Multi Controllers setup and hot swapping

[ZeroX9876]

Hi!

I'm making a BigBox Console and I'm having some trouble with my controllers configuration.

I bought 2 years ago an adapter called the 4-Play which is basically a multi adapter for any video game controller and allows hot swapping on the fly. The thing is, I want 2 setups for my "Console" and be able to change from one to the other:

 

1 is all configured with the 4-Play which is fairly easy to do

2 is with 4 PS4 Controllers Wirelessly via DS4windows (or Input mapper)

 

I was wondering if there was any apps that would virtually create 4 Always-on Gamepad that I could configure in all my emulators/PC games and then send my physical gamepad inputs on those virtual gamepad?

Windows way of handling USB devices is giving me a hardtime. I know what vjoy and JoyID is, but I wasn't able to find a good setup using those. Maybe I didn't do it properly. Using Xpadder or any keyboard input setup is a no go since when playing games after the N64 generation, you need the joystick sensibility for all 4 players.

 

My last resort option would be configuring 2 sets of emulators, but I'm not sure how to create 2 launchbox sharing the same medias, but not the same configurations.

I've been trying to get rid of this issue since I started working on my Hyperspin setup 4 years ago and I wasn't able to find a solution since then.

Edited February 26, 2017 by ZeroX9876

[SentaiBrad]

As far as I know, I've never heard of this. Why do you want them to be always on? If you want them to be configured easily, then RetroArch and MAME will automatically set controls for PS4 controllers (and quite a few others). For the systems that you don't want to emulate through RetroArch or MAME, you can create profiles and configs for them. So maybe a bit of info as to why you want this set up would help a bit. I'm also lost as to why you'd want to configure 2 sets of emulators, even with your previous idea.

Also, you can edit LaunchBox to tell it where media is. You can edit systems in Tools -> Manage Platforms and edit the paths to the ones you want them to be. So for a second install, just point them to the first installs media.

[ZeroX9876]

Thanks for replying so fast!

First problem is that each time I boot my computer, the 4-Play takes 4 IDs and My PS4 controllers take 4 other IDs. The order isn't consistent, it can be different at each boot or could be the same (WinMM, Direct Input and Xinput all acts differently).

Now

Per example when configuring an external emulator which ain't Retroarch, let's say project 64 or epsxe. My first setup would be with the 4 play as JOY (1) for player 1, Joy (2) for player 2, etc. Then comes a time when I just want to switch to the PS4 controllers. My PS4 controllers are Joy (5) for Player 1 wireless, Joy (6) for Player 2, etc. Since my PS4 controller ain't Joy (1), it doesn't work, plus even If I could change the JoyID to 1, the buttons numbers ain't the same on each other so I get wrong inputs.

That's why I was wondering if there was an app to create 4 virtual usb gamepads.

They would connect as ID 1,2,3,4 and then I would just throw the inputs of my physical controllers to the virtual ones. That way, even if my joystick ID was 13 for my 4Play and 9 for a PS4 controller, it would still work.

I'm probably being too picky on this. that's why I thought about creating 2 full setups of control options with 2 sets of emulators (when not provided by retroarch). I'm looking to create a setup that you don't have to touch the keyboard ever and just automate everything in the background.

BTW again, I don't know how JoyID works, so maybe it's just me being too much of a noob with it  

Big thanks for the indication of the second install, for now it's the only option I was able to come out with, but didn't know how to proceed.

Edited February 27, 2017 by ZeroX9876

[SentaiBrad]

Even if you could do a virtual controller set up, which I still don't know how you would, I don't know if it wouldn't fall under the same issues as you do now, or even introduce input lag even. As long as you plug a controller in, fresh, or leave it plugged in, it shouldn't be changing around that much. I have PCSX2 set up, and each time I plug my controller in, it works just fine. I've never had a mismatching ID situation. Even if you had multiple controllers, plugging one in should result in it being the first controller, then the second being the second. Is this not the case? I don't use multiple controllers much, so.