[5.1] Controller not recognized when I open a Windows game

by hozerino 24/01/23, 10:22 pm

Hello everyone, good afternoon (or morning, or night). I recently added some Windows shortcuts to my roms/windows folder, adding softwares like, for example, Clone Hero.
The issue is: Clone Hero works fine when I launch it up directly, the controller works fine and all. However, when I launch it via RetroBat, the game seems to recognize ONLY the Keyboard; but the Select+Start still exits the game.

As a good explorer, I backed up the es_systems.cfg and removed the %CONTROLLERSCONFIG% from the command to see what would happen. And the controller started being recognized but the Select+Start shortcut stopped working, so I reverted to the original settings (because I'm aware that modifying settings is pretty much a reinstall sentence).

Am I missing something? The controller is well configured inside RetroBat.

TL;DR: The game recognizes the controller when launched without RetroBat, but when launched via RetroBat it only recognizes the controller.

PS.: I made a Steam shortcut to launch it in big screen mode and the same thing happens, it doesn't recognize the controller.

I tried it with the 8bitdo Ultimate Bluetooth controller, which works fine outside of RetroBat.

Thanks for the attention, guys!

by **Lorenzolamas** 24/01/23, 10:29 pm

Hi,

Clone Hero ? i don't found this game on Steam.

by hozerino 24/01/23, 10:33 pm

Hey there!
Oh, nonono, it's not a Steam game, it is a standalone game, a Guitar Hero clone (very cool and free btw, I totally recommend).

The thing is, whenever I launch Clone Hero via RetroBat's Windows games, the controller is not recognized. The same thing also happens to Steam, if I want to separately launch Steam after booting up RetroBat, it also has no controller input (I did this for testing purposes).

by **Lorenzolamas** 24/01/23, 10:35 pm

ok, I wanted to be sure that we are talking about the same game. What controller are you using?

by hozerino 24/01/23, 10:38 pm

Oh sure, that makes sense.
The controller I'm using is 8bitdo Bluetooth Controller, it gets recognized as a Switch "Pro Controller". It is configured correctly in RetroBat and Clone Hero is able to identify the controller when running standalone.

If you think this is a controller issue, I can find another controller to test it on.

by **tartifless** 24/01/23, 10:41 pm

Can you try with the controller configured as xinput ?
Also can you check in steam big Picture and ensure you do not have steam configured to manage switch pro controllers ?

This is activated by default in steam.

by **Lorenzolamas** 24/01/23, 10:44 pm

by hozerino 24/01/23, 10:53 pm

The 8bitdo Bluetooth Ultimate does not have input modes as the SN30 (as far as I know), but I can change it from the "Switch" input to a "Xbox styled input" by using the 2.4ghz USB Dongle.

tartifless wrote:
Also can you check in steam big Picture and ensure you do not have steam configured to manage switch pro controllers ?

RetroBat is the only autostart on this PC, Steam only opens if I manually open it. So it was closed by the time I was testing this; and even then, this option of managing Switch controllers is off, otherwise it would apply the controller's shortcuts while I'm playing emulated games, but that was a good idea too!

I just tried it and Clone Hero recognizes the controller correctly (but Steam, when launched by RetroBat doesn't and I can't see why, and also the Hotkey+Start doesn't exit it... I like the idea of opening Steam via RetroBat to play/install/uninstall Steam games when I want, instead of adding one by one in RetroBat, but I'll figure this out later).

Weird that it works like this only with non-switch controllers but just when launched by RetroBat.

by **tartifless** 24/01/23, 10:56 pm

How do you run the steam game from retrobat ?

by **Lorenzolamas** 24/01/23, 11:00 pm

i read the 8bitdo Bluetooth Ultimate, and i see, "There are two ways to connect the controller to PC which are 2.4g wireless mode (Xinput) and USB cable mode (Xinput)."

We need X-input

by hozerino 24/01/23, 11:01 pm

tartifless wrote:How do you run the steam game from retrobat ?

I first installed Steam and configured it to launch as BigPicture mode.
Then I disabled the Steam auto-start option.

Now, whenever I want to navigate Steam (install/uninstall or play games just using the controller), I launch it via RetroBat, with a shortcut to Steam's executable placed in Windows roms folder.

Is there a better way to be able to go from RetroBat -> Big Picture without needing a mouse/kb?

by hozerino 24/01/23, 11:02 pm

Lorenzolamas wrote:i read the 8bitdo Bluetooth Ultimate, and i see, "There are two ways to connect the controller to PC which are 2.4g wireless mode (Xinput) and USB cable mode (Xinput)."

We need X-input

Yeah, I might have been a bit too stubborn by using bluetooth, but I thought this could be an easy solve as it worked when launched standalone, but it's not a big deal as well.

by **Lorenzolamas** 24/01/23, 11:02 pm

Y'ouve read the FAQ about that ? point n°1

by hozerino 24/01/23, 11:06 pm

Lorenzolamas wrote:Y'ouve read the FAQ about that ? point n°1

Yes, I'm also aware of the guide "https://retrobat.forumgaming.fr/t480-tuto-add-steam-games-to-retrobat".

But what I wanted to achieve was different, I was trying to launch Steam Big Picture, not just a single game. Because in Steam BP I could choose which games to install without needing to plug in a keyboard/mouse.

For that, I placed the Steam shortcut inside the windows folder, as I realized that Big Picture could be easily treated as a Windows game.

by **Lorenzolamas** 24/01/23, 11:08 pm

OK...

With X-input, it work better ?

by hozerino 24/01/23, 11:16 pm

With X-input the Clone Hero works fine, that's an accomplishment already!

However, Steam isn't working, but I don't think this is a big deal, I can work it out some other way.
I super appreciate the help! Thanks a lot for the time and attention.

Before I go, I wanted to make a last question about controller integration... If this is a big thing we can create a new thread.

I have an .EXE that runs a program on the terminal (CMD); it runs some scripts that organize my rom library. Then I can close it with hotkey + start, however, when RetroBat opens back up, it isn't accepting my Controller inputs, as if RetroBat had lost focus, do you have any ideas on that? Or is it better for me to open a new thread?

by **Lorenzolamas** 24/01/23, 11:22 pm

you didn't tell us which version of Retrobat you were on.

by hozerino 24/01/23, 11:30 pm

Lorenzolamas wrote:you didn't tell us which version of Retrobat you were on.

vous ne nous avez pas dit sur quelle version de Retrobat vous étiez.

Oh, right, that was my fault, sorry.
I'm running RetroBat 5.1.0, it was pretty much a V5 fresh install, then I upgraded it to 5.1.0. I'm pretty sure it used to happen on V5 as well.

by **Lorenzolamas** 24/01/23, 11:33 pm

ok, you have installed the hotfix ?

https://wiki.retrobat.org/tutorials/know-issues-and-fixes

"emulationstation.zip"

by hozerino 24/01/23, 11:45 pm

I just tried it out, but it didn't seem to work.
I discovered that after exiting the terminal program (hotkey+start), RetroBat can receive keyboard commands but controller commands do not work until I alt+tab back to it.

I used the .zip and I even tried setting it to OFF and to ON directly.

by hozerino 24/01/23, 11:50 pm

It would work fine if I could PadToKey a START button to "manually" alt+f4.
Or if I could bind any controller button to the computer "Enter" to leave the script, but they don't seem to work here, even using x-input.

by hozerino 25/01/23, 12:58 am

UPDATE!
I made it work! I added a feature to my script that allows it to auto-close after a certain amount of seconds, and when exiting, I call the OS exit(0) function. Now when it exits, RetroBat is able to get Focus back.

Thanks a LOT for all your time and patience.
If you want to check out the script that I used (I think I already showed an early version of it before), it is here:
https://github.com/Hozerino/rom-linker/releases

It might help people that want something automatic for this part: https://wiki.retrobat.org/tutorials/symbolic-links

Again, thanks a lot for your time and patience.

by **Aynshe** 25/01/23, 02:33 pm

hozerino wrote:

I just tried it and Clone Hero recognizes the controller correctly (but Steam, when launched by RetroBat doesn't and I can't see why, and also the Hotkey+Start doesn't exit it... I like the idea of opening Steam via RetroBat to play/install/uninstall Steam games when I want, instead of adding one by one in RetroBat, but I'll figure this out later).

have you tried disabling "steam input"?

by **tartifless** 25/01/23, 02:48 pm

hozerino wrote:UPDATE!
I made it work! I added a feature to my script that allows it to auto-close after a certain amount of seconds, and when exiting, I call the OS exit(0) function. Now when it exits, RetroBat is able to get Focus back.

Thanks a LOT for all your time and patience.
If you want to check out the script that I used (I think I already showed an early version of it before), it is here:
https://github.com/GuiCoppini/rom-linker/releases

It might help people that want something automatic for this part: https://wiki.retrobat.org/tutorials/symbolic-links

Again, thanks a lot for your time and patience.

You should update some paths in your README : "C:/RetroBat/n64" should indeed be "C:/RetroBat/roms/n64"

Apart from that, would you be able to update your script enable users to enter manually a list of "roms" folder paths with a logic like that:
- If at least one path is entered in the list by the user ==> scan these paths
- Else : do as it does today

Good job !

by hozerino 25/01/23, 09:06 pm

Aynshe wrote:
have you tried disabling "steam input"?

What do you mean disabling Steam Input?

by hozerino 25/01/23, 09:10 pm

tartifless wrote:
hozerino wrote:UPDATE!
I made it work! I added a feature to my script that allows it to auto-close after a certain amount of seconds, and when exiting, I call the OS exit(0) function. Now when it exits, RetroBat is able to get Focus back.

Thanks a LOT for all your time and patience.
If you want to check out the script that I used (I think I already showed an early version of it before), it is here:
https://github.com/Hozerino/rom-linker/releases

It might help people that want something automatic for this part: https://wiki.retrobat.org/tutorials/symbolic-links

Again, thanks a lot for your time and patience.

You should update some paths in your README : "C:/RetroBat/n64" should indeed be "C:/RetroBat/roms/n64"

Apart from that, would you be able to update your script enable users to enter manually a list of "roms" folder paths with a logic like that:
- If at least one path is entered in the list by the user ==> scan these paths
- Else : do as it does today

Good job !

Oh, thanks for the advice, hadn't seen that path mistake, will fix soon.

As for the list of roms, I think I didn't understand, would it be like if instead of having one "external_rom_path=X:/external_roms", to have many external possible paths, like
X:/external_roms/
D:/batocera/roms/
A:/roms/

Like this?

by **tartifless** 25/01/23, 09:11 pm

by hozerino 25/01/23, 09:15 pm

I think it's doable, the only thing that could take more time is to avoid duplicates in case more than one external_roms_path contains the same console, in that case I'd probably prioritize the first scanned path.

That does make sense, it can solve the problem of having a folder with roms for batocera, one with roms for a standalone emulator etc.
Thanks for the input, I'll look forward to implement this maybe this or next week, depends on the free time :v

Thanks a lot, everyone!

by **Aynshe** 25/01/23, 10:08 pm

hozerino wrote:
Aynshe wrote:
have you tried disabling "steam input"?

What do you mean disabling Steam Input?

https://smackstudio.com/how-to-disable-steam-input-controller-configuration/

by hozerino 25/01/23, 11:27 pm

Aynshe wrote:
hozerino wrote:
Aynshe wrote:
have you tried disabling "steam input"?

What do you mean disabling Steam Input?

https://smackstudio.com/how-to-disable-steam-input-controller-configuration/

Ohh, when I tried it, Steam was not open, so it couldn't interfere.
However, the problem I have with Steam is that my input does not work when Big Picture is launched by RetroBat, that issue isn't on a single game, actually it isn't on a game at all.

But thanks for the help.

by **Aynshe** 25/01/23, 11:34 pm

hozerino wrote:
Aynshe wrote:
hozerino wrote:
Aynshe wrote:
have you tried disabling "steam input"?

What do you mean disabling Steam Input?

https://smackstudio.com/how-to-disable-steam-input-controller-configuration/

Ohh, when I tried it, Steam was not open, so it couldn't interfere.
However, the problem I have with Steam is that my input does not work when Big Picture is launched by RetroBat, that issue isn't on a single game, actually it isn't on a game at all.

But thanks for the help.

oh, sorry... i understood that the launch of the game was via steam and that you were running steam from retrobat.

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