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The Smart Preset Maker

Download InputConfig on the Mac App StoreInputConfig is completely free on the Mac App Store. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon.

The Smart Preset Maker builds a complete layout for a named game, app or workflow, from a catalog of more than 450, in a few clicks. Open it from the welcome screen or the wand button in the sidebar, search for the title, pick your controller, and the preset lands in the sidebar. It is the fastest start for anyone who would rather play than map.

Steps

  1. Click Smart Preset Maker on the welcome screen, or the wand button in the sidebar.
  2. Pick a game, an app, or a workflow, then the title. Titles match as you type.
  3. Pick your controller. The one that is connected is picked for you.
  4. Fine-tune: the touchpad, gyro fine aim, rumble, and for a game the pointer guards and a light bar color.
  5. Name it and click Create.

Fine-tune before you create

The Fine-tune step offers only what fits the title and the controller you picked.

  • Use the touchpad as a trackpad. On a pad with a touchpad, adds the rows that make it one: one finger points, two fingers scroll, tap to click.
  • Gyro fine aim. On a pad with motion, in a game that looks with the mouse, tilting the pad nudges the aim on top of the stick.
  • Rumble when a trigger clicks. Off unless you want it. It adds a short buzz to each trigger row that clicks the mouse.
  • Pointer ramp-up. A short push moves slowly and a held push speeds up.
  • Game extras. Open the app automatically when the preset activates, confine the mouse to the screen, auto-recenter and hide the cursor, and a light bar color for a PlayStation pad.
The Smart Preset Maker sheet on its Fine-tune step, with switches for opening the app, confining, recentering and hiding the cursor, the touchpad, gyro fine aim and rumble.
Figure 1. The Fine-tune step. It shows only the switches that fit the title and the controller you picked.

Leave anything you are unsure about off; every switch can be added later in the editor.

The Smart Preset Maker's first step, asking what the preset is for.
Figure 2. Step 1 asks what the preset is for.
The Smart Preset Maker's second step with a game typed into the search field.
Figure 3. Step 2: type a game or an app. A title with a ready layout appears under the field.
The Smart Preset Maker's third step, the list of controllers.
Figure 4. Step 3: pick the controller you will hold, so the button names match.
The Smart Preset Maker's fourth step with its fine-tune switches.
Figure 5. Step 4: the fine-tune switches. Each one is explained in the list above.

Check what you get

  • You: Click Create, then select the new preset and click Activate.
  • InputConfig: Writes every row the layout needs, each with a note saying what it does in that game or app. It fills back paddles on a pad that has them, gives 13 apps their Mac shortcuts instead of Windows ones, and opens a Steam game through Steam.
  • Check: Open the game or app and try the controls the notes describe. Anything that feels wrong is one row to change.

The result is an ordinary preset: re-scan a row to another button, change an output, add a hold or a double tap, or delete what you do not want. A Smart Preset is a starting point you own, not a locked layout.

The finished preset's page, made by the Smart Preset Maker.
Figure 6. The finished preset on its page, named and ready to Activate.

When a title is missing

Climb this ladder, smallest step first:

  1. Pick the closest title. A game in the same genre usually needs the same controls.
  2. Start from a shape. FPS presets exist per controller family, and Racing Game, Minecraft and the workflow layouts cover most shapes of control.
  3. Duplicate and rename it. Then re-scan only the rows that differ.

The preset library lists every title with its full button map, so you can check a layout before you make it. Most missing games are one or two changed rows away from one that is there.

The short version

  • Search, pick, create. Title, controller, a few switches, a name.
  • Read the notes. Every row says what it does in that game or app.
  • Change what you like. It is an ordinary preset from the moment it exists.

Let it build the first draft, then make it yours.

Questions

Does it work for apps, not just games?

Browsers, office apps, creative tools, media players, and general workflows such as desktop navigation and presentations.

Download InputConfig on the Mac App StoreCompletely free. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon. Open source on GitHub.

Updated