Game Launch - "Controls Needed" User Messaging / Instructions

[Fursphere]

I'm not sure if this is even the right place for the thread since the 'problem' is kind of abstract, but here goes anyway...  Is there a luanchbox feature / plugin / mod......something that "Tells the user on game launch what physical controls to use?"  (lemme explain)

Some Background:
I'm not trying to get down into the nitty gritty like 'button 1 = jump" or something.  (like this thread:  https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/68739-game-controls-viewer/ ).  LEDBlinky mostly has that covered already to be honest.  (except for spinner games).  What I'm getting at it "this game requires a GamePad" (IE - tell the user to pickup and turn on a gamepad before the game starts).   Now, I wrote an AHK 'shim' that does this, and it mostly works.  It displays a full screen image and asks the user to press a button on the gamepad to continue.   This 1) communicates to the user what's going on and 2) verifies the user has followed instructions.  (I opened a feature request to make this a little easier to configure in LB, but proof of concept works)

I'm going to write another for Lightguns "Pickup the lightgun and turn on the IR emitters"  or "Lightgun + Pedal" (get the pedal out and plug it in).    Maybe one for Spinner games (as there is no LED for LEDblinky to light up).  (then I have crazy stuff that links both cabinets together so we can play 2 player Smash TV with twin sticks, or 4 player TMNT or whatever...  I need to make a thread on that).  Or to turn the Dolphin bar on when you're playing Wii games with WiiMotes.  

The key here is wait for user input to confirm the 'ask' has been completed.   (The game start screen and pause screen feature of LB/BB do not meet this need)

Now, the big challenge:  

Enter driving / racing games.  Arcade racing game controls are all over the damn place.   270 degree wheel, 360 degree wheel.  hi/low shifter, H pattern shifter, sequential shifter.  Independent pedals, combined pedals.  etc...   (at least one uses a lightgun too....  lol)

I use Fanatec gear, and there isn't an automatic profiling application (or CLI) to take care of this stuff.   You have to open the Fanatec software, and tweak the settings.  Thankfully, this is 'easy' (even if its annoying).  I have Stream Deck minis on my cabinets with a Fanatec App button - so getting to the app is easy)    Logitech wheels have (had?) better automation for this stuff, but that's not what I run in my Twin Daytona cabinet.  Anyway....   

So the dream is to have some way to tell the user (often ME! - who can remember all this stuff?):

"Hey Dummy, before I launch this MAME game, you need to go click the combine pedal checkbox, and set the wheel to 270 degrees" (Ace Driver Racing for example)
or
"Spy Hunter uses a sequential shifter, flip the level on the shifter base"

or
"Pole Position uses a 360 degree wheel, set the wheel to 360 degrees and turn FFB off" (I was so happy when I figured out this worked...)

There are significantly less racing/driving games than a regular cabinet game list, so I can just proceed with creating static images per game or AHK message boxes or something.   (ugh).  

But before I dive in, does anyone have a better idea?

 

[Fursphere]

I ended up writing an AHK script that interacts (via mouse movements and clicks) with the fanatec app (which doesn't support keyboard navigation...  sigh) to change settings as needed on game start.  

A little janky, but it works consistently.