Logitech F710 controller on Mac OS X
Update 2015-02-07: The OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 update broke the F710 USB receiver. See my latest post.
Update 2014-08-15: It turns out that the Xbox360Controller driver isn’t necessary. XCOM, and probably all Steam games, recognize controllers using the DirectInput API and work just fine with the Logitech when it’s mode switch is in the “D” position. Also, even after I hacked the source for the aforementioned driver to recognize the USB vendor and product IDs of the F710 it didn’t recognize it.
[end of updates]
I had an opportunity to play the game “XCOM: Enemy Unknown” on an Android tablet. It’s an impressive remake of a 90’s turn based simulation game for PCs. I just replaced my four year old 11 inch Macair laptop with the new 2014 model of the 13 inch Macbook with retina display. So I decided to get a copy of the game so my laptop isn’t just for work.
The next question was whether to play XCOM in K+M (keyboard plus mouse) mode or with a gamepad controller. After some googling I opted to pick up a Logitech F710 wireless controller from my local Fry’s store. I plugged it in and the OS X System Profiler app showed that it was detected.
More googling revealed that the stock OS X gamepad driver implements the older DirectInput standard. Fortunately the Logitech F710 has a switch to select either DirectInput mode or the newer XInput mode. Note the XInput mode is most commonly associated with Xbox 360 controllers. XInput mode is preferable because it is allows two of the four triggers on the controller to operate as analog rather than digital inputs.
To use a Xbox 360 controller (i.e., a controller which implements the XInput standard) requires the use of a third-party driver. This YouTube video describes the process as does this article at Cult of Mac. The driver can be found at tattiebogle.net.