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    A new twist on an old problem…

    Joysticks & Input Devices
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    • Nightstorm
      Nightstorm last edited by

      Hey folks. So I used to use Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and recently had to rebuild my PC and went to Windows 8.1 Pro x64. I configured it to work just like Windows 7 though.

      So…anyhow. Windows 8/8.1 seems to have this really cool “feature” where it may or may not change the order of your game controllers on a reboot. You don’t have to unplug any USB device, you don’t even have to turn off your computer, all you need to do is reboot and PRESTO!! Just like that, Windows arbitrarily seems to move one controller up or down or sideways or whatever it can do to change the game controller enumeration.

      I have the following controllers and as you can see from this excerpt I’ve taken to making different keyfiles and trying to outguess what Windows is going to do next:

      #**************************************

      DX Button Mapping for this keyfile: *

      #**************************************

      Buttons 0-31 : HOTAS Cougar

      Buttons 32-63 : CH PRO Rudder Pedals

      Buttons 64-95 : Cougar MFD1

      Buttons 96-127 : Cougar MFD3

      Buttons 128-159 : Cougar MFD2

      Buttons 160-191 : vJoy Virtual Controller (Not used in BMS)

      Buttons 192-233 : Razer Nostromo

      So I’m well aware of what the problem is and have tried reording the Controller ID number with JoyIDs. While DXdiag shows the order I set…Windows very merrily ignores that and keeps to whatever order it wants. BMS matches up exactly with the order that is displayed in the Game Controllers panel applet.

      I’ve tired using JoyTokey and while it controls and maintains the controller order for its purposes it doesn’t affect the order of the devices in the applet nor the DX button reservations for the same.

      I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have either a way to force Windows to use a specific order or do they know where in the Windows registry this information is stored. I should think it would be in the HKCurrentUser hive some place since it changes on different boots. My theory would be I should be able to extract the current registry keys with the order and if it changes them, reimport that key rather than redo a keyfile.

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      • Blu3wolf
        Blu3wolf last edited by

        Let me know if you have any luck with that.

        To my knowledge of Windows 7, device order should remain constant so long as all devices are plugged into the same USB port on boot as they were previously - i.e. so long as you do not plug in new devices, or unplug old devices, with the computer powered on or off, then device order should not change.

        the apparent randomness of device order and the instability presented by plugging in new devices are the only real issues with a keyfile that uses only directX entries with no associated keyboard keys.

        Nightstorm 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Nightstorm
          Nightstorm @Blu3wolf last edited by

          Thanks. Yea in 7 I didn’t have this problem. As you said, once it read the order unless you physically unplugged and moved devices around it stayed that way. 8.1 seems to have changed that behavior. I can work around it by renumbering the keyfile and trying to make multiple versions that I can load, but it’s a PITA.

          If I find a solution I’ll post here. If anyone else has a suggestion (besides going back to 7) I’m all earls. I figure I’ve invested too much time into rebuilding the system at this point to go backwards. And once Windows 10 is stable ect I would bet the problem exists there too. Who knows right?

          Thanks!

          livrot 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • livrot
            livrot @Nightstorm last edited by

            Hi,

            some ideas from this google search: https://www.google.de/#q=controller+remapper

            http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/89279-ujr-universal-joystick-remapper-using-vjoy/
            http://steamcommunity.com/app/292120/discussions/0/619574421409962278/

            also:
            http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108767.160.html?PHPSESSID=icbd6jbbkqlfbbiv6fs8vmrlm2
            http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=40703

            old but anyhow:
            http://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/switching-order-of-game-controllers.511122/

            maybe a tool could be written for bms (simple):
            first read out the correct device order once everything is nicely installed and store that order for reference.
            Then after reboot read out controller enum from direct input and build a new joystick config file (forgot the name) for the config folder of BMS.
            I have no idea if this is possible.

            I might find some time for that if no one else does and I switch to 10 …. next year or so … : )

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