@nefarius said in Missing the big picture: how to use wired DualShock3 controller with PCSX2?:
In short: this is currently not possible without additional software and/or modifications to the PCSX2 LilyPad plugin 
Oh!
it doesn't expose the DS3 as a game controller to the system without Shibari & ViGEm
I've just installed Shibari following this guide of yours and the controller is now usable! After some configuration in Lilypad, I can now use it in my game!
I really wonder how that can be given that your reply sounds very much like it's impossible to me. Reading between the lines, I get the impression that using Shibari is not the optimal, i.e. a perfectionist's way. But it totally suffices for me and probably other users.
I had to google around totalling 2-3 hours to find Scp, read about its discontinuance only to find a whole bunch of software tools under the umbrella term ViGEm, post to this forum to finally find the solution in a post, which I would have immediately neglected given its negative prospect if it wasn't me who started this thread 
I'd like to suggest making a how-to guide of using PCSX2 using a DS3 controller with Shibari in a public place, e.g. as a sticky forum thread. If you want, I can contribute to that by providing my end-user, non-developer experience.
Ideally, the PCSX2 people also link to that from their documentation. In that way, other people do not need to search and ask around like me.
Cheers and have "fun" with the small donation,
ComFreek