MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Best PC Gamepad?

What you’re asking for is impractical. Everyone learns sooner or later that six face buttons is too much to be trying to manipulate with a thumb. Sega learned that with the Saturn and switched to four buttons with the Dreamcast. Nintendo learned that with the N64 and switched to a right analog stick and four face buttons on the GameCube. Microsoft learned that with the Xbox and turned White/Black into LB/RB shoulder buttons.

What you’re asking for can’t work well with XInput because it’s an inherently limited API. The Xbox Elite controller has a bunch of extra buttons on the back for your middle/ring fingers, but you can’t use them as independent buttons via XInput, only as aliases for other buttons. XInput supports ten application buttons total (A, B, X, Y, LB, RB, LSB, RSB, Start, Back), four 16-bit axes (LSX, LSY, RSX, RSY), and two 8-bit axes (LT, RT). Depending on the controller subtype, some axes may function as switches (LT/RT as buttons for arcade stick/pad, RSX/RSY as POV hat for flight stick), but by gaining switches you lose axes.

(You can use the extra buttons on an Xbox Elite controller independently on Linux with SDL, but somehow I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for.)

You’re thinking like a ten-year-old wanting to jam in every possible feature. The trouble is, when you do this, you end up with something overly complicated, expensive, and impractical to actually use.