I can pair my PlayStation DualShock 3 Controller, but why are the buttons mixed up? I was able to follow the steps here to connect my DualShock 3 controller to my MacBook running OS X 10.9.4, however now the direction pad, trigger, and shape buttons are all mismatched when I try using them in games or my web browser.

I've tried in Chrome, Firefox, and Portal 2. They all detect the controller but identify the wrong buttons when I press them.

How do I fix this?
Unfortunately there are few Mac games that come with PS3 controller support. Portal 2 isn't one of them—like most Steam games, it only natively supports the Xbox 360 controller.

You can map controller actions to keyboard and mouse events with software like ControllerMate. It has a learning curve, but it's very configurable. To make a Portal 2 configuration for your PS3 controller, the main problems are the analog sticks, which are sometimes difficult to work with in ControllerMate.

Here are two screenshots from my configuration that should help:





You can make a virtual mouse for the right stick with “Create Virtual Device”

There's some good documentation for all the building blocks here.