Game

Total War: Warhammer III on a Mac with a controller

The Total War: Warhammer III layout is built into InputConfig, 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.

On a Mac: Native on macOS through Steam (the Feral port), mouse and keyboard only. This layout is the mouse game from a pad.

Total War: Warhammer III has no controller support on a Mac, but this layout plays it from a PS5 or Xbox pad through the mouse and keyboard. A campaign is a long afternoon, and the battles are watched more than they are clicked, so the layout is built for that: the cursor on the left stick, the camera on the right, both clicks on the bumpers, and pause on the big button so you can stop, think, and give orders at your own pace.

On this page: 9 sections

1. The layout, control by control
2. How the layout thinks
3. Tune it
4. The short version
5. Total War: Warhammer III controller support: controller or keyboard
6. If your controller is not working in Total War: Warhammer III
7. Get it in two clicks
8. Total War: Warhammer III controls: every button and the key it sends
9. Questions

The layout, control by control

How the layout thinks

• Point and look. The left stick moves the cursor. The right stick pans the campaign map and the battle camera with the arrow keys, and the triggers zoom.
• Select and order. The right bumper is left click, to select. The left bumper is right click, to move and attack. Both clicks stay on fingers while the thumb aims.
• Command units. The bottom face button pauses a battle (Space), the right one halts the selected units (Backspace), the left toggles running (R), and the top groups them (G). The left stick click selects all (Ctrl A), and D-pad up and down select army groups 1 and 2.
• Turns and menus. Options ends the campaign turn (Enter), and Back is Escape.

Pause is the big button, so every battle runs at the speed you can think.

Tune it

• Control groups. Ctrl plus a number sets a group, the number recalls it. Add the numbers past 2 as chords on the D-pad.
• Battle speed. Put the speed keys on the face buttons behind a chord, so the plain buttons keep their unit commands.
• A slow cursor. Unit cards are small. Add left stick rows at half the Speed as chords on the right stick click, which is free.
• Camera rotate. Put Q and E on chords with the right stick.

A half-speed cursor on a held button is what makes the unit cards easy to hit.

The short version

• Activate it. The game reads no controller of its own on a Mac, so nothing doubles.
• Pause often. The bottom face button stops the battle while you give orders.
• Add the slow cursor. It is the one chord I would add on day one.

Play the campaign and the battles you play for fun from a chair you chose for comfort.

Total War: Warhammer III controller support: controller or keyboard

Steam's store page lists no controller support for Total War: Warhammer III, so it was made for a keyboard and mouse, and that is how it expects to be played. A controller still works: this layout sends the game's keys and mouse movement from the pad, so to the game you are simply typing and pointing. No controller support listed means the layout does the work, not the game.

From Steam's listing, checked in October 2026. Every game's listing is in Mac games with controller support.

If your controller is not working in Total War: Warhammer III

When Total War: Warhammer III does not react to your controller on a Mac, climb this ladder, smallest step first:

1. Check that the Mac sees the controller. Open the gamepad tester and press a button. If nothing lights up there, the problem is the connection, and a controller that is connected but not working covers that first.
2. Check the Steam Input setting for Total War: Warhammer III. In Steam, open Total War: Warhammer III, Properties, Controller, and change the Steam Input override. A controller that works in Steam but not in the game goes through each choice.
3. Stop looking for a setting. Total War: Warhammer III reads the keyboard and mouse here, so no option makes it see a pad. Activate this layout, and the controller sends the keys and mouse movement Total War: Warhammer III already reads. The layout works without Total War: Warhammer III ever seeing the controller.

Get it in two clicks

1. Get InputConfig free on the Mac App Store, open it, and click Smart Preset Maker on the welcome screen.
2. Search for Total War: Warhammer III and pick it. The layout is created as a preset in your sidebar, named and ready.
3. Press Activate. Every row can be changed afterwards: the editor's Scan button rebinds any control the moment you touch it.

To check the controller itself first, the gamepad tester shows every button and stick live in your browser.

Total War: Warhammer III controls: every button and the key it sends

The Sends column is Total War: Warhammer III's default keyboard and mouse controls, as this layout expects them. If you changed a key in the game's settings, change the same row in InputConfig.

Button names follow the Xbox / PlayStation pair shown in the editor, so A / Cross is the bottom face button on either pad. On a Switch Pro Controller the bottom button is labeled B; the mapping still fires on position.

Questions

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Completely 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 October 16, 2026