Weird issue maybe? RetroArch and xinput/dinput

[npaladin2000]

Ok, just to revive this thread, I did actually eventually figure this out. It wasn't just PlayNite, it was also the fact that somehow ReWASD also had a large number of configurations saved, I guess too many. Or maybe one of them had something funky in it. But when I cleaned them all out and started from scratch the problem was resolved. Just as a suggestion, might want to make that more accessible from the main window instead of only showing necro-configs in settings.

[reWASDer]

If we have any ideas how to help, we will certainly let you know.

[npaladin2000]

Ok, slight problem...when I disable ReWASD, everything works fine. And now shutting down PlayNite isn't working to free things up. Very very odd. I think I may have to give up on being able to quick-switch to a BT controller for now and figure out another solution for mouse input, until this gets figured out.

[reWASDer]

I see. Hope you find the best solution soon.

[npaladin2000]

Unless I can figure out how to get PlayNite to back off. Maybe if it closes to the tray it will stop monopolizing the input. Anyway, I might be able to take it up with them if not. I'd really rather NOT use D-input if I can avoid it...

[reWASDer]

Oh, interesting, never heard about this one. It seems you will need to use the controller via DirectInput then.

[npaladin2000]

I think I figured it out. PlayNite is monopolizing the xinput device. Which is going to be a big problem, not sure how to fix that....

[npaladin2000]

I used to have HIDHide installed but I removed it, didn't like it and it didn't work right anyway. The Steam controller infrastructure is still enabled, but that seems to actually detect the virtual controller properly.

[reWASDer]

Yes, if you do not restart the emulator after applying a config, it may be a chance that the first controller that was detected is your physical one, and then app may try to read the new controller via another standard.

Appreciate some testing from our side, please let us know how it goes.

Also, do you have any other remapping tools, drivers, etc.?

UPD: XInput is limited to 4 devices. Thus, in case if you have created a few virtual ones, it may be a chance that this one goes as the fifth one. I would suggest that you check whether you have applied anything to the other group you have.

Also, it is recommended to restart the game (app, emulator, everything related), so we are sure that it re-scanned all the controllers (both virtual and physical).

[npaladin2000]

Another tester that should work via XInput is Game Controller Tester (free testing app from Microsoft's Store). You could check how the triggers work there: with XInput, the triggers are reported separately. Do you see the same?

One more thing: it may be a chance that you have several XInput devices, and the emulator detects only the first one as XInput, it also could cause this behavior.

I'll grab the tester and take a look. The one sticky part might be that the controller on this device is hardwired, so it might be being detected before reWASD loads and sets up the virtual controller in front of it? I haven't had a chance to do any experimentation with my bluetooth controller that's also a part of the group yet, I'll do that today and see if that one gets detected/read as Xinput, get some more data on what's going on.

[reWASDer]

Another tester that should work via XInput is Game Controller Tester (free testing app from Microsoft's Store). You could check how the triggers work there: with XInput, the triggers are reported separately. Do you see the same?

One more thing: it may be a chance that you have several XInput devices, and the emulator detects only the first one as XInput, it also could cause this behavior.

[npaladin2000]

After a bit of consulting with a team, I should say that my previous answer was not correct, Xbox controller do report both XInput an DirectInput.

Then, other apps, games and testers should decide which standard to use. We are not sure why RetroArch reads DirectInput instead of the XInput. But just to confirm: it detects the controller and it is working, right?

You could also check this website — https://gamepad-tester.com/ Which standard you see there? Normally, it should be XInput.

It actually detects the Xbox360 controller when set to either xinput or dinput drivers but it only gets input via dinput.

The site is showing an Xinput standard gamepad.

[reWASDer]

After a bit of consulting with a team, I should say that my previous answer was not correct, Xbox controller do report both XInput an DirectInput.

Then, other apps, games and testers should decide which standard to use. We are not sure why RetroArch reads DirectInput instead of the XInput. But just to confirm: it detects the controller and it is working, right?

You could also check this website — https://gamepad-tester.com/ Which standard you see there? Normally, it should be XInput.

[npaladin2000]

reWASD creates a virtual Xbox 360 controller, which is the same as the physical one, which is detected as X-Input. Which other apps you are referring to? Have you tried to use Xbox One virtual controller in reWASD?

As for the mouse on the stick, still not sure how the mouse is connected to the type of the virtual controller. It may not work only because the emulator doesn't detect both inputs at once.

Both Xbox360 and Xbox One configs screenshotted above are showing up as dinput in every app I try (PPSSPP indicates an input differently depending on whether it's xinput or dinput so I'm using that to test also). When I take reWASD out of the equation, my local controller works as xinput. I think it might be a bug of some sort, not sure. I did create a new Xbox360 profile to use to test the virtual controller configured without any mouse inputs. I'm not seeing any config options in reWASD that might affect this.

Maybe I should try wiping the ReWASD config out completely and start from scratch, see if it does it again? I'd swear it used to work through xinput but I couldn't point to a specific time when it stopped.

Just to confirm, I'm on 5.8.0.4512

[reWASDer]

reWASD creates a virtual Xbox 360 controller, which is the same as the physical one, which is detected as X-Input. Which other apps you are referring to? Have you tried to use Xbox One virtual controller in reWASD?

As for the mouse on the stick, still not sure how the mouse is connected to the type of the virtual controller. It may not work only because the emulator doesn't detect both inputs at once.