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Welcome to the remotePad wiki!

What is this for?

This GoldHEN plugin allows up to 4 players to connect to the PS4 through network or USB(WIP) and control it.

This plugin was primarily developed to enable the use of third-party controllers or smartphones for playing local multiplayer games, as there's no need to spend extra money on additional DS4 controllers.

The PS4's local multiplayer mode supports up to 4 players. By default, this plugin will automatically occupy any empty player slots.

For example, if you have connected two DS4 controllers to the PS4 and launched a game that supports local 4-player mode, you can use remotePad to simulate the remaining two controllers.

If you need to control all 4 players via remotePad or connect third-party controllers directly via USB, please refer to the later sections for the necessary configuration file modifications.

How to Use?

Place remote_pad.prx in the /data/GoldHEN/plugins folder, then configure it by referring to the usage: GoldHEN_Plugins#quick-start

; example /data/GoldHEN/plugins.ini
[default]
/data/GoldHEN/plugins/remote_pad.prx

After successfully installing remotePad, when you launch a game, a notification will pop up displaying the server address of remotePad. You can access the server using a browser on your phone or computer to remotely control the console.

Additionally, you can connect a third-party controller or keyboard to indirectly control the console through the webpage.

remotePad will support more connection methods, such as directly controlling via USB-connected third-party controllers or through other protocols. If you're interested, feel free to check out Development.

Note1: Do not connect new controllers to the PS4 while a game is running, as this may cause the game to crash.

Note2: Since remotePad is a game plugin, the virtual controllers only work within the game and not on the system menu/IME.

Configuration File

You can configure /data/GoldHEN/remote_pad.ini to modify the plugin's behavior.
Global settings are placed under [default], and game-specific settings are placed under [GameID].

[default]
; You can configure the username for each controller
; The length of the name should be within the range of [3-16] characters.
user0_name=Alice
user1_name=Bob
user2_name=Candy
user3_name=Dave

; You can configure the driver for each controller (not yet supported)
user1_driver=usb

[WILI00000]
; You can disable a specific controller
user0_enabled=0

Note: Generally, remotePad only simulates three controllers. However, when you set the ID of one controller to be the same as the main user, all four virtual controllers will be activated, and the input data from the physical controller connected to the console will be ignored. Check the next section for more information

Improving Game Compatibility

For some games, remotePad's virtual controllers may not be recognized properly, or they may be recognized but not function correctly. You can try the following solutions:

1. Create a new user on the console. Use Apollo Save Tool or other software to check the userId of this user. If using Apollo, you can find the userID on the About page. You need to convert it from hexadecimal to decimal.

https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/hex-to-decimal.html?x=167AE464

2. Configure this user's userId in remote_pad.ini.

   [default]
   user0_id=377152612

3. Press and hold the PS button, then navigate to the "Power" menu and select "Switch User"，switch between users on the console to ensure the newly created user is Logged in.

4. Use the main account to enter the game as usual.

If you need to simulate multiple users, repeat steps 1-3 above. Steps 1 and 2 only need to be configured once, while step 3 needs to be performed once after each boot.

As you might understand, by configuring the UserId, the game will bind the system's user to the virtual controller of remotePad instead of the physically connected controller.

So, what will happen when we configure the current user's UserId to one of the users on the remote_pad.ini? The game controls will be entirely taken over by remotePad. Now, you can deploy a remotePlay service on your own using a capture card and port forwarding.

Imagine this: you buy a capture card, expose remotePad's WebSocket service to the public internet, and then play local multiplayer games remotely with three friends via some screen-sharing tool. This could be considered an even more "Remote" Play than Sony's official RemotePlay.

Best Practices

In the following text, we will refer to the user who opened the game as the main user.

Single Player Games

This is not what remotePad was created for, but you can indeed use remotePad to play single-player games. You can modify the HTML client to implement controller macros, or use AI to drive taxis in GTA V, the possibilities are endless.

By default, remotePad is not configured to play single-player games. You need to add the main user's user ID to the remotePad configuration file. Note that once configured this way, controllers connected to the PS4 will not work within the game.

While it would be great if someone could develop a payload to allow starting and stopping the game over the network, until such a payload is available, you will still need a DS4 controller to start the game, as RemotePad cannot function on the system menu.

Local Multiplayer Games

After installing remote_pad.prx, you can play local multiplayer games without any additional configuration. RemotePad will automatically take over any available user slots.

This means that if you have only one controller connected to the PS4, and you enter a multiplayer game that supports up to four players, it will show four controllers. The first controller belong to the main user, and the remaining three will be RemotePad users', corresponding to pad0 to pad2 in the RemotePad HTML client.

Sharing Games with Friends

You can share the ps4 screen with your friends and invite up to three friends to play online together.

1. Use a capture card to share the PS4 screen through a screen-sharing tool with your friends.
2. If your router has a public IP address, you can simply expose the PS4's TCP port 4263 to the public.
3. If you don't have a public IP address, you will need to use DDNS or other methods to expose port 4263.

I have deployed frp on my own server and used it to reverse-proxy the PS4 port to the server.

According to my friend's description, the latency is between 0.5 and 1 second. Considering that I only used a $5 capture card and that screen sharing also introduces some delay, this performance is acceptable. It should be playable for some non-action games.