Multiple Controller Setup

[Guwanges]

So I just got going with BigBox and I'm loving everything so far. But I need one thing to work that I'm having a helluva time with.

Basically I have an Xbox360 Arcade Stick plugged in at all times as my go-to player1 controller. Works great in BigBox/Emulators. Fantastic.

Now, I also want a 2nd controller that I can keep plugged in as player2, which is a PS4 dualshock controller.

 

It's working... kind of.

 

I'm able to use the player2 (PS4) controller in BigBox, but the button mappings are off. In particular the start button is mapped to L2 and no button combos seem to execute the emulator shutdown command (set to back + start on my xbox360 player1 controller).

So, that's a problem.

Why don't i just launch games with the player1 controller, you ask? Well, because I don't only want the player2 controller for an ACTUAL player2, but also as an alternative controller (when I want to use the pad rather than arcade stick).

 

If I can even sort this bit of business out, my next problem is in Retroarch. Retroarch registers the player2 (PS4) controller fine, but when I start a game with it, it apparently sets it as player1, but of course I want to have different button mappings which I would set to player2 in Retroarch, but it's forcing player1's mappings.

Any help with any of this would be greatlly appreciated.

[Guwanges]

Put in some more work on this and finding the answer is not so easy, perhaps even impossible.

One main problem is most console games don't allow player2 to start the game. So, mapping to player2 as an alternative controller is a bad idea for this reason alone.

The next possible solution is to take my alternate controller (PS4) and simply unplug the main controller and replace it with the alt whenever I want to use it.

But then, the mappings are still totally different.

So, for this it seems I should use something like DS4Windows or InputMapper to trick the emulator into thinking It's a standard Xbox360 controller.

Except, the mappings are still going to be different from the stick as the buttons aren't laid out the same way.

Best solution I can think of to this is to remap the buttons in retroarch for each game that I intend to use the pad with.

It's a bad tradeoff as it disallows me to luxury of deciding, on the spot, if I want to use a pad or arcade stick. It requires planning ahead and per-game mapping.

Putting this out there in case I forget why this turned into a rats-nest of issues and to help others if they travel down the same road.