Dish 2.3: HD haptics, a fix for stuck controller screens, and Diagnostics

A month after 2.0, the current releases are Dish for Android 2.3, Dish for Windows and Linux 2.2, and Satellite 2.1. Most of what changed is about the DualSense, and some of it needs the new Satellite too, so update both ends.

HD haptics reach your DualSense

On PC, games like 007 First Light, God of War, and Horizon Forbidden West vibrate a DualSense by playing audio into its actuators, and never touch a rumble motor. A streamed pad stayed still in them while a plugged-in one shook.

Satellite on Windows now picks those haptic channels out of the virtual DualSense and sends them to Dish. A DualSense plugged into Dish for Windows or Linux over USB gets them played straight into its actuators. Any other pad, including the on-screen controller and a DualSense on Android 14 or newer, gets them as regular rumble instead. The haptics guide has the details and the setup.

No more waiting at the controller screen

Sony’s controller library opens a pad by waiting for its next report. A real DualSense reports every 4 ms even when nobody touches it, but Dish only sent changes, so a game like 007 First Light sat at its controller setup screen until you pressed something. Satellite now keeps an idle DualSense or DualShock 4 reporting the way the real pad does.

The touchpad and lightbar without Direct mode

On Android, a DualSense or DualShock 4 on Bluetooth, or on USB in Standard mode, used to send nothing from its touchpad, because Android treats that surface as a mouse. While the controller streams and Dish is on screen, Dish now reads the touchpad itself and sends both fingers and the click, over Satellite or a Moonlight host. That needs Android 8 or newer.

On Android 12 and newer, a DualSense or DualShock 4 paired over Bluetooth also shows the lightbar color the game picks, when the phone’s controller driver exposes the light. In Direct mode, the controller card shows the pad’s own battery instead of the phone’s.

A Bluetooth DualSense gets everything on the desktop

Dish for Windows and Linux used to open a Bluetooth DualSense or DualShock 4 in its basic mode: buttons and sticks only. They now ask for the full reports, so a Bluetooth Sony pad carries rumble, gyro, the touchpad, and the lightbar like a wired one. A DualSense on Bluetooth, or on USB in Standard mode, also takes adaptive triggers, player lights, and the mute lamp. The adaptive triggers guide covers the setup.

Diagnostics that explain themselves

Dish for Windows and Linux gain a Diagnostics page in Settings. It shows each session’s round trip and missed heartbeats, every controller down to the wire with the reason each feature is on or off, a flight recorder of link and pad changes you can copy into a bug report, live sticks and buttons with drift and range tests, and a rumble bench.

On Android, Diagnostics now says why a controller’s microphone or speaker is off, whether that’s Android, the host, or the cable.

Smaller changes worth knowing

• Moonlight hosts remember your controller. After a restart, Dish puts it back on its Sunshine, Apollo, or Wolf host. If a game disappears from the host, Dish names it instead of starting whatever is first in the list.
• Dish for Windows runs in the tray. Close the window and it keeps streaming. It closes its sessions before the PC sleeps and reopens them when it wakes.
• Pairing keys are sealed at rest. Dish for Windows wraps them with the Windows Data Protection API, Dish for Android seals them in the Android Keystore, and Dish for Linux keeps them in your keyring, from the Flatpak too.
• The GitHub APK tells you about updates. It checks for a newer release while the app is on screen, sends nothing about you, and has an off switch. The Google Play build leaves updates to Google Play.
• DualSense fixes on Android. The controller’s own microphone works over USB on Android 10 to 15, and a DualSense in Direct mode rumbles the way its official drivers ask it to. On Android 14 and newer the pad’s speaker stays off: Android hides it on purpose, so a plugged-in controller never takes over a tablet’s sound.
• Tips in the Play build go through Google Play now, as Google’s policy requires. They unlock nothing.

Update both ends

Dish for Android updates through Google Play, or shows a notice if you installed the APK from GitHub. Dish for Windows and Satellite update themselves; Dish for Linux leaves it to your package manager. Everything is on the downloads page, and the what’s new page has the table of what each kind of host can carry.