Enhance paddle mapping for the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller

/u/Tricky_Shoe8153 · May 25, 2022

The Elite Series 2 has an interesting feature that allows a paddle button to be remapped to act like a shift key. This feature tells us a bit about the hardware itself. (A) The hardware is capable of sending (what appears to be) the equivalent of meta-key to the console/PC it's attached to. (B) The hardware is capable of differentiating the paddle button press from the button it's mimicking. So if you map a paddle to the "B" button the firmware knows that you haven't actually pressed "B" ... you've pressed a button that's mapped to mimic "B"

If we combine these hardware capabilities, it would stand to reason that the hardware SHOULD allow the paddles to be mapped as completely unique game functions. If the accessories app allowed us to configure the paddles as SHIFT AND [SOME BUTTON] (instead of SHIFT OR [SOME BUTTON]), it would basically be like we have C & D and U & V buttons on the back of the controller.

This would allow (for example) a Halo Infinite player to avoid accidentally clicking down on the thumbsticks and going into the melee animation. We could just remap the melee action to be SHIFT-X (for example) and leave the right thumbstick click unmapped. We could (arguably) do the same for all paddles and we'd gain the ability to map SHIFT-X, SHIFT-Y, SHIFT-A, and SHIFT-B each to their own unique functions separate from their unshifted equivalents.

Applications like reWASD on PC seem to take advantage of these capabilities and allow the mapping of additional functions in PC games to the Elite controller paddles which is great for complex games like flight/space sims.

It seems like we have 4 free buttons, they just need to be "unlocked"

Also, I noticed most game development APIs recognize the ability to map up to 16 "controller buttons" so the development stack already seems to support (and recognize) the need to add more buttons than the ones we already have.

submitted by /u/Tricky_Shoe8153
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NeoDan123

Each Elite controller series 2 comes with 1 set of paddles. You can order replacement paddles, thumbsticks etc.

Series 1 paddles, thumbsticks is not compatible with series 2.

SoullessCodith

I have an elite series 2 controller. All of the paddles are the same color.

TomaToMcNuggets

If all of the series X controllers act like the elite series 2 just without the paddles that would be perfect but i’m not sure what the likelihood of that happening would be.

XBF Amber M

Hi PsycoPyro88,

Thanks for the reply. The Elite controller series 2 has various methods of mapping the buttons and paddles as compared to the series 1. If you haven't done so already, I recommend taking a look at the following support articles that
can assist you in determining how to set up the different functions, including how to use Shift with the controller to give you alternate inputs:

Get to know your Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2

Use the Xbox Accessories app to customize your Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2  

Use Shift with your Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2

Adjust the thumbsticks on your Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2

Charge your Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2

If you'd like to contribute some ideas on how to make improvements to or about other ideas for the community, you may do so at the Xbox Idea Hub which is on Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxinsiders/wiki/ideas

I hope that this information helps you out!

annix

Are there any controllers out there which do allow this as an option? Was the Elite Series 2 advertised as having this? Pretty sure it wasn’t. Infact, the paddle functionality is well known, and beloved by a lot of people. I’m sorry if it doesn’t fit your
needs, but the versatility of the amount of commands that can be mapped to the paddles is absolutely crazy, and definitely goes against any claim of them being “useless”.

Enhance paddle mapping for the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller