This is only partially true, Xinput was by default on the OS that was present at the time in everyone’s computer, it’s yet another case of monopoly power doing its thing. In fact, PlayStation controllers after DS3 always had directinput functionality, way beyond of what the 360 controller offered, and that’s before addressing the myriad of far better controllers that existed in the market from nacon to razer to random chinese knock-offs. However, you needed a translation layer for it to work well, hence the remappers like DS4Win SCPT and similar, they took DirectInput hooks and forwarded them to Xinput inputs, because basically microslop had the key to the castle.
This is only partially true, Xinput was by default on the OS that was present at the time in everyone’s computer, it’s yet another case of monopoly power doing its thing. In fact, PlayStation controllers after DS3 always had directinput functionality, way beyond of what the 360 controller offered, and that’s before addressing the myriad of far better controllers that existed in the market from nacon to razer to random chinese knock-offs. However, you needed a translation layer for it to work well, hence the remappers like DS4Win SCPT and similar, they took DirectInput hooks and forwarded them to Xinput inputs, because basically microslop had the key to the castle.