Massive problem with profiles

[pilky]

Hi! I have the Default profile which allows mouse control etc in Windows. And I have a custom profile for a video player app. So far, those two work perfectly. When the video player is active, its bindings are active. And when the desktop (explorer.exe) or browser (chrome.exe) get focus, the Default profile is reactivated and I can controll the whole desktop/mouse stuff again.

The problem is... games. Apps that use XInput (or heck even DInput) to read the controller are not respected by reWASD. I'm really disappointed in the purchase and hope there is a way to fix this.

I use the Default profile to click and select Stardew Valley in my GOG Galaxy 2.0 launcher (it's like Steam Big Picture basically, a game launcher). Then when Stardew launches, things go to hell. My whole game gets double input: Both its own that it reads directly from the gamepad. And the mouse/keyboard moves generated by reWASD. So the game is CHAOS.

EVERY game is chaos.

Is there some solution I haven't discovered? I've searched the manual. But all I see is that it seems like reWASD is ALWAYS active and only sets an active profile based on the last-focused app.exe that's in its "app list" for each profile.

As far as I have figured out, there are two workarounds for this problem:

1. Bind some "unmap" button that totally disables reWASD and use that button after starting the game, to disable reWASD. This "solution" is totally unacceptable, because that means when I close the game I have NO desktop mouse control anymore since reWASD is disabled.

2. Add an empty profile (no button bindings) in reWASD and then manually add every game .exe to it, so taht whenever a game launches, reWASD simply ignores all keys. This is also unacceptable. I shouldn't have to manually find tons of tedious game .exe files.

Is there some proper solution already implemented in reWASD? Because the two ideas I have above are both terrible.

If there isn't a proper solution, how can I arrange a refund of this app? Or have a chance that you implement something like A) Detector which notices when a game is in foreground, B) Maybe something which detects when another app is reading XInput/DInput, and stops reWASD's processing while that other app is actively using the gamepad, or C) Perhaps a way to say "Profiles are ONLY active WHILE the listed .exe files are in the FOREGROUND", meaning that the desktop mouse control stuff would only be active while explorer.exe has focus etc. This third solution is pretty terrible too, but at least then I could just ensure that the mouse control stuff is only active while GOG Galaxy.exe has foreground focus (my game launcher)...

I hope there is some solution out there. Right now, reWASD just ruins my ability to play games that already have gamepad support. :-(

[reWASDer]

Hey there!

If I understand you right, you do not need reWASD for the games? So, you want to disable reWASD for the games but use for player and desktop?
If yes, you need to check Preferences -> Agent tab. Remove applied config from slot on exit from associated app should be on:



When this option is active, your desktop config will be removed when you open some app that is not associated with reWASD. So you also need to remove the associations for games (if you have ones) to make it work.

[pilky]

Hi! Yeah you understood right!

Okay. The option you describe is already enabled (it was by default). But it's not disabling the profile. When I open a game, the explorer.exe (Desktop) profile still remains active.

I notice the word says "Remove applied config from slot on EXIT from the associated app".

Since explorer.exe never exits, I guess it never unloads the "desktop" profile...? And I would have the same problem even if I make the "desktop" profile only apply for GOG Galaxy.exe (my game launcher). Because the launcher stays open (doesn't exit) when it launches the game.

So how can this problem be fixed? Can't you detect that the foreground app is using XInput and therefore intelligently stop mapping in reWASD whenever a game with native gamepad support is open ("except when the user has manually added a profile for that game exe and WANTS reWASD in that game").

I am not sure how Steam does it but their Big Picture lets gamepads map stuff for the windows desktop without conflicting at all inside any games.

I chose to pay for reWASD instead because you have amazing configurability (slots/layers for the gamepad buttons, vibration feedback when pressing buttons, recording macros, etc). :-)

[pilky]

I've tried making the Desktop (mouse control) profile ONLY contain GalaxyClient.exe.

- Enabled the "Remove applied config from slot on EXIT from the associated app" in Settings - Tray Agent, as you said (it was already enabled).
- Enabled "Autodetect associated apps" for the Desktop profile, via the checkbox in the top right of the main GUI.

Still, even when quitting GalaxyClient.exe, the profile remains active.

Lastly, I noticed a button in the top left of the GUI:

- Also enabled the round "dartboard" icon in the top left of the GUI, whose tooltip says "Switch it on if you want the config to be applied when the app is active".

This made the buttons unbind themselves... But it also made the buttons NEVER bind themselves... not even when GOG Galaxy is open. I even tried re-adding C:\windows\explorer.exe and not even explorer windows bind the desktop profile anymore.

I hope there is some hidden way to fix this situation, which I just haven't found yet. :-(

[pilky]

Also tried adding "calc.exe" to the Desktop profile, and opening that. And not even that application binds the Desktop profile.

I did try my separate video player profile, enabling "Autodetect associated apps" and the "Dartboard icon" for it. And THAT app correctly applies its own profile while that app is open.

Seems like the "Desktop" profile is broken. Maybe I should delete the built-in desktop profile and create my own.

[pilky]

Okay, at least semi-good news: My video player profile works perfectly with all 3 settings enabled:

- "Remove applied config from slot on EXIT from the associated app" in Settings - Tray Agent
- "Autodetect associated apps" for the profile itself.
- "Dartboard icon" for the profile itself.

When the video player opens, its profile is applied.

When the video player loses focus (alt tab, etc), its profile is unloaded. I verified this by trying its keys in a notepad document. It does not print any keyboard presses. So yeah, that's great news, it means reWASD is only enabling per-app profiles while the apps have focus. Unloading isn't dependent on the app EXITING. Just losing focus is enough.

That gives me hope that the desktop control problem can be fixed now. Will keep trying things.

Still wondering if you can implement some auto-sensing "foreground app uses XInput, we should stop mapping now" feature.

[pilky]

Okay... things are pretty acceptable now!

I have fixed the video player profile, as described in my previous post.

I also made a brand-new profile JUST for GOG Galaxy game launcher, and set it up exactly the same (with those 3 features enabled). And just bound some mouse move + click features which is all I need for controlling its GUI.

Now, my video player and GOG Galaxy work properly. And as soon as either of them exits OR loses focus, their bindings are properly disabled.

This took so much work. Surprised it was so difficult. Everything else in reWASD is very polished and easy to do.

---

Now, with working GOG Galaxy + video player profiles, I only have 1 remaining issue:

How can I bind a global key to the center "White Xbox Glowy Button" on the controller? I want that button to permanently do the same thing in every game and every situation. Or at least whenever no specific profiles (such as video player or galaxy) are active. So that I can quickly use that button to open GOG Galaxy from anywhere. Otherwise I'll be without mouse control as soon as I accidentally click outside the GOG Galaaxy window with the gamepad, and will have to manually go to the laptop and click inside GOG's window again to give it focus. That's why I want to bind the Xbox button to launch GOG Galaxy so that it never has this problem.

So is there some way to make a "global profile" or a global binding for that key at least? If not, could you consider adding that feature? :-O Would help so much...

[pilky]

Sorry for all separate messages but since I don't hve permission to edit posts, I can't delete/edit anything above to just contain my final findings. Sadly. ;-P

[pilky]

Okay I have finally figured it out completely.

The GUI of reWASD is generally very slick. But in this area, its GUI is a total mess. The problem was a combination of confusion due to all hidden buttons and duplicate GUI features. And needing to set things up properly via that mess...

Here are the final realizations:

- (Top left side of GUI): The "Dartboard" ("Slot" system): This MUST be enabled. Otherwise the Profile will NOT be loaded when the target .exe is given focus by Windows. Its tooltip says "Switch it on if you want the config to be applied when the app is active". The tooltip doesn't make much sense to me and could be a lot clearer. But all I know now is it must be enabled, otherwise the app profile won't become active when the app starts/gets focus.
- (Top right side of GUI): "Autodetect associated apps": This MUST be enabled. And you must click the underlined "Associated apps" to make a list of .exes that this profile applies to.

That's TWO different controls on TWO sides of the GUI that are both needed. And the right-side one has a underlined "associated apps" that isn't obvious to click.

Next, after doing the two things above, the profile will load whenever the target application starts/gets focus. But that's not enough. To get the profile to UNLOAD when the target application exits/loses focus, you must also do the following:

- (Bottom right side of GUI): The little cogwheel (settings): Click the settings and go to the "Tray agent" tab (for whatever strange reason, it's under that tab...), and there you MUST enable "Remove applied config from slot on exit from the associated app". That MUST be enabled, otherwise the app's profile STAYS FOREVER even after the target app loses focus/exits.

That's now THREE different controls, all hidden in 3 different areas of the GUI (top left, top right, bottom right (and inside the "Tray agent" tab)), to be able to control the loading/unloading of profiles based on target application activity... Yikes. No wonder I didn't figure this out myself!

This could be a lot cleaner and simpler if ALL of these mentioned controls were all grouped together. Under a floating Application Linking panel, where all of these controls exist. Same way as other features in reWASD are hidden behind popup panels (bindings, shortcut record, etc). Basically, the user would click a "Application Link" button in the top right of the GUI, which brings out a floating panel with: "Associated apps (per-profile setting), Load profile when app is started/gains focus (per-profile setting), Unload app profiles when apps lose focus (global setting)."

Lastly, I was super confused by the Save button. I didn't even see that it existed until today! It's a faint outline of a diskette in the top left of the window. Super easy to miss. At least consider making it super visible when data is available to save, such as the way you render the Shift Configurations bar (where you see outlines of each icon, and a fat background behind the active Shift config). To make matters even more confusing, there's a big Apply button which LOSES its tooltip whenever the button is active (non-dimmed). I had no idea what the button did until I just *now* noticed that it has a tooltip when it's disabled; and the tooltip says "The config will be applied automatically once you switch to the associated app", which makes zero sense. I searched in the manual for the Apply button's explanation and it says it basically Saves the config (via that nearly-invisible Save button) and Applies the changes to the in-memory config so that the changes become active on your gamepad right now...

That could yet again be simplified, with a much clearer Save button, and putting Save and Save & Apply next to each other to make it super clear what each does.

So, the final feedback summary is this:

- Save and Apply buttons would make more sense if they are next to each other and labeled properly with better tooltips.
- All of the app visibility/config-loading stuff is ultra confusing since it's spread out everywhere. Please consider merging it all into a single panel.

I've now figured out everything about how to make these things work but it took me, a veteran programmer with 25 years experience, over a day to figure this out. Hehe. reWASD is beautifully designed and its keybinding techniques/GUI are FANTASTIC, but oh my god these two problems I mentioned here are so messy in the GUI and drove me nuts trying to figure all of this out!

Hoping for a potential improvement in these areas in future updates of the app. Because despite finally having figured this stuff out, it's still so messy that I am having trouble remembering what I've just learnt. That's a good sign that it's too messy.

PS: So all that remains now is the question about "Is it possible to create a Global config for the White Xbox Button that is always active no matter what app is active on-screen?". That would massively help since it would make it possible to launch custom game launchers from that button anywhere, to make the gamepad always able to "rescue" itself without touching a keyboard. By pressing the Xbox button to get back to our game launchers.

I am starting to like reWASD a lot for its power. Just giving this feedback to hopefully help improve the messy aspects of the otherwise-GREAT GUI.

Glad that I bought reWASD...!

Best Regards

[reWASDer]

I'm sorry that it took too long to achieve the behavior you want.
reWASD is a pretty powerful app and so some things are not quite clear from the beginning.
I'm happy to know that you have found the solution

We are constantly working on the functionality and the user-friendliness of our app, so we will take your suggestions into account. Thanks!

[pilky]

Thank you for the help, I definitely needed it! :-) Had no chance to figure this out on my own. I hope that those two usability issues are improved in the future to make it easier for everyone to setup automated profile loading/unloading. Everything else in reWASD is really well laid out already and was super intuitive! <3

PS: About the Xbox white button question/suggestion, I've moved it to a separate thread instead: https://forum.rewasd.com/forum/rewas...er-xbox-button

[pilky]

Just discovered another big issue related to the mentioned UI problems above:

- When the "dartboard" is active, the "Apply" button dims itself and becomes unclickable.
- This means you cannot click Apply. So if you edit your profile, you can't make the profile changes apply immediately. (Just "Save" doesn't work)
- You have to disable the dartboard, press Apply, and then re-enable the dartboard.

[reWASDer]

PS: About the Xbox white button question/suggestion, I've moved it to a separate thread instead: https://forum.rewasd.com/forum/rewas...er-xbox-button

Sorry for leaving this one without an answer
The global profiles are coming to reWASD in one of the next versions, we have already started working on it. I can promise you that it will appear asap, but it will be definitely implemented.

[Star-Lord]

Just discovered another big issue related to the mentioned UI problems above:

- When the "dartboard" is active, the "Apply" button dims itself and becomes unclickable.
- This means you cannot click Apply. So if you edit your profile, you can't make the profile changes apply immediately. (Just "Save" doesn't work)
- You have to disable the dartboard, press Apply, and then re-enable the dartboard.

------------------------------------------------
Hello,
Thank you for the report.

We checked the issue, it seems that everything works following your steps. The modified mappings re-apply and available to use when the process added for the autodetect is in focus.

[pilky]

------------------------------------------------
Hello,
Thank you for the report.

We checked the issue, it seems that everything works following your steps. The modified mappings re-apply and available to use when the process added for the autodetect is in focus.

Hi, I did some more testing after your reply and I realized how to do it now... You make the edits, then press the tiny "Save" diskette icon. Then when you switch to the application again the updated profile will be active! So there was no need to "disable dartboard, press apply, re-enable dartboard". I was just... yet again... not thinking about the "Save" icon.

Really hoping the Save and Save & Apply buttons are improved along with the other confusing things mentioned in post #9 here (https://forum.rewasd.com/forum/rewas...001#post218001). :-D

Takes so much time to get used to the process for saving. But I trust that you will continue to evolve this application and improve the UI. Most of the UI is already great!