DualSense touchpad regions and gestures

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The DualSense or DualShock 4 touchpad can be carved into regions, and each region is its own input that fires when a finger lands in it. Regions are drawn in the editor, in the controller's Regions section, and they belong to the preset you draw them in. The pad becomes a row of soft buttons: extra keys, hotbar slots, or a tiny keyboard for someone who cannot reach the face buttons. Areas of the screen are a different input, screen regions.

Steps

Open the controller's Regions section in the editor and pick Touchpad.
Draw rectangles on the pad and name them.
Add a row with the input type Touchpad Region and pick a region, or press Scan and touch it. Give it an output. Regions carry every option a button does.

Draw regions

You: In the controller's Regions section, pick Touchpad, then drag on the pad to draw each region and name it in the list. A region's Left, Top, Width and Height fields, in percent, place it by number instead. Then add a row with the input type Touchpad Region and pick a region, or press Scan and touch it.
InputConfig: Fires the row when a finger lands in the region. Regions carry every option a button does.
Check: Touch the region and the output fires. The Live Visualizer draws the regions on the pad and fills the one under a finger.

The pad is about 5 by 2.5 cm, so six to eight regions stay easy to hit without looking. Fewer, bigger regions are easier to hit by feel.

The Touchpad part of the Regions card in InputConfig's editor, with four colored regions drawn on the PS5 touchpad and the Add Region and Apply default 1 to 16 buttons. — Figure 1. Regions are drawn on the touchpad in the editor's Regions card. Each one is an input of its own.

Bind a gesture

Touchpad Gesture recognizes a one-finger tap, a two-finger tap and a double tap, all separate from pressing the pad down. As on a Mac trackpad, the second tap of a double tap also fires a one-finger Tap row, so tap-to-click clicks twice and opens a file. Inside a region, a tap fires the region. A double tap also counts as two taps, the way a Mac trackpad works.

A finger that lands in a region fires it, and a finger that moves drives the motion rows. Keep regions near the edges if the middle is for pointing.

Try a layout

Two halves. Left half and right half as Page Up and Page Down.
Three columns. Again, Good and Easy for Anki. See Anki from a controller.
A strip of five. A hotbar.
Four corners. Undo, Redo, Copy and Paste.

The Touchpad Zones preset is a working example to start from.

The short version

Draw. Drag on the touchpad in the editor's Regions section.
Bind. Touchpad Region rows, or Scan and touch the region.
Combine. Regions at the edges, pointing in the middle.

The touchpad is a whole extra row of buttons under your thumb.

Questions

Can regions and mouse motion share the pad?

A finger that lands in a region fires it; a finger that moves drives the motion rows. Keep regions near the edges if the middle is for pointing.

How many regions?

The pad is about 5 by 2.5 cm, so six to eight stay easy to hit without looking.

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Updated October 16, 2026