Emulator controls
Two optional features set emulators up for the pads you hold. Emulator controls writes each emulator’s own controller settings at every launch. Virtual pads hands the emulator one virtual pad per player instead. Both start off, and neither touches a Windows or Linux game.
Turn one on
Section titled “Turn one on”In Settings › Features, press Y on Emulator controls or Virtual pads. An emulated game’s Game settings then show a card for it, with a switch for that game alone.
Which one to pick
Section titled “Which one to pick”| Emulator controls | Virtual pads | |
|---|---|---|
| What the emulator sees | Your pads, bound in its own settings | One “Universe Pad” per player, with gyro, touchpad and rumble |
| A pad changed mid-game | Bound at launch, for the pads held then | The emulator notices nothing |
| Player 1 | The pad you last pressed a button on | Each pad takes the lowest free player |
| Nintendo button layout, Wii controller, triggers and bumpers | Yes | No |
With both on, Virtual pads serves a game whenever it can, and Emulator controls takes over when it can’t.
Where A sits in Nintendo games
Section titled “Where A sits in Nintendo games”Two settings decide which button is A in Nintendo emulators, and B, X and Y follow it:
- Nintendo button layout, in a game’s Emulator controls card: Each controller’s own (the default), A on the right, every controller or A at the bottom, every controller.
- Nintendo games, in Settings › Controller, for each model: As printed (the default), A on the right or A at the bottom. As printed puts A on the right on a Switch Pro, a Switch 2 Pro and an 8BitDo Pro 3, and at the bottom on every other pad.
On Each controller’s own, each pad follows its model’s row. An 8BitDo Pro 3 in X-input mode counts as an Xbox pad.
Triggers and bumpers, and the Wii controller
Section titled “Triggers and bumpers, and the Wii controller”Triggers and bumpers, per game, is As on the console or Swapped.
Wii controller, per Wii game, picks Remote and Nunchuk (the default), Remote sideways for 2D games, or Classic Controller.
What Emulator controls writes
Section titled “What Emulator controls writes”It writes the controller settings of Eden and its forks, Ryujinx, Cemu, RPCS3, Dolphin, PCSX2, DuckStation, Azahar, melonDS, mGBA, snes9x, Mupen64Plus, PPSSPP, xemu, Flycast and ScummVM.
- The first time it changes a file, it keeps the original beside it as
<file>.before-universe. - It doesn’t create most emulators’ files. Start the emulator once by itself, and the next launch writes its controls.
To keep the emulator’s own settings for one game, turn Set up controllers off in its Game settings.
HOME in emulators
Section titled “HOME in emulators”Neither feature gives HOME to the emulator. When a game needs the console’s own HOME or PS button, turn on Share HOME with the emulator in the feature’s settings. Universe’s menu still opens on it.