Fortnite Festival isFortnite’sbiggest musical game mode, allowing players to play all instruments in a standard rhythm game. Aside from Guitar Hero itself and popular free alternatives on PC like Clone Hero, Fortnite Festival is the best and easiest way to play a guitar-focused rhythm game.
Thanks to Fortnite allowing for custom controls, if you have your own guitar controller from the past, you can also use it to play Fortnite Festival. It can be easy on a console, but it takes a little bit of effort and a third-party program’s help to make it work on a computer.
How To Use A Guitar Controller On PC In Fortnite Festival
First off,verify you have a guitar controllerthat can be recognized by your computer. The easiest way to do so is to have a guitar controller that plugs into a devicevia USB, as plugging that straight into your computer shouldallow your computer to detect itand recognize it as a controller.
For Guitar Hero or Rock Band fans who have their old controllers,both the PlayStation and Xbox versions of the controllers work best, whether they are wired or wireless due to the USB or Bluetooth connection.
The onlyone that doesn’t work is the Wii version, as it uses a connection to the Wii Remote to connect to the Wii itself. It isn’t impossible to connect a Wii guitar controller to a computer, but it’s a lot harder.
Third-party controllers like theRiffmaster will work on both consoles and PC.
How To Map Your Guitar Buttons
While Fortnite will recognize your guitar as a controller, it doesn’t work seamlessly. The next step is torestructure what the buttons on the guitar controller doand make sure it doesn’t conflict with what the game is looking for.
To start, open Fortnite Festival andmove to the settings page. Go to theKeyboard Controls tab, then go down to theMain Stage controlsand see which keys correlate to the buttons you would use on a guitar controller.
Thedefault buttons should be D, F, J, K, L, in that order, but you can change them to whatever works best for you.
You could just hit these buttons in the game, but keep them in mind by eitherkeeping the game open or writing them downon a nearby notepad or sheet of paper.
Now,download the JoyToKey software online. This program allows the user tocustomize any button press on their controllerto register asany key on their keyboardor mouse.
Always be careful downloading programs online.JoyToKey isfree and safe, and the button-mapping section of this guide is specific to this program, but should be similar on other programs.
When JoyToKey is open and your controller is plugged in,pressing any buttonor moving the strum barwill highlight in yellowwhich button the computer recognizes it as.
Then, using your mouse,double-click the highlighted button of your choiceand thenpress the keyboard key that correlates with the Fortnite Festival controls. Go through all of them,including the strum barif you want to play the added difficulty for songs.
You cantest it outvery easily byopening anything on your computer that allows you to typeandhitting buttonson your controller. While JoyToKey is open and your settings are correct,you should start typing strings of lettersthat match the ones you connected them to earlier.
How To Set The Controller Input Off
Last but not least, before you start playing Fortnite Festival with your controller, you need tomake sure the Controller Input is off.To do that, go to theMouse and Keyboard tabin settings andturn on Disable Controller Input.
Due to JoyToKey turning your controller effectively into a cooler keyboard,turning this on will prevent your controller from also performing secondary inputsand making menus a pain.
Doing this meansyou can use your keyboard and mouse in all the menusto move around and select the songs, but assoon as the song begins, you canget the guitar out and start jamming.
How To Use A Guitar Controller On Console
For consoles,the process is a lot more streamlined. It usually comes down to one situation:whether your console can recognize your controller. As mentioned earlier, both PlayStation and Xbox controllers usually connectvia USB, but they usually only workfor their specific console.
To keep it simple,use your respective console’s controllers on their console, from PS3 to PS5 and from Xbox 360 to Xbox Series X.
Wii controllers will only work on PC or Wii, so don’t bother trying to use your Guitar Hero Wii controller on a PlayStation or Xbox.Rock Band controllers will work the bestthanks toan update back in April 2024.
