Configure Any Game Controller / Gamepad settings Using x360ce to Play almost All PC games

Playing PC games with keyboard is not always the best way to play many high end latest games. Also it'll be little demanding having to use so many keys in keyboard, must be hard on your fingers.
:)

But getting a good quality controller can also empty your pocket money for many weeks. So what you can do is get a gamepad of you budget/liking and emulate as an xbox360 controller. This is not a rocket science and it's not complicated. All you have to do is do some research on your gamepad before buying and make sure it's bug free.

The emulator what I'm talking about is x360ce, it's a google project code and free to download and use. You can get that from here.

So now you got the game that you want to play, gamepad which you can afford and the emulator of xbox360 . All you have to do is extract the downloaded file( .exe file, .ini file and .dll file)  and paste it in the game installation directory where the .exe file of the game is available.

Now you have to map your keys properly like an xbox360 controller so that most of the games are compatible with your gamepad. Before that you have to configure your gamepad in windows. Go to Control  Panel / Devices and printers. Right click on your gamepad and click "Game controller settings" then click Properties.

Test the keys for buttons and their numbers and left/right analog sticks. If you right analog stick is not working and functioning like buttons 1 2 3 4, then enable analog from your gamepad and click "Settings" and then "Calibrate". This is a device calibration wizard.

Follow the instructions in the wizard and test your keys and apply the settings. Don't forget, we are calibrating. We are almost done, now click on the x360ce.exe from the game installation directory and choose a preset for your gamepad from the top of the option and click load. 

See if the small box in the controller 1 tab is turned to green like in picture on left. Change the presets and load until you get the green icon.

Once you get the green icon at the top, try pressing all the keys in your gamepad and see if the xbox360 controller keys highlighted accordingly. If keys are altered, you can remap here and test if the mapping is alright. 

As said before, enable analog and check your analog left/right sticks. Save this preset and close the window of x360ce.exe

Now you have successfully configured and you can play most of the games with your gamepad as if you have an xbox360 controller. 

All you have to do is copy these 3 files(that you have configured now in a game installation directory) and paste in what ever the installation directory of the game that you want to play.

Update1:

Initially vibrations in my Enter E-GPV controller didn't work. But it's working now. Here is how it may have worked.

Once you had done configuring all the keys and after calibration in windows, again try re-installing drivers/ drivers for vibration with recommended settings in windows. Now again check in Devices and Printers and see if Vibration test "tab" is available.

Happy gaming!!

Update2:

Here are the system requirements from official page and make sure you meet them.

1. Windows XP SP3 or newer.
2. DirectX End-user Runtimes
3. Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 1
4. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5

For Windows 8 .net 3.5 is not available as default in OS. So you have to either manually install or enable it so that it'll be installed on demand. Here are the instructions.

Still have troubles? Checkout the comments and visit official page.