shift-layer) gates, and process-scoped auto-activation.

Use it to play gamepad-only games with KB+M, KB-only games with a controller, or to build hybrid bindings you can flip with a hotkey mid-match.

Prerequisites

• ViGEmBus must be installed for any direction that writes to the virtual gamepad (KB+M → Pad). See Installation.
• HidHide is optional but recommended when your physical controller is plugged in — see Hidden Controllers.

Core concepts

Profile

A profile is a named bundle of mappings + stick-tuning parameters. Only one profile is active at a time (the first enabled profile whose MatchProcess matches the focused window). PowerAim ships several presets out of the box — see Built-in presets.

Mapping

A single rule that says “when source X happens, fire target Y.”

Kind	Source examples	Target examples
Keyboard key	W, Space, LShift	(used as source)
Mouse button	Left, Right, Middle	(used as source or target)
Gamepad button	A, B, X, Y, LB, RB, LT-thumb, Start	(used as source or target)
Gamepad trigger	LT, RT (analog slider)	analog stick deflection target
Gamepad stick direction	LeftStickUp/Down/Left/Right, RightStickUp/...	discrete direction (digital)

Each mapping also has:

• Enabled — per-mapping switch
• Activator — press style (see below)
• LongPressMs — duration for long-press or pulse
• Modifier — optional second source that must be held for the mapping to fire (shift-layer / “LB+A → Y” patterns)

Direction

Independent of profile contents, the user toggles which “side” should drive at runtime. The engine reads:

• Both — every mapping fires
• KB → Pad — only KB/M → Pad mappings fire
• Pad → KB — only Pad → KB/M mappings fire

A single profile with both directions lets you flip without re-editing.

Activators

The activator picks when the target fires relative to the source:

Activator	Fires when
Press (default)	Target held while source is held; released when source releases
LongPress	Target fires only after source has been held for LongPressMs ms
DoubleTap	Target fires on a second press within ~300 ms
Toggle	Each press flips the target on/off (latching)
Pulse	Target presses for LongPressMs ms on each source press, then auto-releases

Mix these in a single profile — one button can drive multiple mappings with different timings (e.g. A = Jump on Press, A = Crouch on LongPress 300 ms).

Modifier (shift-layer)

Each mapping can have an optional Modifier — a second source that must be held for the mapping to fire. Example:

• A → Y (no modifier) — A drives Y normally
• LB + A → B (modifier: LB) — but while LB is held, A drives B instead

This is the canonical “shift layer” pattern from reWASD / Steam Input.

How to enable

1. Mapping in the sidebar
2. Toggle Active at the top. (The Active toggle has its own hotkey support — see Keybinds & Hotkeys.)
3. Pick a direction: Both / KB→Pad / Pad→KB
4. Pick a profile from the list. Click + FPS preset for one of the built-in starter profiles, or + New profile for an empty one.
5. Click Edit to open the per-profile editor.

The status line at the bottom of the Mapping page shows the engine state: Engine: Idle / Engine: Running (profile name).

The profile editor

The editor has three main areas:

1. Profile-level settings

Setting	What it does	Default
Name	Display name	“Profile”
Enabled	Master switch (must be on for engine to consider this profile)	Off
Match Process	Wildcard pattern (e.g. cs2|valorant). Empty = always-on.	empty
Stick-to-Mouse Sensitivity	Pixels per tick at full stick deflection (Pad → mouse motion)	12.0
Mouse-to-Stick Sensitivity	Scale for synthesizing right-stick from mouse delta	1.0
Stick Deadzone	Below this fraction of full deflection, stick = centred (0.0–0.5)	0.15
Stick Anti-Deadzone	Minimum output as soon as the stick leaves the deadzone (0.0–0.5)	0.0
Stick Response Curve	Exponent applied to stick magnitude; ≥1.0 = slow center, fast edge	1.0
Stick Mouse Exponent	Same idea, dedicated to stick→mouse motion	1.4
Invert Mouse Y	Inverts Y when feeding right stick into mouse motion (or vice versa)	Off

2. Mapping list

A table of all mappings in the profile. Each row:

• Source chip — click to re-bind. The chip enters “press a key/button now” mode and listens for the next input.
• Target chip — same, but for the target.
• Activator dropdown — Press / LongPress / DoubleTap / Toggle / Pulse
• LongPressMs spinner — visible when activator needs it
• Modifier chip — optional. Click to bind a second source.
• Enabled checkbox + Delete button

3. Special targets (the “Special…” dropdown)

When binding a source chip, you can also pick from a “Special” dropdown:

• Stick directions (LeftStickUp, LeftStickDown, …, RightStickRight) — digital direction signals
• Mouse motion sentinel — special target meaning “feed mouse delta into the right stick” (KB→Pad direction) or “feed right stick into mouse motion” (Pad→KB direction)

The mouse-motion sentinel is what makes the right-stick / mouse-look mapping work — a single mapping enables the entire pump.

Recording a mapping

The visual workflow:

1. Click an empty source slot → it enters “listening” mode (chip says “Press a key…”)
2. Press the key, mouse button, or gamepad button on your real hardware
3. The chip captures the input and shows its name
4. Click the target slot
5. Press the key/button you want to synthesize
6. (Optional) Pick an activator, set the long-press duration, bind a modifier
7. Click Save to commit

For stick directions / mouse motion, use the Special… dropdown instead of pressing a key.

Built-in presets

Available via the ”+ FPS preset” / “+ Driving preset” / … buttons on the profile list.

FPS — KB → Pad

The canonical FPS keyboard-to-virtual-controller binding. WASD → left stick, mouse → right stick, LMB → RT, RMB → LT, Space → A, etc. Play console-only games with KB+M.

FPS — Pad → KB

Reverse direction. Left stick → WASD, right stick → mouse motion, RT → LMB, LT → RMB, A → Space, etc. Play KB-only games with a controller.

FPS — Both

The two presets above combined into one profile. The runtime direction picker (Both / KB→Pad / Pad→KB) decides which side actually fires.

Driving — KB → Pad

A/D → left stick steering, W/S → triggers, Space → handbrake (A), LShift → up-shift (RB), Ctrl → down-shift (LB), etc. For arcade racers that gate KB+M players.

Controller as Mouse

Right-stick → OS cursor motion, RT → LMB, LT → RMB, face buttons → Enter / Esc / Tab / Backspace, D-Pad → arrow keys, Start → Apps key. For couch use, accessibility, or grinding through menus without a keyboard.

Stick tuning

The five stick-related sliders give you a reWASD-grade feel curve:

• Deadzone — your stick’s resting wobble. Raise it to silence drift; lower for max sensitivity.
• Anti-Deadzone — many games have their own deadzones that swallow small inputs. Anti-deadzone snaps the output to a minimum value the moment the stick leaves your deadzone, so the game sees motion immediately.
• Response Curve — exponent on magnitude. 1.0 = linear; 1.4 = slow at center, fast at edge (good for fine aim); 2.0 = aggressive curve.
• Stick Mouse Exponent — same idea, applied only to stick→mouse motion. Lets you tune mouse feel without affecting other mappings.
• Invert Mouse Y — for “flight stick” Y-axis preference.

Tuning workflow:

1. Set Deadzone to 0.10 (or higher if your stick has drift).
2. Bump Anti-Deadzone to 0.10 — most games feel “twitchier” with this on.
3. Set Response Curve to 1.4 for general use, 1.8 for sniper aim.
4. Use the Gamepad Tester to verify the output.

Gamepad tester

The Gamepad Tester is a live visualization of both the physical controller (what your hardware says) and the virtual controller (what PowerAim is sending). It’s the fastest way to confirm a mapping fires correctly.

Open it from:

• Gamepad settings → Open Gamepad Tester button
• Mapping page → Open Tester (pops out as a separate window so you can keep editing)

The tester floats above other windows so you can leave it open while editing mappings.

Tips

• Build profiles around games, not bindings. “Apex Legends” with one profile, “Forza Horizon 5” with another. Use MatchProcess to auto-switch.
• Toggle and Pulse are underused. A toggle on a crouch button is much friendlier than a held-crouch.
• The Modifier slot is the killer feature. Bind LB + A → Grenade while keeping A → Jump as the default — same button does two things.
• Mouse-look sensitivity tuning is two sliders. MouseToStickSensitivity controls how much mouse motion equals stick deflection (KB → Pad); StickToMouseSensitivity is the reverse (Pad → KB).
• The engine hot-reloads. Edit a profile and watch the status line — changes apply immediately, no restart.

Troubleshooting

• Mappings don’t fire — check the Active toggle, the profile’s Enabled state, and the Match Process pattern (if set, the foreground window must match).
• KB → Pad direction does nothing in-game — the game probably can’t see the virtual controller. Install HidHide and cloak your physical pad so the game only sees the virtual one.
• Stick feels mushy / unresponsive — bump Anti-Deadzone (0.10–0.15) and/or Response Curve (1.2–1.4).
• Pulse keys don’t release — verify LongPressMs isn’t set to 0; that’s a no-op.
• Modifier mapping fires both with and without modifier — make sure you set ModifierKind (not None). The modifier slot is empty by default.
• Tester shows my buttons but game ignores them — see Gamepad Not Detected.